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A Gamblers Fate's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #12 | 3.765 | 3.765 |
| Creativity | #12 | 3.588 | 3.588 |
| Overall | #17 | 3.471 | 3.471 |
| Mixing | #20 | 2.941 | 2.941 |
| Instrument choice/usage (challenge) | #21 | 3.588 | 3.588 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Title
A Gamblers Fate
Description
The scale of this song is the A flat Minor Scale
I felt like I was plateauing with my music recently and I wanted to change that. I spent a lot of time studying both how to make better music as well as how to use FL studio more effectively with mixing and such.
Things like making the kick and bass not overlap to make sure you get the full value of both and using automation on things other than just volume were foreign concepts to me until recently and I tried to put as much of what I learned into this song.
one of the main things I wanted to accomplish with this song was to really work on my basslines and percussion work. Previously, my bassline would just be long notes matching the chords and the percussion would be lifeless and slow. That's why I really wanted to nail them here so I started with the bassline and percussion and worked up from there.
I tried to keep the song short as I also wanted to improve at making songs that are satisfying without needed to overstay their welcome but without feeling too short.
As for the animation, since the theme had to do with coins I had the idea for some economic type visual. When I had my brother listen to it, he said it reminded him of the noises in a casino so that is where the visuals came from.
my previous works had some limited animation but I wanted this one to feel more ambitious so I used 3 whole unique scenes as opposed to just the 1 from my previous songs. I also timed the coin to bounce on the beat which I am quite proud of.
Instruments used
Plugins used were:
Boo Bass - Electric Bass - 4 coins
MiniSynth - 1 Synth - 2 Coins
Kepler - 2 Synths - 4 Coins
FL Drum pack - Electric Drum Kit - 5 Coins
TOTAL COINS USED - 15
Link(s) to your submission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqI4s-UF4e4
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Comments
The pause with the bass solo is a great way of kick-starting the song at 1'00". And you've managed to make the second part just as interesting as the first, with different melodies and arrangements. It's neat, it's really good (special mention for the synth that does sixteenth-note arpeggios, it's very dynamic).
And bravo for the video, you've gone to a lot of trouble and thanks because it's great to watch (I love the "game over" on the bass).
Thank you for the compliments!
Honestly the more I listen to my song the less satisfied I am with it. I definitely view it as a bit of a growing pain for getting better in what I think are my weaker areas like mixing, basslines, and percussions.
Some day I hope to be able to make songs as high quality as yours!
And thanks for the compliments on the video! I'm hoping that the more interesting I make the videos the better chance I have at being noticed by others and networking to hopefully make this hobby I love into more of a career.
I guess I just need to practice even more!
It is very good, I love it! I enjoyed every second of it! It is very catchy.
That bass is really good, the only thing I can see is maybe it has 2 instruments on high notes, so they blend together, but not in a very nice way (thought again, I enjoyed all the way through).
On a side note, that video was very cool, I love how it sets up to the start of the song. Also that coin animation is reall solid, going frame by frame you nailed it!
The composition is pretty good - but I agree with most other commenters that variation of timbre (get to know your mod wheel on your midi controller or other light modulation of parameters over time with automation!) could have helped this sound a little less flat. Sometimes just putting an LFO with a teensy bit of depth on things like the filter or wavetable position of a synth can do a lot!
I do think you've got a lot going for you in the chords/melody, and the bassline was a standout part of this, so you succeeded there. Percussion is hard, and is a week point for me as well - I recommend studying and copying percussion parts you really like.
Trying something new is always interesting, But to be honest, mixing is... not so good, too much imbalance between instruments imo. And to be blunt, on top of a bit chaotic arrangement (which you were going for, I understand), it could've sound better. Anyway, experimentation is always better rather than creative stagnation and that's what matters, so keep it up.
Also, nice animation!
I love your description, and I can definitely relate to the feeling of "plateauing with my music" - I too often don't put effort into researching but just slap some chord progression I know on there and add a melody that follows those notes. So for one, great job trying something new!
I also feel like you succeeded quite well. The bassline and percussion work well and are definitely not "lifeless and slow". The song just feels like you are breaking free from your old self and improving!
PS: I don't mind that it is "a bit short"; I actually find this length about perfect! Not too long, not too short. Many of my songs never make it past 1:30 ;)
The bass-line was great, and the writing was really solid. I love the retro sound.
Interesting choice to put the bass a little in the left ear, but I’m all for it as I often say to screw the norm. The bassline is pretty catchy and I quite enjoy just the intro alone when only the bass and percussion is playing. That alone is already quite catchy. The synths play a fun bouncy melody (I don’t know why I chose the word bouncy but that’s what came to mind). However, I feel the mix might be a little unbalanced between the instruments but that could very well just be my own personal preference. I felt the synths were popping out a bit too much with a sharp sound.
I would like to add that effects do wonders and that I think your music could’ve been even better if it utilized some more efffects.
Overall you did a very good job! I haven’t heard your other works but from what I’ve read in the description it seems you’ve made quite a few steps forward with making music; I think that is really great and you definitely have something to be proud of! Keep composing, partner!
This is really catchy! The lead reminds me of Sega Genesis instruments, it's got that metally sound and really stands out as the main part of the song, and the chords go really well with it too. You might be able to use duplicates of your synth presets with some effects to add a little more variety into the second chorus (and maybe save some coins for more instruments !!).
A very retro sounding. That some great sounding you archieve with all those free plugin!
Great catchy tune! Also, awesome job with the animation! I liked it a lot, the only thing I noticed was the VSTs playing the melodies all had a rather similar sharp texture. Maybe you could try replacing one of them with a more noticeably different texture from the others to vary the sound a bit more?
Yeah I noticed that too. For this song I was really trying to improve on things like my percussion work, my mixing, my bassline, and my chords to make them more interesting and I focused less on the melody since I was pretty confident in that already and what ended up happening was that I wanted the 2 leads to be similar but not the same so I picked 2 synths like that. I liked how it sounds but in retrospect it does clutter it texturally.
In fact I already improved that in the next songs I made for the OST composing jam which I used a similar musical structure to as this song (I think at least).
Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah, this piece has a lot of great stuff going for it. I for sure heard the improvements, your bass and percussion had a lot of life to them, and paired with your usual catchy melody, made this super fun to listen to! I could tell you put in a lot of effort, and it definitely paid off.
I wasn't able to join the OST Crunchtime Jam (it's been a crazy few months for me, and I didn't have the time to do this jam and the OST jam), but I'll head on over and check out your tracks!
5 star for creativity, you have a LITTERAL video
It came to me in a vision. I had the idea for a coin that bounced to the beat so I made a story that would fit that.