Play soundtrack
The Dance of the Timesteels's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall enjoyment | #1 | 4.312 | 4.312 |
| Composition quality | #2 | 4.562 | 4.562 |
| Overall | #2 | 4.162 | 4.162 |
| Match to the brief | #4 | 4.062 | 4.062 |
| Production quality | #4 | 4.188 | 4.188 |
| Memorability | #6 | 3.688 | 3.688 |
Ranked from 16 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
This is a music composed for the "Precision OST Jam #1" on itch.io. We had 5 days, and I've finished it in 4 days. The jam had possible levels to follow and I chose the 5th level, so I had to incorporate : "1 : A piece of music for the end credits of a video game. 2 : The music should be nostalgic at first, then become energetic. 3 : It must contain a distinct melody that could be derived from a leitmotif. 4 : The game is called Time Gears, an action-adventure game set in a steampunk world. 5 : The music must contain a distinct section of at least 16 measures composed entirely in Dorian mode." The music switches between 3/4 and 4/4 and is in 80 BPM.
Level 1/2 : I started on an acoustic guitar so it starts slow and soft and then I added more and more instruments to make it more energetic. I chose to do this for a end credits scene as sometimes there are some credits that start soft then become stronger to finish with a bang. The end is a mashup of the main leitmotivs (Level 3) in the music, but it ends softly as it began.
Level 3 : There are 2 leitmotivs : melody on guitar at 4:50 or piano from 0:29 to 0:46 ; and melody on piano from 2:31 to 3:25
Level 4 : As I don't really know what characterises steampunk music style, I tried to do it with focusing on strings, guitars. Therefore, it has some fantasy vibes, but that can also fit a steampunk style. The name The Dance of the Timesteels is inspired by Time gears, and I imagined a guild in a steampunk world where they managed to create two swords, one that can slow time of what it touches and one that can accelerates time.
Level 5 : From 0:00 to 0:47 and from 3:25 until the end, the music is composed in B Dorian.
Time Gears is a fictional game set in steampunk world. There, a clandestine guild named "The Timesteels" have created two swords, one that can slow time and one that can accelerates it. The main character inherits them, but to use them he has to synchronize himself and they way to do it is to be in rythm and to dance with those with swords. There is a shaker that can be heard in the left ear which imitates the tick sound of a clock. The music is a crescendo, that hypes up, then stabilize it by removing instruments that play in legato to keep the rythm in staccato, then it hypes up again. I added castanets, hand claps, shaker, snares... to give a more dancing vibe. I wanted to give a magical and epic atmosphere as the Timesteels are fighters, but also artists that bring (willingly or not) joy. So the end credits emphasize the dancing theme in the guild.
URL to Streaming Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYxFVM4wYVg
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
This is really well done (looks like I'm not the only one saying that), the build up at 1:23 is very satisfying and manages to ramp it up without becoming cluttered, which is very impressive with how much you've going on. I love how it drops back down so soon after. The variation in dynamics and texture throughout keeps it alive and interesting. The ending is also particularly satisfying.
Thanks you very much, having a full 3 minutes part that is energetic was a little hard to not make it boring and to always have something new without changing the atmosphere a lot. And I'm glad you enjoyed the ending, I had trouble to find the harmonies for the strings and then the chords for the very ending, but it paid off.
This was a very well put together piece! All of the overlapping rhythms at points could've been really messy if done incorrectly but I think you did a great job making it sound cohesive and energetic! I had a great time listening to it! I thought the guitar was a good choice in instrumentation as well. Really enjoyed it.
Thanks, I had to make choices and sometimes remove the brass in some sections to have a better sound, I'm glad it worked !
(Submission 5/29 - "The Dance of the Timesteels" by ChrisHQ)
As soon as I heard that first chord, I knew I was in for a treat! I genuinely love this piece and the composition! It is incredibly reminiscent of a festival jig and I'm all here for it! Definitely one of the best in the jam!
If I could give any criticism, it would be for the beginning with the intro guitar and the buildup. A small amount of wind ambience in the background would've really gone a long way and bring out the contrast of the guitar and the windy silence. But, I know you can't really do that in Musescore (I believe that is what you are using) so I don't really have any say whatsoever.
You are incredibly talented, Chris! Thank you for blessing my ears!
Thanks a lot, I'm glad to hear people's feedback on my music ! I think for the ambiance and the effects, I could make it work on audacity, and I was asking myself the same question I think on the 2nd day, that I managed to have that guitar and piano like I wanted, but it lacked of some environment to carry the listener from the very beginning, it takes a little time to make it engaging, but I didn't know what to add ; wind ambiance could be great, thanks for the suggestion !
Of course!
Well, that's a banger over here ! I especially love the sort of fluttering piccolo/strings here and there. I would say the same thing as CuyGuy on the instruments panning but that's really the only criticism that I have in stock haha. You did make clearly one of the best performances of this jam in my opinion ! Well done, I would love to see more of your works in the future ! 🧙♂️
Thank you a lot ! There are indeed a piccolo and a flute there, and I wanted to make them play in staccato so there is more of this rythm dance thing. For the panning, I'll try to improve on this and it's really useful to me to have feedback on this too so thanks !
You're absolutely welcome, my brain was very pleased to ear your work so it's all thanks to you haha !
I love this piece, especially that it focuses on being dance music. The end left me hanging really nicely before resolving (fake-out half cadence? What do we call that move?) - perfect timing on that. I'm also very happy with the instrumentation, it largely feels like something you would hear in the world of the game
I have one tiny nitpick though: could you place any rhythmic instrument in or near the stereo center? I'm hard of hearing (almost deaf on the left side) and only having headphones available to me right now, I would have totally missed the clock shaker if you hadn't mentioned it in the description.
Thanks, I'm glad the dancing part is effective ! For the stereo center, I'll try to do that for other musics, I'm not used to panning so I usually put the violins on the left, the cellos on the right, etc, otherwise it would saturate with all the instruments, I don't know if something soft or snappy would be better at the center to not draw all the space. And for the end, I came back to the leitmotivs I've composed, but on guitars, and I think you're talking about the notes before the last chords, I don't know how it's called, but I had the choice of slowing the tempo or adding bars ; I chose slowing the tempo because it was easier to modulate. Again thanks, it makes me happy you enjoyed the music and thanks for the feedback !
With the fake cadence I mean the last few notes on the guitar that imply a V/dominant chord, then hang in the air for a moment, letting the listener experience the tension of the "unfinished" chord progression, before resolving to the I. You pulled that off really nicely.
In the old days of record mastering, things like bass drums were mixed in the center, because low frequencies need more volume/wave amplitude to be heard in a mix, but the literal wall thickness of the record between sections of the groove in the vinyl put a limit on how much energy can be put left and right in the stereo (records use mid/side stereo encoding - the needle movement up/down is encoding the information that is the same in both channels and the left/right movement of the needle is encoding the difference between left and right). So the convention became that the bass drum is in the center of the stereo field and other rhythm instruments at least somewhere near that. I'm not trying to limit your artistic expression with this, but I think it's useful to know the mixing conventions that commercially published music has been following for the last 60-ish years, and what people are (subconsciously) expecting to hear when listening to music.
In addition to just the history of why we expect rhythm instruments to be mixed a certain way, I would also add accessibility (like in my own example) to the reasons why a hard left/right pan should be used sparingly. Over headphones, I would have missed out on this neat little trick that carried the whole track further into steampunk.
Oh ok, thanks for the panning advice, I used to only pan either to not saturate the sound or by artistic choices (for example melody 1 on the left and melody 2 on the right...), and I will limit the max amount of panning like to (+ or -) 80 on musescore (the max is 100).