itch.io

I think the BBC built in reverb already properly places the instruments in the room.

I need to do more work on it. I have a lot of experimenting to do.

I want to test out delay times, like have a nearer thing be drier, but give it just a few milisecond longer delay than something farther away, i.e. if it's close to you, you'll hear it faster and the reverb will take longer to reach you, but then the ratio of the dry sound to the wet sound is also higher.

Then you can also think about distance to each ear drum.

I've got a lot of work to do on this once I realized that if I put everything at the same dryness/wetness (i.e. just putting a bunch of tracks under a reverb) then it's not going to sound as natural.

Aha! Thank you, that clarifies the cutoff...

I've had cutoffs in my tracks that were not for looping...... just me not paying close enough attention when submitting! :P

Phenomenal work!

As I said in the discord, I am so, so happy that you joined this jam!

I have nothing to really add. It's very well composed, mixed, very creative, and creates a really cool atmosphere.

Well done!

This has a sort of old school vibe to me somehow. Not sure how to describe it, like I'm playing a video game in the 90s or watching something in the 90s.

Overall it's pretty cool Also like that you used something from Don Giovanni.

Great work! :)

Sounds pretty cool! Really unique sound you brought here.

I think some spots get a little repetitive and harsh with the midi, but overall it's pretty neat.

Great job!

Definitely has a chill fun vibe.

I think the midi is a little too midi, in the choppiness of it, like there could be more control of velocity, especially when notes repeat. Stringed instruments don't do well with repetition like that. Even a small sounding track needs some reverb and sense of space to bring it together, so I would add that.

But the vibe is really nice and fun. Great work! :)

Story from Lardo

Nicely composed. It is well mixed. I think the next step for you is to make some of the orchestration sound a little more organic, trying to get those articulations nailed down a bit so that they sound less like they're midi. I think maybe the vibe is a little bit 

Gul Contemplation

I like the harp! I think I would try to adjust the velocity here a little - so many midi harps sound too harsh at too low of a velocity. Also, I would try to roll those initial chords a little more.  This one is also well composed and has a nice vibe.

Knight of Death at the Convenience Store

This is definitely pretty funny! I can picture the slapstick of this. I like what you do with the flutes compositionally here. It's definitely got a little bit of that cinematic impressionism.

Warming up the Fried Chicken

The plucked instrument here I think sounds a little harsh and would better if it was just a little smoother. I'm not sure if that's a limitation of the VST you're using or if the velocity is maybe a little high. The sound is appropriate - it's just a bit on the hash side. This is also a really fun one.

Tracked Down

This one is really nice. I think because it also doesn't have some of the same issues as the other MIDI stuff with its slower attack time (usually messing around with the attack makes it easier to make MIDI stuff sound good, and with a controller with velocity, this definitely helps. This track has a really cool effect.

"Evil" vs. Evil

I think this also could use a little bit more power and presence in some sense. I think the mix here is a little narrow and dry. More variance between near and far, and more 

Whispers of the Shadow One

This is a cool composition. I want more development on the second recurrence of the melody. I think development is the big thing that I want to hear here. More development and swelling. It's a cool motif you wrote here for sure, and I definitely want to hear more.

Overall I think there's a lot of creativity, and it was easy for me to find a lot of good things and constructive things to say about this track, which means you did a lot.

Excellent work, and thank you for submitting! I hope to see you in future jams, and I'm really curious to see how you develop as an artist.

Not sure if you meant for that first track to cut off, but it has a nice vibe.

Both tracks have a nice vibe. Nicely done! :)

Nicely done! I like the transition into the ending section. It overall has a great atmosphere.

I think the main thing I would try to do is play around with the VSTs to make them a little more dynamic in the mix. If you get your hands on a midi controller, it'll help a lot, because then you can just play and improvise a lot of stuff. 

Great work, thank you for submitting! :)

This makes me picture a dark 2D platformer

Not sure if it was intentional, but harpsichords as instruments have no volume control - they're all the same volume. This has strengths and weaknesses - often the Harpsichord plays a sort of percussive roll, almost like it's a gentle form of percussion. It was cool hearing that instrument in it.

I think the mix ended up a little narrow, not really filling the space. But, it also still works. It would definitely work in a game.

Nicely done!

You made a solid vibe, created a chill, relaxing atmosphere that I could definitely see in a 2D game.

For constructive feedback, I do think some of the mix gets a little muddy. Maybe some other parts maybe get a little repetitive, but it was overall pretty good.

Great work!

Thank you!

:)

Ah! You're using the same VST I was using! :P

You can adjust the attack with the "expressiveness" slider. That's one of the most important adjustments in there. The default is Fortissimo, so if you're not adjusting that slider, you're getting a really loud, harsh sound on everything, like the orchestra is at full blast. Then they also have the circular wheel which I think just adds the reverb of the room back into the mix, which is what I used instead of manually creating my own reverb.

I used a midi controller rather than scoring anything for mine - this really helps to humanize the whole mix. To get smooth transitions, I had a slower attack on the violins, and then I played in such a way that they overlapped each other.

Woa on that setup!

Saw the video and was like "holy shit!"

Great job! It also has a dark vibe to a lot of it so you're doing well here.

Nice on the double bass intro. It is capturing the vibe well. I'd try to make the double bass have less attack, either with modulation within the VST parameters or with volume.

I like that you had one of those atonal horror string tremolos around 0:55. I think that's definitely a strong thing to use vibe wise.

It's maybe a little repetitive. I think the mix is also too close together, like things aren't filling their sense of space - which is its own skill, getting panning, reverb, and adjusting the wetness and dryness of different instruments to create that sense of space with a near ground and a far ground.

Good work overall, great job capturing the essence of the jam!

Good stuff overall. I'd say here and there the ostinato gets maybe a little repetitive, but it's probably fine - it accomplishes vibe.

Great work!

Heh, would you be able to at least take a picture of your device? One of the reasons for screenshots is to weed out AI submissions - I want to be fair to everyone in requiring the screenshot.

Overall this is pretty neat! It's harder for me to leave constructive feedback here because I'm less aware of the limitations of the tool. 

Great work!

Heh! This is going to be a very challenging review to try to get in the space of this genre and bring feedback. And, the feedback I'm leaving is definitely just to give you what I think is the gap between where you're at and what the musicians of that time achieved - which is a lot.

Overall, the execution of achieving that 70s psychedelic rock sound is really very good. I think some of it maybe got a little repetitive, like some of it needs more development (you know, because I'm looking for what's the gap between you and artists of that era, but you've done a phenomenal job of capturing that sound).

In some places I feel like you're kind of flirting with that sort of mystical, psychedelic sound as well, but it's like it's not quite taking me quite all the way there. I compose from a pretty mystical place a lot of the time, so when I hear the music of that era, it definitely speaks to that .

I think you could pronounce the words more clearly as well. This is one of those cases where it's easy to get caught in the trap of emulating a style but where its a little slurred, so you can accidentally overdo the slurring. Like, Jimi Hendrix was actually articulating pretty clearly if you pay attention, even though it is stylistically slurred. I'd rerecord it with more annunciation and then dial it back - and definitely make sure you're using your voice and not trying to sound like anyone else. That's the only way to make it actually work for you.

5:14

This phrase could be more clearly articulated. Getting that articulation right is really key for this kind of melody - it still sounds kind of slurred to my ears.

I think overall, the subtle thing I'm noticing is that I think in a lot of places you're kind of over-slurring the music to fit the style, but when you actually listen to a lot of the music from that time, it's actually very tight while *feeling* very loose, like the drugs they were taking was loosening them up while simultaneously making them play very tight, if that makes sense.

You've done a very good job here in general - I leave these reviews to be of service to your development as an artist. 

Yes, I did figure out the cello on top of the double bass at the end when it was too late to go add that to what I already had! Heh. I'm actually not super experienced with orchestral scoring. I wouldn't call it my first attempt, but after doing all this writing with real instruments, it definitely is something that I think I can return to now with a lot more confidence.

At 214 the violin VST I used I just used a slow attack time. What I did was play my live cello with it for the melody and pitched it down and octave to put it in the double bass register. I actually used the cello VST and the double bass VST after 3:00. 

The live instruments make it so, so much easier to include some orchestral dynamics, because if you swell with one instrument, it kind of sounds like all of them are swelling.

The middle section is something I would flesh out more if I had more time.

At the end, most of it is orchestral VST stuff, but the lower vocals are me. I get really irritated when instruments sound like MIDI, it's something I'm super sensitive to, so I think perhaps that's why it's naturally harder to tell the difference between VST and real with my stuff.

I'm excited to apply what I learned here in the next jams, of which I'm going to try to get three released. You heard it here first, now that I said it, I have the pressure to do the writeups for all three, one each month to the next official OST in January. 

Such a silly Halloween sound, but then with such somber lyrics. Silly, and also very heavy at the same time, like lamenting the finality of death while also being very silly... something about that combo strikes me as very Finnish lol.

Very creative, very unique, very fun.

Great work, thank you for submitting!

> Our ragged band of competitors had a lot of deadlines in parallel this week and the last, at one point we had six(?) jams at once.

Heh, no worries. I'm keeping the cadence monthly so that people can see their improvement month to month, as well as having each jam focus on specific skills.

I'll try to give more notice for the bigger jams, and also check on which of the other jams are running and schedule around them a bit more.

I appreciate your feedback for this - my goal as a host is to provide an excellent jam experience that brings out everyone's best and drives improvement in their respective work.

Okay, this is rad.

The dynamic range is also excellent. I think people are going to underestimate this.  You made the strings sound good too - something I've been leaving feedback on. It's very hard to get strings right.

Town ambience - damn the way that came in was perfect. Really awesome, this one actually grips me. It's a really good example of how chord inversion is such an important part of musical language. This one gave me goosebumps and it's just a top tier, jaw on the floor track. Really, really well done. I get emotional whenever someone creates something so beautiful, it makes me so grateful to have hosted the jam. This one definitely gives me the vibe of a destroyed, haunted town.

Battle Theme - this one is really good too - I think it maybe is a little wet overall, like it needs a little dryness to puncture the space, but it is still also very very good.

Excellent, excellent work. Thank you for submitting to this jam!

I like the more hard rock/metal drumming later into the track. 

I think the composition could use some more from the thirds and fifths to go along with the melody and give it some more power and emotional punch.

But excellent work overall, well done! :)

Only 18 minutes? XD Never change, Vanna (I'd call you Fox, but Foxhyode is also Fox lol)

I'm starting to think you're like Slash where you're not actually real, you're just this sort of myth that floats around. Your style is always so fascinating too, just totally wild and out there, so youthful and spontaneous. Like, you're always shockingly spontaneous, and it's so charming.

I'm trying to think of exactly what to offer for constructive feedback, because I want to see you develop in a way, like maybe some of the mix could use more of a sense of space, and some of the artificial sounding instruments could be more balanced out. But, it's always hard to critique you because I also don't want to cramp the unique style you have that you clearly like to write in.

As always, it's a pleasure to listen.

(also could you put up your screenshot?)

Thank you for submitting dude, glad you wrote a little something for this jam, I thoroughly enjoyed it, had a big grin the whole time.

I like that you took a more unique take here with the somewhat east Asian vibe.

I think from an execution perspective, whatever the plucked VST instrument you were using, I'd like it to sometimes be softer. This can be tough to pull off, but I think the composition of it was good. That said, I really like that you have a great sense of space/reverb, where some things are in the foreground and some more in the background.

Really cool last track. It has a solid vibe. It feels like the little drum is maybe a little dry and undermixed, though I feel like I can see what you're going for with it.

It's a cool entry overall, definitely more unexpected - and in a good way!

Great work and thank you for your entry! :)

Super awesome. Love this. I love that you had famine

Very cool vibe. Great sense of space. I think the main constructive feedback I have is that the strings sound a little synthy in a way that clashes with the rest of it. Strings are one of the toughest things to pull off - there is a reason I decided to rent, and eventually buy a cello several years ago - I realized I could spend all this money on good string VSTs or I could just learn the cello. Lol.

I think your first track was really, very strong and it took me right away, but I think the quality decreased in the later tracks. The first track feels like it's a level or two above the last track. But, the first one is really *very* good.

Well done, thank you for your entry! :)

Love the opening swell. Sense of mix is pretty decent, maybe a little murky and narrow, but otherwise very good.

The second section definitely reminds me of Shostakovich, which I can really appreciate. I feel like the buildup doesn't quite hit in the next section because it could probably use some double bass to really deepen the sound. If you look at your waveform at 2:16, the waveform is bigger than the climactic moment. The composition is good, but it definitely needs that punch. But, I really like the composition and love that it reminds me of Shostakovich.

It gets a little repetitive later on, as another person mentioned. I think that this is also indicative of the fact that writing classical music is really fucking hard, so definitely don't take that the wrong way, I'msuper impressed with your composition overall.

Do you have a midi controller? I feel like you should play some of this more organically.

So, constructive feedback: 

Some of the instruments still sound a little artificial, and the mix is maybe a little dry and narrow. But, the composition is really cool, and the approach is definitely more challenging to pull off well, and I think it got a little repetitive, but in general it is very good and indicative of a lot of skill.

Well done and thank you for your entry!

Touche  on the death thing :P

Oo. Liking this so far. 

It's atmospheric, but the composition is really good and has a sense of story. I think it maybe gets a little repetitive, but it's good.

The percussion is maybe a little dry and could be wetter than the rest of the mix. I think the vocals could also be wetter.

Great work and thank you! :)

Oo, this is some good composing. This is definitely awesome. And while you definitely have this chiptune-esque thing going, you actually are executing on it well. A lot of people think "oh, it's chiptune, so I just make this video-gamey sort of music and call it a day." No, it's just as hard to do it well, in fact, it can be harder because you're working with sounds that are 

Haha, I love the reference to the Chopin death march at the end of your first track.

Heh - you used that classical piece of the same name at the intro for Danse Macabre. Yeah, this is fucking fantastic, is what I'll say about it. It totally has a vibe, and it the vibe fits the cover art really well. What's funny is this somehow actually reminds me of the music of Banjo Kazooie, but in the best possible way. Love that game, loves its music.

Endless Night - very Burtonesque, but well executed in that I heard it and then my *heart* felt that Burton vibe from it, not like it's a shallow copying and pasting, but like you're actually communicating in that spirit. Really good stuff, actually got some goosebumps.

Escape to Life - Sounds like it's riffing off of James Bond (same progression). But, repurposed here it really works well, and then it doesn't just do that the whole track.

Blown away. I liked your last submission a lot, this one I love.

Well done, and thank you. :)

Heh definitely like the old school vibe here.

I think it maybe doesn't correlate to the theme as well as it could, like it doesn't quite give me the dark vibe - even in the context of electronic music. There are usually ways that people got around these hurdles. 

That said, it's definitely solid. I think my favorite one for sure was your last track. It's the most musically interesting and well balanced in its mix.

Great work, and thank you for submitting! :)

Really nice work with the space, placing things.

The opening swell has such a vibe, and then adding in all the sounds. This is really nice and cohesive. The little strings are a little dry, and could use a little more attention compared to the rest of the mix.

I keep wanting a bit of a payoff with those string swells at about the 1:30 mark, like it's going to hit the bass and go into something melodic.

The sense of space that I do get now at 2:30 is really nice too. It takes me to a place that feels very Souls esque just in terms of what the sound does visually to me, where you have the beauty of nature, but also some darkness.

Second track/3:00 ish

This is a nice contrast with the track that came before it, and feels very appropriate coming after it. This has more development melodically. It's also very rich and unique. It still feels like the mix is a little murky and maybe running into itself space-wise. Solving this can be a very tricky thing to do, but I really like what you're doing here musically and with the design of the sound.

The bass drum is maybe also a little dry.

I think the biggest thing a lot of people do is not having enough wetness in their tracks, fearing that it's immature somehow. Really, I think the way to use wetness is to have some things be wetter and some things be a bit drier.

Track 3

I love again how you go in with this appropriate musical contrast. It is totally the right vibe after the track that comes before it.

Really, really excellent work, and you should absolutely be proud of this one. As Fox mentioned, you would have done well in the ambience jam that we had earlier. I will be hosting ambience jams as one of the core series.

I like the old school nostalgic vibe here. I also like that you played your instrument, delivering natural dynamics. I strongly encourage people to do that because its so much better than trying to key in all the dynamics in a midi scoring system, which is slow and tedious.

Constructive feedback:

While I encourage people to improvise a lot - to my ear, this sounds like pure improvisation, and maybe like it isn't tied together in a way that is maybe as cohesive as it could be overall. I say this because I do a lot of this sort of wandering improvising as a form of practice and discovering ideas, so I'm sensitive to that pattern. Not sure if that's what you did here, but it's kind of what it sounds like to me.

That said, as it goes, it is good improvisation/playing, with good articulation, dynamics, and keeping a sense of place and story.

Great work, thank you for joining!

 Good going with the drones as an intro.

I think maybe the strings still have that artificiality to them - one of my tricks with this is just to be mindful of my attack/release. I use a midi controller exclusively, so I'll hold one key down for a bit before releasing to give a more clean transition, with a slow attack on the strings, which can make for a smoother transition. Plus having the velocity control real time just helps get into the rhythm of it.

I think the composition maybe feels little "clicked in" with the midi? It still works well.

I think the way the violin is mixed/sounds doesn't quite fit the mix, and the sound of this particular violin is a bit harsh.

Great work overall!

The opening moment is really nice. I feel like the overall sound is a little midiesque, like you had to kind of go in and click in all the dynamics. It's one of those cases where I strongly recommend people get a midi controller to get that natural sound, and if possible, also get a real instrument or two to mix in to blend all the sound together more naturally.

It's an excellent composition though, with an appropriate choice of instruments, and a solid development.

Really cool work! :)

Dope as fuck dude.

1:49 chattery sound was really cool, as is the way it comes back. I remember talking with Ty a while ago and we were basically thinking like if we wanted to hire someone to make an appropriate soundtrack to something out of everyone here, you'd be the go to. Haha.

Great work, mate, I got little to offer in terms of feedback because this kicks ass. And, I actually funny enough think this is an improvement on some of your past work, like I listened to it and forgot that I was listening to a submission and not something from some artist I like.

Initial thoughts:

Good sense of space. Sounds a lot like the first bit in mine somehow lol.

I think the synth approach is more appropriate than meets the eye; I know Varien used this as the background art for a single, but it has a negative color scheme so it's inverted. Likewise, you're probably going to get more "correlation to theme" from me than you might get from others :P

Multiple synthy artists actually use artwork from Dore; that's part of why I actually selected this image.

I really like it too, especially as someone who likes artists like Varien and Extra Terra.

For constructive feedback, I feel like the synths have a slight closeness together, like it needs more breadth of space. This reminds me that I need to play around with having things have the same reverb, but make it so that more individual sounds have varying degrees of dryness/wetness to fill the near and far space.... how did I not think of that. Lol... Gonna try that out more. I guess this is why leaving feedback teaches you too. Heh.

This is cool! I think it all came together in a way that really developed on what you were posting in the devlog.

Garden of Crows

Maybe a little repetitive given that it's kind of following the same chord progression as ByGone Days

Dimora Della Morte

This is pretty cool. I love the fading in and out, the eerie sounds this generates. I want that lower bass drum sound to be a little deeper and spacious.

I think my main critique of this track is that I want it to fill the space a bit more - I remember I left the same feedback on the last jam.

ByGone Days

Really, really good work. The return to the main theme at 1:09 was perfect and so appropriate. 

The Clock Strikes Twelve

This one is maybe a bit repetitive but it does have a vibe.  It also is kind of dry in the mix. I like the progression and choice of instruments.

Desolation

I love the eerie vibes here.

Overall

I think the biggest weakness here is that there is still kind of a repetitiveness. But the vibe/taste is good - and in my mind, that's the biggest indicator of future potential, because being able to create a vibe and generate something tasteful means you have a sense of the spirit of the music itself. Big question for you - do you improvise on instruments regularly?  I think this is the single best way to get over repetitiveness and bring out more of the world I can definitely hear in your music. 

Great work, and I'm looking forward to hearing more from you!

Dark, slow intro. Works very well. Sounds kind of narrow like it isn't filling the space in the way I want it to. Sometimes people underdo reverb because they're afraid of overdoing it, when really there are some ways to mix it. One tip I got recently was reducing the EQ on the bass.

This would definitely work in a game. It definitely has a strong vibe. I feel like I'm in a 2D advernture game.

I like the addition of the Dies Irae chant in this! Heh. Funny thing about mine - for the last bit, I realized that I could sing Dies Irae to it, but I ultimately steered away from this approach because it made it sound more like an oratorio when I was going for something darker specifically for this.

I think overall the main critique is that the mix is a bit narrow and not filling the space, and then it sounds like it was clicked in. The piano is the best instrument a composer could ever know how to play, and knowing how to improvise on the piano will get you far. You're already good at composing, and I think improv would take you to a new level. That's pretty standard advice from me, but I still strongly, strongly recommend it!

Great work, and thank you for joining! :)

So - I strongly recommend a MIDI controller if you don't have one - it can be a more natural way to write music.

The vibe sounds right. The cello is well written.

I think it suffers from the fact that it is scored out in MuseScore4 - which really is more of a scoring/prototyping software. At least, that's how I use it. I perform with my keyboard. Though, I also mix in live instruments - but not everyone has that.

I think your second section sounds nice too. I'd really love to hear it in a more natural mix.

Great work!