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A jam submission

The Secret Lake [Host Submission: Disregard Placement]View game page

Submitted by KaleOverlord — 8 hours, 12 minutes before the deadline
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The Secret Lake [Host Submission: Disregard Placement]'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#33.9653.965
Listenability#34.0004.000
Correlation to Theme#34.1764.176
Execution#43.8243.824
Vibe/Atmosphere#64.1184.118
Composition#93.7063.706

Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Description
The Secret Lake is a set of two ambient tracks. The first represents the water, and the approaching to this flame. It would serve as background music to a scene like the one I painted for this image.

The second track is the power of the secret fire on an altar in the secret lake.

I used my historically replicated Trossingen lyre and a historically replicated amber bridge from the Viking Age, both made by me, with gut strings.

Track 1: a soft track, playing the lyre, using a Duduk sound to get a sweet sound. This is the softness of the night as one approaches this altar in the middle of this hidden lake.

I actually put a piece of leather on top of the holes to match portions of the instrument where there was no wear, like there was some sort of covering on the holes, like it was maybe adjustable.

To my absolute shock, when I did this experiment, it made the sound of the instrument far more delicate and sweet.

Track 2: This was born purely out of improvising on the lyre, I really liked this particular improv. I basically struck the lyre with my hands somewhat like a flamenco guitarist, and plucked between the strumming. I really got emotional when I was doing the improv to this track. I don't know how well that translates, but I really felt this one as I was doing it.

For modality, I oscillated between Phrygian and Lydian. Both drones are in the second track.

DAW Screenshot - Demonstrate that this is your own work
https://i.imgur.com/wWZxzIV.png

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Very cool pieces. Always a treat to listen to your live playing on the lyre. I felt the improvisational nature of the tracks worked well with the theme and for them being ambient, but I would also have loved to find a bit of direction compositionally to transition to the second track or make some build-ups and create more tension for the "secret" part of the theme and keep the tracks more interesting. Also, and of course this feels intended, the tracks deviate from the Japanese vibes of the picture, and I felt right into Viking territory or a Scottish lake. 

Developer

Heh it is kind of a mix up of cultures. The lyre is a Germanic lyre, but I suspect this instrument is a derivation of the Roman kithara., which is derived from the Greek Kithara.

Bagpipes are one of the instruments you see depicted accompanying the Greek kithara in period artwork.

So, I thought it would be neat to use bagpipes. So, the sound you hear is in part an attempt to grt closer to reproducing plausible ancient greek Kithara music.

Submitted

That's so cool to know. Always surprising to hear how many times our assumptions in music are so deviated from history. The evolution of the guitar from the pandura but taking the name from the kithara is also a fascinating one as well. And I see hellenistic Greeks also even had a water organ! So cool.

Submitted(+1)

Awesome! The lyre/dudek combo is divine.  I see that those instruments have different origins but they sound really good together - like they're from the same time and place. 2nd track one feels like semi-controlled rage.  The strumming gets a little messy at times but I think it works. Drones are great. Really cool submission!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Track 1 was nice, but it felt a bit conservative. I think the main issue I have is with the water sound effects (what I assume to be rowing the boat) seemed a bit overdone, it may be best to have it just be the instruments once in a while as it feels like the sound effects are a bit too prominent and don't really allow the instruments to "breathe" so to speak.

Track 2 has a lot of passionate energy. It serves as a nice contrast to track one. I think it would've benefitted a bit from some really low drone tones. like I know you have some going on, but i mean even lower pitched than that. it would add a bit of weight / foundation to what you already have going on top.

Overall though I appreciate the recording and mixing quality and for being bold in the second piece. A solid entry for sure.

Submitted

Link to streaming service?

Submitted(+1)

Wonderful! That’s a very interesting proposal. The second part of the track is purely delightful and I love it. Great submission, very well done!!

Submitted(+1)

Track one is wonderfully ambient and feels like a musician on a boat playing during a still lake at night. Track two is where it drifts, since the flamenco-style strumming and improvisation push it out of ambient territory, though the emotion behind it clearly comes through. Both tracks fit the theme well overall, and the Phrygian to Lydian shift ties them together nicely. I actually think you could've added some hums since you've got the vocals for it—it would be a cool low drone. 

Great stuff as usual! 


Submitted(+1)

Hey Kale, this was a complete delight to listen to! Wow. You have out done yourself with this one too. I love how you played your own made instruments in this. It is just too cool. The textures were so crips and soft for that first song. Amazing work there. I honestly just loved the whole thing. Switching between the two modes worked out really well too. And that second track we hard hitting, wow. All in all, this was solid work dude. I also really liked the sounds of you adjusting the lyre and the water sounds. Worked out really nicely. Great work here.

Submitted(+2)

Very nice first track, good amount of reverb, at 1:01 we can even hear yourself adjusting the lyre XD but it adds a small sound design to the track probably unintentinal but its great. I like the different techniques you tried playing your made up instruments with a more melodic plucking and a more piercing/muted play later one. 
Now the main issue is its too low in volume, I had to crank up 10db to have a decent listen and have a good idea of what I was listening.

Second track, I really like the overall vibe of this one, I can sense the emotion, I would say you probably put too much emotions that it seems like your playing is going all over the place at some point, I know you like those dissonance and it gives some very interesting intonation and weird chords, don,t know if it was all planned. But yeah the main issue would be either fix the strumming to be more precise or if you want to keep it organic take off the "percussive" elements there is some small tap on the lyre maybe in the low registrer announcing the rythm, take it off and it would probably make more sense.

Anyway always interesting to hear what instruments you came up with and how you make it sound, your tracks are always fun to discover with real instruments unlike mine which i'm starting slowly to incorporate more real instruments.

Submitted(+1)

Oh man. The duduk is so on point. This 2 tracks could really fit into an adaptative music setting, like an exploring -> combat situation. Really loved the atmosphere. 
Although, I feel the second track needs a little bit of polish, but it's a jam and you actually recorded yourself playing, that takes a lot of time to mix and master.
Amazing work. 

Submitted(+1)

So cool!! I think the emotion of the second track translates really well! Something about the strumming feels very passionate and I got a physical chill when it kicked in. The still water and the bright approach to the flame is such a simple concept, but very well executed. Hard to critique. I'm not sure this is a problem, but second track felt pretty loose, kind of a bumpy ride. A little more structure in the percussion could enable a little more freedom in your lyre playing. 

Developer

I'd say track 2 could use a rerecord.

I'm going to plan next season's jams more accordingly around fall being a very very busy time for me.... and it got worse after that.

Anyways, my process generally is to improvise until I find something I like, and then listen to it the next day so that the bugs become apparent and I can do it better. I only got up to the former point! Heh.