LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lord Come Soon {WIP}]

I instantly recognized the piano playing as yours (I guess it helps that I knew it was a track from you though).
But yeah, I like all the instruments and the progression. Both the deep and the higher piano notes are beautiful. The ukulele fits in nicely too.
But I have to agree with johnfn that though the song is beautiful, the mixing might need some work for it to be one with the intruments. I don't know exactly how to do it though, so the best I can advise, is listen to johnfn's advice XD

Overall though, I think the song is beautiful in it's current state as well. It's great to hear some more singing of this kind on Newgrounds nowadays.

P.S. Oh, and I almost forgot! In case it wasn't clear from my earlier review, I found some melodical similarities between "For Love is strong as Death" and "Return", which first sparked the idea that the first mentioned hinted at the latter. Some examples of such parts would be 4:19-4:22 and 5:17-5:20 of "FLisaD", and 1:17-1:20 and 4:58-5:00 of "Return".
There are lots of other short spots as well. I know they're pretty short, and far from identical, but they were similar enough that together with the themes and atmosphere, I though it was intentional, hehhe :)

Thanks for the long response!

And whoah. You are in two competitions at the same time now o.O
I hope you'll be able to put aside some time to compose tracks we'd all like to listen to, you yourself included ;)

Phonometrologist responds:

I'll experiment with some more reverb for sure on mixing the vocals and I still want to add some background vocals to harmonize the chorus parts. Mixing is my favorite *rolls eyes* lol

I compared both melodies at those moments and I now hear what you mean but they are merely similar as you said. Not the notes themselves since they're in different keys, but rather the melodic contour in how the melodies move downward to resolve to the next chord. Both parts are using Major 7th chords. Return's melody was a half-step down to the next chord progression but FLisaD moves a whole step down with Major 7th chords as well. That's the only similarities I can draw from the two.
I appreciate this kind of analysis because it's after the composition has been created. These ideas were not purposely done beforehand on a conscious way and so that is why I love theory in this sense. It tells you little bit more about the writing style of a composer that I wouldn't know about unless we analyzed their musical language. It's as if you get to know the composer in a more personal/intimate way. And thus I learn a bit about myself as if I'm looking at a mirror.
Yes I was dreading on passing to the final round of this NGAUC contest. I haven't started writing for either contest yet either. I really don't desire to move on to the next level of either. It's just great to participate in a small way to this wonderful community.

[Let it Out]

Man, this is awesome!
The clapping is cool, and the way that pad is mixed makes it feel a bit far away, which is great, as it makes this sounds like it could be a live concert!
The percussion sounds closer, but it works very well despite that.
The only thing breaking the illusion are the more dubsteppy parts, but they sounds great too, so it's fine :)

Good job ;)

larrynachos responds:

I was gonna make everything sound distant, but it sounded really bad, so I kept it like this. To be honest, I really like the way it turned out.

Thanks for the review! I really love how you stop by to provide feedback on all of my songs. It really means a lot to me!~

[-ThunderZone v2-]

This sounds great, dude!
It's a shame you won't be participating in the NGADM this year though :/

Waterflame responds:

Thank you! Yeah, I would love to join the NGADM every year. Its really fun, but sadly, time does not allow it! I have so much work to do all the time.

[Overcome]

The first 7 seconds sounded very much like something TaintedLogic would make :p
I've found that a lot of succesfull people come from demoscene. Weird.

This is pretty rad. I like the intrumentation, and the melodies. Some parts feel a bit simple/empty, but I'm guessing you didn't have time to fill all spots up, as you need to work on the NGADM track XD
I'll leave you a more extensive review for that track, when it's posted ;)

This sounds like video game music.
Overall, I liked this, especially the melodies. I just think there could be a bit more to it. Also, do you do these endings on purpose? I get that it ties the end to the beginning of the track, but... You know...

johnfn responds:

Yeah I have been listening to a lot of those demoscene people. THEY ARE REALLY GOOD D:<

Also yeah this track is pretty empty. The truth is that I wrote this track in a cafe, and I was having trouble mixing it because of the noise from the cafe. Sparse songs are a LOT easier to mix than dense songs.

Also lol yeah the ending uh I mean I don't know what you're talking about the ending is perfect. D:

[FD - Theme of Sorrow]

Amazing. Nuff said.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Thank you

[Some of My Foolishness]

This is pretty rad. It's quite amazing that you made this all in one afternoon though, with lyrics and all!
I love the guitar and percussion in the track.
This time though, I'll come with a few criticisms as well, as it's your final track after all.

The synth strings sound a bit weird to me, for some reason. I think they're a bit. Flat? They sound like they are not that high quality, basically. They enter suddenly, and disappear suddenly too. In the mix too, I'm not sure how well they fit :p
I like the idea for them though. Maybe they would've worked better in a lower octave?

As for the voice, it sounds fine. I'm not sure I like the melody in the chorus though. It may be just the strings here too that mess it up for me, because the first refrain sound a bit better! If it's not that, I guess your voice sounds a bit jumpy there? I might've liked slightly more held out tones, if possible. (not that much room there, and breathing could become a problem).
The last chorus especially, feels a bit cluttered, with the high strings, and you singing both the main melody, and some lower notes. I'm not entirely sure that I like the piano sound there either, but I can't really tell, as the strings really mess with my ability to hear what sounds good here and not XD
I'm sure a better reviewer will come along later ;)

Other than that though, everything sounds fine, and the verses sounds great! I especially love the lyrics and the ending :)
Even though I gave some criticism, which I only do sometimes, I really enjoyed the track a lot, and it's among my favorites :D
I'm sure you could've done a slightly better job if you would've had more time, but time seems short nowadays, doesn't it?

Good luck in the competition, and thank you for writing awesome music ;)

Ceevro responds:

Yeah...the strings...I really, REALLY wanted them in there, but I had to go with what my digital piano had in its' banks. They were the best I had. I may be able to mess with them a little before the cutoff...but I like 'em, despite them not being a $700 orchestral add-on to my DAW.

[The Assassination]

I heard 2 seconds and I already noticed that the style is extremely similar to that which KatMaestro did for Arma 3: Resist.
You get every genre to work splendidly, don't you? XD

I remember Kat actually recommended you to the Resist team, as he wasn't sure if he could do it alone at first. Now I know why he'd choose to ask you out of all the potential people :)

As for this track, it's wonderful. All the things that need to be there enter at the right time, they're mixed the right way, and sound amazing together. The percussion work in particular is astounding.

I don't have any criticisms (as usually, sorry for that). I like all the sections, and the sound design.
The intensity is strong with this one.

Incredible job. Keep it up, dude ;)

Mattashi responds:

Thank you Lucid :)
Yeah we used to work together but he wrote so much more than I did xD he's pretty quick at making music!
I love reading your reviews, criticism or no criticism :)

[Shinra Corperation (Cover)]

Amazing stuff!
I love your interpretation of this piece :O

Sometime next year, I'll get myself a video camera, and start recording my piano playing. The amount of Final Fantasy songs I am planning to eventually cover is pretty huge ;)

I especially like when 1:09 and 2:45 start! The sound is brilliant o.O
Great job, dude ;)

[Sanctuary of the Fallen Empire]

This is just a short review.
But I'll have you know that ambient is among my favorite genres. And this is good ambient :3
Perfect for game music, in the background :)
Especially for the deep psychological games.

Wonderful job ;)

Noisysundae responds:

Nevermind. You always make a review on every new sundae so it's not a problem. :P
Thanks like usual.

[The Traveller]

This is a wonderful track, dude! o.O
I can't believe no one has reviewed it yet. with you here, we definitely have a new great orchestral composer to add to our lists, hehhe.

The mixing is splendid, and the quality sounds really good to me. I also like the atmospheric sounds (there was some birdlike sfx, for example). Even though the track has a slow (yet beautiful) intro, it develops into quite the powerful melody.
I have heard a few people here get a bit more power out of a climax. Maybe there's a slight lack of dynaics here? I couldn't do it better myself at this point, but I think the end could use a bit more emphasis on some points nonetheless. It would add not only realism, but it would also make it easier to really live into the music and feel it!

Otherwise, I loved everything, and I favorited the track. The melodies, the structure, and the intrumentation is great.

Great job, and good luck ;)
Keep it up!

Ylmir responds:

Thank you, it really means a lot to me ! :)

Actually, I love experimenting with sounds, this is how I ended up getting these sounds in the intro, for example. The main instrument is actually composed of four different instruments (celesta + glockenspiel + crotales + an acoustic guitar played unconventionally, the hammered chordophone from FrozenPlain), and the "birdlike SFX" is just a sine synth with some effects. For this one, I wanted to get a space-y feeling, something evocating a spatial transmission or something like that. And then I messed up with the glide setting of the synth, and loved this feeling of artificial life it gave. This second approach was maybe less coherent with the story, but I couldn't resist. xD

I think you're right about the dynamics. I spent a lot of time lately working on hybrid orchestral, and on this one I decided to limit the "hybrid" part of the most powerful section to some hi percussion and a string-like synth, yet I think I continued to work on it as I worked on the hybrid epic tracks I was mentioning, where I usually use my electric guitar to give more life to the track. But I'll definitely think about it, since it's always been harder to me to write something epic for a "conventional" orchestra, and it may be the cause. Oh, and by the way, I especially had a hard time getting the last brass/violin notes right - if you listen carefully, they still sound a little bit synthy IMO.

Thank you again for your review ! ;)