This is really cool! The beginning feels very mysterious and ambient while the second part feels more present and stable with some cheerfulness, it is a nice contrast. Glad you shared this!
I had a really awesome idea where you go inside the smartphone world and fight the infamous video game character "Talking Ben" in an epic boss battle but sadly I was unable to submit my soundtrack on time. It would've been so epic and cool, like a 4-D experience into the talking ben universe. Mildly ambitious goal but I hope to reach 655 ratings once my soundtrack is submitted.
The dynamic music is really nice and always a cool edition, I feel a similar vibe to the ice/fire levels in crypt of the necrodancer. The mixing is nicely done, especially with the percussion. This was a nice listen, Great work!
This is a lovely and mysterious soundtrack. I feel the charm of Ib especially in these tracks. I love horror inspred soundtracks a lot and they will always have a special place in my heart. My favorite track was "Lights Out", it was quite spooky, made me shiver me timbers. The changes in tone and the consistency in composition really make the soundtrack nice and cohesive. Great work!
It was a bit of a stretch but Ocean of Fear brought up some forgotten memories of a game, I felt a familiarity that I couldn't quite remember for a second while listening to it. I later found out it sounded slightly like "Court begins" from Ace Attorney:Dual Destinies due to the similar 4 strong note pattern in the strings, it was a slight similarity but I couldn't help but feel reminded of the track!
I think this is a really great soundtrack! The Djembe is really nice edition and really brings out the soundtrack and correlates well thematically. I like the theming of the negative emotions, I feel they are interpreted well but they're also not too overwhelming. My favorite track is "Clouds of Doubt". Maybe unrelated but was ace attorney used in your inspiration any? This was a nice listen, Amazing work!
The music ties very well into the story and emotion. The short track times reminds me of Yume Nikki so I feel it fits well into a dream theme, the soundfonts used give it that top-down rpg feel too. I think the orchestra hits give a nice feel to the tracks. I notice this was posted a while before the deadline, there's a lot of work done here in such a short amount of time! Great work!
"By the window" is calming but also feel a bit bittersweet, I always love snow themed tracks I like the instrumentation used here.
In "Owl Encounter" I feel a lot of the Zelda inspiration in the track. I liked the transition from spooky to a bit silly.
"Monster Machine" is cool and intense. The balance of wet sound feels very clean and the track has incredible clarity. I like how the beginning leitmotif of "By the window" is colored in a new context here.
There's a lot of cool effects and a nice atmospheric feel in this soundtrack. The time signatures are cool and I like how the drum tracks/basslines fit into them. The feeling I get from these tracks is a mysterious dream, so I feel the concept is greatly captured. My favorite track is Boat. Great work!
Yes certainly, I hope my advice is still somewhat helpful though! You did a phenomenal job with this piece, I saw you mention somewhere you wanted some good feedback so I included something a little more neutral than I would normally give feedback on. I look forward to seeing how your music evolves over your musical journey!
Thank you! This is very in-depth it makes me really glad! I see Dire Dire Docks as THE "water theme" so there was certainly some inspiration from there in some of the tracks, especially the first one. I like the analysis on how each track made you feel too, and I feel they were all interpreted just how I wanted them to be! Thank you for the compliments and the listen!
Thank you! I appreciate your insight on the arrangement, I feel that my theming was accurately interpreted which is always nice to hear! I would like to explore more tense music in the future so I will be sure to check out implementing low orchestral percussion. Thank you for the compliments, criticisms and the listen!
Thank you! I certainly could've used better tools, well ones I have access to at least, but I do feel the cheesier sounds fit somewhat better into my soundtrack. I appreciate the criticism nonetheless though! It may mean I pushed too much into the line of realism with a track like Guidance. Thanks for the listen and I appreciate the compliments and criticisms!
I like the duality of the piano and the flute in the beginning, it allows for nice characterization. I also like when the piano is given silence along the track to show the repetition of the motif you gave the flute. I think your chord progressions are great at achieving the emotions you wanted, and the strings and piano execute these well. The dynamic range is also impressive, It really adds a lot to the track. The transitions from the percussion instruments are also really nice and help the track ease into the sudden new volumes. While I would like to give some feedback on mixing, I believe others have given good advice already. If I had to say one thing, when you start using EQ more, I find it helpful to think of it as setting an illusion of the full instrument to the listener, it will free up a lot of space while still keeping a nice sound. I hope my feedback is helpful, I tend to struggle with giving feedback like the latter half of it. This was a nice listen and it was very emotional, Great work!
Thank you! I appreciate the listen and the compliments! It was a fun bass to work with, made me feel evil and dark like I just robbed a kid of their ice cream or something
I like the high attacks/slower fade-ins/lower velocity (whichever it may be) on some of the instruments that really give some dynamics to some of the instruments. My favorite track is a sign, I am kind of addicted to that one low note that repeats. This theme is pretty cool, and I think the tracks are pretty cohesive and I am able to recognize the leitmotifs on a first listen (I am not good at that) so I would say that is a sign of good clarity and composition. Overall, this was a nice listen, Great work!
Thank you! I appreciate your comment, it is very in depth and it makes me glad. I am glad you appreciate the thematics I went for too, thanks for the listen and compliments!
This is a great soundtrack. Dynamic music that changes based on the environment is always very cool. I also like the multiple blend of themes, such as underwater and mechanical, that still keep well thematically. There is a good variety of feelings - safeness, foreboding, mystery, intensity, etc. I think it is very cohesive.
Someone mentioned "sounding midi", I don't think that is a bad thing. Unless if you are going for realism, it can be a great tool to use midi sounding instruments to achieve a game feel.
This is a great ambient soundtrack, I like the sound design on this a lot and it fits a dark rpg well. I am reminded of Yume Nikki, despite the minimalist looping nature of that game. I am also reminded of IM SCARED from some of the effects. So with that being said, I think you are right on the target for what you were going for thematically. Great work!
Also, the poor child who stumbles upon the art on youtube kids. Or perhaps it will make them happy, that is one big smile after all.
This soundtrack feels very dream-like and I like the instruments, especially the tuned percussion instruments. The reversal effect on some of the instruments is nice and fits well into theme, also gives a mysterious feel. I am reminded a bit of Ib from this soundtrack, which helps in the thematic sense too. It was nice listening to this, Great work!
I really like the panning effects in a lot of the ambience in the tracks. The piano work is really good. I am not sure if I am hearing it correctly but it sounds like there is some isolated frequencies being boosted in the EQ too? I think it is a cool effect and works well for ambience. This was a nice listen, Great work!
I like the use of the electric piano throughout the beginning tracks, they do well at encapsulating an aquatic feel. Bogart Blowfish has that nice jazzy feel, I am quite the shop theme enthusiast so it is always nice to hear a good one. Trench of Repression feels much like a stressful preparation of something large coming, the ambience is great. While I noticed you mentioned elsewhere "minor crab" was only made in 45 minutes, the pacing of the synth melody gives a somewhat grand feeling, with the tuned percussion instruments keeping a bit of that "It's just a minor crab" feeling, I hope I am interpreting that correctly but still it is pretty good. Overall, a great job, fits the story well and it sounds good!
Title Track (June's theme) - I like the dynamics of the piano, and how large it feels from the reverb. A great opening theme.
"Wake up June" - The piano is nice and it feels bright, a nice contrasting feeling from the previous track by having less wet sound. I can't really describe the emotion I feel from this but it's something similar to lightheartedness.
Morning Shrine Visit - I love the little synth in the background, The lower general volume puts a strong emphasis on the story too
June goes to School - The flute-like (recorder?) instrument gives a very nostalgic and young feel.
The Beach - The sound design of the waves is very cool, I like the use of swells in this track.
The Festival - Paints the background very nicely. The ambience, the drums, A well fitting song for the environment.
June Lost Her Mom - I am reminded slightly of "Rivers in the Desert" from the Brass, I like the urgency of the theme, could imagine this playing when I lost my mom in the mall when I was younger.
June's Mom is Sick - The track is slow and melancholic. I like the chord-progression in the strings a lot.
An Almost Answered Prayer- I like the piano and drums, it has a grand but serious feeling, with some mystery to it. I like how the synth repeats after the piano. The SFX are nice too. This is my favorite track
Inside my Mind - The guitar and vocals are really nice. I like the buildup with the percussion and the electric guitar
I liked the story concept. I feel the tracks convey the whole story pretty well. The melodies are great and I like the reoccurence of June's theme, I am usually pretty bad at identifying leitmotifs on a first listen so consider that a compliment haha. Great work!
This jam has sparked some old passion in music creation for me, I was on a bit of a long break before picking composing up again. It was a lot of fun to compose for this, and now it is a lot of fun to view everyone's ideas! I feel like I have learned some new skills too. I love hearing all the songs, ideas, genres, even seeing the chosen cover art of everyone. I want to listen to as many as I can haha
Thank you! I am glad about your insight of Abyssal Nightmare, it is nice to have the feeling of the track I had in mind to be interpreted the same way. I appreciate the compliments and thanks for the listen!
Slight exaggeration but procrastination was my biggest enemy, I imagine a lot of people here struggled with it too.
First thing I did was get a clipboard, and write down the names of critical parts of the story and then some smaller side track names I could add if I wanted to, and decided to focus on the most important tracks to the structure of my story (The opening, the conflict, and the resolution) . I just worked on the musical parts in the first days, adding only minimal or essential effects. Ideas mostly either come from doing improv on a piano or they just come to me. Once inside a DAW, I can then build onto those ideas. Many tracks I would do in bits as I was still finding leitmotifs, but still wanted to have a good foundation for the tone of each track I wanted. I feel it is easier to speed up the process when you learn and familiarize yourself with specific library of sounds, Usually I use soundfonts but I was unsure the legality of those so I ended up using FLEX and SurgeXT for the most part. This caused many time issues for me, but it was also a nice learning experience. One example is, I probably spent a couple of hours looking for a specific tunable "Airy blowing sound" I thought would've sounded nice, I was going through every flute synth I could find, EQing them seeing If I could achieve that sound to then suddenly stumble upon the amazing "Bottle Blow" instrument in the general MIDI library. I felt kind of dumb because many soundfonts feature a bottle blow sound and I didn't even think of the instrument. It was a nice discovery of sounds though, I found a pretty spooky evil dark bass of darkness and despair I might use again. SurgeXT is pretty nice if you like sound design as well, I found myself spending a lot of time slightly tweaking the presets since I am pretty inexperienced with that, but I imagine someone more experienced can achieve a lot through SurgeXT or just any synthesizer. I feel that mixing too early for me can lead to way too many readjustments in things like volume and EQ, or it can leave me unsatisfied with something like the melody sounding way better than everything else, making it difficult to add more. Usually I will leave mixing to once the track is done, or if it is necessary on some instruments. So I ended up doing that in the latter days.
Also for art, I am a pretty bad artist. I found a nice color palette online to use, and then I used a reference for getting the main focus of my art at least somewhat ok. Doing the art I feel is a good thing to do when you get "stuck" on musical ideas, as you can come back to your project completely refreshed while still getting something else out of the way.
This is a nice fun song, I like the harpsichord especially, always nice to hear one. The beginning chord progression is really good too. This song really captures that medieval feel. Overall, this was a nice listen!
I am also in the same boat as a music hobbyist who joined this event as their first jam. This was a lot of fun for me and I imagine it was the same for you. I look forward to seeing how your music evolves overtime. Great work!
