LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[GG [Good Game]]

This sounds great :)
So...

Good job ;)

Jabun responds:

Hehe XD Many thanks!

[T-Logic - Terrified]

What is this? Tonal music? And not only that. There's singing too! o.O
Indeed, I did not expect this, especially not while you're still running NGAUC :D

I almost feel tempted to take out my revenge on this track. Alas, I'm too caught up composing for NGADM, and will be the entire week, and I want to review this now.

First off, I'm very glad you found this. This is very entertaining to listen to.
I really like your instrument choices. The bass is great, imo. The other instruments, like the electric guitar and organ are nice too, as are the other things that show up here and there. And I really like the melodies here, as well as the tempo changes. The percussion does its job really well. Some of the instruments could probably have higher quality though. But I actually like the way you mixed this. Apart from the vocals. They feel too dry to me.

The melody for the vocals is good too. Most of the rhythms are also fine, but at the end, they seem a bit... Flat?

Now, in my opinion, the weakest link is the singing. It sounds like to the most part, you're holding back too much. At 0:51, I'm not sure whether it's the singing or the intrument that is out of tune. But one of those two definitely is ;)

And when you sing the refrain, it sounds like you're straining a bit at the high notes. But the draw-back-ness is the thing that could use the most work, I think. Places like "whoah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh" and even part of the verses loose some of their effect because of that. The thing is, occasionally the vocals are fine. But at other parts, they're not. I'm guessing you weren't 100% secure on how to sing this piece when you recorded this?
I also think that some parts could use some raw passion when singing, especially in the refrains. Like, FULL POWER on the final refrain would be amazing :D

But yeah. I'm sure someone will come along to give you better tips when it comes to singing some time later. I can tell you didn't hit every note cleanly, so that could use some work.

Now, for the strongest part of the track. I think it's easily the lyrics! They're great!!
Really. I think they're wonderful.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable listen (or rather, listens, as this is probably my 5th one). I hope you'll do more of these!!!
Great job ;)

TaintedLogic responds:

Thank you so much, LSD! I've always admired the pace at which you upload songs, as well as how you upload songs that you know aren't perfect (and believe me, that's not a slam at all. I have this extreme sense of self-consciousness about me so that I feel like every piece I upload to NG has to be better than the last one, but in reality I think it's hindering my ability to improve). I'm glad you liked the instrument choices, and after the high-passing complaints on "Heuristic," I definitely wasn't going to forget about the bass. ;)

About the instrument quality, I most certainly agree. Unfortunately, I have yet to load more samples into my version of Garageband, so I used a lot of rudimentary presets here, tbh. I'm glad you liked how I mixed it, although personally I think a lot of the instruments could've come through a lot clearer.

The vocals are dry, yes. In fact, I wanted to put some reverb on them, but, as pathetic as this sounds, I couldn't figure it out. I found out how to add a reverb automation, but no matter which track setting I had (Rock Vocals to Male Lead to Ambient Vocals to No Effects), it wouldn't let me drag the bar up above 0%. -_-

I'm glad you liked the melodies and the rhythms. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the "flat" rhythms...maybe that I overused a lot of them?

I also concur with your "holding back" comment. I don't have a very powerful voice. I need to work on that. At :51, the singing is out of tune. Unfortunately, with limited time in the studio, I wasn't able to re-record all of the tracks I wanted to. I think that also serves as a response to your "secure on how to sing the piece" comment. Never mind the fact that I'm not actually good at singing. As for "straining on the high notes," I couldn't agree more. I believe I already mentioned in the description that I accidentally wrote the chorus out of my vocal range, and then painstakingly tried to rise to the occasion. DX

I'm really glad you liked the lyrics, though. As you know, writing is another passion of mine, so that means a lot! :')

I hope I'll do more of these too. I might be able to have access to some recording equipment at college, but not until at least 2nd semester. The Music Technology course at Bates has a prerequisite, which (if I'm lucky) I'll be able to take in the fall.

I'd like to reiterate how much I appreciate such a positive response here, though. I feel like I took a huge risk with uploading this track to NG, and it's a pleasure to know that it might just have started paying off. :'D

[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 :)