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Thanks for the detailed comment. Unfortunately I only saw it after the jam ended so I wasn't be able to rate your entry, so I'll just give you some feedback instead.

The track contains a very eclectic combination of instruments; the acoustic and synthetic instruments were blended together well to create a cohesive experience. A lot of thought and attention went into the theme, I enjoyed the inclusion of the shakuhachi and the synth-like bubbles, it fits the picture so well.  The music evoked the feeling of reminiscing tender but sad memories, outside the section in the middle with the kick drums, which felt like an interlude of sorts.

Sorry to hear about your injury, if it's any consolation you made a great track in one day.

After thinking about it more, I think I like your choice better, aggressively using the low pass filter constantly is a little gimmicky.

Very cool instrument choices, I like how much thought was put into everyone of them. The low pass filter to simulate the underwater instruments was a great idea. I feel you could have used the low pass filter more aggressively to further emphasize the underwater aspect, but it's just a stylistic choice in the end, what you did made sense too. Overall a very well crafted sound track, nice job!

I'll add that, if you want to sort the high end, you can also go the substractive route and carefully cut high end from most/all instruments rather than boosting some - if you are trying to achieve a soft soothing sound like in ambient music, or if you want very subtle activity in the highs with hi hats and stuff. In that type of mix you might want to use peak/bell EQ for any highs boosting rather than shelves.

Yes this would also work. grapdefluid, if you follow this quoted approach, then your whole track will sound more consistently dark, and the mix will be a lot more cohesive.

Of course, if you cut highs everywhere, you have to be very careful about low-cutting and mid-range EQ, otherwise you can get some serious mud and the whole thing can blow up speakers. Also be careful to not cut too much - you can play with filter slopes to let out the tiniest bit of high end to preserve some presence.

I'm not too sure about the blowing up of speakers so I won't speak on that. As for midrange mud, yes you have to be a careful about this, sometimes people put too many musical notes and sounds in the bass and midrange when making already dark tracks.

Good advice ~ jon patch ~!

Cool combination of sounds and textures- Vocals, pianos, reverse pianos, ambience, (harpsichord or some sort of bell like synth?), enveloped by a lush reverb.

One thing I noticed about your mix was most of the audio was that the main elements in occupying the high end was the harpsichord and ambient noises, which gave the made the track a bit unnaturally dark (as in not much high frequencies) for sections where they were not present. If that's what you were going for, then leave it as it is, but if not  using an EQ high shelf to boost your high end frequencies by at around 4.5k Hz region would make the track sound more natural.

Composition wise the soundtrack was well written. Mist and Nails had a good patient, mysterious tension to it. One Friendly Intruder was awesomefor a boss fight, the quicker tempo and cascading piano notes made it feel like a escalating conflict. Well done on creating an engaging soundtrack.

Ooh the 2000's FPS aesthetic is so well captured. The sound design is well executed with a creative use of distortion and many varieties of audio degradation. Sometimes there's so much noise and distortion that any tonal elements disappear and the whole tracks mainly becomes rhythmic. Tonally the sound is very dark and sometimes dissonant. Even the track Rest Zone is unsettling; there is no true rest in this game, it only oscillates between high tension and medium tension.

The total length of the soundtrack is also ridiculous, it's the longest soundtrack I've listened to in ANY OST Jam, the amount you were able to output is actually insane. Overall one of the most impressive soundtracks of this jam, kudos.

I like how it starts and ends with the distant bell sounds, it give the soundtrack a connectedness. Good use of dynamic range in Where No Bubbles Dares To Dwel, the contrast between the soft and loud parts  along with the drawn out dissonant chords make add a lot of distress to the track. Overall a very expressive and emotional soundtrack, excellently composed.

By the way, the piano is gorgeous, what library did you use?

The ticking clock , the waves, bubbles, the bell like instruments to give the impression of a musical box; great sound selection of sounds to tell the story you were going for. The transition between being awake and asleep in Drifting To Sleep was great, slowly the clock gets softer and the waves wash over signalling the start of the dream stage. The use of bubbles as a kick drum was pretty cute in Dancing With The Fish, it added to the playful vibe of the track. Overall a very patient and well thought out soundtrack with excellent sound design to add to the immersion.

Abyssal Nightmare was stressful, the liberal use of sustained dissonance captured the feeling of falling deeper and deeper into a nightmare. Good composition and mix, it never gets muddy despite so many tone clusters. This soundtrack is quite the journey, it takes you through a wide range of emotions; mystery, lightheartedness, distress and love. Despite the diversity of musical, it still felt cohesive, you did a good job on that!

Good job on capturing the JRPG horror aesthetic, the artwork fits so well with it too. It's has it scary moments but it also has a lighter yet mysterious side to it. I can picture the player sneaking around, exploring the mansion to the track of "Crossroads". It's quite interesting to have "Close your eyes" as the penultimate track being rather hopeful and then shifting into something darker near the end with "Real". I imagined that the doll was able to recover her will, but soon discovers the burden of it to end on a bittersweet note.

The mix was clear during the musical parts and purposefully murky during the horror sections, a very deliberate production. Overall, a very well made soundtrack, give yourself a pat on the back.

(Gave you a follow too!)

I gave my rating yesterday but I forgot to write my comment. I think you captured the HD-2D aesthetic very well, it's a pretty blend of both the old and new. It never gets too modern and polished, there's always a certain level of retroness that is always kept at the center stage. The soundtrack has a good diversity in styles and emotions conveyed. I really enjoyed the opening track, some of those pitch bends were beautiful. Overall a strong submission, great work!

Props on your creative interpretation of the picture theme, your bubbles metaphor makes a lot of sense. The track you have composed fits the story perfectly, it's captures the tenderness and sadness from trying to hold on to a loved one for just a little longer. The track feels so much longer than 3 minutes because it's packed with so many ideas that are constantly evolving. Congratulations on telling great story in one track, it feels like there's never a wasted moment.

Your output is crazy given the time constraints, you were able to complete an RPG soundtrack with all the bells and whistles. There's a good deal of mystery evoked right from the start, and there is a ominousness that resurfaces many times throughout the soundtrack. There are some lighter moments here and there but overall this one of the darker stories of this jam, and the music perfectly captures that. Excellent mixing, production and composition throughout, a very impressive submission.

Excellent combination of instruments and sound, they all blended well together into a cohesive whole and were used to reinforce the natural rhythms of the track.The addition of the blips was surprising (when compared to the bubbles, which felt like a logical interpretation of the theme) but it was incorporated well into the track. Where did you get the inspiration for it from?

Mixing was well done, every sound element had a good position in the stereo field, which created a very 3 dimensional stereo image. The score was beautiful and constantly evolved, never settling down in one place. Overall very strong entry, it was only one track but the amount of effort that went into it must have been crazy.

The orchestral composition was already good but the sound effects take it to the next level, felt like I was listening to a movie. Mixing was also really well done with great separation between the sound effects and the instruments, takes quite a bit of work to get all the sound effects to stand out in a dense mix. The music stirs your emotions but it never veers into cheesy territory, epic but in a authentic way. Extremely immersive experience, hats off to you!

Ah that makes sense, yeah mixing in a new room is always weird, there are a lot of things you don't think of and take for granted. No problem, happy to lend a hand.

Damn that cello is gorgeous, beautifully performed. I started listening with the impression that this was going to be an emotionally heavy soundtrack, an expressive cello always does it to me. The rest of the soundtrack turned out to be much lighter than expected, with a healthy dose of playfulness and childlike wonder. It returns to a similar soulful leitmotif at the end to come full circle. You captured the Studio Ghibli spirit well, where it's sometimes fun and playful, and sometimes heartwarming.

The mixing was very well executed, all the instruments had a good amount of space to do their own thing. Drums were surprisingly punchy for an orchestral soundtrack, which was a welcomed surprise. Overall very well made, good job!

Very relaxing and serene (with the exception of the battle theme). The battle theme was impressively produced, with big orchestral drums transitioning into trap style percussion and then switching back. Good definition on the drums, punchy and stood out very well. 

The entire soundtrack is slightly heavy on the reverb, but it's not that a big deal with the exception of 0:54 on the first track. The reverb gets out of hand when the pianos block chords change and it gets very muddy. It's a good idea to put a highpass on the reverb when the low end starts to build up like that. Additional ways to fix it are to change the pianos voicing to more open chords (eg. for a C major chord, instead of C E G go with C G E), reduce the reverb time or the wet amount.

Enjoyable soundtrack overall, good work!

Slow,  patient and evocative. A very diverse set of instruments, I enjoyed the inclusion of world instruments like the erhu and the traditional drums (the ones at 2:04 in The Mountain Below, what are they? ). 

The production quality and composition are both great. The ominous chanting in The Mountain Below was good foreshadowing the impending danger ahead. The stripped down instrumentation Mother's Memory made it very intimate and was a great release to the tension built up in the previous track., perfect way to end the adventure.

Overall, very well done!

You captured the sense of adventure inspired by the open seas. A very nice mixture of acoustic instruments gave a very natural and organic feel. Contrary to some other listeners, I don't think you needed more in the bass regions. The music felt lighter without it, like an explorer who travels light and is unencumbered by unessential items needed for the journey. Have a good one.

Musically this is a really good soundtrack, there's a lot of emotion written into the composition and a good diversity of musical ideas. The nautical theme was well executed, I can envision the soundtrack playing beautifully to a surreal ocean world.

The mix however felt very dry,  a nice reverb to glue everything together and make the notes linger (not too much until it gets muddy though) would elevate the mix significantly. Reaper's stock reverb is not very good, there  are good free one like Dragonfly Reverb, MCharmVerb or Valhalla Supermassive (not a true reverb but it has some reverb presets that sound close enough).

Kudos for the score though, it was very impressive.

Very innovative composition tool., it's the first time I've heard  of people composing music by writing computer code. It doesn't sound very detailed, but on a macro level it is a proper track with different sections with tension and release. Kudos for the novel approach!

Good job creating some good contrast with only two tracks, they both feel different but connected. The backing vocals did help with the pirate vibe you were going for. Even if you don't sing well you can make it quite convincing with some if you do many takes and spread them across the stereo field (plus some EQ reverb to position it nicely in the mix). Might be a little too time consuming for a game jam so I imagine you did enough to meet the time constraints. Anyway, I found the soundtrack to be well composed, there's a lot of development and it never settles into a predictable pattern.

Okay this soundtrack is REALLY out there, synthesizer acoustic instruments layered on top of each other with crazy jazz harmonies. This feels like it was written and performed by a time traveling bard, who came back to his original time with a synthesizer and played it to flabbergasted audience. It's really chaotic and weird, but the most important thing is that you embraced the weirdness and performed it with confidence and gusto. In a vacuum it's not my cup of tea, but I'm absolutely sold on the performance.

Loved the panned synths dancing around the stereo field, it feels like you're in a first person view walking around a persons thoughts. Nice mixture of genres between orchestral, ambient and synthwave, all the elements were blended together seamlessly. Enjoyed the dissonant tension in Save Me From Myself, it made the final track hit much harder when it concluded with a beautiful orchestral climax. Overall, an impressive submission with a great composition and production.

Despite shifting genres multiple times, all the songs maintained a good amount of cohesion, which is super impressive. Add that the quality maintained over 9 tracks in this time period. Hats off. Really well produced and composed. Also you forgot to add rock to your genre list!

Haha, I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that something bad was going to happen, it was just dramatic tension. Thanks for writing, happy to hear you enjoyed it Good luck to you too, I think you'll do very well.

Yes, there  was the idea of "rewinding" present in Word Processing, but only as far as introspectively looking back into the past. Thank you for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Nice and crunchy distortion, it's put to very good use throughout the soundtrack to illustrate the instability, it feels like reality is about to breaking at any moment. The idea of crossfading between the light and dark sections of the track was well executed, I flipped back and forth a couple times to get a feeling between them and I can imagine it being quite seamless in game. I especially enjoyed the dark section of Amidst, it really felt like a great climax for the game.

Don't think I have any complaints, it's an interesting game mechanic and a well executed soundtrack to compliment it, kudos.

Hahaha, really creative combination of the picture and text themes. The second track got a good chuckle from me, props on adding entertaining lyrics that matches the story you're telling perfectly. The whole soundtrack was well composed with a lot of well explored musical ideas.

Very maximalist, lots of layers and a nice thick mix. My only complaint is that the drums get buried when all the instruments kick in,  such as the end of the first track and the middle of the third track. Not sure if it was intentional (sometimes people want to bury their drums), but if it wasn't you can u se a spectral compressor like Trackspacer or MSpectralDynamics to sidechain your drums to the rest of your mix, it will only suppress specific frequencies which helps jam as much content as possible into a dense mix.

Really interesting jazz harmonies, it got spicy at times, but it was executed with enough confidence to sell it. The soundtrack is pretty maximalist, you really don't shy away from using complex harmonies or using many instruments at once. 

As far as the mix goes, the separation of the tonal parts is actually good, which speaks to a good arrangement considering the amount of different things you have going on. My main complaint  would be that the drums get buried in the mix at times. For a mix this dense a spectral compressor like Trackspacer or MSpectralDynamics (there are other alternatives but I haven't been keeping up with them lately) would help a lot. You can use it to sidechain your kick, snare and toms to the  tonal instrument bus so that it only cuts specific frequencies when when they hit.

I second the Ragnarok Online vibes, it immediately came to my mind within the first few seconds. Turns out it was Maple Story, close enough! Honestly it's a really well made soundtrack, it filled me with the sense of adventure you feel at the start of an MMO. The tempo changes were really nice, it injected more humanized touch and created some nice contrast between the more electronic sections. Don't have any complaints, you nailed it!

Maybe this is a personal bias, but I find changing the fidelity / realism of the instruments a little jarring for descending the depths of the ocean. Which is strange when I think about it, because the bottom of the ocean could resemble a different planet or dimension with the lack of sunlight, strange lifeforms and ridiculous amounts of pressure. I don't find a change in time signature, key signature or instrumentation that weird for some reason. I'll need to think about this a little more to figure out why I feel this way.

Good solution anyway, using a track to transition between the two sections would make it feel more natural.

Odd time signatures, jazz harmony,  unusual scales - there's a lots of complicated musical ideas. There isn't a dull moment when you're tinkering with so much, there's always an unexpected turn around the corner or at the next track. The F# major to A dominant 7 was pretty spicy in  Subaquatic Saunter (Action).

The soundtrack starts of oozing with 90's vibes with some modern polish. By the time I reached the end, Mechacanthine Foreboding and Epilogue (Within the Soul) stick out a bit to me; the samples are a bit too good and the performances are a little too  realistic when compared to the more proudly digital start of the soundtrack.

Nevertheless, it's a very eclectic combination of sounds and musical ideas. Even if it doesn't always sound cohesive it's never boring. Kudos.

Damn, you captured glitchy digital PC aesthetic pretty well. Lots of interesting sound effects and foley sounds to adds a nice amount of spice to each track. Good use of dynamic range to create contrast, you could have clipped and limited the hell out of everything but it was done very purposefully at specific places. Very diverse set of musical genres, seemed a little weird at first but I can see how you can tie it together with the creative interpretation of the theme. Overall one of the most unique soundtracks to come out of this jam, congrats.

Thick and luscious sound, lots of layers, melodies and counter melodies. It feels like a very grand and larger than life imaginary world. 

The mix does get muddy at times, I think there is a little too much going on in the upper bass and low mid regions. If there are a lot of layers it's a good idea to stick to just the bass note in the lower frequencies and push the other notes of the chord further up (for example, instead of a C3 E3 G3 for a C major chord, you could write it as C3 G3 E4). Another thing to do is to put a highpass filter on instruments that don't need bass or low-mid content, it makes the low end much cleaner.

You did quite a good job if you've only been composing for a year and a half, some of the musical ideas are somewhat complex. Congratulations on completing your first composing jam!

Beautifully evocative, the mixture of water sounds, choir and instrumentation conjure up a magical atmosphere. There's a playfulness and childlike wonder that matches the theme very well. Sound selection, layering and mixing was very well done, the whole soundtrack feels very cohesive. Bravo!

Delightful soundtrack, it reminded me a bit of a Joe Hisashi score from Studio Ghibli. It starts off light and whimsical and slowly tension is increased and it becomes much darker. By the time it reaches the ending theme, it returns to a more melancholic version of the main theme, and then builds into a full orchestral finale. Good use of leitmotifs and reharmonization to reference and build upon earlier tracks. 

Mixing wise some sections are a little too wide, which is can cause problems on mono speakers. Orchestral libraries can be pretty wide out of the box so it's good to use something like Voxengo's Correlometer to monitor it, especially for lower frequencies.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The multiples of the same time (especially three of the same numbers) are meant to be harder as they give you the some of the most points. You also can't ignore them for too long as they can easily clog your hand, so if you get one you need quickly to plan ahead on how to unload it.

Ah I see, that makes sense.

I'm not sure if this is a good suggestion, but you could require stars to 100% a level, it incentivizes the player to "use the whole map" in a single run. You would probably have to remove the hidden stars from the game if you did this as it would be frustrating to complete if you couldn't find the last star. Downside is that there is some amount of backtracking, I'm not sure whether the positives outweigh the negatives.