LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Some of My Foolishness]

Wowowowoowow. You've come such a long way from making jokes about Tim's mom last year. :D

Your style is still as organic as it ever was, but with the addition, of more instruments, it somehow sounds more professional while still maintaining an independent quality :D

Damn, I am SUCH a sucker for 5/4 time, and you played it so smoothly and so rhythmically! I also loved the progression of the three choruses, from a simple voice and guitar to the addition of high strings and piano to that full choral ending! Man, the harmonies and instrumentation in that final chorus, made it sound so sentimental yet so uplifting at the same time. Your sound quality in this song is so good, and your guitar licks are as nice as ever :D MOAR SOLOS!

If I were to nitpick a few things, it would be that the swing rhythm makes the non-swing rhythms sound REALLY out of place (although that might just be the drummer in me complaining). :P The transition from the verse into the final chorus is also a little sudden. Maybe a little more buildup to it?

But this is such a great song. Downloaded and fav'd! Good luck in the competition!

Ceevro responds:

I think I may do away with the high strings....they really are the reason the last chorus sounds so sudden. I think it sounds better without. Tough call, though. I like them, but I'd really like a WAY better sample to work with.

And don't you worry: When it comes time to smack Tim's Mom around some more, I will be there.

[Is This What You Want?]

This is the best-produced song I've ever heard from you - great job! (Unless you count that stuff Step did for you lol)

Your guitar playing is, as usual, off the hook. Although the one thing I would nitpick about this song is that while your guitar is amazing as backing during the song, the distorted guitar solos were a little bit... simple? This kind of grungy, distorted atmosphere would be perfect for you to show off your guitar skills in a killer solo! At least, that's what I thought. :P

Everything else is so amazing though. Cardboard is my new favorite percussion instrument. :D This is, like, professional budget music. It's scary to think of the kind of things you could do with full access to other instruments! Good luck in the competition!

Ceevro responds:

YAY! Someone noticed my cardboard playing!

Yeah, I thought about going for a massive-shred solo, but after playing a couple, I figured that simple and primal got the job done better, stylistically. This was a song based entirely on 2 chords, E and F, so it's actually quite minimalist in composition. I wanted to see what I could do the simplest progression I could play.

Don't worry, way more complex stuff shall come out in the next round...provided I survive!

[T-Logic - Architeuthis]

This is without a doubt one of the nicest intros I've ever heard. GREAT job. Did you record your cello and stutter that too? :D

johnfn has a point about NGADM judges and atonality. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the song! Maybe because my music theory isn't as good as his and I didn't spend the entire song brain-spazzing about the unorthodox chords. :D

This seriously has such a nice groove to it. I also love the way you panned a bunch of the glitchy details in the different ears! That was fun. I love the white noise stuff you did too, although as a nitpick, I would've introduced the white noise at 3:12 in a different way, since it starts off the same as the white noise bit at 2:36. Glitches should be anything but repetitive, right? :P

As a stylistic critique... meatier drums? I dunno. Your stuff is generally pretty crisp and thin, and that was changed for this song quite a bit! Your sound design has gotten better, at least. :D

Great work! Hope to see some more stuff of this quality in the future! ;)

TaintedLogic responds:

Aww...thanks so much, LE! ^^ I didn't record my cello for this...but I did stutter the sweeps, that bizzare instrument at :23 from TS404, the bass, and those heavy chords at :54. Interestingly enough, I stuttered them in different ways: some using trans effects, others by automating the LFO, and still others by just packing a bunch of notes in a tiny space in the piano roll. ;)

Everyone has a different taste when it comes to clashing chords - I'm glad you happened to enjoy them! :D

I appreciate your compliments about the panning and the sweeps, and I totally agree about the "repetitive glitchiness" between 2:36 and 3:12. I was running out of ideas. XD

I agree that the drums are pretty bland, but that's not really what I wanted the listener to focus on with this piece. Still, I probably could've done more with them. I'm interested to know what you mean by "crisp and thin" - do you mean I don't use a lot of reverb, or that my textures usually aren't that thick (i.e., complex)?

Thanks a lot again, LunacyEcho! Hopefully I can keep up this quality of stuff. XD

[The Dream of a Robot]

No electric sheep? I sad. :D

Also that eargasm at 1:24

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

No electric sheep! >:(
I'm glad you like 1:24, as I'm pretty happy with that transition myself XD
Thanks for helping me a bit in the making of this track!

[Stairway to Voice Acting]

omfg my ears

I love this track in that it's a method for you to explore the different sounds your voice can make. I once had a drama teacher that advised us never to stop playing with our voices, and after doing Forensics for a few years, I definitely have to agree. Your different voices are pretty cool!

1. Sounds familiar. Mad World, anyone?
2. To be honest, I don't think it's that much different from your first voice, although it's an interesting intonation.
3. Wow, that was unexpected! There were some more pitchy bits here, but it's always good to practice a deep voice in case a random lady comes along that you want to impress.
4. Again, unexpected! Nitpick: at 0:57, at the word "all", you bring your voice down, when in the song, the pitch lasts for the whole word. Not saying you're wrong - it still sounded great, but it was a noticeable departure from the song (at least, for me).
5. There are no words.
6. Is this what the old man in your compound sounds like? :D
7. Finland, the land of death metal!
8. Are those lyrics in Finnish? :D (for me, they might as well be)

Sounds good! Hope you weren't expecting an actual review. Um... the piano was good? :P

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hahaha XD That's what you get for wearing earBUDS, buddy ;)

Have you ever thought that... MAYBE I WAS THAT DRAMA TEACHER?
I honestly don't understand what Forensics has to do with this though. Do you solve cases in court by manufacturing false evidence by voice acting the suspect and making "him" admit on a recording which you "find" at a crime scene?

I agree though. It's fun to do weird stuff with your voice. I recommend it for all who want to get weird looks in public!

1. Well, I already admitted that this is pretty much my normal singing voice :p
2. I do agree with you. I messed up this voice a little bit. Originally, I sang it through only one side of my mouth, but I kinda forgot to in the final recording, so it's basically just a very nasal version of my voice.
3. It's a shame, but I catually can't reach very deep voices. At least not in a clean way. I should train on that famous "trailer voice", I guess XD
4. What the heck are you smokin' brah? I'm asking, because I want some too!
5. This was the worst recording for voice 5 and 6 out of the three times I tried. The idea was pretty neat imo though.
6. I really dislike that guy. If I were to give him a voice, it would be much more unflattering! And this was not a flattering voice. Nuff said.
7. Indeed it is, of metal in general! I'm afraid my throat would give up during 1 day if I ever tried to aspire to become a Death Metal singer.
8. Actually, they're latin! Well, more specifically, Pig Latin.

"the piano was good?"

It works. But listen to the beginning of examplewise voice 5 again, and you'll see what I mean ;)

Thanks for the review! Tbh, I didn't expect a review at all; kinda made my night XD

[T-Logic - Heuristic]

I can't tell any harsh pads in the intro, so I guess your edit worked! :D

There are some really awesome instruments and drum beats in here. I think this is one of your more interesting instrumentations, since it has stuff like that 0:39 'synth bass' (and not a guitar) and some really interesting drum beats, like those starting around 1:14. How'd you get your kicks to do that? 3xOsc? :D

One thing I found interesting about this song: It had no lower frequencies! I mean, when johnfn wrote that, I'm sure he meant to have at least *some* lower frequencies. Although, the muffled effect that it gives the song also does contribute to a more trance-y, ethereal vibe. It's not a bad idea, and definitely gives the song a distinctive feeling. :)

I dunno if it's the drummer thing coming through, but the one thing I thought could improve the drum beat immensely was more cymbals. In typical D'n'B beats, you've got a constant hi-hat playing quarters, eighths, sixteenths, or whatever. But here, there was an open hi-hat once every few bars, and I felt that the drum beat could've been tied together really well if you had a constant closed hi-hat playing steadily along with it. Although, that's more of a personal nitpick, I guess. :P

Great song! Can't wait to see what else you put out now that you have more time! :D

TaintedLogic responds:

Yay, glad my edit worked! :D I appreciated your comment about the instrumentation and drum beats. I worked hard on those! ;) I think at 1:14 instead of the "kicks" you're referring to the little percs that come in between the snare hits. I just zoomed in on the piano roll and made them play in rapid succession. :D The kick actually only comes in every other beat at 1:14. Honestly, I think I made a mistake with the lack of lower frequencies in this song. The bass actually comes in at :51, but you can barely hear it. I acknowledge your advice about the hi-hats. I'll try to keep that in mind next time. ;) Thanks so much for the review, LunacyEcho! I'm looking forward to having more time as well, believe me. ^_^

[Sundivine - Party Hard (Lockyn Remix)]

Suggestion: mash this up with Party Hard by Andrew WK

But as usual it's an awesome house song filled with a ton of amazing effects and doesn't get boring. :D Good job!

Lockyn responds:

Oh wow, LunacyEcho! I remember your pieces from the competition awhile back. Nice to see you. :) Haha, I'm not sure what that track is, but I'll check it out. Thank you for your kind comments, really appreciate your review. Cheers!

[Mad Microphone Test]

Wow, you're such a good singer. You know how to hit pitch really well, and I think with some practice, you could become a very good singer easily (things like rhythm, intonation, quavering, etc. are secondary to understanding how to reach pitch!)

I liked both sections, but I think the second half was slightly better because, being further away from the mic, you had some more freedom with your voice to do stuff like quavering (2:26, 2:52) and more adventurous stuff (2:07, 2:49). Also, the reverb towards the end of the second half sounded awesome. One thing I'd say about your piano is that, personally, I find it interesting when the melodies played by the piano differ from those sung, so you have even more melodies playing at once!

Hearing this, I want to hear you sing something in a language you're more familiar with! Hopefully, your cranky neighbors will move away soon so we can hear you sing more. Great work!

also 2:22 voice crack lel

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hahha, you came back to review this anyway XD

It's funny how most people have been complimenting my singing. It's probably just a smart illuminati way of encouraging me, but I guess it worked. In the future, I will upload more singing, I guess... But probably lazy singing like this, with not much practice nor great mixing :p

As for the pitch, I'm pretty good when it comes to the main melody. Just in case, I played it as well. But if I'm sining with others, I need to really focus in order to get tenor/bass right (mostly, because they're pretty boring to remember though).

Nice catches at all the points you mentioned! 2:22 was 100% intentional though XD

"I find it interesting when the melodies played by the piano differ from those sung"

=> This, I'm super bad at. I'd like to be able to play different rhythms and meodies while singing, but it's IMPOSSIBRUUU!!!

I might sing "Vem kan segla förutan vind" sometime. Davy Jones Theme is probably "stolen" from this. It's so similar, and in the same key that I find it hard to believe that it's 100& accidental :)

Thanks for the uplifting review!

[Facing the Stormy Sea]

Your composition is as amazing as ever. :) Can't fault you at all for it. (Well, there is that thing at the beginning where the percussion plays in 4/4 instead of 6/8, but that really doesn't impact the amazingness of the track at all.) The instrumentation was great - the harpsichord and clarinets made it sound much more pirate-y. And all those sound effects at around 1:13 were great! Did they come with EWQL too?

Your mixing as also gotten better! Man, I really need to get me some EWQL. There are a few nitpicks I could make - The percussion in the first part is too quiet, the trombones at 1:03 sounded too mechanical, some of the notes had too much sustain, so they overlapped, and your higher notes were sometimes drowned out. But, man, those are tiny nitpicks, especially compared to the amount of gloriousness in this piece. 0:27 was especially impressive in all of its mixed crispness!

Dude, this is amazing. Keep this up for a few years and you're well on your way to becoming the next PeterSatera/SoundChris/Step/all the other orchestral greats! I'm expecting great things in your contest entry and other future projects too. Great work! :D

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks dude :3
Know what? I just realized that I totally forgot to review your latest song that you posted ages ago D: !!!
I will redeem that after replying to this ;)

"Percussion"

=> The track is in 4/4 tho... It begins at 0:03, whereas the first notes are in the previous measure o.O
I guess it's possible to interpret it as 6/8, but man, that feels weird for me to think in XD

I'm glad you liked the intrumentation! A lot more brass then I normally use. It feels good to finally have brass that sounds pretty good!
I also wanted to find a spot for the clarinet, which I found to be surprisingly difficult. I've used them so rarely before, but it seems like their use was a sucess :D

And yep. All the sound effect came with EWQL! Most are different hits on the Chinese Tam Tam, or cymbals and stuff.

I'm glad that you noticed the slight improvement in my mixing as well. Next, I need to focus much on bringing forth the percussion, and on getting an overall higher volumed track.

The trombones at 1:03 are some kind of modified trombones (not by me, the "effect" came with EWQL). I used them, because they had a much harsher sound, which I wanted for the part, but may be they soud a bit unrealistic XD
But yeah, you should totally get EWQL when it gets cheaper again!

And wow, really good catch at 0:27! That's most likely the part where I put the most effort into the mixing, to get the sound that I wanted :'D

While I like doing tracks like these, I think I'll take a short break already. Of course, I'm already working with Dem0lecule on some amazing stuff, but other than that, I think I want to make a new piano composition, something more relaxed and electronic (if possible, maybe for robot day!), and such things XD
But I will definitely keep doing orchestral tracks too. I think I want to do a slower one next, as that too, is very good practice :3

Thanks a lot for the great review. Now, it's time to repay the favor ;)

[Light Up]

Man, this melody really grows on you. Really loving the new song! And all those nifty solos are amazing.

The only problem I can find without resorting to nitpicking is that in the section at 0:42, there's a bit of a tempo discrepancy - the pad's attack is a bit too low with my tastes, and with the constant constant sixteenth notes, it can be a bit disorienting. If I were you, I'd add something like a simple kick drum ever quarter or half note, to make it easier to follow.

A smaller nitpick I could mention is the drum beat. It's really dancey, since for most of the song, I think it's just a disco beat (sixteenth hats, basic kick and snare). It's a great beat and feels really dancey, but I felt like it could've been changed up a bit, especially in the end. You did do that bit at 2:00, but it also lost the kick on every quarter, so it didn't feel as dancey. As a suggestion, maybe if you do a beat like this again, vary it towards the end by adding in ghost snares and kicks, but while also keeping the basic drum beat? (kind of the like the drums in wide world lololol)

But man, the rest of the song is amazing. Your solos have really gotten great! The bits at 1:29, 1:39, 2:24, and that whole section at 2:47 stand out for me. Speaking of 2:47, with the two solos playing at once, I spent way too long trying to see if the higher-pitched solo was one that had appeared earlier in the song, since the concept of repeating melodies in the end and altering them is a really awesome one in my opinion, and it's one I know you've done at least once (inside the machine). Sadly, I couldn't find the melody in any previous solos (which means that if it actually was, I'm about to look really stupid) :P

I really liked this song! I'm gonna be humming it all afternoon. Good job! Are you gonna be participating in the NIM?

johnfn responds:

Thanks! I totally get the thing about the pad attack. I never even thought of that! I could have put a hi hat in there or something to stabilize the listener before the kicks come in.

I DO switch up the drumbeat, ya jerk! Alright, you already mentioned that I do. I guess I don't really know how to switch up a drum beat while keeping the 4-on-the-floor thing. That's a good thing for me to look into, I suppose. :)

> I spent way too long trying to see if the higher-pitched solo was one that had appeared earlier in the song

Nope, it is unique, so you were right! Well, it is a modification of the 'main' riff, but I kinda bumped around the note rhythms a little bit and added some random high notes to make it sound like it was doing sophisticated soloing xD

> NIM

I actually regretted posting this song immediately once I saw that the NIM thread was up. I was thinking I could have easily submitted it under ANY of the vg categories and just claimed I had done it really fast, hahahaha. Plus, I thought it was a really good song. ;-)

On the other hand, last year in the AIM I had a kind of bizarre negative experience with one of the people involved... I'd prefer not to get into it in a public forum, but it was... kinda weird, and sorta turned me off from AIM.

So if I end up writing a good song that fits, I'll probably submit it, but I probably won't aim to submit anything to the AIM.

TL;DR uhhhhh I dunno? Maybe? :D