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I love the composition in this submission! It tells a really great story without needing to read the description, and with the description its even better. The live piano playing is also a nice touch. It sounds good, and I'm sure is much more fun than editing MIDI notes from a piano sample to make them sound live lol. The string sample in Unlocked was a little jarring. Probably just needed a bit more reverb and brought down a little in the mix. Same thing for the percussion in Freefolks Village and The World Ahead. Overall a great submission!

The composition is the highlight for sure! It's very moving and I was engaged the whole way through. This is a really nitpicky critique, but I think you should use a solo cello sample in the beginning instead of an entire string section. I think it would add even more emotional weight when the whole orchestra comes in after the solo. Great work!

Great work! The composition, sound design, and production are all very well done. The only critiques I have are really minor technical things, like: given the chill vibes of A Short Rest I think you could add a bit more reverb to the percussion, and First Encounter feels slightly out of place with the rest of the soundtrack given how much brighter and more forward it sounds, but those could just be personal preferences. This was a great submission!

The soundscapes and sound design in this submission are really well done, they were nice to listen to and evolved well throughout the tracks! Your technical production skills are strong. But I have to agree with Nuageux in regards to the composition. It stays in a similar mood and tone throughout the whole soundtrack, so I can't get much of a story out of just listening to the music. The first two tracks sound like they are from same level/area. Still, it was a great submission that I enjoyed listening to. Good work!

First of all, using live instruments for a 48 jam is insane and I love that for you. Second, the composition is perfect for the concept you're going for. It really does sound like the opening credits of a spaghetti western movie, with the music fading out on a whistle as the audience is introduced to the protagonist.  well done!

I love the different variants for pause music and differing game state, it shows you put a lot of thought into the fictional game you're composing for, which I usually forget about. The compositions themselves are also pretty solid.

I only have one major complaint...Where's the calliope?! How are you gonna have a carnival themed game and have a soundtrack without a calliope?! You disrespect the concept of carnival's with this soundtrack!

I'm joking, of course. This was a fun soundtrack filled bops. Frenzied Parade (on air) was my favorite. Good work!

My favorite part of the whole submission was the last 5 seconds of the first track. There was something about the sound design that tickled my brain. The 2nd track gave big ori and the blind forest vibes. Did you use the same voice samples? I wish I could hear that missing track, the big finale would have had even more emotional weight behind it with the whole package. Great work, especially given the time constraints!

My favorite part of the whole submission was the last 5 seconds of the first track. There was something about the sound design that tickled my brain. The 2nd track gave big ori and the blind forest vibes. Did you use the same voice samples? I wish I could hear that missing track, the big finale would have had even more emotional weight behind it with the whole package. Great work, especially given the time constraints!

The first track was my favorite. The sounds design, the tone, and the mixing were really good and had a distinct feel to it. It reminded me a bit of portal 2 in its sound design and composition. The synth voices in The Fight is Done were pretty solid, getting any synthetic acoustic instrument to sound good is difficult so good job on that, especially given the time constraints. The composition of the last track was good, but the drums are kinda buried in the mix.

All 3 tracks were solid. I enjoyed the whole vibe of the first track so much, I wish you made the whole soundtrack expanding the concept of that track's sound design and mood. Great work!

I love the spooky vibes in the first half of Abandonment. The detuned music box was also a nice touch, it sounded like the music box was slowing down and needed to be wound again. I think you could have let the transition between the sections of the song bleed together a little more, there's a moment of silence between the wind fading out and the guitar coming in that took me out a little bit. I like the idea of changing the EQ for the second half, but I think you cut out too much low end. The mix felt like it was missing something since I was used to hearing the EQ of the first section. I'm a sucker for breakcore so obviously Their Freedom is my favorite. Absolute banger, no notes. Each track is individually solid, both of the Freedom tracks worked well together despite having very different tones, but Abandonment felt it like it was from a different game. Overall a great submission that kept me engaged all the way through. Good work!

This fit with the theme image so well. It feels like what the color scheme looks like! It's a shame you had such limited time for the project, I would have loved to see how you would expand on this idea. Great job!

You were able to get a good variety of moods and vibes while keeping consistent with orchestration and genre. You've got a good foundation for your next project! Make sure you spend a lot of time messing around with the MIDI and synth preset settings for your solos so they sound as lively and full of energy as possible. Accent some notes, throw in some vibrato on held notes, get some different samples of each instrument being played in different ways (staccato vs, legato, trumpets with mutes, etc.). Great work, and good luck!

It seems like only yesterday I was playing pokemon fire red on my Gameboy Advance :')

This OST was full of very catchy and memorable 8-bit melodies. Title Track and Battle Theme were the standouts in that regard. It was so cute and wholesome and fun. While the Cinematic Trailer on its own merit was well made, it felt out of place compared to the rest of the soundtrack and could be misleading as a trailer. I think if you used some 8-bit synths or sounds in the orchestration it would tie everything together.

The composition, sound design, and cover image were so well made and so fitting for your game concept, that I couldn't help but be charmed by this submission. Great work!

20 tracks? You madman!

The sound design overall is perfect for that old school FPS vibe you were going for. Those industrial beats with strings and crunchy, distorted synths mesh really well. I loved all the bubble sounds in Caves and Sewers. Especially Caves, that  sounded like something thick and viscous was bubbling, like mud or lava. Train is another track that stood out to me, I liked the use of the steam engine hisses as a rhythmic element and using the banjo to give it an old school railroad feel but still surrounded by industrial sounds. I also like how Cat and Mouse turns into a full techno track

The loudness of these tracks were a little uneven. I found that I had to keep adjusting my volume lower as I got through the OST. For example, Patient Zero is quite a bit louder than the first boss song Underwater Serpent. While variation in dynamics throughout a song is good, and atmospheric tracks make sense to be a little quiter than boss tracks, they should have a consistent max volume so the listener doesn't have to adjust volume settings. All of the boss songs should be at the same max volume level.

The textures and sound design were great and made for a cohesive soundtrack where I could imagine each level as I listened, and the amount you were able to make is quite impressive. Great work!

I don't know if you've ever seen the Cartoon Network show Over the Garden Wall, but I immediately thought of that show while listening to your music. Over the Garden Wall is one of my favorite TV shows and the music is fantastic, so that is a huge compliment. The orchestration and arranging is creative and very well done.

The first two tracks are seemingly friendly, but there's something unsettling just beneath the surface. In Lights Off it sounded like you used some non-standard bowing techniques on an upright bass to get those creepy low rumblings and string sounds, and it sound great! Very spooky.

One thing I noticed, especially in the song Crossroads, is that a lot of the instruments stay at the same volume throughout the song. If you change the Velocity on the notes a little bit it will sound more like a live recording than MIDI.

Overall this is a very creative and well made submission. Great work!

The sound design and production is great! The percussion in In Between and Amidst has that nice ear candy quality to it, its so nice to listen to. Even with the intensifying sound design in these tracks the underlying composition still has that chill puzzle platformer feel.

Great work!

Hey, I remember you from the Spring Tune Jam! How's it going? OK this should be good...

Yeah I don't what else I can say that hasn't already been said about this submission. Its Great! The compositions, the production, the game idea, etc. are all fantastic! I usually try to give at least one piece of constructive criticism, but all I can think of are nitpicks like I thought the lead horn was a little too loud in DIVE and...that's it??? This was a wonderful submission.

Great work!

That buildup to the dropout was *chef's kiss* magnifique! The piece had a really good flow to it and it was composed really well. I wanted to hear that high piano ring out over the rest of the orchestra in that buildup at 1:20, but it got buried by the strings a little bit. Or have the piano part double up an octave higher or lower to give the melody some extra punch and differentiate it from the rest of the piano sections. Overall this was a really moving piece. Well done!

The buildup through The Earth Can't Hold Me had me like  :O That was really well done!

I'm also a sucker for that portamento, vibrato, square wave lead sound in Stuck in Time. How dare you play towards my biases and target me specifically smh.

I loved this submission!

For what its worth, the two songs you submitted are really solid! How I Miss You is really pretty. It sounded like it was a great intro that was going to build into the next piece, but the second part of it wasn't there. I'm assuming you had another song in mind to follow that up, but it didn't pan out. I wish I could have heard more!

You blended the orchestral and electronic elements really well in The World I Made for Us, and I liked the panning automation that you did with the drums! That was a nice little touch.

This track kept lulling me into a false sense of security and then hitting me with an uneasy chord or asynchronous rhythm...and it works so well! It was so much fun to listen to, and it was so creative. I really enjoyed this submission.

chill/jazzy beats to adventure and complete puzzles to. The tracks fit your game concept really well, and the vibes are just...so...nice! The music is lovely. One thing that would really elevate it (and I suffer from the same problem) is to add more dynamics throughout the piece. Having more ebbs and flows of volume will add an extra layer to the music and make your MIDI sound less like MIDI.

The sound design is great, and the compositions fit perfectly in your game story. All the tracks flowed (heheh...flow...water) really well together.

What more I can say that hasn't already been said in other comments? This was simply fantastic

Each track was so pretty! Your piano playing was very emotional. I think the soundtrack was missing some moment of tension or darkness (like for the encounter with the creature of malice) since the whole piece stays in this really calm and serene mood, but you did calm and serene really really well!

I love the sound design! (I could be biased because I love breakcore) The transitions were super creative and the new or changing sounds always kept me on my toes. The motiff, melodic loop, whatever you want to call it was really strong and memorable, I wish I could hear it more in the second track. I know I said I love breakcore, but I think you should bring the levels down on the breakcore drums a little bit so we can hear all of the other wonderful sounds and melodies you added in.

I like the combination of the glockenspiel and the distorted guitars, those two instruments are usually used for two completely different tones/moods, but I think that conflict works well here. I also liked that you used different sounds from different styles of rock throughout. The electric guitar sound used in Home is Away fit the image theme really well.

The conflicting instrument choices didn't work as well for me on Away is free. the pitched instruments were very chillI but the drums were so energetic that it felt like the piece was missing something. Maybe replace the rock drums with a softer kick, closed hi hats, and snare rim clicks. I know this is a tiny nitpick, but I think the master volume of Free is Fleeting needed to be turned down a liiiiiitle bit to match the volume of the other two tracks.

Overall, good stuff! Thank you for sharing!

The sound design comes together really well here. Even though in your description you said the chord progression itself needed a little more substance, the orchestration is so varied and dynamic that it more than made up for it. It was engaging all the way through. I like the little flourishes of different instruments and sounds, and the electronic kick drum was mixed in well. I think you should add a little more reverb to that snare rim click to make it fit in with the rest of the lush atmosphere you built, but that's really the only criticism I have, and its a nitpick at best. This was really well done!

And kudos to you for getting this done in the time frame you had! I hope you recover from your injury!

ooo this is so pretty! The production is great! Where did you get the samples?

The composition had a great flow to it, and I liked the little details like the cello popping in with a crescendo and decrescendo almost as if every instrument had its own moment to shine. Great work!

I like the sound design and orchestration for these pieces, and Cyber Effect is a total banger!

Afterlife feels a little out of place sonically compared to the rest of the tracks. I think if you added some synthesized elements towards the end, or maybe slowly transformed the whole instrumentation to electronic throughout the piece it would tie in with the rest of the tracks really well and make a great transition into Cyber Effect.

Overall, I really enjoyed your submission! Cyber Effect slaps, Little White Bunny is chill, and Ol' Atlantis has a nice finality to it. Afterlife was a good composition, it just needed a little something to tie it in with everything else. Good work!

oooo I like that idea! Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks for listening!

Ah, a fellow chad deemo enjoyer (As soon as I saw the image I immediately thought of Walking by the Sea lol).
Thanks for listening!

The vocal work was definitely the highlight of this submission. The lyrics, effects, performance, it was all *chef's kiss* excellent. I read your "ramblings", and I'm glad you were able to share something so personal with us random internet strangers, that's not easy! I enjoyed this piece!

My only real critique is that I got more of a "spooky evil cave" vibe than underwater from the sound design. Maybe take away a little bit of reverb and throw some low pass filters on some of your higher frequency sounds, especially in the beginning. Then you could take the filters away in the final moments of the piece where the drums come in at 2:52 and have a big swell of sound. Don't change a thing about the vocals tho :)

Thank you so much for sharing, great work!

Thank you!

I always love combining electric elements with acoustic instruments.  I especially liked the electronic beat switch ups in Transcending the Dream. In fact, there were a lot of great electronic elements in that song that I looked back and wished I heard more in the other 2 tracks. I also think a little more reverb and delay would help it feel even more dream like. The compositions themselves were very good.

Hey, I remember you from the Spring Tune Jam! How's it going?

This is some top notch presentation. That youtube video is amazing! The arrangement and instrument choices were perfect, and it all fit the underwater tropical fun vibe so well. Its so cute! I really liked how even the music where the character was in danger you kept the fun vibes but had a little bit of an edge to separate from the more fun/chill music.

One thing I did notice in your compositions, especially in the queen and town theme, was that a lot of the music stays at the same volume throughout. Add some crescendos and decrescendos, strip away and add layers a bit more often, etc. for a little extra spice. (usually consistent volume is a good thing when you have to balance it with sfx, but you don't have to worry about that here so go nuts lol)

Also, love the artwork.

I love the sound design! That squishy marching sound was very ominous, and I could feel the impending doom of an AI robot army. Great job!

I'm honored to be lucky enough to get an early listen, lol! I really like the instrument choices in the orchestration, they blended together well and had a nice sound. The trumpet melody was very pretty. I'm going to piggy back off of what Selkione said about the harpsichord and suggest another possible solution: The harpsichord and the octave up trumpet in the end are somewhat similar bright sounds that are competing in the same frequency range, so the harpsichord gets masked in the mix a bit. If you changed the harpsichord to a different instrument that has a different sound, my suggestion would be a xylophone, it will stand out more and won't get masked.
Great work!

Well you know what they say, great minds think alike ;)