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My ears rang with pleasure for the whole duration of the broadcast. Really love the sounds and the dedication to the story/aesthetic. It feels natural for me to interpret this as a literal "otherworldly" song meant to hypnotize and spread subliminal messages. I find the use of an FM synth in a piece about an old radio is really fun and works extremely well. Great work!

I was very excited when I saw this submission, as LOTR has been a pretty big way that me and my sister have connected over the years. I have fond memories of reciting Tolkien's poetry to each other and remember being very excited to hear some of our favorite ones realized as full songs when the first Hobbit movie came out. I was immediately struck by how immersive the track is. The panning and recording technique make for such an intimate listening experience that I feel as if I'm there sitting at a long table in a great hall and singing along. I really enjoy how personal and genuine this submission feels :)

I'ts my partner's cat Manti! Thank you so much for sharing how you interpreted the piece in such a visually creative way! The explosion is actually some kick and snare samples getting obliterated by my SoundToys Decapitator VST and then going through the airiest reverb known to man haha. Super glad it fits in with the rest!

Hell yea thank you so much!

Yesss the bass is definitely my favorite part here. The combination of sounds and rhythms is very impressive and so so appropriate for a lava level. Great work!

My brother did notice and thought that the xylophone-thing was pretty loud compared to the other elements! All the sounds and textures you use are very pleasing. I really like how well your composition still evoke strong emotions despite it being in lil snippets. Very creative!

I love and definitely hear the work you put into developing a narrative. There's either a  reverb or pad throughout that sounds a pretty convolved when it comes in with the guitar strums. I actually find it very ambiguous and  haunting cause it contrasts the piano part in a very neat and subtle way. If that wasn't really the goal though then I think that notching out some low-mids and reducing the decay a bit might add a lot of space for individual notes to ring out distinctly. Very pretty chords, melodies and musical changes make this a very easily enjoyable song!

Damn I actually didn't laugh at all and actually I feel kinda intimidated by this track lol. The sounds are so beautifully abrasive and genuinely work very well together to create rich musical moments. Honestly I really want to make music that sounds like this so I find this entry super inspiring!

I would be so enchanted to hear this start playing as I begin a new journey of self-discovery. The repeating melody genuinely becomes a bit heart wrenching towards the end, longing for a time where it felt new and hopeful. I'm inclined to point out ways in which you could have painted even more vivid a scene with more instruments and soundscapes; but I think that as a video game soundtrack, this song might already be as complex as it needs to be. Very impressive and evocative submission!

The simplicity in this piece makes it very easy to engage with and pay attention to what's happening. Really good vibes and very distinct and mellow sounding mix!

What you said about the glitchiness tugging at your ear is very thought provoking! I agree and it's making me thing I can still experiment with the idea much further in future work! I'm very happy you also found it cohesive! I tried very hard to make it so but I'm never quite sure after hearing it over and over lol

I love how you put it with the explosions! They absolutely do feel like punctuation throughout! I'm really glad to hear that the nostalgic vibes are getting through as well! I've been wondering how to be more intentional about creating that emotion lately and the use of harmonies definitely sounds like a big piece of the puzzle! The section that starts at 1:09 is actually the first part that I came up with lol and I kind of struggled at first to expand off of it. Still my favorite part too!

I used Vital VST for most of the pitched instruments! I really enjoy trying to obsessively recreate the sounds I hear in my head in the form of a playable musical instrument! What really turned up the "satisfying" on the arpeggiation for me was adding just the right amount of glide to the synth !

Thank you! Supporting the "bad connection" was exactly what I was going for with the bass and drums! The way you count it is definitely the way to count the drum part but I mostly count it as "dum pa dum pa dum dum pa dum pa" lol. I tried using the semi-open hihat hits and ghost notes to "hide" the switchup in the middle of the bar and I find that it works really well! The reverse piano part that comes in at the last section is actually counted as 3+3+3 which I find gives it a lot of energy!

The bass was the part I fixated on the longest and I'm glad I did!!

Thank you! I'm very happy you found them appropriate!!

Thanks! I'm always happy to provide some calmness here and there :)

I'm a sucker for nice messages and I think this track carries its message very appropriately. Nice choice of instruments and very pretty melodies!

There's a lot for me to appreciate and enjoy in this submission. I really really love the sounds used both synths and drums. Do you use a specific soundfont or VST? I've been wanting to incorporate these types of old-school hardware sounds in my music and I don't really know where to get started. Really great cohesiveness between tracks and great vibes throughout!

Beautiful ambience, your sound design and melodies work very seamlessly to create a strong mental image. Very immersive listening experience !

I love the focus on percussion here! The 808 is very well chosen imo and really keeps the different sections tied together. The variations you use feel almost appropriate in the context of the the whole track. I think the elements in this piece work to make it unquestionably stands out as being unique and having a very developed sense of identity. The composition definitely paints a very vivid portrait in my mind which makes its enjoyment surprisingly effortless. Very inspiring track!

As someone who very rarely touches orchestral composition, I'm finding myself very inspired by all the cool sounds and moments you were able to create in this piece. The sections are all very effective in creating certain moods and play very well into the theme of breaking the rules!

This entry stands out in a very cool way and I especially appreciate the visuals of you playing with settings to go along with the soundscape. Your storytelling seems to play such a significant role in the appreciation of this piece, which has me wondering if it could be even more explicitly integrated into the track using also very processed voice-over audio. I feel very inspired after watching to try and start using my guitar pedals for this type of production/application as well!

I really like this take on rule breaking. This feels like such a fun journey with multiple different stops and it feels like you took great care to make sure we all get to our destination smoothly :-)

I feel very inspired listening to this track. The way you use noise for the drum hits is something I've been meaning to try out for awhile because of how old sound chips often did the same. It sounds like you took care in writing an arrangement that  still tell a cohesive story, with sections and changes that feel natural together. Really great work!

The sounds and melodies here are top notch and pleasing to my ears. This track really highlights your playstyle which feels very raw and unapologetic

This is very well done and definitely the crash course on genres of EDM I have been needing. Masterfully put together!

I'm always excited to hear this type of production in video game music. I've recently been enjoying trying to write trap beats because the bass/drum lines and synth leads are so fun and hypnotic to make and loop. Since minimalism and repetition is key for leaving space for vocals, I can definitely see this also working well in an OST  to leave space for other aspects of the game.

Super clean and really enjoyable track to vibe to. The changes throughout keep it changing and evolving which I like a lot! 

I felt very similarly about this challenge before as well as during. I can definitely relate to struggling to derail my composition with certain types of changeups. The "rule breaking" sounded very much like decisions I would be making anyway while experimenting but my end result had me questioning how impactful the changeups I went with really were lol

The composition and sound here make me feel that this works really well for both themes. I also found it very easy to enjoy despite the absence of contemporary instrumentation. Besides the bells which I actually liked a lot!

The combination of sounds in your piece really make it one of the most creative entries I've heard so far imo. Your use of duality tells a story in an effective but subversive way. You use sounds and spaces that sound both very intimate and very grand which is a great way to set the scene. Rock climbing is also definitely both at times very tricky and very pleasant and the arrangement really reflects those feelings. It feels like there may even be someone climbing alongside me. Thank you for sharing!

I really love the elegance you achieve through your simple arrangement as it highlights the rich personality in your melodies as well as the full range of frequencies a single piano is able to capture. Because I do feel attached to its solitude, I think that maybe leaning further into ambient sound design and experimenting with sound effects might work really well to add depth in fun subtle ways.

I really dig this take on breaking the rules because of how fitting it makes it sound for video game music. It makes me think of late-game Undertale boss music with how brutally intense it is. I actually feel like if you were going for an old-school sound, the missing low end makes sense to me since that plus the harsh staticky instrument sounds reminds me of how playing games on smaller systems like my DS would sound haha

Thank you! Creating that contrast actually wasn't super intentional and ended up being super important for keeping good separation

This is so validating thank you!! I find doing drums in whatever style this is to be so so fun but also I still have a small case of imposter syndrome when it comes to writing drums from lack of formal training in that department

Holy crap thank you! I find that using sound design as a starting off point really helps me be intentional about the mood that I'm setting. I have a harder time doing that purely through composition probably due to some missing knowledge of music theory lol

I'm happy you enjoyed the journey! I'm thrilled that you find the piano cute! I do think it adda a lot of brightness and playfulness to the whole

Thank you! I find automation to be really useful for keeping things interesting and making sure certain repetitive bits don't get old too quickly