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Midnight Meeting at the Secret Lake's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #6 | 3.826 | 3.826 |
| Overall | #9 | 3.774 | 3.774 |
| Execution | #12 | 3.652 | 3.652 |
| Vibe/Atmosphere | #12 | 3.870 | 3.870 |
| Listenability | #12 | 3.696 | 3.696 |
| Correlation to Theme | #13 | 3.826 | 3.826 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
A 3 part suite. Please listen to in-order and read the accompanying story and composer's notes below if you would like more context. (a more reader-friendly version of the story and notes are available on the project page itself)
Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/tokyofrequency/midnight-meeting
Note: Part 1 was originally going to be the original submission only, but I liked where it was going and wanted to tell a continuous story instead as I felt it was more interesting. Thus part 1 will sound the most ambient of the 3 parts. I still used uncommon modes for all of the parts.
Story:
Part 1: The Boat Ride: Fireflies and Lanterns at the Lake
The journey begins on a boat. You are but one of many boats, and it's dark outside. The small lanterns from the houses and other boats are the only thing you can see, but you've waited all your life for this event. Waterfalls and caves, darkness, and even whirlpools will not stop you.
Through the darkness, you manage to find refuge in a cave and notice the most beautiful glowing fireflies floating around. They help guide you to your destination. It's funny, how even in the darkest of times, nature's lights find their way to guide you.
After your escapade, you come across a small sanctuary, in front of it you see a line full of people, waiting in front of an iron-clad door. After waiting in line for quite a while, you are now able to enter.
Part 2: Entrance Fee: The Yakuza's Den
A strong, intimidating guard figure stands at the entrance. Clad in dragon tattoos, you could tell that this was none other than a Yazuka. He sticks his hands out, as if he were expecting something from you. You look above, and it says that you must pay an entrance fee to pass this point.
Although the price is steep, you've heard rumors of the Yakuza - those who do not obey them may lose their pinky... After some hesitation, you decide that you will pay up. After a long journey, you decide that this fee is not going to stop you. You pay the man, he takes the money and nods, and you're finally through the entrance.
Inside, there is a tatami room neatly arranged in a simple manner, yet maintains a classic charm. You decide to take a seat, amongst the audience members, who you notice have come from many distant and foreign lands, making you not feel too bad about the long journey and steep price.
A figure emerges from the shadows into the light, and the room goes silent. It's time for the show to begin!
Part 3: The Geisha's Mysterious Dance
The moment you've been waiting for. The Geisha's dance. Clad in exquisite and exotic robes, with a painted face that looked almost unreal. She began moving, slowly, calmly, but elegantly. Her robes flowed like the wind, and her body moved in many ways, it was haunting, but beautiful, with a mysterious, otherworldly charm.
And just as soon as it began, it seems like it ended. It was short, but it was unlike anything you've ever seen before. Everyone in the audience was speechless, and tears were shed. It was as if all of your troubles went away, and even if just for a brief moment, you were transported to another world. You wanted more, but the show is over, it's time to go home.
With the memories of the journey, you sailed back home, hoping to save up again to see the Geisha's mysterious charming dance again.
Composer's Notes
Part 1:
I was inspired by Indonesian music, in Particular Pelog Selisir. It's close to Phrygian (it is Phrygian but without 4th and 7th scale degrees), so it has a dark tone, but fewer notes lets me express a particular mode more well without getting too dark. It's also a mode of the Okinawan Ryukyu Scale from Japan, so there's still a connection to Japan. The kinds of rhythms and instrumentation used remind me of the song Avatar's Love from Avatar the Last Airbender.
Part 2:
I was inspired by the song Setuna from the YTTD OST, as well as the Sleeping dogs OST, in particular Bei Bei & Shawn Lee - Into The Wind. (and maybe a bit of hip hop from Nujabes as well). I also took some inspiration from Gagaku (Japanese Court Music).
I used a few modes ranging from Phrygian to common koto tunings such as Hira Joshi, Kumoi Joshi and Kokin Joshi.
Part 3:
I was inspired by the kimono girl encounter scenes (and the music that accompanies them) from Pokemon Generation 2 (Gold/Silver/Crystal).
I was also in particular inspired by the Ho-oh summoning dance from HeartGold/SoulSilver.
I once again used a few modes from koto tunings such as Kumoi Joshi and Kokin Joshi.
I was also inspired by Enka and Tango Music, particularly Habanera.
Misc. Credit:
BG image and cover art is another Japanese art Piece by Kobayashi Kiyochika: Fireflies at Ochanomizu circa 1880
Link to Streaming Service
https://soundcloud.com/tokyofrequency/midnight-meeting
DAW Screenshot - Demonstrate that this is your own work
DAW Screenshots attached for each piece.
Discord Tag
tokyofrequency
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Comments
Amazing work! Love the arrangements and the sound design, the beat at the end of the second track could hit harder maybe in my opinion, other than that awesome vibe, fits the theme perfectly!
Amazing composition here. The Japanese vibes are present all around. It reminded me of course of Hisaishi's work, but with kind of modern twist, don't know how to express it, and also some kind of slavic music tinges? Technically, the first track might have sounded a bit too on the high-end of the spectrum to my ears, but I am just nit-picking. Also, superimpressive that you managed this deepness with only soundfonts? There were some really really cool sounds here in a very wide but also consistent palette. And always happy to find a fellow LMMS user as well. Excellent work.
Hello!
I am a big fan of Joe Hisaishi, so being called "Joe Hisaishi with a modern twist" is an incredible compliment! (Honestly, I think that might have to become the media blurb on my website now!)
The music influences are mostly from Indonesia/Japan (I listed some of the inspiration in the composer notes above), although to be honest I'm not too familiar with slavic music so it is possible there are some relations to that as well - I'll look into it some more though later, seems like it could be interesting music to study.
I did only use SoundFonts! I love SoundFonts and have a pretty big collection and have a lot of favorites that I have amassed over the years; I have done some work in the past with Japanese instruments so I wanted to use them again as the artwork for this jam was from Japan. And I pay a lot of attention to the details of the EQ and mixing, LMMS has a lot of built in effects tools to help with that. I don't use any VSTs in this and I also don't use very many VSTs in general, largely because I'm mostly on my mac laptop and a lot of the times VSTs are windows only.
Yes, I use LMMS - I'm using a custom skin called candy aurora. I've been using LMMS for like 17 years at this point; I'm getting Old >_>.
Thanks for such thoughtful feedback and for taking the time to listen!
Good composition and vibe; I would say the instruments are producing some harsh overtones/resonances that sound a little tinny/metallic (like when a harpsichord isn't made well).
I might pan them too when they're at different points in space, and then play around with the reverb to help soften them. There are some plugins to deal with harsh overtones. There's an expensive one called Soothe, but I end up using a multiband compressor (in Reaper, this is ReaFIR set to compressor).
Stuff like this I would also be using a Midi controller to adjust it.
Track three, the mix is better when you do that bit with the bass at around the 1 minute mark. The composition here is also stronger.
When you reintroduce that theme at 1:39, my brain wants it to modulate/be varied/more developed in some way other than repeating the theme/being louder.
Overall good work! :)
I'm happy that you enjoyed the compositions and vibe!
Like maybe one idea I had is that I might be relying too much on the overall mix reverb to do most of the work. But I think tweaking the reverb (or just any post processing in general) for individual instruments a bit more closely so I can get the mix that I want would have a greater effect in making the individual instruments more clear.
Paying attention to the overtones/panning is a good idea too. I'll look into multiband compression; I don't use reaper but it sounds like it might be a good idea to learn what a bit more of what some of these plugins do in my own DAW anyway. I know some of the plugins but there are probably hundreds and mixing is quite a bit of a different skill than composing.
Will be sure to keep in mind that some scenes need a bit more variation, I agree with your brain; I did have a small string ensemble playing a simple motif/counterpoint in the background but it sounds like I needed something a bit more obvious and upfront here, especially since it is the final scene and final part, gotta finish strong.
Thank you for your detailed feedback, I hope my feedback was useful for your piece as well.
This is my favourite piece I have listened to in this game jam! I liked that you were ambitious and added many instruments. It also reminded me of The Land of the Lustrous OST I don't know if you have listened to it. Composition, atmosphere is very good and it fits the theme.
0_o favorite piece in the entire jam? Awesome! I'm so happy you enjoyed it!!
I have heard and listened to the Land of the Lustrous OST, It does seem to use a similar mode to Pelog Selisir in the opening.
I was mostly inspired by Indonesian music and Video Game Music though, if you enjoyed my piece you may enjoy the music from the game "A Space for the Unbound". The song "Within the Dream" uses the same scale/mode.
Track 1: Perfectly matches the description. I’m kind of shocked this has a flat 2 of Phrygian but still feels so full of wonder and not really THAT dark. Really interesting, I gotta try this scale.
Track 2 has no Buisness going so hard, you put a trap beat in an ambient competition im pleased lol. really enjoyed the second half. There was a bit win the first half where the Japanese strummed Instrument (not sure what it’s called) second melody felt a bit off but nothing crazy, might just be an aesthetic difference.
Track 3:
Yeah you’re nailing the storytelling with these!
Great work!
I'm happy to hear you enjoyed all 3 pieces!
1) It's a cool scale for sure because when people think of Phrygian they think of dark but if you take away a few notes it kind of sounds bright go figure >_>. If you do try it out and want to be accurate Pelog Selisir is an Indonesian scale that has some microtonal tunings (so it's not really a Phrygian subset, it's more or a microtonal Phrygian subset), I don't have a link to the tunings off hand but I bet you can find the tunings online pretty quickly with a Google search if you want to be a bit more authentic to the source.
2) Yeah maybe it's the strums, the notes don't play all the the same time but I think that's intentional (as the koto is a zither instrument so I try to play it in strums, I try to keep the physical limitations of the instrument in mind when composing). Really the goal of mine was to get the instruments sound natural like a human is playing them rather than exact, as if a human is playing a real koto the playing will not be perfect too.
As for the trap beat, I like hip hop and it just seemed to fit the Yakuza theme I was going for so I went with it lol. Probably the most out of place instrument in all the pieces, and true not the most ambient but it fit the story I was writing and I'm a sucker for Roland Drum machines lol.
Yeah and as mentioned at the top of all the text part 1 was my originally my only submission (and the most ambient one that fits the theme) but I decided to just continue the story as I was curious to where this secret lake led me so you can think of parts 2 and 3 kind of like bonus content that I may have taken a bit more liberty with than strictly following the theme. I just wanted to know what happened next!
I used to be a big fan of hip hop and love hip hop influenced music that isn’t hip hop so you’ll get no protest from me!
For the first track: I really like the instruments, they sound incredibly cool, but sometimes, it feels as if they are overused. In some cases, they kind of blend together and the main progression of the track is built on the use of different instruments, but I would have found it nice if the melody is developed on more, since I really liked the base theme. The second track is just good, with a really interesting vibe. The last track feels a bit dominated by the melody, I think I'd prefer if it was a bit more mixed in with the rest, but the composition was really nice on that one. All around some really nice tracks and some great instruments.
Thank you for the feedback!
For the 1st Track yeah agreed, although I was trying to go for ambience, so the blending was a bit intentional as I didn't want it to be too distracting, but I see the point is that it could still be a bit more distinct.
For the 3rd track, the melody being a bit more developed was also intentional, as that was part of the lore/writeup as it was a singing performance by a Geisha, not sure if you got a chance to read it up above. (The 2nd track also has some lore above too if you're interested where the vibe came from).
Fairly unique piece of work. Not much feedback to give, it's a good piece.
Sounds good, I appreciate you giving it a listen and am happy that you enjoyed the piece.
Wow! This actually very good and interesting
The way the story develops in each track is actually interesting.
Part 2 feels like a dystopian world and i really like that.
Part 3 is so beautiful and memorable the melody is top notch 👌.
The composition ideas is so interesting and refreshing.
The mixing is well done, Good job man.
Thank you!
I'm very happy that you enjoyed the variety in the pieces and found it interesting.
A lot of this stuff is based on my studies of Japanese music and world music. I tried to incorporate a lot of different techniques and modes that aren't really used in western music theory too much (more about what I used in the composers notes above, if you're interested). And I'm glad you find the mixing good too - I do a lot of EQ adjustments manually by ear on these compositions.
Maybe I should've read before pressing play it went from a pretty ambiant, mystical and slightly joyful piece to some very modern percs and dark tone, after reading and looking at the titles name that made so much more sense. I really appreciate all the different variations you put in your tracks it was refreshing, very japanese sounding modern or more traditional , works pretty well good job !
Thank you! And yeah it's all good maybe I will do less lore-heavy tracks in future jams and keep things self-contained, I think people want to just listen to music and don't realize that there is some context, but I just kind of went with it because I wanted to know what was so secret about this lake lol.
As for the tone shift, some traditional Japanese scales (well, not the typical major and minor pentatonic ones of course) are pretty close to the "darker" modes in western music theory (Phrygian, Locrian etc.) and given that some scales were not permitted, I sort of leaned into that darkness a bit music and lore-wise.
Some hip hop is also pretty dark so some of those modern percussion beats were inspired by these kinds of music, but I guess if I were to be truly historically accurate drum machines didn't exist back in the 1910s-1920s haha. (but they still work well with the traditional instruments IMO)
Wow! You made a really great composition here!! I loved it, listening to your music felt like playing a videogame set in 60s Japan, hehe. I really enjoyed the journey. Well done!!
Thank you, Glad to hear you enjoyed the journey =)!! I love traditional Japanese music, and actually would like to make an actual video game set in an older time period in Japan one day, so I'm happy to hear that I can faithfully recreate that specific feeling and atmosphere through music.
It's interesting to have differnt vibes in one Soundtrack... Went from sounding like going on an adventure, then to some intence Dulcimer playing, to some sort of Experimental Soundtrack.. Very interesting to hear all the different Instruments!
Yeah, it's 3 separate pieces for 3 parts of a story if you have time to read it, it's up above or on the project page, but the streaming version is just all 3 combined for easy listening - the boat ride is the first part, but I decided to continue the story after the boat ride, which are parts 2 and 3.
The intense part is intentional, there was an encounter with the Yakuza, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza which are basically japanese gangsters / crime lords... you can think of them like a Japanese mafia. They've been around for centuries.
The Dulcimer instrument you mention is actually a koto, a traditional Japanese instrument, also has been around for centuries, maybe even more than a millennia 0_o : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koto_(instrument)
The experimental soundtrack you mention is actually mostly Enka music, another Japanese music genre with a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enka
Very interesting! Didn't notice the Lore, LOL. I'll see if I can look into that stuff when I have the time, and actually remember to!
Loved the dreamy atmosphere of the first track! The second track Koto was dope too. Definitely a little departure from the original theme but I think it fit the story it was written for very well. I really enjoyed the flutes/vocal synth on the vocal track leading into the change where the low bass comes in. I thought that was one of the highlights of the suite for me. Awesome music, great job!
Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I know I went a bit further, but since the theme was secret lake I figured there would be something going on there so I decided to just continue it, why not... I wanted to find out the secret of the lake haha.
I'll check out your tracks and leave some feedback in a bit.