I think doing four tracks for a six minute limit jam held you back from creating two or possible three very powerful and strong submissions. In this example especially when it comes to the overall mixing and quality of each track. I also don't understand the usage of AI art (I know you do it with all your uploads) but especially for a jam where a specific piece of art was given as reference and theme.
The music itself is incredibly saturated, very blown out and extended in terms of compression. While the music is composed quite well it stands far from ambient and sits more in the realm of cinematic and orchestral work. A lack of diverse velocity between instruments also makes the tracks feel tight, especially in the third track where the synth and bass come in and create this sort of brash low end that steps over the strings in a bit of a dramatic fashion. This issue is carried into the fourth track, which takes a huge leap away from being ambient and sort of just sounds like JRPG battle music. A very khords esq lead with these stylized pads and drums that clash in the mid-high range
The music, aside from the mixing, is overall quite alright. I don't feel like it really fits the theme of the jam though and I feel like had you focused on less tracks you could have had a more on theme and better mixed entry.
Great work though.
Viewing post in Jiggyicarus - Event Horizon: Temporal Terminus jam comments
Hi Turtle, thanks for the comments! I would say I both agree and disagree in some areas. I do agree the saturation and blownoutness is there mostly in the first track. I think this was actually a case of pushing them too hard on the masters (im not great at mastering) as the mixes were sounding a bit better in those terms before, so that's a shame from me to push them where they didnt need it. I think though I did achieve a similar sonic sound across them all which was definitely my aim. I would disagree with the second part though about the brash low end in the third track, this was an intentional decision wanting the low end to be so "in your face" - i wanted it to feel pumping and heavy and i think the low end over the topness worked in that regard. Addressing your ambience and theme comments, definitely I can see it's not particularly ambient in any way. The thing is, I had an interpretation of the theme of being frozen in time, and that led me down a creative path which wasn't ambient music, so I tried creating as much atmosphere as I could across a set of tracks which I had a very clear vision for, hopefully at least that came through. In terms of the image, yeah I know there is always an image provided but for me the key thing is I'd like the music to stand separately so it's not as "locked in" to being viewed as just game jam stuff. Maybe you hate that, maybe you don't, and do I wish I could pay an artist? Yeah definitely do. But I can't afford to rn especially with the amount of jams I get involved in. For me rn that's just where I'm at with the images but hopefully in the future I could work with an artist to get some cool original stuff out. Do appreciate the comments though, am taking on board what you've said and thankful you listened and liked the music overall.
This was also in my response where I said about not being as "locked in" to game jam stuff. I'd like to be able to show the music as independent of just the composer jam outside of the jam itself - that's why I choose to go with different art. I use the art provided always as a basis for my theme interpretation though.