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I loved the feedback everyone offered! Helped me realize that people like my music (outside of family members). But my highlight was listening to other's awesome compositions! It was so cool hearing all the unique ideas people came up with in their soundtracks. 

Thank you for noticing my leitmotif :D

Here's mine!

https://itch.io/jam/ost-composing-jam-7/rate/2846811

The Equalizer (EQ) allows you to control the emphasis of the highs, mids, and lows of an instrument. So say you want to make an instrument sound darker or softer. You can shift the left-most  icon up to deepen the sound. I shifted the bass of my synth pads to give that deep underwater emersion. Conversely, if you want a brighter sound, shift the right-most icon up.

This is what FL EQ 2 looks like but  your EQ  would look different deepening on your DAW. Regardless, they all do the same thing.

Edit: image not showing : | 

Also the instrument around 0:22 is called an erhu. I was inspired by Tears of the Kingdom's music to use that instrument!

Thank you for the feedback!

I used East West Orchestra Opus for the strings. It does cost money to purchase the whole package, but I signed up for the student ComposerCloud+ which gave me all of their instruments free for a month. After it's like $10 per month.

At the start of this competition, I decided to take inspiration from just the picture. I looked at the colors, the environment, the characters and elements, and started brainstorming ways to convey those aspects through music. For inspiration, I listened music from games or movies that I thought fit close enough to the themes I gathered from the image. Stuff like Finding Nemo or Ponyo which capture the essence of underwater in their scores.

Afterwards, I started thinking of a melody; something that encapsulates everything that I have collected so far alongside my personal tastes and experience. For this competition, I started with choosing the key of Ab,  since I though any of the black note keys would create a majestic feel to the piece. When building the melody, I wanted to convey the slow, beautiful and peaceful nature  below the sea. The chords for me mostly come second to melody but that is just my preference.  However I wanted to use sus chords to represent the feeling of suspension when your underwater. 

The piano instrument I used was Spitfire LABS Soft Piano. In addition to the spacious reverb  to represent the span of the ocean, the piano created a nice, deep and moody ambience. I also used sine pads to create a deep atmosphere. Some sound effects I thought would fit were also thrown in there for emersion (like bubbling water). Lastly I brought in strings to add variation to the piece as well as add a few more chords in for color. Also, those strings were using either legato or portamento to represent the flow of water. 

After everything was written, I added dynamics, changed volume, shifted the equalizer, and did other technical methods to capture the vibes I was looking for. I tend to take a break from working and come back with fresh ears to hear something I miss when mastering or within the composition itself. In the end, I think my pieces turned out great and I'm glad for the feedback everyone provided. But yeah, that's one of the processes on how I write my music! 

Inside my world: Absolute beautiful piano solo. Well done

Maria's Golden Touch: The Final Fantasy is strong with this one. Love the deep, calm nature of this track. 

Maria's Music Box: Simple yet sublime!

Maria's Vision: Wow the Pizzicato  on those strings with a slow string hums creeping in really brought that tension.

Midas: Ok my favorite one so far! This is an awesome battle theme! Love how that piano starts and it revs up and them BAM! Nice variation on the each phrase and love how you brought in the mix of 8 bit and orchestral instruments by the end. Great job

Midas's World: Love that slow, melancholy guitar solo. I'd love to know which vst you used for that.

Walking through the Waterway: Great waltz. I adore the melody you gave the piano, the instrument itself sounds like something you'd here in a ps1, early ps2 game. Probably my second favorite in this track!

Overall Amazing job. There is storytelling in every track and the way you combined both themes worked flawlessly.

Love Mia's theme! The energy reminds me of Chrono Trigger and some rpgs on the ps1

Hi guys. Thank you to everyone that enjoyed my tracks. This jam was a lot of fun and it was a blast hearing some of your guy's submissions. Just wanted to hear any more feedback from you guys. 

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/les-higgins-200727829

I  wish every one good luck!

Thank you!

Thanks :D

Yeah I noticed the pads were a bit loud after I uploaded. Thanks for your feedback!

Glad you enjoyed it :D

Thank you so much for your accolades! Are there any areas of improvement for either songs? Just curious.

Thank you so much!!