The duet nature of the two Koto in the beginning was a nice touch and blended quite well into the main part of „The Lake Emerges“.

The compositions and the mixing are done quite solidly and create that eery dark ambiance.

However I feel there are two places where I could see some potential improvement Keep in mind these points are more personal notes for where I would see room for further improvement that are not necessarily part of the rating itself, since they are mostly edging into personal taste and overanalyzes that would be very much beyond any hobby scope for a 2 week jam.

First would be the cohesion of the mix. With every instrument feeling clean but not really part of one unit as the mix and feeling a bit isolated.

My recommendation would be here to not shy away from adding more schmutz into different stages, that act as a tight compressor and also to create some harmonic overtones that blend everything more into each other. Making it feel more dens.

Secondly, would the high end contend in the general composition. In a way it ties into the aforementioned part, but also can be seen as a different point. While listening to the songs multiple times, it felt like there some free space within the spectral space, where the instruments and the mix could have had more breathing room. While there are ambient noises and elements all over the songs, they are more sitting in the area around ±7kHz and beyond. The instruments itself though feel like they could either use some extra kick in around ±4klHz+ to give them a bit more sheen and sparkle or it would have been nice to have another element in there that would have filled out that space a bit more. Like giving the reverb a bit more breathing room with there to give it a bit more presence back in the tails or adding another synth like element that would be subtly adding to the atmosphere.

The use of the reverb itself is done very well with being clean, not overly noticeable and but still there to create the ambient feeling. Personally I would have gone for a bit less subdued sound, see reason mentioned before, but that would be rather a personal taste.

Generally though I have to congratulate the work your’ve done here. The mixing is on the higher end and what you’ll find in most Jams here and the compositions itself feel more than adequate for the given theme and scope.

So, very well done.

Execution.    4/5*
Vibe/Atmosphere.    5/5
Composition.    5/5
Listenability.    4/5*
Correlation to Theme.    5/5

*The four out of five is mostly due to comparative reasons, since there are submissions that are strikingly exceptional in this regard. Otherwise I would have given the full points here.

Hello, David Mehrer! Here I go with my review for your entry. 

I listened to the YouTube version of your entry with closed-back headphones.

Track by track review:

1. The Lake Emerges

I am feeling the alternate panning a bit extreme at the beginning in headphones. At 1:20 great melodic transition and entering of the flutes. Very contemplative mood. The sampled muted Koto might feel a tad repetitive sounding at some points, but I am just nit-picking. Great touch with the vocal sample at 2:20. 

2. A Secret Shall Be Revealed

Great mysterious mood with the overblown flute and string attacks. Excellent usage of tension and dynamics. Feeling the empty space, the dampness. Percussion at 4:00 maybe lacks a bit of punch? Just nit-picking again, anyways. Very cool sound design of strings with metallic tinkling tinges.  

3. Water Then Recedes

Far away Middle-Eastern vibes. Descending glissando fantastically beautiful. So so good stuff from the 6:00 minute mark onwards. Rumbling delayed hit at the end working great to close the track and punctuate the fade out.

General impressions:

Amazing work! Nothing much more to say, mate. The amount of care and detail you put here is obvious and it results in a superimmersing, beautifully balanced and creative album. Great job perfectly consistent with the theme and the ambient requirements. 

Ratings by category:

Execution: 5/5

Top-notch quality all around.

Vibe: 5/5

Very interesting, very moving and unique.

Composition: 5/5

Excellent work.

Listenability: 5/5

I save the five stars for those entries which I save to listen again later, and that's the case here. I need to check out that cool tempo changes and reverse side-chain you mention at some point!

Correlation to Theme: 5/5

Perfect correlation to both prompt and image. 

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Just FYI, for this jam I am starting to use a rating rubric/template in order to rate more consistently and make my feedback more insightful for the person I am rating. It is available here in case you wanted to check it out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LEz4pyyHR7iQ75W2IFjA22odaeDNmdm-/view

I’m pretty blown away by your first track. The conversation you’re having between these instruments is study worthy, very engaging done with impecable mixing. Loving the panning to distinguish the various characters here. This is my favorite track from the jam so far.

Middle track I also liked but is my least favorite of the three. The first and last are just so strong.

Track three, I’m really loving the way you’re moving us between layers and pitches, really scratching something in my brain with this one.

Really wish I could give you some more useful critical feedback for you to use but your entry is really nailing my dopamine receptors sorry lol.

Great stuff, lots of very cool variation, you had the theme right on the target and made something really cool, lots of work being put on. Last track reminds me a little bit of the Silo Soundtrack, maybe its the strings swells bending upwards and the general vibe. Two things and I'll give you that.  First, I did not give up yet but almost, playing with MIDI in Reaper, I have a hard time doing it I don,t know how you managed to setup a good workflow. Second thing, I don't know how you can play with Session Strings, I tried and don't like the sound at all XD but it is my taste, nothing to do with your composition of course. Super nice arrangement good job !

Amazing work - I'm floored by the technical detail you've put into making these tracks - it's inspiring. I particularly liked the percussion towards the end of 'A Secret Shall Be Revealed' and the subtlety of the groove in 'Water Then Recedes'.

I like how this all sounds! It sounds like Dark Ambience, which I really like. I'm also interested in noticing you used The Spellsinger DecentSampler Library in one song... I used that same Library in one of my own songs LOL. Very well done! I like how it all sounded.

NI Asia, i can hear it.

Hi David,

I checked out your tracks and thoroughly enjoyed them, here's some feedback and thoughts, hope it helps!

Things I liked:

- Use of panning was great.
- Took advantage of accurate rhythms and scales for koto.
- Overblown Shakuhachi used for great effect in atmosphere building 
- Nice use of rubato in the third piece - the violin really added a lot and was probably my favorite instrument in this mix.  Definitely needed more screentime! (oh I just read the description, of course it's a Strad =) nice!)
- Third piece really reminded me of Far Cry Instincts Predator Soundtrack: Lightning on the Sun (Menu Theme) - you might want to check it out if you want more inspiration for this kind of stuff.
- Using high quality VSTs, and also listing the instruments you used, awesome and always appreciated!

Things to consider for next time:

- Echo / Delay with koto at certain points might add to the atmosphere.
- Ending is sometimes a bit abrupt like in the first piece, maybe a fade would be better.
- Second piece took a while to buildup... maybe there was a way to build it up a bit faster.
- Sometimes drums in the second piece didn't sound like they were in the same (reverb) space as the other things, you may need to add a bit more reverb to drums to make them sit better with the mix.