"A Wall Too Tall" - oh wowzers, we share this chord progression, so you have an automatic like from me! Hahaha. I would suggest working on mixing a little bit, as some parts were a little bit too resonant, I would make a little EQ well, to make it less pronounced. Other than that - good stuff. The feeling is fantastic though, and is pretty unique compared to the more somber compositions that seem to be the majority of submissions.
"What I Deserve" - is uplifting, yet I'd add some variety to make the sound more engaging. As we are supposed to hear the song over and over again ("What I Deserve" plays as he travels through new, unfamiliar places and gets his first taste of hope and the warmth he's been denied for so long). Also, some sections without bells would be nice too, to let our ears rest (I am only speaking of the song if it was for several hours straight). Other than that - good stuff once again!
"A Life Left Behind" - good ending. See how you made it similiar to the "What I Deserve", so this track is technically "What I Deserve, but already achieved", haha. The humming is so warm :)
Overall, good job. Definitely continue creating!
Play soundtrack
LB OST Composing Jam Crunch Time #4 Submission's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Correlation to theme | #79 | 3.318 | 3.318 |
| Quality | #90 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Overall | #114 | 3.155 | 3.155 |
| Composition | #114 | 3.091 | 3.091 |
| Impression | #115 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Creativity | #127 | 3.000 | 3.000 |
Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Experience the story of a boy determined to break free, fight for what’s right, and become something greater.
This three-track journey follows Isaac, a forgotten soul who's spent his life in the shadows, handed nothing but hardship. After a brush with death jolts him awake, he becomes relentless in his pursuit of something more by tearing down the walls of the life that’s kept him caged.
In "A Wall Too Tall," the intro theme to this imagined adventure-style game, Isaac begins his fight for freedom, desperate to escape a world built on pain. "What I Deserve" plays as he travels through new, unfamiliar places and gets his first taste of hope and the warmth he's been denied for so long. Finally, in "A Life Left Behind," the music accompanies the emotional final scene, where Isaac says goodbye to who he was and steps into the peace he’s earned.
Composed in cubase.
Message from the artist
I'm excited to be enrolled in my second ever composing jam! I tried out a few new things to get a different and new sound for this time around. I hope you enjoy.
Theme
How does it fit the theme?
This whole project’s about breaking free. Each track follows Isaac as he pushes back against everything that’s held him down, chasing the kind of life he’s always wanted but never thought he could have. The use of bigger, enveloping sound in a "Wall Too Tall" contrasts the lighter sounds of the finale: "A Life Left Behind".
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/rowan_brooks/sets/lb-ost-composing-jam-crunch-time-4-submission?si=d70261b64b59469491abea1a87547925&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Genre
Soundtrack use permission
For game jams only
Comments
A Wall Too Tall has some wonderful orchestration off the bat. I love how each section is introduced before being stripped down to the essentials. There's some great storytelling in this piece - it feels very pensive with a sense of longing to it, thanks to the voicings and chosen progression. The woodwinds coming in more notably toward the end of the track does a great job of really leaning into said longing. The percussion feels a little understated in comparison, but I'm sure that's by design.
What I Deserve is gorgeous. The core melody with the emphasizes beat note supported is clever and a great way to really have it stick out. The percussion here is a little busier at points and more present in the mix, adding a nice pulse to the movement as it progresses.
A Life Left Behind starts nice and slow, taking its time to develop with a strong choice of leading voice here. Not quite lullaby sounding, but pensively quiet - if that makes sense. The strings are subtle and add just a hint of much needed sustain to connect each passage together and tie in the root to keep things coherent.
Great work, this was fun to listen to and as a whole all sounded very cohesive. I could envision this in a couple of different games in all honesty. Good job!
Thank you so much for the descriptive feedback, I appreciate that so much more than you could imagine as I'm still a bit of a newbie. It gives me a much needed perspective and way to better describe to others and interpret my own music. Your comment about percussion definitely won't go unnoticed. It's a big weak spot in my skills thus far, and this just goes to show I've got to invest time into rectifying that! Thank you again ^^
That's the beauty of these jams - it affords an opportunity to really put yourself out there on a smaller scale and get some decent feedback. Your tracks were a delight to listen to all in all, and my only real criticism is how buried in the mix the percussion was in the first track specifically. An easy fix! Thank you for sharing your work, and best of luck later today!
this was a lovely journey! i love how well the tracks led into one another to tell the story that you envisioned for you project! i noticed that the SoundCloud playlist was slightly out of order as soon as i started listening — good sign that you crafted the vibes for each phase well enough for me to distinguish that easily HAHA ^^
very nice consistency with the instrumental palette, also! the prominence of the bell lead by the end in "A Life Left Behind" was a good touch. each track was rather steady and didn't stray too far from changing the energy drastically.
Thank you so much for your feedback and super kind words! I'm going to absolutely note down the things you liked so I can make them a habit ^^. Also, oh my gosh, I did not realize it uploaded out of order on sound cloud. That's embarrassing and explains why people kept saying they listened out of order, haha. Thank you so much friend!
This was a fun listen! After reading the description I probably listened to them in the wrong order, but I still thought the songs had a nice progression to them. A Life Left Behind was slow and contemplative, A Wall Too Tall felt like a natural progression in intensity with the drums and upwards melodic movement, and What I Deserve felt like a nice combination of the two as if Isaac has found himself a new home and is reflecting on the lessons he's learned on his adventure.
Something I did notice, and I know this is difficult to give actionable criticism on, was that I didn't find myself following along much with the main melodies. I think improving on that mostly comes down to time and actively listening to as much music as possible, but one specific example I think where the melody loses its "train of thought" so to speak is around 0:46 of A Wall Too Tall. The melody feels like it's still going upwards and then quickly turns around to go back down and loop around which feels a bit awkward.
Overall though still really great stuff, and super impressive for the 48 hours we were given :)
Thank you so much! I'm glad it came across nicely even out of order. I'm happy you found "A Wall Too Tall" and "What I Deserve" specifically to be so enjoyable. In reference to 0:46 of A Wall Too Tall, I think I get what you mean. I did kinda muddle it a bit to get the quick peak and then back down to loop. I'll make sure I note that down to avoid doing in the future. Really, thank you so much for your feedback and kind words :)
This sub really does sound like it would be in a game! i can visualize it well!
I think your style of music has potential to make in big places
Clearly you put in a ton of work on the first track. Im really impressed that you did all this in two days! First track sets the tone really well and I definitely get the sadness but hopeful feeling from it. The instrumentation was great and shows a huge step up from the last game jam! Love it.
Second track has a nice groove to it. I think that it works really well as a game loop and I could definitely see it as a gameplay track. The idea I get from it is that you’re on a mission to do something important. Pretty balanced emotionally and that is exactly what would be needed for a game like this.
The last track works exactly as you intended. I can imagine it as a complete song with vocals and lyrics. Overall left feeling like there’s a good contrast from the first to last track and that would feel like sense of transformation for the main character.
Overall you killed it! Very good choices and I think your direction and intention for the concept you have worked out exactly like you planned! Your instrument choices between all three were very consistently “pretty” sounding. I can tell you really like bright and cheery sounds quite a bit and it’s unique that you were able to make them have convey different emotional characteristics. I find that difficult to do and it appears to come very naturally for you.
The material and vibe are great, and hearing the humming on the end of the first track kinda made me wish you'd done more using that since it sounded great!
After listening through all the tracks, i felt you could try playing around with having a bit more rhythm and movement in the backing parts, since for the most part they were just playing the harmony with whole notes, which gets a bit boring after a while.
This could help really elevate the feel of the tracks, because the harmonies and melodies themselves are great.
Woah! Your feedback is immensely appreciated! I really hesitated to add myself humming into the song since I'm a bit mic shy ^^". It means a lot that you liked my material, the vibes, and even the humming, and actually wanted more of it. I'll be more bold in the future then! And I'll play around more with rhythm and movement in the backing parts for sure. I admittedly spent too much time redoing melodies and switching instruments that I just forgot about changing out the basic building block patterns, haha. Thank you again, you're wonderful!
Trying to record/use some vocal parts on tracks even if just some background elements here and there could help slowly get a bit more comfortable actually having your voice be more front and center in a track, at least it did for me.
I didn't like my own voice either when I was first starting to try adding my own vocal stuff on tracks, but took over a year or two to get comfortable with having it front and center, so before that i usually added tons of effects to change the sound of it, since I didn't like the raw sound of my voice 😂.
For the backing stuff, if you don't normally do it, you could try first making the skeleton of the track with just a piano sound. That way it might be a bit easier to settle on the melody, harmony and rhythm before starting to arrange it.
I have the same issue with drums usually, since i just make up a initial pattern and then forget to change it after that😅, but I've found that doing a piano skeleton of the building parts for the track, it helps me with that.
Especially with bigger arrangements, like an orchestra, it can get really overwhelming quickly if I haven't made a piano base to start arranging from 😅.
These things have worked for me, but what works for me might not be the way for everyone 😁.
Great work! Continue building out your chord vocabulary and melody writing!
Nice vibes, nice sound choices!
I liked how cohesive the tracks were. They felt like different parts of the same whole OST which is good!
I think the melodies are a tad simplistic currently. They feel a little rigid sometimes. I think some leading notes would be a great addition!
Thank you! To be complimented on my soundtracks being cohesive and actually like part of the same OST is a wildly amazing comment. And you're absolutely right. I need to build up my skills more to be able to focus on increasing complexity without overthinking, so I'll note down rigidity and the need for leading notes. Thanks again :)!
A Life Left Behind - I like the simultaneous nostalgia, at the same time cosmic grace and dreaminess, mixed with childish fantasy...
A Wall Too Tall - Adventure Time!
What I Deserve - Atmospheric guitars play a happy melody to the rhythm of the bells...
I liked the positivity of your post! There is a lot of childish naivety and joy here... And that's cool!
Thank you so much for the mood :>
P.S. Rawr
Love how dreamy this score is. The metalic sounds (gamalan?) fit nicely with the composition, and harmony complements the pallete well. I also feel the drums in "A Wall too Tall" add a sense of upbeatness that fits with your idea of hope, I think the harmony here does this well too.
For me, and I know we are not alloted so much time with the jam to explore everything we want to, I might suggest more musical elements (sfx like the keys/bells or dynamics) to bring the concept more - which I really like, the artwork too.
Congrats on your second composing jam :)!
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