Relaxing in my dorm

This is one of two demos I recently made for a prospective video game company.  They wanted Japanese anime-styled music for their game set in a hot-spring/onsen. The game is supposed to have romantic undertones.  I made this one in Musescore 4 with Musesounds flute, glockenspiel, vibraphone and string quartet (also with woodblocks and tambourine).  I imported it into reaper and put a hi-pass and lo-pass filter on everything.  I'd appreciate any of your suggestions, comments or critiques!  Thanks for listening.

Very nice and relaxing indeed and a good ensemble piece. Light and airy. Interesting harmonies that give me the impression of "refreshing." While the wood blocks were noticeable, they weren't by any means obtrusive and seem almost a hallmark of anime-styled music!

 I thought the abrupt modulation in bar 25 (marked "straight" on the score) was exhilarating... nice one.

Best of luck with your submission.

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Hi @PeterthePapercomPoser,

I enjoy this very much as the overall style is very relaxing and the swing time is very soothing to listen to. I love the woodblocks and tambourines for adding that relaxing colour. What I think here is it maybe too artful for a video gameplay music, since you use imitation so well here but I don't know whether this style would be too "learned" for the company as I seldom play games now. Wish you the best for the submission!

Henry

Nice motivic choice, though the sound is not very convincing. Are you sure the output is better with the hi & lo passes? 

If this is meant to be an ambient piece, I am not sure if it'll work, since there's a decent amount of stuff going on even if it's derived from a single or two ideas. Nothing is sure until you put it in the game and check by yourself though!

All in all, a catchy piece, perhaps limited only by the playback sound.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

On 2/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

I imported it into reaper and put a hi-pass and lo-pass filter on everything.

Why tho?

On 2/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

vibraphone and string quartet (also with woodblocks and tambourine)

I really like the woodblock and glock parts

1 hour ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

Why tho?

The creators of the game want a lo-fi vibe/style to all the music they're going to use for their game.  They gave me lo-fi playlists on YT as examples of what they wanted and I wrote these two demo tracks inspired by that.

1 hour ago, AngelCityOutlaw said:

I really like the woodblock and glock parts

Thanks!

10 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

The creators of the game want a lo-fi vibe/style to all the music they're going to use for their game.  They gave me lo-fi playlists on YT as examples of what they wanted and I wrote these two demo tracks inspired by that.

Fair enough.

I'd recommend checking out Izotope's Vinyl and Caelum Audio's Tape Cassette 2. They're free plugins and both have all sorts of filters, mechanical noise, crackles, and impulse responses. Really great for lo-fi stuff.

I use tape on just about everything, but not always with the IR engaged.