A lot of good foundations here. I am actually impressed this whole thing was done in BandLab. I would echo the critiques shared in other posts, but most importantly I want to express that I can see the ideas you were going for and hear a lot of potential as a composer as you continue to grow and develop your skills. Keep it up, I look forward to hearing what you come up with in the future!

Nice, easy listen. I like the laid back atmosphere of this soundtrack.

My main critique would be dynamics. It can be difficult depending on the tools you have available, but look for ways to vary softness and tone of your instruments throughout the course of a song.

Otherwise, great cohesion. All the tracks fit together nicely while each having their own personality. Good job on your soundtrack!

I like the progressive style of these compositions, building out on the melodic line and getting more complex up until the end. Very good way to keep listener interest up with the trance-adjacent composition style you qent for! I’d love to have been able to read a bit more about each track individually to see how they’d fit into this game you imagined, but otherwise nice work on these!

You had a good atmosphere and theme that connected each song! None of the tracks were fighting each other and had space in the mix. Thanks for sharing!

I'm not a yapper fr, so all I'm gonna say is...

This is a very solid OST. I love the overall feel of the voicing. In general, it's very well put together, especially with the overall theme!

Very BASed !!

bumpus

These are some pretty nice loops, but I think the 2 main problems with them is that they repeat too much for too long. Imo, making some shorter tracks, with more variation (changing up instrumentation, harmony, melody, and maybe even tempo, meter or key!) would've been a better listen, since I tend to kinda get lost in this submission.

But again, you have some really fun ideas, that do deliver on their purpose (sad sounds sad, relax is pretty relaxing), and I would love to hear your ideas more polished and fleshed out!

There is a nice sense of atmosphere created and you have nice ideas here. Be more confident in developing your ideas further, with more subtle colours, and think a bit more about dynamic shape in your orchestral writing. Also look into libraries like Spitfire Labs (their free) as such sample libraries would really help bring out the sense of atmosphere you creating even further :)

Great to see so many beginning composers here and being determined to submit to something like this. I pretty much envy what you’ve done. If I had been younger I wouldn’t been able to produce such cool music like you’ve done. You’ve managed to create some pretty atmospheres with a relaxed but interesting texture. While I can commend your work, I do feel like there could be things done differently. So here are some thoughts.

Sad – The D Dorian is an interesting choice.  Although I feel like having the A-flat in there makes it a bit to dangerous sounding. Also I feel like the voicing of the strings should vary more. I think it is mostly due to the droning Viola on de A. Changing the drone certainly add some more harmonic richness a give different meaning to the same melody. Also having some instruments not playing like pads might be a great idea to loosen up the sound or give some additional movement. Maybe trying to give one of the strings an ostinato or arpeggio can give more depth

Happy – Really dig the bouncy nature of the groove. I feel like adding some deeper bass playing in some short patterns could enhance that rhythm. Like before I believe adding some variation could be very much benefitting. Maybe change the melody throughout your instruments and let them play different parts. Also a cool Idea is to let them commend each other like a question answer theme (like a group of friends reacting to each other).

Memory – I quite like the idea here. Though I feel like it is the same as beforehand. Though a good Idea it somewhat gets dragged out other the time. Some variation in tone-colour or voicing could help. Maybe, as a simple idea, try going through multiple memories. Maybe some are frightening, some tear driving and some other laughably funny. Let the different emotions drag you and your listener through the song.

Replax – I feel like it could be more of a part of Memory other than being its own thing, Although it has some more movement and evolvement. I do believe that this could use some more ear candy. Some more noises and soundscape the catches the listeners attention and adds to the feeling you’re trying to evoke. Like in Sad it could be also beneficial to add some movement into the instruments by adding some ostinatos or arpeggios to contrast the long padded sounds of the strings.

Though the critique might sound harsh, I really enjoyed listening to your OST. Don’t let yourself get deterred and keep on composing.

Okay you got some interesting ideas but you're missing some "body" on each tracks, what I mean by that :

Sad - You have no motion, the legato strings, choirs and guitar are always playing the same pacing and same thing at almost the same range, you need some dynamics or change some tone from time to time and a constant melody that you can reuse in the same song doing some arrangement

Happy - You have mostly pluck instruments, a pizz violins, vibraphone and a sax doing almost the same thing for 4 mins, after 1 min max you need to change and go somewhere change some chords to make it move a little bit more and add something in the instruments what will add some "body" again to the song like a bass add elements to your drums track and make it more alive.

Memory - Sounds like you basically mixed Sad and Happy together. so same thing apply for this.

Relax - Same thing as Memory but with more happy in there, you started to get the idea of motion in this one a little more than the other.

You did a good job while being limited.

Very chill vibes, that was cool to listen to!

I think you have a lot of creative ideas here, some really gorgeous melodies and harmonies as well! But i am going to somewhat disagree with the comments saying that these feel to long, and instead say I think that something that would help make your writing even prettier would be to experiment with a bit more development when it comes to your ideas. By that i mean shifting around things like:

• what instruments are playing, and how many
• how loudly they are playing
• what new musical content they are introducing

I think your ideas again are so pretty, and this was such a relaxing entry that i enjoyed a ton! But by working on adding more variation on some of the ideas i mentioned above I think you kill two birds with one stone - you make your ideas more engaging so that people don't feel like the songs are too long, and we get to hear even more of your beautiful work!

Overall well done, very impressed with that fact that this was just done on bandlab. I dont know what your computer situation is, but as a novice like you mentioned try downloading Cakewalk by Bandlab! Its a more in depth software version of the online bandlab client, that will give you even more tools to expand on your ideas. The discord server for this also has a lot of extra free tools accessible that will help you learn! Good job, can't wait to see what you make in the future :D

First time I've heard of Bandlab, will need to give it a dive at some point!

I love the slow beginning to Sad - it takes its time in introducing various elements and really swelling to fill the mix. Great work with the orchestration here, and the choice of progression is well done. Nice and evocative, befitting of the title.

Happy has a rather interesting beginning - the percussion off the bat does wonders for setting the tone. Once again the gradual layering of different elements here works really well. The choice of mallets is great - deserves more love in general! The woodwind and brass accompaniments behind are great too, trading off melodies and never crowding the mix too much. As a whole this track is nice and thoughtful; akin to a soft kind of happiness and contentment.

The opening crescendo in Memory is gorgeous. The sparse use of percussion just to lay down a fundamental rhythm is a nice touch and gives the track a pulse so that the leading instruments can take a little bit of a less-is-more approach and not feel the need to fill out their melodies completely. As it progresses, I found this track to be rather pensive. I can't quite pin a happy or sombre mood to it - I feel like it is a little bit of both, honestly.

The choice of synth voicings in Relax is great - does a nice job of complementing the lead melody with a pseudo call-and-response kind of vibe. Again this is a nice pensive piece but it feels a little more definitive in its direction. Moving toward acceptance or perhaps a hopeful determination.

Great work, I enjoyed giving these a listen! I think they're super solid and that the execution of the theme was on point. :)

As promised, here I am!

Some pretty decent and interesting tracks! I like the idea that each track represents the emotional state of the characters in the game. I do have one small nitpick tho, and that is I feel as if the tracks lack some variation and I think you could really benefit from changing up the chords and/or notes of some of the instruments sometimes. Aside from that tho, you did a pretty good job!

Overall a pretty nice and atmospheric track, nicely done!

That's all I have to say really, have an amazing day! :D

You've got a good ambient and an interesting idea with the interpretation of different emotions! But, unfortunately, there is little catchy progression and development in it.

But I liked it!
I listened to the whole thing and enjoyed it) Thanks!

I really like the idea of each track representing a different emotional state! You represent each emotion well and your melodies sound really nice. I think having some more variation whether it be from the chords, bass, percussion, etc will help to keep each track sounding interesting and uplift the soundtrack as a whole. Overall though, nice submission and thanks for sharing!

Nice consistency in the whole OST. Every mood is well represented is your music. Keep working on it! Well done!

Hello! You have some nice, fun melodies in your arrangements! BandLab is definitely limited so it's hard to make good strings, but I like the ideas you have in there.  I see you tried to control the strings volumes and such, props to you! 

Like Jofes said, make sure to add some variations if the instruments are held out longer! It helps with the listening experience, even if it is in the modern-pop genre.  Also, in my opinion, try to work your way out of BandLab if you can, you'll be able to understand and create much more in the future.  Still, as a novice, good job on the tracks!

Keep working hard and learning as much as possible, and enjoy the process of creation!

All of the songs were too long in my opinion because they didn't change all that much. that caused it to feel very repetitive,