lovely spooky chord progressions, especially in the B section! the strong bass drum (?) impetus and low melodic lead reminded me a lot of "Cold Smile" from Mega Man Zero 3, a track i'm pretty fond of. this was very well done, and very impressive that this was mostly done with just MuseScore! awesome job :)))

Hi Nick!

I love the rhythm of the octavo melody on the piano, it's surprisingly : stable at the beginning, accelerating and ending with a glissando that gives it a tragic color. Nice idea to let the melody breathe for 4 bars afterwards. It's something I don't allow myself to do, and listening to your piece, I realize that it works well.

I'm also impressed by the sounds you manage to create with musescore. The sixteenth-note piano is brilliant and add a spooky mood.

As a small detail, on the repeat of the beat at bar 33, you could have used a crash like you did at 41. That would have given it a bit more punch.

Bravo too for the mix and the dynamics of the different instruments. You've really worked hard on it, and the result is audible.

Of course, the theme is perfectly respected and the atmosphere is great.

As usual: great Nick!

Being able to see the score while listening to this was insanely useful!

This was composed beautifully. Throughout the piece you’ve got this simple piano melody leading the charge. Then more and more accompaniment/counterpoint lines are layered in to build tension (in a boss fight sense). Those rising arpeggiated synths worked really well, thematically speaking.

Also, that’s awesome that you wrote a kazoo part!

This is really cool! There are a lot of great notes that I have from a few times through listening. Firstly, your instrumentation is apt, especially having the melody in the low piano register; that instantly sets up a dark feel for the piece. Contrast that with the high string pads and the sheer distance between creates so much space that it is almost interpreted as tension by itself by the ears. My absolute favorite part is the melody repeat at measure 21 (thanks for including the sheet music!) when the French Horn counter line comes in. That contrapuntal motion when the piano falls but the horn rises to D natural is so good! And then the rest of the line continues to finish out the melody variation strong. The strong pulsing on beats 1, 2+, and 4 feel like a classic boss fight rhythm and gives the sense of fighting despite the sweeping pads and long melody lines. This song sounds a little like the beginning of a new chapter for Nick Schuitemaker, the composer. All production/mastering comments aside, this piece felt a little more real and less robotic than some music produced only with Musescore can sometimes feel. You are definitely on the right track here! Keep up the great work and I look forward to listening to your stuff again in the next one!

Great from a compositional standpoint, really enjoyed it. I think it's good that you want to familiarize yourself with mixing and mastering, both really important skills in media composition. I would advise to start using a "real" DAW like Reaper (or whichever you like) for this and search for resources on how to make your voices and tracks feel louder without clipping, like compression, limiters and clippers. There is a lot to learn there, but it's absolutely worth it, and a lot of information readily available.

There's some great composition here! One thing I really appreciate about this song in particular is that it has a lot more calm and paced vibes than what I've been hearing, and that can do wonders in making the song easy to listen to on loop.

One big thing I think needs to be fixed is that I think there is some peaking going on. Peaking is when your instruments go beyond the max volume and it starts to get a fuzzy/scratchy sound to it. You mentioned that you used Audacity to turn up the volume, but I am not sure that was entirely necessary. I have definitely had this issue before where my song feels too quiet, so I hope someone comments some tips on making your song feel louder.

Despite that issue, this sounds great, and I hope I see you in future jams!

Right from the start I could hear the M&L influence, you did a good job incorporating the sound of that music with your own style! The only issue I had was when the piano was playing in the first 40 seconds or so, the volume seemed a little fuzzy. As someone who used to rely on Audacity to fix volume, I think that’s where the problem is coming from (although it could also just be my headphones, take my words with a grain of salt lol). Other than that, it’s a very mysterious and moody piece, great job!