LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Phosphoric Plains]

This was different!
It's actually pretty cool.
I like the melodies and harmonies :3
I'm not a super theory guy, so I have no idea why one could not play in Db minor. I do it all the time!
Good job ;)

[Neo-Metry Medley]

Hehheh, the nerdcore is finally happening :)
And it's even nerdy XD

I wouldn't worry about about any mods removing this and banning you. It's quite obvious that it's legal by the license standard, especially with that description ;)

Now, on to the piece.

I really love it! It's clearly one of your very best tracks. I guess it may help that you got to use melodies that you already knew were great, but still, you had to learn them by ear :p

It would seem you've mashed a couple of songs at a few places too, to get a smooth transition. I'm basing this on your timestamps though. Well, I suppose you could've miswritten some of the timestamps as well. I haven't listened that much to the GD songs, apart from Step's and Waterflame's stuff. I now realize I should o.O

Really good job with Polargeist. I have to assume that the rest of the songs are as great compared to the original too. Even if they wouldn't be, they are already great. All the harmonies between the chords, intruments and melodies are great, so whether it's exactly the same as the original or not doesn't matter too much.
I'm really impressed by all the transitions! The flow is ridiculously smooth, and you've almost got 20 different songs in here :O

As usually your percussion work is all but unimpressive. The mix is smooth, and pretty amazing considering there were so many different things to fit in here. Now you made me want to do a medley sometime! Probably a Final Fantasy 7 medley... Oh yes... My heart wants it...

I don't have much else to say, especially since I haven't heard all the individual songs. But once again, the quality is great. You are right to be proud of this :3

UltrAmazing work dude(exclamation mark).
Favved in an instant :D¨
Keep it up ;)

LunacyEcho responds:

=> mods =>

You never know. NekoMika once accidentally deleted a song because she thought it was written with Magix, but that mistake was quickly corrected. Still, you never know...

=> smooth transition =>

Yeah, the songs aren't song-song-song-song-song. There's some overlap, which I really like about this. Some songs' melodies just fit together really, really well, and I tried to use that to my advantage in making transitions and stuff. :)

=> GD songs =>

Step and Waterflame are indeed extremely talented composers. DJVI, dj-Nate, and ForeverBound are more production-based, but their composition is still pretty good. dj-Nate is probably my favorite musician that I discovered through GD, since he always makes such catchy, innovative tunes.

=> Polargeist =>

Thanks! I thought I might've screwed it up since I added a cello, as the low mids were severely lacking in the original mix. Then, when the cello wasn't sounding so good, I debated taking it out, but then I realized that people don't really pay too much analytical attention to that stuff anyways and a background cello to add some low mids is always good.

=> transitions =>

I'm somewhat experienced in medley-fying songs, and transitions are what make a good medley from a bad medley. I think some of the ones here were a bit forced (especially the ones around 1:50), but some of them I enjoy, such as 1:12 or 3:40.

=> percussion =>

Yay! I thought that it might be getting drowned out a bit towards the end, but I'm glad you liked it!

=> FFVII =>

Yesyesyesyes! Medleys! Now I gotta go listen to the FF7 soundtrack so I get all the references. :D

Thanks a lot for such a positive review! And so quick, too! I have literally no idea how you got here so quick. [rem]

[Hidden Daggers]

YES!
I've been awaiting a new piece by you :3

I feel like there is a story behind this one :/
The name really implies so at least XD
Very good string and percussion work. To my ears, this sounds arabic, especially at the parts where the choir is playing, even if the strings suggest so too.

The first act of the piece feels more positive. At least until 1:02.
There's a lot of percussion work in between along with some strings in between, but at it's very latest,I'd say that the second act would begin at 1:35, as that is where things start to get really intense. I have a hard time finding an exact point of transition though! Everything is so smooth :p

This track would be great as a movie soundtrack! Awesome job dude ;)

LunyAlex responds:

Without trying to sound too full of myself, "I've been awaiting a new piece by you" is a really, really cool thing to hear, hah.

Initially I was going for Victorian-ish, but it turned out more oriental, indeed. Close enough :D.
Very glad you think it doesn't transition too abruptly. That's usually my weak point. And you're close: 2nd Act starts at 1:17. Takes on a more action oriented approach there I guess.

Thank you very much for taking the time and thank you for your kind words! It really does mean a lot! Cheers!

[GeoZone]

Great work ;)

kinggrinyov5 responds:

Thanks Lucid :P

[So Long]

Would you look at that. Frontpage messaging can really help advertising XD
I'm glad it brought me here :)
I love the refreshing feel to this piece. It is indeed spring, although it might take a while for it to really settle where I live.

I often listen to my tracks as well, mostly just after I finish them. Partly because I want to see if there's still something to improve, but also because it can be enjoyable. I don't think it's narcissistic.

This is pretty good for not actually having been played on a real/electronic piano, but for being made on the piano roll instead.
So... Good job!

Noisysundae responds:

Hmmm? I've always thought it wouldn't work until I got these 2 reviews. lol
Btw, thanks for this one. :)

[Destruction]

Nice! It was a while since I heard something from you, and I was not disappointed.
To begin with, while this is dance music, I can hear many differences from your usual style, which is great ;)
Also, there are several pretty unique aspects to this track, and I love the melodies and the rhythm.
The intruments are pretty neat as well!

Awesome job; favorited XD

Everratic responds:

" I can hear many differences from your usual style, which is great ;)"

I learned so much about music since in the past few months and I applied it to this song. This is the first time I intentionally created a simple melody as a base for more complex melodies.

"Also, there are several pretty unique aspects to this track, and I love the melodies and the rhythm."

I have every melody in this song memorized. I'm surprised that they are so catchy considering I didn't spend much time on them.

"The intruments are pretty neat as well!"
I decided to use layered synths this time. Combining low quality instruments can actually create interesting sounds. The first melody is played by a combination of two leads (a basic saw lead, and a detuned lead), a pluck (it doesn't have much of a pitch, it just enhances the melody), and a super low quality guitar synth that was drowned in various sound effects.

I'm glad you were able to enjoy the song despite its severe flaws. It's actually slightly difficult for me to listen to, tbh.

Thank you for the review and the favorite.

[Killing Machine]

Neat! This is a bit different from your usual stuff. I love it!
As I've stated many times before, there simply isn't any genre or combination that you can't pull of masterfully!
Also, Finland (along with the other nordic countries) is pretty much the land of metal (well, musicwise XD). So I can tell you that this song is legit. I like the electronic inputs too! I also like the story.

Only thing I could say about this piece is that it doesn't have all that much variation, but it kinda fits too. I like all the beats though. I especially like the breakdown at 2:07! I guess It's just that all the instruments seem similar to eachother in style. That is only due to the genre though, and just my opinion. There is still enough variation to the piece, but that's literally the only somewhat valid criticism I could possibly have XD
Love the ending; it works very well for this track.

It's great that you included the information about which plugins and such you used for this song!

Awesome job, as always ;)

Mattashi responds:

Yeah It was pretty hard to add variation to this, I could have added some lead or solos but that might have been a bit too distracting (I think) so I tried adding a few breakdowns and a double time section (the one at 2:07) I also added some choir, strings and brass to give it something a bit more.
Then again Metal is pretty similar to each other in style (instrument wise, guitar bass drums).
And since Metal usually has vocals maybe that's why too?
So I dunno what I could have added more really xD
Thank you for the review :)

[T-Logic - Influx]

Okay, short review time!

As I believe I've stated before, repetitiveness to this extent deosn't really appeal to me. However, as house music seems to be so popular, I guess that many people like it. So hey, what do I know :p

That said, the beat is chill, and is pretty much the driving force behind the piece. I like that it's actually pretty simple, as that means it doesn't distract the listener away from the other things going on in the song. If you're going to be repetitive, at least don't make it irritating. You succeeded in not making the repetitivness irritating. However, to me this means that the piece would be suitable background music to something (I can't really imagine much else than a party of some sort going on in an 80s Hollywood movie while listening to this).

I actually like the combination of instruments, and for beging garageband, the dynamics between them work out quite well. The mixing is good, is what I'm saying.

The melodies here aren't that complicated, but I like them. This is a very atmospheric track, which I actually do like! I think I recognize one of those instruments. Might be you used it in "Abandoned Church" or something else :/ Now that I think about it, it might've been in "Clairvoyance" o.O
I'm not sure though. Maybe they just sound similar.

Either way, I like those simple chord hits going on. They are well picked. There is no "lead" melody here though. This track is a bit too passive for there to really be one.

Oh, and the first time I heard that breakdown where the piece was nearin it's end, I actually thought it was the end. Anyway, I kinda like it.
I like the ending too; it's simple, but it's nice.

I hope that helped you in some regard (though it probably didn't, as I made use of my talent to abasically write a lot without actually saying much anything XD).

Good job, especially for 4-5 hours ;)

TaintedLogic responds:

Haha, that's not a short review by my standards! Thank you so much LSD! :D To be perfectly honest, I usually don't like pieces that are this repetitive either, but I sort of wanted to make a cheesy, traditional house track in a way. I think I pictured it as background music to something too, although it wasn't clear to me what that should be. That said, I'm glad this reminds you of a particular decade and form of media so that this piece isn't COMPLETELY useless. XD I was actually really happy with how the mix turned out (considering it's Garageband) myself, but I didn't want to say anything in case others didn't agree. :) I'm glad you liked the combination of instruments: gruff basses, "ditzy" synths, and chill atmospheric synth guitars just deserve each other, don't they? It's great that you appreciated the atmosphere I was going for. I originally intended to bring out the melody at :44 more, but I never heard this piece without headphones until I was at home and didn't have access to the original file. Maybe I'll fix that come Monday. Also, it's very possible that I used an instrument from this in another track of mine. I think the guitar synth at :44 is reminiscent of the samples I used for "Cut Me Some Slack." Anyway, good for you for catching my "listener preparation" for the very ending. ;D I actually use that technique a lot, but most of the time it's more subtle. I assert that this was indeed a helpful review, thank you, sir! ^^ Also, thanks for acknowledging that I was going for simplicity and catchiness rather than engagement and melodic development in this one. I'll be sure to work on those things in my next piece! Thanks for stopping by! ;)

[Ep. 6 - "Michael J. Fox"]

Well then...

GhostLawyer responds:

Hang in there, champ.

[Valley of War]

Wow! It's like Phonometrologist said. This really resembles (not to be narcissistic) some of my stuff o.O
Wait, you used Piano One to get this sound? I've used the same vst in the past, but I didn't get it to sound this good. I should probably experiment with it more :/

Now, as has already been stated, the intruments interact nicely to the most part, but at times, they are kind of on top of each other. Still, they sound nice together.

I have heard "No Adrenaline" actually, and I can see the resemblance. There is still a lot of differences. Almost everything, in fact. It's just the style (rhythm, tempo and such) along with the key that are similar, the rest is pretty unique.

Another complaint I have is that 1:43 though 1:50 sounds a bit messy. The strings sound a bit too slow to me to be used the way they were. That's just my oipinion thoug.

Great work! I'd scout you, but I see that you were already scouted somehow.

TearsOfSadness responds:

Thank you. I am surprised by the amount of reviews this piece has gotten.
I didn't do anything special to Piano One. I basically just EQd it and added reverb...
I see your point about 1:43. I'll think about it until next time.
I checked out one of your improvisations, and left a review.
Yes, I was scouted by Phonometrologist.