The tracklist had a nice overall theme but I really liked how RevUpYourRem (or, as I call it, ruyr) stood apart with a really interesting and unique sound!
I think this is great! As others have said, it could use some polish, but I like the general idea. I especially loved the movement into a more robust sound at about a minute in.
Great topic! The first day I didn't even touch the DAW, I just looked at the theme and wrote down notes about what I was seeing and what kind of story could be made from it, determining that I wanted an intro (the girl's theme), a conflict, a theme for the ancestor, and a resolution. Then the second day I decided the orchestration, which was a lot of just looking into how classical Thai music is orchestrated and what instruments are used so I could try and incorporate that. Then once I started, I knew I wanted to highlight the resolution with the girl acting as the melody and the ancestor as the counter melody, so I sort of wrote that as its own thing so I would have their melodies ahead of time.
After that, I just sort of went section by section, voice by voice, using a melody-first take. With this, if I didn't already have a melody in mind, I would just sort of play around on the keyboard until something sounded fitting. Then adding harmony was a mix of creating chords that move according to music theory and just making chords by what sounded good due to time constraints.
The first track was nicely atmospheric but the second track is what drew me in. The soft but fast nature of a lot of the voices lent to it a somber conflict like you seemed to be going for. Awesome stuff.
Loved the inclusion of the reed(?) instrument in track one. Loved the jazziness of track two. Actually (I'm writing while listening) I love how each track is almost its own genre (btw track three reminds me a lot of Plants vs Zombies for some reason, which is a compliment because Laura Shigihara is an inspiration). And of course, ending on a lullaby. Great stuff.
I'll admit, I was initially turned off by the length of this submission, but I'm glad I gave it a listen. Overall I love the addition of the non-instrumental sound effects that gave it a real feeling of ambience. Listening through the whole piece really felt like a complete game soundtrack. I also really enjoyed the fact that it's intended to be for a horror game - that felt unique and you really sold it, especially with things like the whispering sounds during Returning Home. At times (such as in Rejoice and Disappear) it sounded reminiscent of the Binding of Isaac (the original game's soundtrack, not the chiptune Rebirth soundtrack, which I'm not as familiar with). Awesome job overall.
The first track almost felt Stardew-like until it ramped up - super cool evolution of sound. And then the third track felt (to me) sort of like a cross between Hollow Knight and Undertale. And then I loved the... I'm not sure how else to describe it other than the super fast moving part at about 0:48 of the fourth track. Great work in suck little time!
Dance of the Sea is definitely my favorite, it really caught my attention (especially with the brass).
And kudos to not putting too much pressure on yourself - I decided the same thing, keeping myself to just over three minutes of a single track. That being said, I can't believe how much some of the other people here were able to put together in such a short time!
Very creative melodies! I really like the orchestration and overall sound of the first and third tracks in particular, while the second track felt good as a more ambient piece.
Thank you so much! I have musical background but I've only just started learning music production in the past few months so I'm glad to hear that you liked it!
Thank you! I felt as though the culture was an important part of the image prompt so I looked up the artist and they seemed to be Thai, so I tried to learn as much as I could about classical Thai music in the time that I had. I contained it to one section of the piece because I didn't feel that a few days of research could do it justice (and I couldn't find free VST plugins for Thai instruments) so I hope it came across well!
I actually listened to this before submissions ended - I saw you posting in the community forum and I wanted to see what an actual finished project looked like (this is my first time on itch.io), so I peeked at yours. I also listened to it and was astounded at how well put together it was - even from the screenshots alone I'm so impressed by your orchestration and how you were able to put together so much in so little time. Basically, it's shown me how much I really need to learn once I've finished my current music-making course. Thank you!
