Almost feels like you're in the ocean.

VGMC, 8-Bit Wandering: "Ocean Tides" Review

I love the concept of this tune! You've integrated the back-and-forth motion of ocean waves into so many parts of your song. The interplay between the song's synth parts, for one, is an ever-present indicator of this theme - I adore how they bounce off of one another. I love the moment at 0:32 where two distinct synths are toying with each other, before they team up at 0:48 to create a swirling bubble-stream of chords. Additionally, some of the percussion you use sounds distinctly water-like - I noticed this particularly with the delay on the cymbals at 1:10.

There are two main gripes I have with this song: dynamics and harmony. The dynamics of this song are very steady; I can't identify a single moment that's definitively quieter or louder than another section. While steady dynamics aren't inherently a bad thing, I think that the concept you've based your piece around is one that correlates with dynamics quite a bit, and I wish you had integrated them into your song more. For example, having the synthesizer parts swell in volume and / or filter as they interact with each other would make for an even more ocean-y experience! As for harmony, I think that throughout this song, it's often quite difficult to grasp its chordal content. Maybe you could remedy this by having a pad swell in the background with the synthesizers' movement, possibly an octave higher than the chords you currently have written? You'd have to mess around with it.

Regardless of these qualms, I still think you managed to create an effective and overall lovely piece of music! There's a lot of cleverness in this song, and I think if you discover how to convey it in every aspect of your music, you'll be a great musician. Keep at it! :)

Hello Tebyricat,

I love the composition and especially the using of bass/leit motiv the give that simple et effective way to loop and give breath to the music, other moments get more complex good composition that make everything so wel balanced!
Sound, mix, mastering are good to!

Rafdows

I get the back and forth motion with the panning and up and down melody, well done! For me tho I wouldn't associate this with ocean, but more with a quiet shop in a tranquil village. There is a very slight twist of melancholy too. It's really calming. There seems to be some clipping here and there, but I'm not sure if it's intended or not.

Well done! : )

Edit:
I hear clipping from 0:00 0:10 especially now that I listen closely

Good stuff all around, pretty chill and really fitting the calm ocean floor you're describing

One little complain I have is about that bassy synth you use during the whole track, panning it left and right; it's doing good most of the time but its really wide, loud and eating up a lot of frequencies so making it grab less attention in some way ( making it more "mono", cutting off some frequencies or just lowering the volume ) when other instruments were trying to shine and giving THOSE instruments some more depth could have been a good idea I think. This bassy synth stood a bit too much in front of everything else.

One part where this isn't as much of a problem would be at around 1:40 when you start using it for higher notes, I feel like the change is very welcome