LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Prodigal]

This is brilliant. I love that you decided to do something different. I feel that creativity is in the very essence of the competition. But it certainly helps that this sounds great and is super catchy :D
2:08 especially is amazingly awesome. Great singing too, all of you ;)

Good luck!!!

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thanks LSD! We knew SoundChris would put out something epic, so we took a different route this time around. Glad you liked it man!

[Can't Be (ft. Popushi)]

Okay, so this is super awesome. Nuff said.

[~SW~ Annar]

Alright. I finally have a very slight bit of free time. I've been super busy for a while now, so sorry for the late review. I probably won't have much to add after johnfn's rather long review. That said, I won't even read it until after I write, but comment on what I myself experience instead :p

Right from the start, I knew I would like the track, because of the very pleasant intro. Then BOOM! Awesome percussion right out of nowhere. And it's very clear too. When the melody comes in, it's still easy to distinguish every intrument as well as what they're playing. Including the rather dry synth paddish thing in the background, which almost sounds like white noise (though in a good way, as it really fits).

And that melody, it's pretty neat! I especially like the sound design on the first melody intrument. It's so smooth and awesome :3 I like that it returns here and there too :D You know it's a good melody when the main part is memorable. Because of the complexity, it would take a while for me to learn every melody by heart, but it's easy to (or rather, it's difficult to not) remember the base it's founded on.

Then we get to the structure, which also is quite amazing!! You throw in a lot of cool elements, and rhythmic parts, with different intruments and styles. Including breakdowns and such. Speaking of these parts, I absolutely love how you managed to work in 1:47!
Not only does it start with a breakdown that also manages to work in the section from the intro (which is good for the structure), but I can hear that the melody after that is based on the main motif, but with a much more varied and complex style. The sound design here is also very pleasant. One of the greatest things with this track, is that it always throws a lot of new stuff at the listener, while keeping some of the same stuff rolling (and returning) as well. But not only that, but during most parts, there are a lot of different things going on at the same time, which one could either pay attention to individually, or as a part of the whole! They work very nicely together.

Now, I'll get to a few of the things I think could still be improved upon a bit. The first thing, is that I don't know that the guitar sound is that great, at like 0:48, or 2:34. I think it actually fits the best at 1:34, because for some reason the sound just fits better for that transition (and a pretty epic transition that is too!).
Of course, not everyone can play a real guitar or has good equipment for recording it, and not everyone (including me, hehhe) has access to hyper expensive guitar libraries. But I still feel that for a main melody intrument, something with the sound design just doesn't tick for me. They guitar lacks that kind of a tasty or jammy texture that I'd want here. It feels a bit dry, which may be better for the overall mix, but at least something feels a bit flat. Especially at the tails of the melodies (I think you may have intentionally killed them, as 1:44 sounds great), where the guitar sound dies out pretty immediately, like with the section going on at 0:59. You probably did this to add some emphasis on the melody, but for whatever reason, it feels a bit choppy to me. It may be the rough contrast with the smooth main synth lead that's causing this too.
Also, I'm not entirely sure about whether I like the guitar as a backing melody at 1:13 either. To start with, the sudden volume change comes across pretty abruptly. And the sudden cut at 1:27 throws me off a bit every time :p

But now I went way into detail about what specifically bothered me about the sound design. It's pretty subjective, so I don't think there's too much of a need to pay a whole lot of attention tho that :)

As a slight note on the arrangement, I feel that when the guitar comes back at 2:35, it doesn't bring that much new stuff to the track. I know you didn't have much time at this point though, so I can understand why. But it would've been sooooo great if you could've had another backing guitar play a separate melody a bit below the main melody, but in the same rhyth (so a different voice, basically). It would've really given a sense of climax, and aside from that, it simply would've sounded so cool in general, while bringing something new to the track. I think that the main melody would've deserved that :D
Once again, the drastic tail cuts at 2:52 and on bother me a bit, as it sounds a bit, but eh.

And finally, we get to the ending. It's pretty quick and sudden, and is basically stating that that's it. It's actually pretty good! I love that you brought back the stuff from the intro once again! I probably would've rolled with it a bit longer and faded it out, but what you did works just fine.

Overall, I think this is a really awesome track! The melodies and chord picks are tasteful, the structure is splendid, the percussion and production are astounding, and most of the sound design is neat. Most of all, it's varied enough to keep anyone interested for the duration of the track, and hopefully, enough to bring them back.

Great job on this!
I hope you'll participate next year too, for a new chance in the competition :D

SkyeWint responds:

Hi LSD!

"I have a slight bit of free time" says the person writing a giant review.

The dry pad is using some really warm flame distortion, so I'm not surprised it sounds dry. That's part of why I picked it - I normally have a wet and cold sound. Why not do the reverse?

I find it extraordinarily hilarious how a lot of people are like "I love the melody it's different and cool" and then you have johnfn there being a butt again. I suppose I can work on the development of melodies, but dear god the massive subjectivity in whether something is "good" shines through. I wonder how the other judges will review.

The guitar sound isn't that great - totally fair criticism to make. I agree with 1:34, that was probably the part where I felt it fit the best. It's definitely faux-guitar, but then... that's really kinda the best electric guitar-y sound I have lol. I did kill a lot of the melodies, but then - you can hear the same kind of sudden stop in a lot of actual guitar melodies, too.

I did have pretty specific meaning for the harmonic line at 1:13 - though the sudden cut at 1:27 was just the best solution I could find to the issue of "oh shit the guitar harmony fucks over everything right after that".

The guitar at 2:35 indeed does not bring much new to the song. It's true I didn't have much time (2 and a half to 3 hours?). I'd see about adding a harmonic line if I redid this, for certain.

The ending is an ending, yes - I did NOT want to fade out, though. :P I considered going back to the breakdown sound and fading out to strings, but that wouldn't have fit the mood or intent of the track, and I know I've gotten a lot of flak for ending quick and dramatic tracks like that (see: Astral Nation).

Anyway, thank you! I might be back next year, or... well, I might not. I might be too preoccupied with university and making music for albums and stuff.

[Shadow Assassin]

This IS indeed wonderful bgm for a game setting! Great work, man :D

[Sad Pokemon Theme [Pokemon's Bitter Reality]]

This is such an awesome rendition of the song! And the animation is wonderfully dark too. Amazing job, dude!

LinkTCOne responds:

thanks bud!

[Not Today]

Finally I finished my homework, hahha (for now) :D

This is actually the first thing I listen to or do in general, after writing about boring stuff for hours, so because of my relief, you have my total bias.

That said, this is a really nice track. It actually reminds me slightly of Daft Punk, for reasons.
Generally, I find this track to be rather relaxing, actually. You use a lot of nice elements, and very warm strings. The choir is a bit hidden in the mix at times, but that's alright.
The percussion is pretty neat sounding too XD

The progression with its buildups and such is nice as well.

You've got a pretty solid track here, so great job, and keep it up! :D

NicholasCabraja responds:

Thank you! Glad your relaxed now that your done your so called "homework" and my track helped In away. XD
The strings are quite warm. I did give them a good rub before my session.
The choir was shy today and didn't want to go full force. But I'll give them a nice pep talk next time!
Thanks for getting back to me and keeping me in mind, even if u did listen to this track several times...and super busy! Haha.
Will Do!

[Remix - Fading Dream (LucidShadowDreamer)]

Phew, sorry for being late.

I've been super busy with stuff, mainly the nearly 9 minutes long piece I composed together with dem0lecule for the NGADM 2015.

Man, I honestly don't have a lot to say! This is pretty darn brilliant. It's super airy and spacious. I love it!
The percussion is great, and your focus is precisely where I imagined it'd be with a real orchestral arrangement. The piano in the beginning works really well too. I guess that a few of the bells are a bit buried, but that doesn't really matter, as it all sounds great anyway. I love how I can still hear the bells if I focus though, hehhe.

I hope that your health is better by now!

Thanks for making a rendition of this track too. It sounds wonderful :D
Brilliant work, and good luck in the contest ;)

Ylmir responds:

Hey ! Thanks a lot !

Actually, I got better for some days, but it's coming back. It's a bit like a cold... but a VERY bad one. xD
I've been able to listen to it in better conditions though, and there are some little details that bug me, the strings overall sound maybe a bit too diffuse, and the Taikos could have used some more mixing probably. And the mastering is a bit clumsy as well, especially when you compare it to some other submissions. But yeah, it could have been waaay worse. :)

I had fun remixing your track, mainly because I could actually tell where to put some more accent on some instruments, it's almost like the MIDI was asking for it. It probably means your original track was already masterfully arranged. :p

...okay, now I can't stop imagining a timpani running around shouting "HEY, DON'T FORGET ME !". I should go back to bed I guess. xD

...I wonder how being a timpani feels like...

Oh, and I'll check your track as soon as I'll be able to. Congrats for making it this far in the NGADM ! :)

[Can You See the Clouds Divide]

Whoah! This sounds really cool! Both the instruments and the singing are awesome o.O
The loop is perfect too.

This actually sounds rather professional. The lyrics are sweet as well. Insta-favorite ;)
Keep it up!

[Headspace ~P~]

I don't know why, but I really love that airy super reverby sound!
The strings in the back really add some sort of mystic essence to the track. Of course, the melodies are really cool. I think they could sound really nice with a lot of instruments o.O

Also, this fit the interactive neuron thingey perfectly. It was actually pretty interesting, so I plotched the whole thing :)

Great job ;)

Phyrnna responds:

Oooh thanks~! I'm glad that you liked it! As you saw in the interactive, it's a rather "empty" environment so I tried to work within an "empty" space and fill it with lots of "neurons" :3
Thanks for trying it out~! <3