LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[First Flight]

I think this is beautiful :)
I like every part!

Good luck ;)
I definitely think you have a chance of making it with this.

Splendid work :D

Ylmir responds:

Thanks a lot ! Let's hope for the best ! :p

Oh, and by the way, your last track with Demolecule seems to be great ! Yeah, "seems", because actually I can't even listen to it properly, I spent so much time working on my track, my ears still hurt when I put my headphones on xDD I downloaded it though and will listen to it ASAP in better conditions. ;)

(well, actually, one of the earpads of my headphones is completely torn apart since I finished The Traveller, and I still have to get a new pair. This doesn't help. ^^)

EDIT : I actually managed to get a "blister" (not sure it is the right word for that though) on the external ear. Yeah, I should really replace these headphones. xD

[FD - Like Clockwork]

I can't even begin to tell you how awesome this is.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Haha, thank you!

[Breathe]

Your composition in this track is wonderful. The strings play lovely melodies and harmonies. The other instruments are nice too :D
The mixing seems fine to me. I don't think you have top quality instruments (they're not bad though), but you've done very well with the ones you have. I guess that some of them sound unnecessarily harsh/rough? But that may just be a matter of taste. The choir sounds great!!!

In the end though, it's definitely the harmonies and melodies that work the magic for me. Great job, and good luck ;)
(But hopefully not too good D: for... Personal reasons, hehhe :p)

DSykMusic responds:

Thanks for the review Lucid! And awesome track yourself!

[Il Pleut]

Still making really awesome stuff huh? That's cool :3
Very interesting with the talking at the end.

An album story is definitely a rad idea!
As long as you're motivated to do it, I think you should :)

FinaLee responds:

Got one person on board! Thanks a lot, LSD!

[Majestic They Are]

Wow! This will not be an easy song to go up against. And there are 2 more competitors as well o.O

The intro is wonderful. A very pleasant sound.
The composition overall is very beautiful. Nothing to complain about there at all, imo. It's consistent, but brings forth new things, and is beautiful all the way through.

I think that the percussion at 0:41 was perhaps a bit sudden. But that's an extreme nitpick. What bothers me more is the way it sounds a bit mechanic, in terms of note velocity. It sounds to me like every second or so it repeats the exact same velocities. But maybe that's not the case. It may just be the way they're mixed. They keep on doing the same thing for a pretty long time either way. But it is good advice, not to take too much mixing advice from me, as I'm horrible at it myself, so I'll leave it at that, hahha :D
The other percussion is fine though, and ads much in the right places.
I am a huge fan of the instrumentation in general. The strings are very soft and nice. The piano melody is smooth and beautiful, with a lot of reverb, in a way that I like. The flute (if that is what it is), ir good too.

The choirs of course -while they don't sound realistic- sound good.

The climax at 3:05 is wonderful. The percussion gets a major change too (well, until our old friend gets back at 3:33), which is nice. If I had to mention something, it is that I think there's not enough dynamic volume change between the part that came earlier and the climax. But that can be pretty difficult to mix with so much going on (I couldn't do it well, for example). The percussion might need a bit more bass power, but I'm not sure about that (really nice touch with the drum solo before the climax). I think that is a horn playing during the climax too. It fits in nicely with all the rest.

The bells (church bells) are just the right intrument for this track. The choir that comes in late in the piece is amazing.

The way the end hints at the beginning adds a lot to the finish (Love that deep bass drum).

Overall, I think you've made a wonderful track, and I certainly think you have a chance of making it to the next round! But for personal reasons, I kinda hope you don't, hehhe. We have a pretty cool track coming your way too ;)

Remember to take my review with a grain of salt. I would wait and see what the more professional reviewers say, hahha :D

Good luck :3

papkee responds:

The only one who's really good at mixing here is Skye, so don't blame yourself. It's fucking hard.

The sudden hit of the bass and the orchestra was intentional. I wanted to go from light and airy to grounded and moving really quick.

Interestingly, that's a recorded hi-hat that I was banging away at. Of course, it's looped a bunch of times, but it's at least real.

Choirs are some of the hardest samples to get to sound natural. It mostly comes down to notation and programming, neither of which I'm really good at.

I'll take your review with a grain of salt and a side of sliced carrots with a caesar salad.

[One of Those Days]

The moment I heard that piano I knew I would love this piece.
I was not wrong.
In fact, far from it.

You're great at singing, dude! I've heard you sing earlier in Ceevro's collabs, but you sound wonderful on your own as well :3
One could say you... Own, on your own ;)
Sorry for that, it's late :p

But yeah. The piano is brilliant. It sounds like an upright, it's catchy, it's jazzy, it's rhythmic. What else does one need?
Perhaps some good singing.
The melody is awesome, and really fits the entire theme.

The lyrics are very well written too. I'm a sucker for somewhat darker tracks, and this one gets that feel through in a very nice way.

Oh, and 1:56 is a cool touch!

I think you have a good chance of making it to the next round with a piece as good as this :)
Great job, and good luck ;)

ChronoNomad responds:

Woo! Now that's a review that's music to my ears, Lucid. ^__~

I'm really glad to hear that your initial perception was far from being incorrect! I'll admit it, I was kind of nervous about submitting something like this. No matter how hard I try to fight it, that whole "not good enough" mentality sneaks into my brain and messes around with me. So far, it does seem to be pretty well received, and that's a real relief.

Well shoot, thank you! I'm no etherealwinds, but I can carry a tune. And apparently write a song or two. Who knew? I'm really happy that you liked the whole thing, especially the vocals. And the jazzy piano. And the lyrics in general, dark as they are. Oh, and that fun little section at 1:56!

The song may be melancholic and depressing, but my smile right now is anything but! You've bolstered my confidence and hey--who knows? Maybe I have a shot at getting past the Group Stage this year. We shall see! Goodness knows the other three fellows in my group are insanely talented musicians in their own right. But hey, that's what an Audio Deathmatch is all about!

Thanks again! I truly appreciate that you took the time to leave a review, and oh man...so many stars. This experience is always humbling in so many ways. :)

[GG [Good Game]]

This sounds great :)
So...

Good job ;)

Jabun responds:

Hehe XD Many thanks!

[Acceptance & Commitment]

Your group should definitely watch out, because this is brilliant ;)

midimachine responds:

gg nore amirite?

[T-Logic - Terrified]

What is this? Tonal music? And not only that. There's singing too! o.O
Indeed, I did not expect this, especially not while you're still running NGAUC :D

I almost feel tempted to take out my revenge on this track. Alas, I'm too caught up composing for NGADM, and will be the entire week, and I want to review this now.

First off, I'm very glad you found this. This is very entertaining to listen to.
I really like your instrument choices. The bass is great, imo. The other instruments, like the electric guitar and organ are nice too, as are the other things that show up here and there. And I really like the melodies here, as well as the tempo changes. The percussion does its job really well. Some of the instruments could probably have higher quality though. But I actually like the way you mixed this. Apart from the vocals. They feel too dry to me.

The melody for the vocals is good too. Most of the rhythms are also fine, but at the end, they seem a bit... Flat?

Now, in my opinion, the weakest link is the singing. It sounds like to the most part, you're holding back too much. At 0:51, I'm not sure whether it's the singing or the intrument that is out of tune. But one of those two definitely is ;)

And when you sing the refrain, it sounds like you're straining a bit at the high notes. But the draw-back-ness is the thing that could use the most work, I think. Places like "whoah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" and even part of the verses loose some of their effect because of that. The thing is, occasionally the vocals are fine. But at other parts, they're not. I'm guessing you weren't 100% secure on how to sing this piece when you recorded this?
I also think that some parts could use some raw passion when singing, especially in the refrains. Like, FULL POWER on the final refrain would be amazing :D

But yeah. I'm sure someone will come along to give you better tips when it comes to singing some time later. I can tell you didn't hit every note cleanly, so that could use some work.

Now, for the strongest part of the track. I think it's easily the lyrics! They're great!!
Really. I think they're wonderful.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable listen (or rather, listens, as this is probably my 5th one). I hope you'll do more of these!!!
Great job ;)

TaintedLogic responds:

Thank you so much, LSD! I've always admired the pace at which you upload songs, as well as how you upload songs that you know aren't perfect (and believe me, that's not a slam at all. I have this extreme sense of self-consciousness about me so that I feel like every piece I upload to NG has to be better than the last one, but in reality I think it's hindering my ability to improve). I'm glad you liked the instrument choices, and after the high-passing complaints on "Heuristic," I definitely wasn't going to forget about the bass. ;)

About the instrument quality, I most certainly agree. Unfortunately, I have yet to load more samples into my version of Garageband, so I used a lot of rudimentary presets here, tbh. I'm glad you liked how I mixed it, although personally I think a lot of the instruments could've come through a lot clearer.

The vocals are dry, yes. In fact, I wanted to put some reverb on them, but, as pathetic as this sounds, I couldn't figure it out. I found out how to add a reverb automation, but no matter which track setting I had (Rock Vocals to Male Lead to Ambient Vocals to No Effects), it wouldn't let me drag the bar up above 0%. -_-

I'm glad you liked the melodies and the rhythms. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the "flat" rhythms...maybe that I overused a lot of them?

I also concur with your "holding back" comment. I don't have a very powerful voice. I need to work on that. At :51, the singing is out of tune. Unfortunately, with limited time in the studio, I wasn't able to re-record all of the tracks I wanted to. I think that also serves as a response to your "secure on how to sing the piece" comment. Never mind the fact that I'm not actually good at singing. As for "straining on the high notes," I couldn't agree more. I believe I already mentioned in the description that I accidentally wrote the chorus out of my vocal range, and then painstakingly tried to rise to the occasion. DX

I'm really glad you liked the lyrics, though. As you know, writing is another passion of mine, so that means a lot! :')

I hope I'll do more of these too. I might be able to have access to some recording equipment at college, but not until at least 2nd semester. The Music Technology course at Bates has a prerequisite, which (if I'm lucky) I'll be able to take in the fall.

I'd like to reiterate how much I appreciate such a positive response here, though. I feel like I took a huge risk with uploading this track to NG, and it's a pleasure to know that it might just have started paying off. :'D

[Demo Challenge]

This sounds great, dude :D!
The melodies especially are really to my liking :3
I'll definitely stay tuned for more ;)