LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Sorcerers Path]

Wow, this is simply amazing!

I feel like this could easily be part of a great movie (or game)!

The beginning reminds me of Lord of the Rings (surprise surprise), although the later part seems more similar to something Hans Zimmer could've come up with. The piano in the background along with the many of the strings sound more like Yōko Shimomura. Also, the part close to the end reminds me a bit of something that could have been composed by James Newton Howard for the Atlantis soundtrack or something. I think you really managed to capture the very essence of a great orchestral track.
I'm comparing this to stuff by great well known creators of orchestral soundtracks, since I think that from a compositional standpoint, you're really close to being at their level.

The mixing is great too. Still, I feel like something more could be done in the production (but that's probably nothing to worry about), but I can't tell you what, since I suck at mixing myself. It might be due to the intruments, since it's difficult to get the sound of a real orchestra with a DAW. But I think you did a great job there as well!

I wish I could write a helpful review, but I really can't say anything that might be of use; this is great :D

Anywho, astounding work!

SoundChris responds:

Thanks a lot for your kind words sir! I wanted to create a mystic / mysterious athmosphere at the beginning, because the story is about a young sorcerer who has to face sinister adventures. So i introduced the music with elven voices. I wanted it to become more epic style during the piece because its an action game with lots of fights and stuff.

The music was not inspired by newton howard, but by danny elfman, a composer i really like. He did the original batman theme, the new spiderman scores, sleepy hollow, almost all tim burton movies and lots of other stuff. His chord progressions are always very inspiring and interesting.

You are absolutely right with the production quality. I am still quite new to this genre - i think its my 2nd or 3rd real cinematic piece so far. I still have to struggle hard with the orchestra mixing. Also i had to work without monitors - this will change soon.

So thanks a lot for your nice review. Have a nice weekend!

Best whishes,
Chris

[where do we go from here?]

This is simply beautiful.

johnfn responds:

Thank you!

Good luck on your exams :)

[Truffle Hunt]

Hahha :D That's what I get for complaining about songs, saying that I think they should loop XD
Well, this does loop indeed.
Also, it loops quite well! So... Well done.

Although this track is short and pretty simple, I also think it's catchy, and complete from a compositional standpoint.
Since it's a loop it doesn't have a real climax, which is all fine and dandy.

I like the basic theme of this song. It's kinda uplifting after a long day of studying... I'd say it has a slight marchy feel to it as well, but maybe that's just me :p

Btw, perfect choice of instruments. All 5 of them (unless I missed one). Especially when all begin playing together at 0:31

I mean, sure. This could be improved if one really wanted to, but since I know your intentions wasn't to blow our minds with awesomeness I don't really have anything more to say.

I hope you'll find inspritation and blow our minds though, good luck with that; eagerly waiting for more cool stuff ;)

LunacyEcho responds:

Glad you liked it! At least it's catchy, which is basically what I was going for. You can't really aim for complexity and tons of production value with a 1-minute loop.

It's funny that you said it was a perfect choice of instruments, since the the synth that comes in at 0:30 was one that I spent over ten minutes trying to get right. Literally one quarter of all the time it took to make this was dedicated to that one synth and seeing if it sounded good with the rest of the song. I hope I did it right. :)

I'm sure it doesn't blow your minds, but at least it does its job: It tides you over until I put out my next song (the way music class is going, looks like that's going to be April... :( )

Thanks for the review!

[<3.]

Yay, I love the theme of this song :3

To be honest though, I don't feel like the mixing is of as high a quality as usual, but I'm sure you'll get used to it once you've made more songs using your guitar! It feels a bit more empty than many other songs I've heard, but I don't know exactly what it is :/ Some parts work better than others though :)

Your playing is very good, but I don't think you've got a full grip of how to record your guitar just yet, but maybe that's just me :p

The composition and structure is of course, great as always. I enjoy the more "simple" and realistic style you've got going here. Lol; that echo which makes the scratch noises repeat in that way XD (examplewise 2:29 and 2:37). Good thing it kinda fits in the song.
Unless I'm compleately deaf, you're using different drums than normally, or you've just kept them more real. Although I don't know exactly what it is, I think that the drums could sound even better :/ At some points I don't really like the way they enter :D (like in the very beginning at 0:15, and at 1:34). Either it's that, or it might be that I'm used to hearing better drums :/ I have a two really good drummers in my class, and when they play on real drums it just sounds better than this, imo :) (Haha, that guitar thump at 0:07). Funny thing; at 1:05 the piano combined with the guitar almost sounds like a harpsichord :O

Also, I'm finding some parts that I think could've been made better (I realize you're just practicing your guitar skills, and I think you're doing quite well, but that wont stop me from judging the different elements like I normally would >:) ). For instance, I think that transition at 1:05 is pretty sudden. As Blue Oceans already said, it felt strange when the bass stopped playing. Also, that bass is pretty simple, but it's still effective, so no harm done :') At times, the guitar might be a little off beat, but not to the point where it actively bothered me.
Between 1:21 and 1:34 it feels like the piano and guitar don't necessarily mix that well together. It might just be the echo on the guitar that confuses my mind, since the piano is more precise. That short thingymajig at 1:32 is nice, but is it only me or is it a little too slow?

Finally, I think the ending might be a bit too generic, as well as some other parts of the song, but I must admit: I'm a sucker for this kind of music X'D

Oh wow. I didn't mean to be this critical, but I've already written 19 pages on six hours for one of my matriculation exams today, so I guess the mentality has kind of stuck with me :'D

Anyhow, great song! And my horses are running away, since I can't waint for the even better song you promised is on the way ;)

johnfn responds:

> drumz lol

Yeah as you can tell this is mostly just a piece for me to practice recording a ton of guitar parts haha I was a little lazy with the drums. Now that I'm doing more guitar music I should probably seek out some more organic drums, this was legitimately the only rock drum loop I could find in my library. Plus I could have added some variation to it. Or more hats, that always makes things fun...

> piano

At least part of the problem (that I only discovered when adding the piano part at the end) was that the guitar is like half a semitone out of tune <_< I tried to tune the piano to the guitar but I think part of the mix problem is that even individual strings were slightly out of tune. Oops...

> Haha, that guitar thump at 0:07

Hahaha I don't think I even noticed this. Good catch.

> 1:32

Yeah this is wrong. I tried to fix it and kinda convinced myself that I did but... it's still wrong. :X

> critical

No worries dude! I think you're pretty much on point. Thanks for the awesome review. I hope you saved some criticalness (whatever) for my next song though!

[rover]

Have I gotten lazy with my reviews or something?

Once again I don't really have anything to say :p
Probably because I'm so busy studying for my matriculation exams -_-

Anyhow, I noticed you had a focus on the percussion, far before I actually read the description! (That's because you did such a good job ;) Seriously, loved the glitchty style at places.

Something about this song's awesomeness really caught my interest; it captivated me immediately. Probably ay my third listen already. Also, I don't think the guitar sounds bad at all, but I'm not the best person to judge that :D Let's just say it was recorded far better than it would've been, had I done it XD (Good decision placing the rest of the song in the background during the guitar solo though, it was quite effective).

Great job, proven by a spot among my favorites :'D

johnfn responds:

No worries dude haha you still write great reviews.

I think the awesomeness is a combination of the really forefront beats plus the groovy solo. I normally don't put so much emphasis on beats so I think the change really ended up working!

> Good decision placing the rest of the song in the background during the guitar solo though, it was quite effective

Haha the funny thing was the recording was so quiet that I legitimately couldn't mix it into the song except to make it the only thing there. So I'm glad that limitation ended up working ;-)

Thanks for the review :)

P.S. Good luck on your exams! Don't let me distract you too much hahaha

[Grone Lunden Cover]

Heyy!!!

I was just wondering earlier today when we'd hear some new stuff from you!

You know what; I don't usually like vocaloids that much, but I think you did a great job! So... "Great job!"

And I love this style! You know, you've probably never heard of this, but this style is somewhat similar to what you can hear in games like Trine :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znw_wi39nsQ

And this is a good thing since I love this kind of music.

But seriously, I often try to point out what I like vs. what I think could use fixing in songs, but this just feels perfect, imo XD! I loved every aspect of this track, so you get to go without negative criticicm for this time :p

Good to hear some new stuff from you ;)

steampianist responds:

hey! glad you liked the vocaloid here :D means a lot

[The Door - Idol]

Hi, this sounds quite cool in my opinion! And it looped so well I didn't notice at first :p

I think that adding the sub-bass was a good idea. It's really a shame that only headphones (and pretty good ones at that) make sub-basses enjoyable, or even audible at all.
The tempo changes were indeed good imo too; you notice them (obviously), but they add to this song instead of taking away.

What I like the most, is the atmosphere, I'd say. It's almost mysterious in some way! The instruments and chords/melodies you used created a really interesting mood. The tempo changes added to this as well! The beat is somewhat simple, and doesn't cahnge a lot, but I like it. Also, this is of course a loop, so no real climax is needed.

All the different parts complement eachother well. I don't know what it is, but I'm not getting bored of this at all! It has probably looped at least 10 times already XD, and I'm still enjoying it :)

I think it's because you varied this so much. And since this is not such a long loop, I don't think it has to be more repetitive than it is at all XD
One of my favorites was the bass at 0:59 :)

Hmm... I don't really know what to complain about... I've listened to this so many times now that I've gotten used to it, and am now blind for eventual flaws. Maybe I should've returned to this tomorrow, but meh. I'm sure someone will point something helpful out.

One thing I might mention is my initial thought. I remember that I thought this doesn't sound as "full" or wide/spacious as many other songs I've listened to. I don't think it's a lack of instruments. Maybe something with the mixing, although I feel it is mostly good (not a real complaint :p). You could've possibly added a bit more reverb on some of the instruments :/

Anyhow...

Great job ;)

TaintedLogic responds:

Thanks so much, LucidShadowDreamer! :D Idk whether you use FL Studio or not, but the trick to making loops sound awesome is selecting "wrap remainder" when you render them for exporting. Anyway, I really appreciate the feedback about the sub-bass. I LOVE making sub-bass riffs myself, but I've received mixed feedback on them in the past. The melodies for this track were originally made at a much slower tempo, but when I decided it sounded better faster, the bass at :59 sounded a bit too jarring. That was why I added the tempo automations, but I'm glad you liked them! :) I'd say atmosphere is one of my few strengths, but I'm REALLY glad you like the harmonies, something I've struggled with before. The bass at :59 is from Autogun, a plug-in I don't really use much anymore because it comes with its own effects and I want to make more original content. Like I mentioned in the description, I started this track in Summer 2012, and back in the day I used Autogun A LOT. Early tracks of mine like Carnival and Microcosm were made almost completely with Autogun and some drum presets! I totally agree about the lack of space, and believe me: I've listened to this song WAY too many times! XD Thanks so much, LucidShadowDreamer! Your reviews make my day all the time! ^^

[regrets]

Yup, this is cool.
I actually enjoyed that effect in the beginning, although many seem to have taken issue with it XD

This got slightly repetitive with that piano, since it played the same thing through so much of the song, but not to the point where it got annoying. I especially must compliment you on your use of instruments though!
Well, it looks like pretty much most of the things that matter have been said by others already :p

'My job here is done'.

(Seriously though, good job XD).

johnfn responds:

Thanks! Yeah it's kind of a cliche thing to have the piano repeat a single phrase the whole time so perhaps I could have thought of something else.

Thanks for the review :)

[Lively Forest]

Just dropping in to say I liked this :p
Especially the melodies, and the instruments used!
I think the beat is fine too, not too loud.

Also, this loops pretty smoothly :)

Everratic responds:

Thank you :D

[Farewell February]

Well, this is extremely beaútiful! :O

Also, perfect amount of reverb this time, imo!
Did you play this live? :D

You're making me jealous of your incredible talent XD