LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Door - Platform]

For a first chiptune song, this is pretty nice. First impressions after hearing it were: It's got nice melodies and sound effects, but needs more depth.

When I say depth, I mean that you could possibly add more sustained notes. It seems very spacious right now, since you don't really have any instruments that are playing through each bar, just a bunch of instruments that play really short notes, nothing longer. Not saying that this is a bad thing, but it does make listening to it a little more confusing and jagged-y (if you can understand what that means).

I also think your drum noises could use a bit of work. While the other instruments are pretty good, your drums lack the 8-bit-ish quality that makes chiptune to endearing to so many people. I think there's an effect you can add to them called 'Bitcrusher' (not sure exactly how FL works). Even if it's not called 'Bitcrusher', there's a method of making things sound more 8-bit in most music-making softwares. I think.

Onto the good stuff! I think your melodies were great. They were a little spread out, but a few of them really stuck in my head. Funnily enough, the catchiest one for me was the base melody that kept repeating, maybe because it didn't just appear in one place; it stayed for the remainder of the song. I think the essence to a catchy melody is one that people enjoy and isn't blasted in people's faces, but one that appears pretty prevalently through a song so that people are satisfied with it.

My favorite part of this song was the effects you used. For instance, the 'broken' white noise sweeps. I loved that. In fact, i didn't even notice that it was happening so often until a replay, when I heard them a lot more. If you can do quarter breaks in them, why not try eighth breaks? Sixteenth breaks? Cool stuff like that really captures an audience. Also, there were the background effects that sounded great with the song, the little blips and boops. And that little detail you had at the end of the melody at 2:54 was unexpected but hit home as well.

Anyways, good job on your first chiptune song! Obviously, it wouldn't be perfect, but it's still really good. Looking forward to seeing more stuff from you, TheDoor!

TaintedLogic responds:

Woah! 0_o Thank you so much for this overwhelmingly thorough review, man! :D I agree about the lack of depth, but I think the goal of this track was to avoid having too much depth. My next track should have more. :) I agree completely about the "jaggediness," so-to-speak. I just think it's in the nature of traditional chiptunes to be very pizzicato-esque. Besides, mixing this thing was really hard (3xOsc covers 3/4 of the tones in the Equalizer!) so I needed to create as much "space" as possible! ;) I have heard of bitcrushing before, and I was vaguely aware that my drums weren't traditional 8-bit material, but I have to be a little bit rebellious, don't I? XD I'm glad you like the melodies; I personally think they're better than normal for me, especially the one at :49. I'm not quite sure what you mean by the "base melody." At first, I thought you meant the "bass melody," which is probably either referring to the "oom-pahs" (0:00) that are going throughout most of the song, or the bass at the breakdown (1:55). Now I think you're probably referring to the main melody at :19, but you could also be referring to :49, 2:10, or 2:39. XD I'm glad you appreciated the broken white noise effects, which sound really cool AND are super easy to make. I've actually done that in quite a few tracks of mine, most of them unfinished/unreleased. Maybe I'll upload some more soon! :D The "blips and boops" are all from DrumPad, and they were one of my true inspirations for making this song - I just had to use them somewhere! I actually just added the effect at 2:54 today; it's made with the Slide Tool, which I've grossly overused in the past and is also really fun and easy to use! Thank you so much again for your fantastic review, LunacyEcho. Sorry I rambled so much in my response! ;)

[Scareludium]

Great song!

I don't actually think it's particularly 'scary'. Creepy, maybe, but not that scary.

The tempo changes really worked for this song. There were a bit more than was necessary, but I think the overall effect given by the slow-downs was very nice.

Chordal-ly, the song isn't that repetitive. Melodically, it is. If you ever approach stuff like this again, I'd try changing things up a bit to try keeping your audience interested. johnfn's advice of changing something up every eight measures is a pretty good one, and I think you could've implemented that here somehow by changing up the melodies or rhythm. Anyways, I am now tired of arpeggios. :D

It's really cool how you made each chord different. I can't really tell, but I'll take your word for it. I also really enjoyed the ending. I expected it to sort of slow down into a final note, but that slightly dissonant chord just came out of nowhere and really hit home.

Good job!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks for writing serious reviews for all these old songs I'm posting!

Yeah, it's definitely not scary. It's not a happy or a sad song though, and I think that 'creepy' fits much better than 'scary' as well. However, "Creepludium" doesn't sound as good (I've never been good at names).

The changes in tempo are slightly exaggerated, but you might be right in that it doesn't matter that much in this particular composition.

"Melodically, it is. If you ever approach stuff like this again, I'd try changing things up a bit to try keeping your audience interested."

=> Well, it is somewhat difficult to notice, but almost every melody segment (usually the length of two chord hits [arpeggios], or eight notes) is slightly different from any earlier segment as well. They are however only extremely slightly different (like 1 different note in 8, unless the chord requires the melody to change).

Structurewise, as well as rythmically, this is one of the most repetitive songs that exists. The only variation that is even a bit differently built is 0:59 - 1:04, and that's because the chords needed to change faster at that part. However, this is supposed to be at least slightly in the style of a prelude, and since there's only one instrument I didn't vary things that much. Excuses excuses... I know :p

"Anyways, I am now tired of arpeggios. :D"

=> Lol, so true! I was just lazy once again, I really should have made something more creative with the left hand XD

"It's really cool how you made each chord different."

=> Yeah, except that every chord is played twice in a row, which I forgot to mention. But otherwise it should be true. However, many of the basic chords "are" the same, but with different variations! (C, Cadd9, C7 and so on).

"I also really enjoyed the ending. I expected it to sort of slow down into a final note, but that slightly dissonant chord just came out of nowhere and really hit home."

=> I'm glad you liked it. When I was tired of finding new chords or new melodies (or scales), I needed to end things quite abruptly, and what better way than to play a chord I couldn't even name because of its complexity :'D (I could probably give it an incorrect name based on the keys, but meh).

"Good job!"

=> Thank you! I was actually surprised to see that you had given me such a high rating on this song! I have a couple of more somewhat good songs (possibly up to 10), but after that things will start to go downhill, I think :)

I'll try to keep my future work mainly quality stuff though!

[leaving]

I'm not much of an improvisation critiquer, but I'll try to give a shot anyways.

You're a lot better than I am. Period. Yeah, I play piano. No, I can't improvise worth crap. I wouldn't call this a mastery of chords and melodies, but it's a damn sight better than anything I could hope to do. Well done.

I think that in many parts of the song, especially in the first half, you could've moved your left hand down an octave or so. It seemed a bit too high-pitched for a left hand, although the right hand was pretty much fine. There are places like 0:54 when the different registers played with your hands work wonderfully together, but I think they're a bit too close for too much of the song.

Also, the echo seems like it's a bit much. Personally, I'd prefer it with a bit less echo and more reverb, but that's just a personal preference, I guess. Speaking of personal preferences, the only reason I'm knocking it down half a star is because I'm a tempofreak. I'm a drummer, so it really annoys me when you have a song that's going along at a steady tempo and then some melody starts going on that misses the beat by a tad. For improvs, you sort of go in expecting to not hear the steadiest composing, but I think you could've done a bit better. Then again, it was late night. We all think different when we're tired. :)

Nitpicks aside, this was a wonderful piece. The ambience was done well and the melodies were great as usual. I couldn't really hear any glaring errors notewise (e.g. cracked notes, 'semitoned' notes, etc.), so it seems you have good control over where your fingers go, but not as much as to when to make them go (tempo!). Great job, and I'd like to see more of this stuff from you. It's a great addition to the chiptune break you've been having.

johnfn responds:

> You're a lot better than I am. Period. Yeah, I play piano. No, I can't improvise worth crap. I wouldn't call this a mastery of chords and melodies, but it's a damn sight better than anything I could hope to do. Well done.

It's all about practice though, I've been practicing for years. I used to be really bad, like I would just sit at one chord forever and my right hand would do random things. You could be as good as me if you practiced as much as me =D

> echo

Yeahhh so I was just doing this to mask errors.

:D

:D

...

I'm lazy.

> tempo problems

Yeah dude I can totally understand. Even though I'm not a drummer I think that this kind of thing would drive me crazy if I had not originally written it. I'm actually surprised more people weren't annoyed with me haha. I really need to practice with a metronome more...

The thing is that most improvisations I do are (melodically) exploratory, venturing into territory I haven't seen before, so I go a little slower trying to figure out where it should go next etc. Idk I'm just making excuses. lol

Thanks for the review though!

[snowfall in an empty land]

Yay! Another great song from johnfn! Since it seems like everyone else has covered all the big stuff, this review is probably going to be really full of nitpicks.

The bad stuff:

You know what annoys me? Constantly having to change the volume on my earphones. Basically, I think the buildup at 1:35 is a bit too loud. I guess it's hard to transition that, but I probably would've made the white noise volume lower. Speaking of transitions, I think the one at 3:09 comes a little abruptly. Perhaps you could've had some other pads or strings in there, subconsciously building the ambience up a little. I also think the little synth trills at 1:58 and 2:07 are sort of unnecessary, mainly because they don't really fit with the tempo.

I can see the piano break in the middle as being the 'empty land' part of the song, but if the first snowfall is the transition at 3:09, what's the first part supposed to be? Personally, I think the 'empty' part at 2:43-3:08 is a bit too empty. Sometimes, nothing happening can be really effective, but I don't think this piece quite pulled it off. It was done pretty well, but it just doesn't feel... complete, for some reason. Stupid inability to express my inner feelings through vocabulary. In the same vein, this is probably the ending of yours I have the biggest problem with. Normally, they're fun gimmicks, but this one just seems empty. I know that 'empty' is even in the title, but I just don't think the ending fits.

The good stuff:

The part from 2:43-3:08 was quite empty, but you did have a really cool atmosphere going on before that. The pads you used really made it sound desolated and bleak. The pads seemed really well mixed and fit in perfectly.

As usual, the sounds you used were amazing. One of the standouts was that sexy piano thing at 3:59 and 4:16. I also particularly enjoyed the plucky noises at the beginning, simply because they remind me of the intro of a Waterflame song I really enjoy, Slipping Into Madness (which has a COMPLETELY different mood from this one, but pluckity pluck nonetheless).

Basically, this was another great piece. All the compliments people have given you already for this song are echoed by me, and it seems you just keep getting better. I know this review seemed a bit negative, but I've just gotten back from a long trip and I'm tired and rambling and there's probably going to be tons of grammatical mistakes and I should stop typing now.

johnfn responds:

OH jesus I always leave your reviews for last BECAUSE I HATE YOU... or something. I actually wrote out a long response to this... which I then lost. <_> <_> <_>

> Constantly having to change the volume on my earphones

Yeah buuuut on the other hand have you ever listened to classical music on headphones? The dynamic variation puts my songs to shame... It could also be a problem of which headphones we're using and mastering perhaps... but I mean, soundcloud definitely shows that the volume is all over the place, so it's not just you. I dunno why I do it, I just like the way it accentuates climaxes I guess.

> 3:09 transition

Yeah that could have been done better, for sure.

> synth trills at 1:58 and 2:07

I kind of liked these because they gave the synth some character, though they could have been in tempo, you're right haha.

> the 'empty' part at 2:43-3:08

I secretly loved this bit, but I can understand how other people wouldn't. I dunno, I just liked the somberness of the chords. I like when everything goes away and you're wondering if it's going to come back or not.

> ending

It's funny how my least contentious ending is itself contentious. =D If you didn't like the empty part up above, it makes sense you wouldn't like this either hah

> atmosphere and sounds

YES I was putting a lot of work into both. I thought it worked really well. A lot of the noises were designed by hand.

> sexy piano

Oh yes. MY SPECIALTY

> Slipping Into Madness

Yeah this song is TOTALLY different but the intro is similar you're right.

> a bit negative

Meh it's kind of boring to have people go "zomg ur the best ever!" when I'm actually not because then I feel a little directionless. On the other hand a bunch of critique from everyone is kind of tiring to read. What I'm really trying to say here is that I AM NEVER SATISFIED :D

I'm glad that you liked it! Thanks for the extensive review :)

[A Stroll on the Beach]

I like watching the CD pic thing spin with visualizations off in the display part because when it spins, it looks like a basic impressionist sunset mixed with the Ukrainian flag. :P

This is a beautiful piece, the best one you've uploaded so far (even if you did write it nearly a year ago). You said that it was a MIDI file, so in future songs such as this, do you think you could set the notes to a steadier tempo? I'm not sure if that works in other softwares, but it's a pretty basic musicmaking technique, so it probably should be in there somewhere.

I think you could have added a bit more transition into 0:46. Since that's where the song's second part comes in, perhaps you could have included some simple, quiet drums, like a kick on every 1 and a hi-hat on every 2 and 3, if you don't have that much experience with drums. Just a thought.

The melodies and instruments are great. I think this one sounds a lot "fresh"er that the one you have a link to in your description. If you got some more VSTs, I'd love to hear what you could do with those, if this is what you can do with just an electric piano!

Great work! If you step up your production, I could really see you going far. (Although that sort of dedication generally requires one less military commitment... :/)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Heyyyyyyy! Thanks for the review dude :p
I make my CD pictures very randomy in pretty much 1 minute each, but I'm glad you like it :D

Yeah, well. This in it self is not a MIDI file, but my electronic piano always saves it as a MIDI file when you record a song. So yeah, it is possible to edit the file in a DAW and then run the MIDI file through the piano once more. However, at the time I didn't have any audio software, and now the MIDI file is nowhere to be found D:

You are right, there is a lot that could be added to this. I actually just made it quite spontaneously though, but that's no real excuse... I should really train on my percussion skills too -_-

I'm glad you like the melodies in this one, as well as the instruments, even if the production value isn't that high! If I ever take time to learn how to play this composition again, I might just remake it sometime :) (I do need to get some better VSTs though, but not right now, because I don't really have time to use them D:).

I'm glad that you see potential in me. I'm also pleased to see I didn't completely ruin the song with my lacking mixing skills! I will slowly but surely try to step up my production skills!

Believe me, I don't really want to go to the military :p
But in my country there is no real choice, unless you want to work for basically no payment for 14 months. 14 MONTHS. So I choose the military which is much shorter ;)

[The Mountain]

That was pretty emotion-striking, given that it was supposed to be a loop.

I loved the detail in the melodies. I was confused after listening for a while, because it didn't sound right, until I realized that there were more than two 'hands' playing at once. I've been listening to too much traditionally made piano music, I guess. Anyways, they were really well written. There weren't many standout parts, but that's not really a bad thing, seeing that it's based off of a loop.

There were some times when I thought the velocity of certain notes could definitely have used some changing, but maybe that's just me. Also, the strings seemed kind of pointless. They were only there for about ten seconds and there wasn't even a climax.

Anyways, great job! Simple, yet effective. The game must be happy to feature your music in it.

headphoamz responds:

Thank you! Glad you liked it. Yeah, I didn't want a climax exactly because it's a loop; it would start to sound really overbearing if it kept repeating the same memorable section.

[80's getaway]

I'm pretty sure the reason there isn't an 80s genre is because it's 2014. I mean, even if it's in the style of the 80s, I'm pretty sure you didn't record it in the 80s and save it until now, you know?

I started writing this review at around 1:10, thinking that I'd just point out what I heard and be done with it. And then I heard that synth solo in the latter half. And I had to listen to it again. (Granted, this isn't a lot different than pointing out what I heard and did, but I'm not done with it. I'm still looping it.)

I think I've gawked at your glitches enough (still amazing, btw), so I'll gawk at something else. That synth riff at 2:01. In my opinion, that's the most memorable thing about this song. When I discuss music with my friends (yes, I do that. much nerd.), that's the kind of thing I'd bring up, raising the memorability of it, and I think that's what I like about songs. How memorable they are. If I can name it after listening to a random 2-second snippet from it, it's a good song. It's not my only criterion, but it's a pretty big one.

The main thing I didn't like about this was that background noise that lasted for 11 seconds in the intro and resurfaced a couple times throughout the song. I dunno. It just doesn't seem right. I'm sure that if you removed it at a random point in the song, I'd notice, but still. If you didn't have it in, I think the song would work just fine. It's probably just me, but it makes me feel a bit... uncomfortable. I dunno.

Did you improvise the synth solo in the second half and then twiddle it around a little bit? Cause it sorta sounds like you did. I also agree with TheDoor: in a song that's mainly repetitionless, the 0:12 riff is a bit overused.

Once again, good job! Hooray for style variations! Keep it up!

johnfn responds:

Lol for some reason I always put off responding to your reviews. It's probably just because they're the longest. :D

> I mean, even if it's in the style of the 80s, I'm pretty sure you didn't record it in the 80s and save it until now, you know?

pfffpfpf

> synth solos and memorability

Ah, but 'memorable' is really really hard to pin down. Saying "I like memorable melodies" is equivalent to saying "I like good melodies." Of course you do! You should see if you can break this down and try to figure out why you think it's memorable.

Because if you think about it, I could do something memorable but not enjoyable, like blast you with super loud distorted noise every 5 seconds or something. That would make the song highly memorable, but not enjoyable at all. What I'm trying to say is that to most people "memorability" = "good" + maybe just a little "unique".

Honestly in this song I think that the riff is really memorable is because it's in a song which up until that point was NOT very memorable. So when it hits you're like "zomg go back". Sort of like what you did, hahaha. You can try to fill a song with memorable passages (I used to do this, back when I was insane) but unless you are very careful one will outshine the rest. In this song I sorta just gave up and let the synth solo steal the spotlight.

> background noise

Haha this song was intended to be like a "getaway from the cops" sort of deal. Just trying to get that across with some ambience ;-)

> Did you improvise the synth solo in the second half and then twiddle it around a little bit

That is exactly what I did. That was really insightful haha. I'm pretty impressed, but then again like 90% of what you hear in my songs is stuff I played on the piano and tweaked.

Thanks for the review dude!

[Drawing a Universe]

Man, this is the kind of stuff I was hoping you'd put out when I became a fan of yours. It's great.

I'll admit it: Most of the time, piano music bores me. I mean, I play piano, sure. But lots of the time, when I'm listening to piano music on sites like Newgrounds, I zone out and miss quite a lot of it. This one, not so much. I'm not entirely sure why. It just seems a lot more structured than people like BlazingDragon's improvisations and a lot more "freshly realistic" (can't figure out exactly how to say it) than overly mixed stuff that's made to sound pleasant, not realistic.

I'll contradict myself slightly now and say that, however much I like "fresh realism", it might be more productive of you to try and mix it. I think some reverb and maybe some echo would definitely have helped. Also, you could also have easily fit in strings and maybe some slight percussion (check out Windows by Step and Footsteps by johnfn for examples if you haven't heard them already).

Anyways, great work! I'd say 'keep working', but it looks like you've already got that covered. I keenly await your next post!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

"Man, this is the kind of stuff I was hoping you'd put out when I became a fan of yours. It's great."

=> Thanks! (That has to be the thousandt thanks I've said to you in two days, but you deserve it :p).

"I'll admit it: Most of the time, piano music bores me. I mean, I play piano, sure. But lots of the time, when I'm listening to piano music on sites like Newgrounds, I zone out and miss quite a lot of it. This one, not so much. I'm not entirely sure why. It just seems a lot more structured than people like BlazingDragon's improvisations and a lot more "freshly realistic" (can't figure out exactly how to say it) than overly mixed stuff that's made to sound pleasant, not realistic."

=> I totally know that feeling, I have it too every now and then. Usually the fault lies in myself and not the song I'm listening to though. LOL this is definitely not knowingly structred; I made it from start to finish without thinking about how the separate parts sounded together. However, some songs that are processed unconsciously can be as good as those that have undergone complicated thought processes :'D And I guess it might sound "freshly realistic", as it's pretty much as realistic as you can get with your avarage electronic piano, since litterally NOTHING was added to the sound afterwards (for good and for bad).

"I'll contradict myself slightly now and say that, however much I like "fresh realism", it might be more productive of you to try and mix it. I think some reverb and maybe some echo would definitely have helped. "

=> You're right again, as usually! I promise (yeah sure... sure...) that I at some point in my life will go through some of my older recordings and remake them with better production and mixing... Maybe...

"Also, you could also have easily fit in strings and maybe some slight percussion (check out Windows by Step and Footsteps by johnfn for examples if you haven't heard them already)."

=>Yup... yup... However, said things are against the rules I gave myself while making this song in particular. This does not mean you're wrong, just that I had reasons not to do antyhing more than a piano (in order not to be holistic, that is...).
I do have several compositions with added strings and other stuff (rarely percussion, since that is something I will have to practise thoroughly first), I'll try to remember to post a song with other elements then just claviature next week :D
And yes, I've heard "Windows". Oh god I love those strings, so I know what you mean. And oddly enough, I hadn't heard "Footsteps" yet, so thanks for that listening tip (it is really an awesome song).

"Anyways, great work! I'd say 'keep working', but it looks like you've already got that covered. I keenly await your next post!"

=> How do i say "thanks" by only implying it and not by writing those six letters every time :p
I will probably not make anything new in at least a couple of weeks (ranging to a month or so), but I have a lot of older stuff that you might enjoy that will be posted, even if it doesn't yet reach your level, not to mention people like Johnfn and Step (or Waterflame or the missing ParagonX9 and so on) XD

Ps. Brace yourself, since the older stuff I'm talking about has no real mixing either, but at least more instruments.

[Loneliness]

Wow. For someone who hasn't been scouted yet, this is amazing work. You've definitely got potential.

Since it's a loop, I'd upload it as a loop if I were you. It's just that extra bit of something that aids mental organization quite a lot.

I think it'd help if you were somehow able to make the sounds more on-beat. For me at least, the lack of notes on a beat makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, especially if it's unintentional.

It's great background music. I love the emotion put into it, but I wouldn't mind if the left hand was a bit less repetitive. Of course, it's background music, so pretty much any amount of repetition goes.

You can tell something's a great loop if you can listen to it on loop for long periods of time and not tell when it loops. That's what I like about this song. It's very subtle, so it loops very cleanly. The added bits of high-register piano and bells are just the thing needed to make this sound epic.

This really is great work. I like it a lot, and I hope I can see more stuff of even higher quality in the future.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Wow, thank you very much for that review! It's also spot on!

"Wow. For someone who hasn't been scouted yet, this is amazing work. You've definitely got potential."

=> Thank you very much! I might not have been scouted yet (btw, thanks for the scout recommendation), but I've played the piano for five years now (in a month at least).

"Since it's a loop, I'd upload it as a loop if I were you. It's just that extra bit of something that aids mental organization quite a lot."

=> Well I did upload it as a loop, and it works for me. Are you maybe talking about the genre? I just chose miscellaneous because I didn't pay much attention to the different genres.

"I think it'd help if you were somehow able to make the sounds more on-beat. For me at least, the lack of notes on a beat makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, especially if it's unintentional."

=> Ahahaha, I knew that would come back to haunt me! I didn't even use a metronome as one can easily hear. You see, I just made this song randomly in about an hour, and the first recording is also the last one (if I recall correctly). I've been thinking of redoing the whole thing at some point, and take the production more seriously. I first recorded the piano, left hand and right hand together. Then, without using a metronome I recorded the vibraphone sound which pretty much just inverts what the piano does at some points, as well as fills a bit of extra space now and then.
(I didn't even edit anything, just put the two sound files together in audacity...)
Even the volume changes were done manually, which really bothers me at 1:21 and some other places -_-

"It's great background music. I love the emotion put into it, but I wouldn't mind if the left hand was a bit less repetitive. Of course, it's background music, so pretty much any amount of repetition goes."

=> Once again, spot on. I should've done something more, but I just followed the main idea without thinking any further...

"You can tell something's a great loop if you can listen to it on loop for long periods of time and not tell when it loops. That's what I like about this song. It's very subtle, so it loops very cleanly."

=> Thanks again! The loop might be okay, but I could've made it even better; there is an almost unnoticable 'click' sound when it loops, because of the cut I did in Audacity D:
Also, I obviously "cheated" when I made this a loop. Because of that simple repetitive left hand, it was one of the easiest loops I've ever made. Cannot go wrong :p

"The added bits of high-register piano and bells are just the thing needed to make this sound epic."

=> Yeah, when I made the song I noticed it was a bit boring without anything more to fill out the emptiness, so I added that spontaneously.

"This really is great work. I like it a lot, and I hope I can see more stuff of even higher quality in the future."

=> Once again, thank you so much! This review was really a tug at my heartstrings :D
I am definitely planning on improving the production value of my compositions in the future (well, mostly at least).