itch.io

Thanks a lot :D

I completely agree that I did not focus a lot on the 'crystal' vibe. I just wanted to make a cool pipe organ castle theme. That's my bad.

The 'sonar-type sound' you describe indeed does not fit too well. It is actually just the same piano playing a single note. I was originally intending to move towards a different theme, one more marching-band-and-trumpets-like, and those notes would be part of the transition. I ended up not making that, but the sound had stuck with me.

Thank you so much! :D

Glad you like my piece! :D

The voices are the Chamber Female/Male Ensemble in the Sampler, which you can also get by selecting Female/Male Chamber Choir in the Library. The sounds themselves don't sound too awesome, until you add a bit of reverb and it magically works :). You can also select an 'Aa', 'Uu', 'Oo', and 'Mm' articulation to make them sound differently.

I am indeed not too great at working with voices/strings. A softer attack was something I also found out recently and totally forgot until you reminded me of it just now! Not sure if I can add portamento to these voices, but I'll look into it. Thanks again!

Thank you, I am glad my intention worked out :D

Thank you! I was focusing mostly on the 'castle' aspect and found a piano with delay and reverb fitting the 'crystal' aspect at least a tad bit :)

Thanks a lot, I love to hear that this is "prolly one of the best submissions" :D! And I appreciate the feedback too.

The "2nd one" you refer to is likely my '#4 Fragile Prayers', which is actually my song for the next jam (hence the '#4' before it). I apparently accidentally made it visible already, it is now hidden again - I will unhide it when this rating period ends. Please don't consider that song for this jam, I apologize :)
PS: I don't hear any cracking myself, even after extensive listening. I'll keep it in mind if other people have the same feedback.

Thank you so much :D. I really appreciate all the things you said!
And I also love the theremin, which is likely what you call the "spooky sounds". I just needed to include it somewhere ;)

Love your interpretation of the song. I could totally see that fitting too. Really cool, thanks :D

Given that my songs in the past have always had poor mixing, this is a big compliment for me. Thanks! For now, I've had enough of weird 7/8 time signatures haha

Thank you! Glad you like it :). I hope it wasn't too disorienting 😅

Ah, I'm glad you find the time sig fitting! I wasn't sure about it myself. Thanks a lot :)

I am not intending to rate everyone's entry, but I noticed that you had a low number of ratings. And that while you won last time! So I just had to check it out ;)

I dig this! It is eerie, not too distracting (so e.g. fitting a scenario where the main character talks to the man about to destroy everything), quite mysterious, and building up nicely. It fits the theme very well and is executed well too. Nicely done :D

There are aspects about this song that I love, and aspects which I like less. I love your quick piano melodies, those sound lovely! However, I seem to have a hard time following some parts. You have a lot of different parts which don't always flow nicely into one another, just as you - I think - put a lot of triplets in your song which confuses me of the rhythm. You likely did this intentionally, as it does fit the concept of 'moments of disaster'. But I would personally still have liked there to be a tad bit more structure, even for a theme like this.

After listening to it some more, I do recognize a structure that I did not recognize at first, so I take some of it back. It is definitely an interesting song, that's for sure, and I like how you try a creative approach. I find it quite fitting for a battle against a mad scientist or something - the uncontrollable and continuously changing music fits that. Cool song :)

Thanks a lot :). I intended for it to be a bit more "eardrum-booming" but actually found this to perhaps be more fitting. Glad you like it! :D

Thanks, I am glad you like it :)

Thank you very much! :D

Thanks a lot :D! I totally agree about the full silence. I wanted to try out some automation, but I also noticed it did not have quite the effect I was hoping for. I am glad you like it though :)

It is definitely a fun area to compose in! I've experimented a ton with different rhythms for 5/4, 7/8, and few but not many other time signatures. It is quite hard to do right, I've noticed, but rewarding when you do :D

Also, I could see happen that less people join this week's jam than last week's, since there is another music jam going on as well (https://itch.io/jam/impressions-composing-jam-ambience-2). Just so you know :)

I appreciate it :). Enjoy your deserved victory!

Very serene. I could watch the sun come up with this on. This is my favorite of your two entries. Where did you find the time to make two songs xD

EDIT: For next time though, I would recommend making one submission and putting both songs in that submission. That is the common way to submit two songs to a music jam. Because now I am third place while I should be second place, since you made first and second place simultaneously, which is not entirely fair :(

Quite a unique song. At 0:24, there is this awkward section which seems to both change the tempo to a slower setting and change from 4/4 to.... 11/8? I feel 5 whole beats and a half, while every of those whole beats feels like 3 eighth notes of the original part. This makes me think it is some kind of 8/8 to 33/16 without changing the tempo? I'd love to hear what you're actually doing. Either way, I love the weirdness of this, as I love time signature changes and all those oddities. I don't particularly hear much 'sunrise' in it, but as long as it inspired you in some way, I guess that's enough. Interesting entry :)

I love that instrument - what is it, a low Marimba I believe? Feels very wooden and forest-like. The song is simple and repetitive, but feels very happy too :). A bit of variation in chord progressions, instrumentation, rhythm or anything would likely boost your song to a new level already. And you could try making a proper ending to your songs, e.g. by fading it out or looping it back to the start (which currently doesn't work because your start has a second of silence). Nice work :)

Interesting story you've added :). The whole composition feels full and sounds great. Just when I wanted to suggest to change things up a bit from the same chord progression and instruments, you introduced 2:08 to me. It felt different but not wrong to me. Now, I am personally a BIG FAN of songs in 5/4, and I have made more songs in 5/4 than I dare to admit, and many of those songs sound weird to the common ear. To me, this part sounded just fine! But I can't judge for the common listener, as I've grown common to hearing songs in 5/4. I do love that you venture outside of the commonly accepted musical space. Your 'creativity' level also went up immediately :). Great song, well done!

It feels very calming. I imagine a little cafe in France or something. I especially love the little trills and ornaments on the piano and the start of the violin. The end arpeggio brings it to a nice end. Well done, given how little time you had :)

Interesting entry! The sound was great, I liked the harsh piano chords. You seem to have a good idea of chord progressions. I personally did not found it much 'sunrise-y', but I do see what you were going for. Funny idea to go for some Tolkien-lore stuff, I believe you've been doing this for a while? Nice song :D

Nice song :D. It feels very calm. The drums are soft and almost low-pass-filtered, which brings them nicely to the background. The sine-waves (which I assume is the 'Basic Synth Flute') also fit well with a peaceful bird vibe. The delays (repeats) on the notes give this a nice fading and calm feeling.  The song feels full and has enough variation to never bore - I could listen this on repeat for a while. I really like it :)

Thank you for your post :). I appreciate the feedback, especially negative, since I have a lot to learn. People are generally afraid to tell me what I can improve because they're afraid they'll hurt my feelings ;). Cheers indeed!

Thank you for your compliments! Glad you like it. I didn't know people actually looked at project pages, but I'll be sure to keep sharing my insights :D

Thanks a lot! I wasn't sure myself, so I am glad you like it :)

Really lovely game! I think I got a pretty decent record :)

As always, love the music too! It did end at some point, am I correct that it doesn't loop indefinitely? Now I miss the song :(

The game is really quite polished! It got all the necessary elements (tutorial-like images, highscore, menu, etc.) and it feels really good to play! The game is simple enough to be understood almost immediately yet has enough depth and randomization to not be trivial. For example, I always accidentally jump right into a downwards-angled bubble and instantly shoot myself back to the start, haha!

In case you're a bit like me and you get few people to try your game despite having poured quite some time and effort on it, hereby you've got my appreciation :)

I personally am going for just a single page, or perhaps even half of a page. I am simply using this jam as inspiration to try a different drawing style and get drawing again. So don't worry if you don't have many pages :)

I'm here after the jam finished, checking out some of the top submissions to see if I can learn something from them. I think your song is great :). It is relatively simple, great to be in the background of a boss fight, but very well-executed. It got few but powerful chord progressions, a nice brass section, a pleasant-sounding synths, a good rhythm and a strong beat. And I love the bubbly sound - did you use some form of synth or a sound effect for that? Overall, I like having this song on repeat, well done!

Thanks a lot! I have to agree that the bass is overpowering - I went a bit overboard with the bass features I've never been able to use - but its overpowerment had nothing to do with the low pass filters, right? I am glad you like it, thanks again :D

I like this quite a lot actually. It is very simple, but it sounds nice. I could see this fitting a skeleton theme too (skeletons are an enemy of the game I believe), but the jam requested you to make a song for the 'Coral Riff - Boss Battle' of the game, not just any theme for the game. Either way, cool song :)

Thank you :D. It means a lot to me. I actually never considered making the sounds in line with the original sounds; I just chose some sounds that I liked. That largely had to do with the fact that I never played this game and just wanted to experiment. But that is something I will take into consideration for next time for sure, thanks!

Thank you! Mixing and mastering has always been a weakness of mine. I don't hear that an instrument is too loud until I make it softer and notice the big improvement it makes.

Aha! I now get what you're suggesting. I watched a video on side-chaining, and I believe the effect you are particularly referencing is called a "ducking" effect. It's a great suggestion really, just a shame that I didn't know you could do that. Either way, I learned something new here, so thank you :D

Thanks for the in-depth feedback :D

I've barely ever really utilized panning before, so it's a great suggestion of something I can try next time! I like that idea.

I've never used "side-chaining" (nor know what it is), but I'll look it up. I myself felt like the kicks were quite punchy and on-the-beat already, so I am a bit confused about what effect side-chaining will have. Could you elaborate?

Thank you! I hadn't even thought of using panning, it's something I've really never used before. But it's a great idea for next time :D