LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Faith and Heaven]

It's a bit late at night for me to leave a long review, but I really enjoyed this quite a lot! Great job, dude :D

zybor responds:

thank you. :)

[Infatuation]

Ooh, this sounds even better than the preview I got to hear!
The melody is very nice, and I think you used The Gentleman well! The tone really fits this style. I don't mind at all that its not jazz. I am not all too great at making almost fully positive compositions/arrangements like this, but you sure did a great job, with a cool main melody. I think my favorite part is the variation at 1:22 though! The melody is different enough, almost what I'd call "inverse" at some points, but it's still similar enough too to fit the style perfectly. The piano arrangement is interesting in that part as well.

The soft ending is nice too. Did you use Session Strings, or some orchestral ones for this? I rarely use Session Strings myself, but maybe I should use them more often!

Either way, I found the end result of this to be super enjoyable :)
I think I'll share this with LunacyEcho, just because I think he might like the style :p
Great job ^ ^

Everratic responds:

I also love the part at 1:22, it's my favorite melody in the song! I think "inverse" is appropriate, though that wasn't intentional. As usual with my piano compositions, I improvised as much as one can in a piano roll. I don't have enough patience to experiment with several variations and ultimately choose the best one, so I stick with the first ideas that sound nice, and I usually succeed at that at my first attempt.

I'm glad you like the piano arrangements. I get the ideas from your compositions, or rather what information I can recall from your compositions while I'm composing.

Thank you for the review! I hope he enjoys it too, because I know he loves catchy, super-happy music.

[AIM - A long way through winter]

This was a lovely listen ^ ^

Azhthar responds:

Thanks a lot (again). I´m sorry being this inactive these days but I listened a lot to your piano pieces in the last time. I´m definitely not that good as you so I stick to my simple melodies :)

[The Blue Oceans]

Ooh, this is really catchy :O!

Everratic responds:

Indeed! Thanks for reminding me that this song existed.

[Leylines II]

It's catchy. I like it!
The glitchy percussion is especially nice :)

[AIM - New Dynasty]

Even though I know you were working on, I was surprised when I heard this! I didn't expect you to write in a world genre, especially since it seems this is your first one, on Newgrounds! I'm also glad to see you made it so well, and that it's a bit of a hybrid with electronic music! That's fairly rare (at least around here), and thus has a super refreshing sound :D

I like the melodies you used as well, as well as the fact that you chose a sitar as the main instrument. Together, the combination lays down a very interesting atmosphere, that I wouldn't have thought of creating myself. I love the bells, along with the breakdowns with strings (etc.) at 0:47 and 3:00.

And ofc, we have the refrain that plays twice, which is also a very nice part.
Catchy? Check.
Interesting sound/genre? Check.
Does it want to make you dance? Check.

So yeah. You did incredibly well for a first world track, imo. And I can notice you put a fair deal of work into this, which I'm sure you too notice in the result. The percussion at the beginning is really nice, btw.

As for the mix, I personally think it's pretty good. At a few points, maybe there is some room to fill, and you could've succeedeed in achieving a wider sound. But that's often a bit more difficult with these instruments than it is with electronic music. This is way better than most of my mixes already, which is why I don't really have anything to complain about, and the refrain definitely sounds full enough for me :D

So yeah. Wonderful job with this, and good luck in the competition! I'm excited to hear what else you can do, which is out of your comfort zone, since the result with this track is really cool!

P.S. My favorite melody is the one shot between 2:53 and 2:58 (it works so well because you only do it once, too) :O

Everratic responds:

"Even though I know you were working on, I was surprised when I heard this! I didn't expect you to write in a world genre, especially since it seems this is your first one, on Newgrounds! I'm also glad to see you made it so well, and that it's a bit of a hybrid with electronic music! That's fairly rare (at least around here), and thus has a super refreshing sound :D"

It's not like I suddenly decided to write a world song. I've made several attempts, and I played along with Jordi's songs on my keyboard to get an idea of the typical melodic structures. But yeah, I haven't published any world songs on NG before. I'm not sure how familiar you are with Autogun, but it's basically a giant synth library that gives you a different synth with each click. It's an incredible source of inspiration because it gives you sounds that you couldn't have thought of otherwise. I used Autogun for the synthetic melodic instrument and the bass.

"And ofc, we have the refrain that plays twice, which is also a very nice part.
Catchy? Check.
Interesting sound/genre? Check.
Does it want to make you dance? Check."

I'm glad the song meets your criteria :) I'm not sure what you mean when you say that the refrain plays twice. If you're referring to the choruses, both of them have distinct melodies.

"So yeah. You did incredibly well for a first world track, imo. And I can notice you put a fair deal of work into this, which I'm sure you too notice in the result. The percussion at the beginning is really nice, btw."

I'm so glad to hear this because, as I told you on skype, I did most of the composing on autopilot and I mixed the song blindly. Most of the percussion in the beginning are from loops that I made many adjustments to. I didn't feel the need to make my own drum beats, not only because of the required effort, but also because if I fail to match the quality of the loop, which would be likely considering how good the loop is, then what's the point?

"As for the mix, I personally think it's pretty good. At a few points, maybe there is some room to fill, and you could've succeedeed in achieving a wider sound. But that's often a bit more difficult with these instruments than it is with electronic music. This is way better than most of my mixes already, which is why I don't really have anything to complain about, and the refrain definitely sounds full enough for me :D"

I agree that some instruments could sound wider. Next time I won't use more plugins than my computer can handle, so I'll be able to mix the song to the best of my ability. But anyway, I think the mix sounds pretty good as it is too! And it does become fully saturated at a couple points.

Thank you for the extensive review and your support (I probably wouldn't have composed this song otherwise) ! I'm excited to hear your submission :D

[Pure Trust]

This is a catchy little loop (and a smooth one too)! I like the mix of sounds here :D!

Satyre responds:

Thanks for your feedback :D

[Level One (Save The Princess)]

You already know I love all the tracks xD
But I thought I'd drop by abd tell you again, while I relisten :'D
Hopefully, the album will get some more exposure here :3

Mattashi responds:

Think I'm gonna upload them all on here :)

[AIM - Faith in Freedom]

Wtf, haha...
This is incredibly beautiful...

Such an effective slow build-up, wonderful melodies, impeccable sound design, thyrhm and structure. There so much going on on so many levels, yet the mix is perfectly clean!

I've got no idea how you managed to make this, but it's simply stunning. I love every second of this. And the sound effect at 4:35 is just brilliant. Seriously though, the arrangement of this one is just 100% on point. This isn't only on the level of a professional musician, but I think it's actually better than a lot, if not most of what professional musicians make.

I don't like making predictions like these, especially this early. But I've got a feeling you have a good chance of winning one of the top spots with this one. Not only does it sound awesome, but from a technical standpoint, it also holds up on every level.

I'm still in awe, haha. This is one of my all time favorite tracks of yours. Going to share it with a few of my friends!
Thanks for sharing, and good luck in the contest, man.
Astounding job <3

zybor responds:

When I saw the AIM thread​ I went to turbo mode and made the track right away, without realizing that the track is longer than 6 minutes. It was 8 minutes lol. Only realized that when I almost finished the track.

Something that you said on my edgy post really lit a fire in me. I should be grateful for how far I got. Having shit life doesn't mean you will have shit experience. I found joy again after so long. Thank you so much for everything.

Good luck to you too. See you on Skype :)

[_sequence/03/!%tranquility#_]

I love it! It's a lovely atmosphere, that reminds me a lot of video game music. Also, this fits very well together with the art! Wonderful job, dude. Keep it up! :3

Azhthar responds:

Hey! Thanks a lot for the nice feedback! That´s awesome. Glad you like it!