LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pizza - NGADM round 1]

hella sick track. so cool to compare this with some of your 2014 ngadm subs to see how much you've grown!

add lyrics to desc pls <3

Spadezer responds:

Thanks for the listen. I'm sad you're not in this contest this year

[Echoes of the Fallen]

ooo cool song! 0:11 gave me chills o.O

great expression work on the lead instruments as usual, and really cool how the vocal vsts sound like they're saying actual words. good luck!

Everratic responds:

It's nice to see you on ng again! Thanks for the nice comments :)

I emphasized the chord change at :11 with a soft gong hit.

[Battle Born]

it took me four and a half years to realize this but the intro melody of this song is literally wake the dawn omfg

bassfiddlejones responds:

lol whoops

[Will of the Wisp OST - 02 - Sanctuary]

I CAN SEE GHOSTS!

Miyolophone responds:

I CAN SEE GHOSTS!

[Far Fetched OST - 01 - Care for You (ft. Idrys)]

pretty srue this is just toy story

Miyolophone responds:

pretty sure YOU'RE just toy story get destroyed

[Resilience]

rhythm is a dancer

johnfn responds:

egggggggg

[Bouncy]

have you ever heard of an EQ

johnfn responds:

eggegg

[J o y]

@trujoker what have you done :(( he got another hobby and long story short winston is stuck in the forest now wtf

johnfn responds:

eggy

[(OTG) Lonnie Vs. Draco (Final Push Challenge Submission)]

I’ve really been looking forward to reviewing this one, mostly because I’m so impressed by the rich world you’ve constructed for the purposes of this challenge! You’ve really gone above and beyond in adding story and flavor to your piece, and that’s really everything I could’ve hoped for when setting this challenge. I really hope that Off the Grid is your intended name for the game, because it is SO COOL that it *also* applies to your compositional technique! Turning off snap to grid sounds risky, but you made it work super well here by creating this lush orchestral texture that has the right amount of humanization but still having more than enough polish to be an impressive standalone track.

Some highlights of the song: I *really* enjoyed the inclusion of Melanie’s theme sprinkled throughout the piece, and the bit at the end where it plays on the music box was just the icing on the cake. Draco’s theme is also really cool in that it works as a lil standalone motif, but when repeated, it also works great as a builder of suspense in the 0:20 and 1:03 sections—that melody is super versatile, which makes it perfect for its purpose! Gosh, every time I listen to this track, I just notice something that I hadn’t noticed before, whether it’s a thematic detail or an orchestral one, like the music box at both the beginning and end of the piece. So much to love here! (Side note: I love how you created your own short little separate entries to elucidate the themes; no one else did this, and I think it really helps in the appreciation of the detail in this track.)

Really, I don’t know that there’s that much I would critique about this track, since it’s such a good example of what I had in mind to begin with! Sure, I had a few tiny nitpicks like that the mix felt a little lacking in the bass, and that there was a bit of over-reliance on crashes in the climactic bits that distracted a tad from the compositional content. However, none of that is taking away from the fact that this is just a really well-constructed, detail-heavy, and just all-around solid orchestral track.

All in all, many congratulations on completing the challenge with flying colors! Thanks for participating, and I hope to someday be able to play the game you’ve clearly put so much time and thought into designing.

Codefreq responds:

Wow, thank you so much for the incredibly positive review, it's such an honor! :D

I was thinking about, among other things, Video Games Live and the Smash Bros. series when I was conceptualizing how I wanted the song to play out, which is part of the reason I wrote and included the themes the way I did.

I suppose Off The Grid could be the name of this game. It would be neat to work on a game like this. :)

Your feedback regarding the bass and the crashes is much appreciated. I'll keep it in mind in the future.

I really hope the VGM Challenge comes back again, it was a lot of fun to do.

Thanks again! :)

[Farewell And Goodbye]

Not only is this a great game-ending soundtrack song, the plot that you’ve described as directing the flow this song is also super inspired, and sounds like a game I’d actually love to play! Many of the themes you’ve included here I feel like could’ve come straight out of a video game, too—the friend’s theme, for example, is one that has grown on me so much after a few listens of the track. I think you’ve definitely achieved your goal of creating something melancholic, yet hope-inspiring; the amount of detail you’ve put into the description makes it clear that you had a vision that you wanted to achieve, and I think that amount of thoroughness really shows in the final product.

A few highlights from the track: I loved 0:48, which is when I felt the track really started picking up because of the fuller texture. Your instrumentation is definitely unorthodox but interesting enough that it makes the listen enjoyable (the combination of organic elements like strings, piano, and choir mixed with the base of heavily electronic percussion and chords gives this track a really unique feeling to it). I also thought the whole 2:43 section was a highlight, with the strings and arps (make the arps louder!) providing some interesting rhythmic variety.

However, in speaking of variety, I think the biggest way to improve based on this track would be to keep thinking about variety a bit more during the songwriting process! Most of the song (except for the 2:43 section) appears to be a piano playing melodies with little rhythmic/dynamic variation on top of a texture with little background variation (for example, the drums are playing largely the same beat for the first four minutes of the song). Perhaps the reason that 2:43 really stood out to me was that it was a respite from the piano and introduced new elements to inspire attention; if you had more sections of the song with different and more humanized lead instruments or different drum patterns (as examples of variation), I do think that would really elevate the track. I had a few other nitpicks (e.g. I would’ve preferred for the cool buildup at 5:00 to lead to a climactic final section instead of just cutting to an outro), but on the whole, I think adding more variational interest would be the best way to make the track shine.

Still, great work! I’m impressed with this final product, and I just want to reiterate how cool your plot idea is and how well it translates to this condensed musical form. Thanks for participating in the Video Game Challenge!

TrandafirTeodora responds:

Thank you very much!
I appreciate your feedback and that you could see the story translated in this soundtrack.