LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[through a dark wood]

I immediately fell in love with the intro! It definitely sounds like something that might as well have been composed by someone from Japan.

Hmm... I'm sorry, but as much as I love the rest of the song, I think that when the guitar makes its entrance, something is a bit off (1:04). Also, when it stopped playing at 1:26, the difference is perhaps a bit too noticable. Almost like when people sometimes turn their microphones off every now and then in podcasts/interviews/whatever, and thus, also a backgound noise that suddenly appears. I feel a little bit of the same thing at 2:40. I was about to drop half a star for this, but the rest of the song was just so awesome I couldn't bring myself to it :p

And btw, what kind of brass is that? Some kind of trumpet/horn pad, or whatever you're using? Or is it a brass sound at all? Maybe my ears are fooled by a synth of some kind :/
(Examplewise 1:27. Whatever it is, I love how you used it!)

Really, all the melodies are great, and this is a very athmospherical piece that hits all the right spots. My only isssue is, like I mentioned, that some off the transitions seem a bit off to me.

Nice ending too! From start to finish, this is a very coherent song.

Ps. After guitar month, why don't you do bagpipe month? I'm sure that would be appreciated by everyone!!! :'D

johnfn responds:

> the guitar entrance

My best guess is that it's either what Elitistinen said (too dry) or it's because I suddenly went from a bunch of non panned instruments to a bunch of hard panned instruments and that sounds jarring. Because I've been listening to the song too much I unfortunately can't tell what it is - it sounds fine to me :/ I will come back in a week or two and see if I can figure out what it is.

> And btw, what kind of brass is that?

*evil laughter* it's a synth! I modulated the vibrato, attack and cutoff all by hand to give it that extra organic feel. Totally validates my work that you couldn't tell it was a synth =D

> Ps. After guitar month, why don't you do bagpipe month? I'm sure that would be appreciated by everyone!!! :'D

GENIUS!

Thanks for the super fast review! I'll have to figure out exactly what's up with that guitar part so I don't make that mistake in the future.

[Skating on Ice]

Sorry that I'm so late to reviewing this. I've been really busy with my game though!
I should really get some sleep, so I'll leave this review pretty short.

I agree with TheDoor6 on the melodies. I like them pretty much :D

Hmm. Although I like this track, I have a suggestion for you (you don't need to do anything about it, just an idea). As much as I love your Electronic Dance tracks, I think you could try out something different too! You're a very talented musician. I can hear some new stuff in this track, and I actually like that transition that TD6 didn't seem to enjoy, but I'd like to hear what you could do in a completely different genre!
I think you'd develop a lot from it; LunacyEcho is actually on a genre hunt at the moment :p

It's nothing you have to do though. I understand it can be a little bit like asking me to try out the guitar ; I wouldn't do it (but maybe sometime!!!).

Actually, I think one of the weakest parts is that solo piano section. I guess it might be because I can hear how mechanical it is, but I understand that the piano pretty much is responsible for the basic beat, so...

Anyhow, great job as always!

Everratic responds:

This isn't what I call a short review, lol.

I have tried out many other genres besides for dance, you probably have not listened to those songs yet, but I going to continue trying new genres. Dance music will always be my main genre though.

I agree about the piano now that I think about it. Thank you for telling me!

[Yakuza Rising Theme]

This is a pretty cool piece! Since it's chiptune, it suits you game perfectly :)
Did you make this song yourself?

If you did, just tell me in your reply, and I'll scout you for the audio protal, for sure!

DEDPIXL responds:

Yeah I did. I usually use other peoples music but I was having trouble finding something with the right vibe that I wanted for the game...so I made this track on the last day of the jam.

[box of secrets]

Lol, how did this have such a low score when I came here? :p

It's not your best, but I think it's a very enjoyable track, even if it seems a bit expreimental at points. (Like 1:31 - 1:51, for example, such a fun tempo change. I really like the melody after that too).

Actually, I think you have some really good meoloies here and there in this song. I'm even more impressed by how well you made the guitar suit this song!

Also, I think you were pretty successful in copying the styles of ZZ and SP; if I didn't know this was posted by you, I'd definitely think that this would have been a track from one of them!

johnfn responds:

Haha whenever I put stuff in cinematic it gets 0 voted. I dunno what's going on there.

Also it's way too stressful to write my best track every time I start writing a track. Yay for experiments!

I actually really enjoyed the tempo change as a way to introduce a new section which would be even more insane than the previous section!

It was actually kinda tricky to write melodies in this style, they aren't my normal type of super effusive epic melodies. I really do need to diversify my melodic style though.

Mwahaha yay for copying!

[Red Mist (instrumental)]

This is pretty cool! I like the mixture of instruments. I myself have always been bad at knowing which instruments go well together :p

I was about to give this 4.5 stars, but when I noticed how smooth the loop is, I just had to give it a full five stars XD

bdog705 responds:

thanks and im glad you like it and if you cant seem to find sounds that go together try just randomly combining them that's what I did when I first started making music and that's how I got good at mixing piano and guitar try combining 3 sounds together and if it doesn't sound good try changing the sounds the more you practice the better you get plus some of your music is pretty cool when it comes to combined instruments

[soar]

Why Johnfn... Why? Why did you let it cut off and end so abruptly? D:
This is a song that should, nay, deserves to die out over time... JUST LET IT DIE SLOWLY >:( !!!
It can almost imagining you cutting this track's head off at 5:03. Once again. I DEMAND CHANGE! Just stab it and let it bleed out instead :(

Otherwise, this is perfect in my opinion! :D

I agree that this is one of your best tracks, if not even the very best!
I love all the melodies, all the instruments, all the glitches, all transitions; everything. The mixing too :)
The voices in the background at the beginning were cool too.
As everyone else has said too, very good job with the guitar!

You know, I could write an extremely long review, since there is so much going on. But in my case, reveiws that are focused on pointing stuff out are at their best when they are helpful. In this case, I would only be pointing out things I like, and I might as well write out every single second separately and tell you why I liked them.
So here's my analysis: I liked that part between 0:00 and 5:03. That was the best one imo.

Sometimes, it's best to follow our wise friend KrrMain's advice, and just enjoy the songs for what they are. That is what music is for, is it not? To portray feelings as well as to entertain, all while making an impact on the listener/s. Well, this song certainly did all that!

Extremely good job.

johnfn responds:

> Why Johnfn... Why? Why did you let it cut off and end so abruptly? D:

It's cuz I'm a derp and didn't properly let Ableton render the tail. I have to remember to do this every time I export a song in Ableton... it's really annoying and I always forget as you can tell. And now that I closed the project I lost all my glitches, so it might be a while... <_<

Anywho... I'm glad you liked the whole thing =D I tried to cram it full of awesomeness so I'm glad that that came through and there weren't any weak links.

Thanks for the review!

[Astronomical]

This is a pretty relaxing track, I like it!
However, I've heard better, naturally. I'll try to mention some things I like, and the ones I don't :D

I like the calm mood, and the instruments. You've built quite an athmosphere using only an electric piano, a bass and a drum loop. To be honest though, I think you should've varied the percussion:ish sound more. You know the one that repeats over and over throughout the entire track (well, up until 3:18). While it sounded kinda cool at first, I think that it got a bit annoying after about a minute. But hey, I can't blame you; I'm even worse when it comes to percussion XD

I like the melodies and the chords as well. While this is pretty simplistic, I don't think this kind of ambient track needs much more to it. You've got a clear structure, and the mood is consistent.

I know I say this for a lot of tracks, and I wouldn't say it again if I didn't really mean it: Since this track lacks a real climax, and the structure is similar the whole way through, I think it would be pretty easy to loop. But it's not necessary. of course. The ending is just fine as it is :p

Anyhow, I enjoyed this track, and I checked out some of your other stuff as well!
It will be interesting to see what else you'll put on this site in the future ;)
Good job, and keep it up :'D

adieuwinter responds:

Thank you for the review!

As for the drum loops, in my opinion I've learned to create some variety in more recent tracks (this was written a year or two ago, when I'd just started writing music digitally). Recently I've also been writing songs that are basically massive crescendos - with about 10 instruments each upon reaching the climax - and I've yet to upload them, perhaps you could give them a try?

Thanks again for the feedback, much appreciated!

[Winding Canyons]

Ahahha :D To be honest, in the beggining, or well, after the first five seconds, I was like... "Wtf is this?" Especially since I saw that the genre is "cinematic".
It's difficult finding good orchestral VSTi:s, at least for free, isn't it ;D?

I still liked this track once it got going. It's also good to hear something so different, coming from you :D I think you're genre quest is a very good idea :3

And well, that transition is pretty sudden indeed, but whatever... Kind of... I personally like the second part better, it sounds like something that could be in Final Fantasy X (it actually sounds a little bit like "Someday the Dream will End" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRCjjiTR7I]).

That second part actually sounds pretty well produced to me, and the first isn't bad.

Anyhow, this is still a far better cinematic track than anything I could make in the near future :)
Good job, and I'm looking forward to your next track. Do you know which genre you'll try out next time?

LunacyEcho responds:

=> Wtf is this? =>

Yeah. I realized I wanted to do cinematic pretty early on, so I made that intro, then completely butchered the genre until about 1:48. :)

=> something so different =>

If you think this is different, just wait until you see what I've got planned. :D

=> transition =>

Someone commenting on the transition was pretty much inevitable. Sigh. I could've led into it better, but... Bleh.

=> Final Fantasy X =>

Wait, specific to Final Fantasy X? And not the fifty million other ones?

=> pretty well produced =>

Just layer a bunch of strings together and you'll go places. :P

=> Do you know which genre you'll try out next time? =>

Most likely. I'll give you a few hints to the one I'm working on now.

1. It's something neither you, I, or TheDoor6 have ever done before.

2. It was inspired by a TED Talk.

Thanks for the review, LSD!

[Histortion]

This is pretty cool, you know!

I like the mix between the heavy guitar and the electronic parts of this dance track. I think everything else is pretty much perfect too. The glitches, melodies, all the background stuff as well as the percussion and the mixing. I guess you could have varied the guitar slightly more rythmically, although you already did that in some parts :D It really doesn't bother me at all, I am just nitpicky sometimes while reviewing :3

I like all the transitions too!

I don't mind, but I think some people would say that the final part of the song doesn't fit, since it is so different from the other sections :p I think it sounds nice, even if it ends too abruptly, imo.

Anyhow... This is really amazing stuff, keep it up!

JoshuaHughes responds:

Thanks, dude. I'm always trying to make something even better than the last. Let's hope my AIM track will be up to par!

[Ryan P. Hurst Clinic Radio Ad]

Yay, I get an A+ :'D

This was a surprise, I did not expect anything like this from you, but I enjoyed it nonetheless XD The "lyrics" were also quite funny. However, naturally I've heard better voice acting, but yours is is not bad; I couldn't do half as good myself :)

Well, I my self am personally finally done with my exams! Although, I still have school for a few more weeks... It's very understandable that you don't have time to upload much else right now, but we can wait XD

TaintedLogic responds:

Thank you very much, LSD! :D Yeah, I feel like I was starting to take this Newgrounds thing a bit too seriously, so I decided to lighten the mood a bit. ;) I'm glad you're done with your exams, and I'm sorry I didn't respond to your PMs this past week; I really needed to focus on school. It's strange that you have school after your big exams. Finals week (in June for me) is always the last week of school at my high school. Thanks for the review, though! I appreciate it! ;D