Play soundtrack
Memories, turned to dust's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Sense of Atmosphere | #17 | 4.173 | 4.412 |
| Correlation to Theme | #22 | 3.617 | 3.824 |
| Listenability | #29 | 3.561 | 3.765 |
| Overall | #29 | 3.533 | 3.735 |
| Composing Quality | #33 | 3.394 | 3.588 |
| Execution | #43 | 3.283 | 3.471 |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity | #43 | 3.172 | 3.353 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/grunt7517/memories-turned-to-dust
Description
My goal for this jam was to create a piece of ambient music that acts as an audio recording depicting what everyday life was like from a distant time period in this lost city . I want the listener to get a sense that they've discovered a time capsule of sorts, but it's in a condition that makes it difficult to identify many of the events that are depicted. These events are represented in the various melodies throughout the piece. Some are more prominent than others, and even then it can be difficult at times to hear them with clarity. This is intentional, as it's trying to represent the effects of time on the recording itself as well as the decay of any identifiable features of the city itself.
My interpretation of this jam's text and picture theme was a city that was lost to time, and the only things that are left are old, crumbling structures and some audio recordings that have experienced a significant amount of decay. This was a very experimental submission for me, and I'd like to think that I've come close to what I was trying to accomplish with this submission. I also feel that I've learned a lot about the way I record guitar parts and use some slightly unorthodox instruments to convey a particular feeling or bit of information to the listener.
Description of Setup (Optional but recommended)
I used a pair of electric guitars drowned in reverb & delays, as well as some virtual instruments such as a worn tape piano and a mellotron flute. While the virtual instruments are not of the highest quality, I felt that it was appropriate to use them in order to capture this feeling of a distant time period and of something that once was a grand accomplishment now brought down to rubble. Also, I experimented a bit with longer reverb & sustain effects to create a pad with another electric guitar part to add a bit of texture underneath the other instruments.
DAW - Garageband
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
I love it, the dust really make it different, the way you use reverb and sustain really interesting, keep up the good work!
Well done Grunt, probably the best you made so far from what i've heard from you, you created the indie ban fever dream. I would've love at some point at like 2:30 or 3 min even, to add a really deeep bass to help us get out of the mid range, the atmosphere sounds great but a release at some point is also a nice feeling. You can probably clean some frequencies after the first min, The first min is perfect btw. But this is super ambiant you nailed the vibe good job.
Appreciate your comment, friend. I'm kinda surprised by that considering this is probably the piece I experimented with the most and was most worried about its reception, but I'm happy you liked what you heard.
I'd probably agree with your comment about the deeper bass, that could've sound pretty cool to at least give that track a little more variation.
I think if I had interpreted the theme in any other way I would probably try do better work with EQ and muddy frequencies but, because I wanted to fully commit to the idea of an audio recording that's losing its clarity due to old age, I felt at the time that it'd be appropriate to have some parts of the piece sound a little muddier than normal ๐
Thanks for taking the time to listen to my work :)
I love the hollow-ness and airy textures in your track. Really fits the dust aspect of memories! Great work!
Ayy thanks a ton! And thank you for listening :)
Something old, dying...
Perhaps an old man who has experienced so many interesting and exciting events, enough for several lifetimes - dying...
...and he wanted to capture all his memories on a film that's already outdated....
rawr
๐๏ธ Absolute Cinema ๐๏ธ
Thanks for taking the time to listen to my work :)
Sad, reminds me of indie soundscapes from the 2010s.
Really cool sense of atmosphere. I like the subtle low bass hum, it's mixed in enough for you to feel it but not quite hear it, kind of has a trance-like quality to it.
Really nice work!
Thanks a ton!
While I was pretty inspired by works of ambient music that were made decades prior, it's definitely possible that listening to some of those 2000's/2010's playlists of liminal music from time to time seeped their way into this submission. They always seem to have this quality about them that has a mixture of melancholy and nostalgia that I felt was really suitable for this jam's themes, at least in the way I interpreted them.
Thank you for listening :)
Good opening with vinyl like scratching sounds, gives it the whole tone to the track. Nice little mellow piece, good job on it!
Thank you! And thanks for listening :)
Really, really love the textures you managed to make for this!
Only thing that felt a bit off for me was the mellotron and piano melodic sounds felt a tad bit too forward compared to everything else. Maybe making them more wet, or adding some other effects to make them a bit more back in the space and hazier could help them blend better (just an idea i got, not sure if it would actually work ๐ )
Good stuff!
Thanks a ton for the feedback!
I think at the time I was trying to make those parts a little more prominent, trying to give a glimpse of clarity if that makes sense. Listening back to it today, I'd probably agree with you though.
Thanks for listening :)
I had the same thing with the guitars in my track, I was trying to have them prominent too but they ended up being too dry/separated from the other sounds ๐ .