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Impressions Jam Ambience #3 - I'm Cold's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall Uniqueness/Creativity | #11 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Execution | #12 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Sense of Atmosphere | #16 | 3.556 | 3.556 |
| Composing Quality | #18 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| Overall | #20 | 3.343 | 3.343 |
| Listenability | #21 | 3.222 | 3.222 |
| Correlation to Theme | #23 | 2.944 | 2.944 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Link to Streaming Service (YouTube Recommended)
https://reflect-null.bandcamp.com/track/im-cold
Description
Nothing crazy, just some chill ambience.
Description of Setup (Optional but recommended)
Recorded into Logic Pro with electric guitar, electric bass, Casio SA-35, + guitar pedals.
Main loop on left channel: Guitar running through Whammy blending in 5ths, also running through Strymon Deco and Chase Bliss Mood just for delay. Did this while noodling around and liked it, so I made it the basis of the track.
Right channel keyboard: Casio SA-35 running through MF Chorus and Mood, again, doing the same delay and some warbly warbles.
Bass: Running through the MF Chorus for some light bass chorus.
Drums: Just a looping kick and snare from one of Logic's stock electronic drums.
Guitar and bass are running through the Boss IR-200 for amp/cab sim.
No plugins used for effects. Only plugins are for compression, EQ, and limiting.
Lessons Learned
Music is fun.
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Comments
Really clean submission ! It's well mixed, easy to listen, and the guitar sounds are well executed ! I'm a sucker for dual guitar arpeggios like these.
I have two things to say however : first the drums seem way too simple for me, and I know simplicity is better than having too much stuff but it sounds like you're being very timid with them. Not only there should be something other than snare and drum, but it being the exact same throughout the whole submission really hurts the listenability of it. Bringing some change as well as additional percussion as ear candy would be relevant.
Second, the progression. The submission sounds roughly the same and it really lacks that progression, that tension building that leads to a climax (or a suspended ending), it's an important element even in fully ambient tracks.
That said, I enjoyed your submission a lot. I especially appreciate the use of irl guitar and bass, and I encourage you to keep building your skills on these instruments and using them for your music. Great work !
Thanks for the reply! Glad you liked it.
There's actually only one guitar in here. I'm not sure if you're referring to the 5th up effect, that's just coming from the Whammy. But it's only one guitar.
And yeah I could have 100% made it more complex, I do agree with that. But I just liked the simplicity of this one and kept it that way instead of messing with it further. I also had to do it on the last day, so I had to get it done quickly ;P If there is another one of these I'll try to give myself a couple of days so I can make one that's a bit more involved.
I'd really love to hear what this would sound like with a big delayed reverb in the background like Valhalla Supermassive.
Really chill and enjoyable track, great work!
:)
Good lo-fi jam, very chill, not very ambient but still a good sense of atmosphere.
Not really what I'd correlate with the theme, but its not completely out there.
Good mix and although I'd love to see a bit of differentn movement the loop still holdsup.
Good job! Take care :)
Love the calming vibe, but there is still some iciness in the track, which is great!
Beautiful work, I actually get the opposite vibes, like being cozy and warm!
Pretty unique take, it is indeed more lofi vibe probably because of the drums and lush delayed chords. I enjoyed listening, good job :)
Thanks! I think the lofi vibe also comes from the keyboard I used, because it’s this little 10 dollar thing from the 90s. The output is very grainy.
Very interesting, but in a good way. I like the vibe and sort of lofi feel to it. Defiantly has a far off sound, like something that would be great in the background. Great job!
Thanks a lot!
Really great vibe throughout!
Only thing I felt listening was that at the halfway part of the track I was kinda itching to hear some sort of a B section that changes things up a bit from the same guitar stuff that goes on the whole track, since it started to get a bit repetitive at that point for me.
Good stuff!
Thanks for the reply! Yeah I agree I could have done something more on the left channel, I just liked that one little loop and then got carried away with the keyboard section, then just wanted to end it and keep it simple.
Not bad at all. A bit more of an actual composition as opposed to something more ambient, but it's a really solid track. Feels a bit more Lofi to study to than real ambience, and the track ends rather abruptly. Not a bad submission at all though.
Thanks for the reply. The track ends abruptly because it loops back to the beginning, so it's meant to fit more into a video game. And yeah it's very hard for me to make actual ambient music because I always end up gravitating towards melody and structure, haha, so I agree it could definitely be more "ambient." But I'm glad you liked it.
Ah, makes sense! I always try to recommend people avoid loops for the jams, I feel like fading them out always feels better to listen to when reviewing.
In reference to troubles composing ambient music, I think if you took what you had here and cut the BPM to something in the 75-88 range (grab the full 6 minute time cap to your advantage) it'd work really well with with the Rev100. The Rev100 has this really cool thing going for it, a lot of the Yamaha verbs used to aswell, where it can become grainy and saturated to a point of creating textures. I think just setting the mix as high as possible without blowing out your channels, bouncing or exporting that and resampling it into a pad would have been a neat trick, even with the track as it is now.
Something like a low input / high mix on the Rev100 for one pad, and then a high input mid mix with the gated verb channel for another would be a fun experiment.
Having things fade out is probably a better idea, thanks. I'll do that in the future.
And yes the REV100 does have a nice crappy graininess to it. I only used it here for a very quiet delay thing in the background, where I hit the pick against my desk along with the snare. I originally wanted to use it with some vocal/choral thing but ditched it (didn't want to oversaturate the track). But yeah really pushing it and using it just for a grainy pad sounds like a great idea, I'll give it a shot in the future.