LucidShadowDreamer's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Desolate Aftermath]

Why don't you name it "The Analytic Adaptability of an Anticipating Aerilate" ? :D

Well, I am one of the worst people at choosing genre, so I'll leave that to someone else :)

This has a quick beginning and a quick ending, imo :p That didn't bother me at all though o.O
I think you did a good job with this one. I'm just not good at reviewing rock songs, for some weird reason. I really like the genre though! I'm impressed by how different this is from what I've heard from you earlier. I also like how you're not one of those few people who try a rock genres out, but end up making something that makes your ears bleed. This track has structure, and although the instruments are rough, they are not annoying!

Also, good job on mixing so many different elements in here! My favorite is when you blend in that synth and the choir at 0:48! (I also like the part after 1:11, which follows directly afterwards).
That guitar solo is good, but it's not the cathiest I've heard :) (Good job on 1:55 => though, it's definitely different than the earlier part :D).

Nope, just kidding, my real favourite part is that after 2:10, even if it's extremely similar to my first favourite part. Makes sense.

Anyway, this is some really good stuff you've got here! Again! My only complain it that some elements seem a little too much *puts on sunglasses* 'on beat' (HA! Ha. ha...)
No but really, I have difficulties imagining a band that would actually manage to play this accurately the whole way through, especially regarding rythm and tempo :p It's probably just me though...

You'll never give anyone a cookie, will you? Good job once again ;)

LunacyEcho responds:

"Aftermath" is enough for the single-word Pokémon abilities starting with A. Once again, my tags were an inside joke! Sometimes, I think they're my favorite parts.

You know, I actually tried making the beginning subtle, building up to the part at 0:48, which was basically the chorus. The ending was easily very sudden, because this is sort of a WIP and I might extend it later.

Rock, synth, choir, definitely some elements that I've heard together and easily go very well together. On my first full rock song, I wouldn't want to go crazy and try to put polka and ragtime and dissonance and traditional Chinese instruments in here, would I?

Aha... I suppose I tried making the solo more melodically focused than catchy. The first part, at least. The second part, I went absolutely mental on.

2:10 is basically the same as 0:48. No questions asked. There's a few changes, but they're hardly noticeable.

Oh, LSD. You know how I hate my non-tempofied music! I've actually heard some metal bands that are amazingly good at keeping tempo throughout the whole song. Dream Theater is a prog band that amazes me day after day on how on-tempo their music is. When making criticisms, I'm surprised you didn't dislike the jarring whatever-it-is at 1:44. It was originally supposed to be a glitch effect, with a small crescendo and not being that loud at all, but I guess something messed up. Whatever. I'm too lazy to re-export it. :P

Cookies! They're all mine! Fine, I'll tell you. Unbelievably, it was Step and his song 'Alluring Darkness'. After listening to it, I created the synth/choir melody you hear at 0:48, and I made a song based around that.

Thanks for the review!

[Vapor]

Well, you ceratinly seem to be both a legit, and a talented musician. I've decided to scout you for the audio portal. Of course, you can always wait for someone more well known to scout you :p

Anyway, about this song. I do like it quite a bit. However, I have to point out that it doesn't necessarily sound that realistic. It might not be meant to sound realistic either, but imo this sounds slightly too much like a robot playing. It sounds a bit a FL Studio preset piano, with every tone manually clicked in the piano roll :)

You've got quite a bit of reverb, but I think that it sounds quite good in this case. Also, the composition itself seems solid to me, both in arrangement and in melody. Even if the volume of most notes seems to be the same, as well as the tempo being the same during the entirety of the track, there is an obvious progression in this composition. I do think that the ending is a bit sudden though.

Anyway... I liked this song none the less, and I checked out some of your other stuff and liked it as well. Good job, and I hope you keep it up ;)

InDeeperDreams responds:

Thank you very much for doing that! I don't necessarily consider myself a musician, so I don't try very hard when I work music. I tend to keep myself occupied with writing or graphix design, but next time I make a song, I will keep those things in mind! Thanks again!

[still breathing]

umm, tis wuy uf writng new trnd r smthing? I luv nw sng f yurs, 's buetiful!

No but seriously though, I think LunacyEcho said pretty much all that matters already.

I actually think the reverb is quite fine, but sometimes you can hear when you might have let go of the pedal too early or other small stuff :p (or maybe 0:19 was intentional?). Anyway, that doesn't really matter. In reality, many pianos don't have more reverb than this, so I think you could have more, but that it's not necessarily needed.

You really do improvise a lot better than me as well, so I won't complain about minor mistakes, as they are extremely difficult to avoid (and there aren't even many to begin with, so good job!).

In spite of what LunacyEcho said, I think there is a small climax here, but you could have a more obvious one (improv, I know). I think that 1:10 - 1:28 stands out a bit, because of a slightly higher volume and slightly different tempo (and the melody and more 'heavy' feel), but that's not a very captivating climax, imo (not saying it's bad in any way) :D

I don't know what it is, but I think I like Snowy Night a little more than this one, but I don't really find any reason to knock off any stars here. You're definitely getting better at improvising though! In a couple of years you'll be the new improv master ;)

Oh well, I'll stop rambling.

Gud jb!

johnfn responds:

> umm, tis wuy uf writng new trnd r smthing? I luv nw sng f yurs, 's buetiful!

derpderpderpderpderp

> LunacyEcho

I'm amazed you could even read it honestly... :D

> 0:19

This is a really good catch actually. This piece was not actually 100% improv (I LIED!!!). At :19 I trimmed out the earlier section of piano (because it had some crazy tempo variations) and replayed it, hence the little glitch in damper pedal. I actually didn't even notice it myself!

> small climax

Yeah good catch, that was indeed intended to be the climax :) I kinda executed it a little sloppily though, which is why it's easy to miss.

> snowy night

Yeah that song was pretty good. I dunno how I even did it.

tanks 4 da review bro

[Pipe Dream]

Maybe I'm too fast, but it seems like I'm the first to review this song as well (unless someone writes one at the same time but finishes before me). Oh well, that will change since you're bound to get lot's of fans. I checked out some of your stuff on SoundCloud and Bandcamp as well, and I'm now sure that you will indeed keep the good stuff coming ;)

Once again, it feels a bit dumb reviewing this, since I'm finding it difficult to come up with constructive criticism. I'm sure there are people that won't like this, since tastes differ, but I simply LOVE your quite unique, yet awesome, composing style. Again, I find no flaws with mixing nor with instrument choices. You have a great understanding of which sounds fit well together, and when to remove or add things to/from the song. You also know how to handle the different elements of the production in general. Speaking of which, which DAW are you using :O?

I liked every different part of this composition. To begin with we have that catchy synth-bass like thing, and then there are those drums; I love those Santa Claus like bells! After this there's some electronic stuff that seems to build up to that (dubstep-ish, what ever it's called) instrument at 0:47. And after this I'm like: "WOW! Did you just perfectly manage to blend in bongo drums into this" (seriosly though, are those bongo drums, or something else? [0.55]). Then there are of course those super athmosphere building sound effects!

You also seem to make the most melodical of melodies indeed ;)

I guess I could go on pointing out all the different parts (like that awesome transition at 1:16 :D), but since you already know they exist I don't really see how I'm helping.

One can definitely dance to this, since, the beat is perfect and evident through the entire song. I don't really know what to picture in my head while listening to this. There's just so much going on! Which imo is a good thing. At some points I kind of imagine just floating through space, while I at other times feel like I'm in some kind of weird jungle or something (like when those drums enter at 1:29)! At other parts I just see a lot of robots dancing to the beat inside of my head! Even my (funky) cat is baffled by your music!

The only "negative" thing I have to say is that you could've avoided such a generic ending. That is of course, just my opinion, but I'm sure some people would agree. Right now, it's just a bit too sudden, an slightly unsatisfying :)

Well this review didn't turn out to be so helpful. Just know that you're great at what you're doing, and please, keep it up!
I'm Not trying to force you to do awesome music that I can listen to bu.... Aww, who am I kidding. MAEK MOAR AEWSMOE MSUIC FOR MEEEH!!!! (And your future billions of potential fans).

GhostLawyer responds:

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to listen to my music and let me know what you think. You're one cool cat and I commend you.

I use FL Studio for pretty much all my music. The main synths I use here are 3xosc and Z3ta.

I actually considered naming this song "Yuletide Apocalypse" for a while just because of those sleigh bells. I love the way they sound haha this isn't the first time I've used them either.

Those are indeed bongo drums ^__^ I'm quite glad you like them.

I wasn't really sure how to end this song at the time I was making it so I agree with you there--it is a little abrupt. A better ending is definitely in order.

Thank you again! It's alright if you can't think of anything "helpful" to say. TBH I enjoy well-thought out compliments just as much as constructive criticism--it lets me know when I'm doing something right!

[Beatles-Blackbird (cover)]

Is that you singing :p ?

I really like this cover! The only thing that bothered me a little was that sound (excuse my bad knowledge of terms: scratch?) that emerges from switching chords on the guitar (especially between 0:52 and 1:00).
I'm guessing that you played a real guitar though, so there might not be much you can do about it :/ The sound does sound cool on certain occasions, but I'd say it might have been slightly too loud at other parts :) At least the 'scratch' creates a sense of realism ;)

Otherwise, I loved this. Everything from the piano and the bass, to the percussion and the strings :D (Don't forget the singit it self! :'D).

Once again, amazing work, and props for making such a good cover of a song that's already good!

GhostLawyer responds:

Yup, that's me. I'm just now getting into singing so I'm trying to work on my vocals. I thought this turned out pretty decent!

Yeah that sound is my fingers sliding on the strings on my acoustic guitar. This song in particular requires me to slide pretty much all the way across the neck at points so it gets a little noisy. I might be able to minimize the noise with better mic'ing or EQ'ing but unfortunately there's only so much one can do :P

Anyhow, thank you good sir! I appreciate it.

[The Door - Abandoned Church]

I'll let you in on a secret, I love ambient tracks :D

I don't know if I'd say it's too random, since music like this often uses the element of surprise and things you don't expect in order to create a more creepy mood.

This might actually be my favorite track of yours so far, but probably because of how much I like darker music :D

There are many good things about this track, but I especially like the chords and melodies, a.k.a. the composition and arrangement. However, I have a couple of issues with the mixing and/or the instruments.

First of, when that organ enters at 1:07, I think it's both too loud and too sudden. I do however think that it would very much fit into the song otherwise; it's simply too distracting right now since it takes over everything else. Maybe if you lowered it's volume slightly, and made its entrance less sudden (you could tune it in more).

Also, when the organ sound disappears at 1:52, I have the very same issue. The change is simply too sudden and too big. Other than that, I love the song. It would really be perfect backround music for an eerie game. I do love all the weird effects, and the echo on some instruments as well as the reverb. I think you're definitely progressing fast!

Btw, when the organ re-enters around 2:45, I think you did a much better job (it sounds like you made everything else louder too?). However, the disappearance at 3:07 was too quick again.

Lastly, since this is an ambient track that could very well be used as backround music, I would have tried making it into a loop, since that always tends to work well unless the song has too much of a climax!

Otherwise, this is much better than anything ambient I could create with a DAW, so great job ;)

The name is perfect in my opinion! Aside from being so sudden and loud, the organ really made me feel like I was in an empty church, with something creepy and out of this world within it!

TaintedLogic responds:

Thank you so much, LucidShadowDreamer! :D I love ambient tracks too! It's really easy to get away with using ugly-sounding chords on an organ! ;D I thought I emphasized the atmospheric content more than the melodic content, but I'm glad you liked the melodies anyway. I agree about the sudden organ entrances. At first I even had made it louder. XD I need to learn to be less melodramatic. ;) I'm not sure I like making loops that much. I usually only use them when I can't think of a way to end the piece. I'm glad you liked the title though. Thanks again :D

[steel nightmares]

Well, you don't have to be sorry, I definitely enjoyed this. I haven't really heard this kind of music from you before, so this was kind of unexpected!

The beginning almost sounds like something from the Halloween movie, probably because of the way you changed the key by a tone.

Songs often tend to write themselves, don't they?
I really enjoyed all the weird sounds you used here and there, Oh, and don't forget that odd segment between 2:45 and 3:12! (It almost hints at the end, imo. Even if the sound is different).

I'm guessing you made most of this using some kind of synth VSTi?
Very cool percussion as well.

As you can notice, I'm not really criticising this, but let's leave that to someone who finds more fault in the song shall we not? :p

Anyway, you did a good job here. I like to hear more dark music every now and :)

johnfn responds:

> The beginning almost sounds like something from the Halloween movie, probably because of the way you changed the key by a tone.

Yeah a lot of people get this. Its F major to E minor and it always sounds super tense. I guess it's ab/used a lot in halloween music too lol.

> It almost hints at the end, imo

Yeah it used to foreshadow the ending a little more clearly but then I lost some settings and forgot exactly how I had it set up before... oh well.

> I'm guessing you made most of this using some kind of synth VSTi?

Yeah Zebra2 for some basic sounds, and then a ton of effects chain routing stuff... Plus I also took some samples I had and chopped them up (for the guitar-like bass, some of the weird vocaly noises in the outro, some of the beats, etc). Also a layer of dblue glitch on top of everything

> percussion

Yeah idk if it was obvious but I was practicing my drums a lot here :p I normally do terrible drums.

Thanks for the review!

[The Nervous Date]

Lol, why did this have but three stars when I came here? Oh well, let's chang that now.
In my opinion, this song is extremely cool.

To begin with, I like how you used voices and other noises in the background, to strenghten the feeling of being at a public place. This composition is very good, both in arrangement and in mixing (and of course, melodically). At least in my opinion, that is.

I'd say that this sounds like something that might very well be featured in a game, at least in a retro kind (or possibly a new RPG-Maker game). Although I think it's captivating in many ways, I get the feeling that this would be perfect as background music, since I get this kind of mysterious and eery feel from it (as you mentioned in the description)! I know I already said this, but I must once again compliment you on all the extra weird sounds that you've put every here and there (3:34-3:39 for instance).

There is just so much that I like about this piece that I can't possibly pinpoint them all, or this review will just become a boring list. I especially love those strings you used, however.

I like the scene that you described as well, and I can kinda see how this song would fit that concept.

Happy Valentine's day to you too, and keep up the good work; I'm sure you will ;)

ZipZipper responds:

Thank you a bunch! ;D