LunacyEcho's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[BB Mush Chronicle Ep. 1]

creepy af m8

nightmares 4evaaa

GhostLawyer responds:

Be my valentine.

[Perfect Storm - WIP]

This is really nice! It sucks that you got eliminated from the NGADM - I was really enjoying your style of music, which very few musicians on Newgrounds pursue.

Personally, I think the composition is fine. I love all the different elements you add to it and the way you create the melancholy, nautical atmosphere through your filtered pads and the 6/8 time (eh, Jack Sparrow?). The part at 1:47 reminded me a bit of AWOLNATION's Sail, which may or may not be a good thing. :P

I think the biggest way you could improve the song is your sound design/instrument choice. For example, the synth that comes in at 0:56 sounds really thin and a bit out of place. The sound at 1:20 sounds pretty cliché, as it's used in a ton of techno songs (I think it was more popular a few years ago). Some of what you used is great, though - the organ and your pads all sound great and fit the song really well.

Great work! I hope you keep working on it and I'm looking forward to when the final version comes out!

Spadezer responds:

It was good to hear that you really enjoyed my contribution to NGADM.

"(eh, Jack Sparrow)"
Not the complete intention but I guess it was easy to give it a similar feel. I'll admit especially when the organ came in I kinda imagined Davy Jones on the organ a bit.

I have personal opinions about Sail (in most cases I'm not a fan of pop music), but whatever floats your boat.

"The synth that comes in at 0:56 sounds really thin and a bit out of place."
It's still the same synth I was using at the beginning and I wanted to reuse it to try out a different theme. But that's why I want people to review this so that I can get a better grasp of what fits and what doesn't. It's still all down to personal taste but I want it to be a disagreement and taste and not craftsmanship.

"The sound at 1:20 sounds pretty cliche."
Bummer. I was really trying to go away from the 80's/90's style that I was playing in the contest.

Thanks for the feedback. Peace out.
-Spadezer-

[There]

It's the little things that make up a great song, and those masterful details you added - the intro/outro glitches, 0:50, 1:29, 1:53, those high-pitched notes you add in, all those random effects you add, and everything else - it just makes for such an entertaining listening experience. You probably have some of the best production value left in the competition, and I hope you make it to the next round. :D (Then again, we have yet to see Sequenced's submission...)

Is there any specific reason behind the lyrics you chose? They seem like generic dance lyrics with a few cryptic things thrown in. Just curious. :)

garlagan responds:

the lyrics are mostly about overthinking things actually! cheers lunacy!

[Heavenly Waterfall]

Sure, there's the rushing and the misplayed notes and the repetitive chord progression and the bad recording, but still, this is amazing. After one and a half years of piano, you were playing this? Damn.

I'd love to hear you rearrange this composition! It's always nice to revisit old stuff or some of your earlier stuff. You've progressed a lot over these five and a half years. :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I've always been a pretty fast learner. Everyone used to be really impressed with my piano skills already at a pretty early time, because I always tried to play much more difficult stuff than I could handle. The result was that I learned to play very hard songs, alas poorly. Non-musical people don't always tend to notice how well you play a song though :/
I too think I've developed a hell of a deal since this, but I still have a loooooooong way to go :p

I'd love to rearrange this too! Do you know what I also would love :3
Some fucking free time from the army shit -_-
I'm past the halfway point though; only 75 days left!
I really don't have time to do anything, which is extremely frustrating. Either way, thanks for reviewing my first ever piece :'D

[redemption]

The second I heard 0:48, I ripped my earphones out so I could listen to its entirety once I got out of the Taiwanese taxi.

This song is so beautiful... For some reason, the sound of the children makes it sound really nostalgic, and then etherealwinds comes in and makes it sound like all the stresses of today are gone. (I think this might border on heresy, but personally, while I enjoyed eth's voice, I didn't really like the sounds he was making very much - I think it might be because the vowel sounds he used were a bit weird for me.)

I think this is some of your best drum work. I've always thought your drum kit sounded nice and had tons of potential, and in this one, I think you brought it out to some of its fullest. Not sure if anyone's mentioned this to you before, but one of my favorite things about your drum kit is that your kick isn't really bass-y; it's more like a really really low mid, so it doesn't clash with the bass that much.

Your ending was really nice this time, even though it dragged on a bit. Even though you played the ending bit a ton of times, I still thought you'd end on a more conclusive chord. Poor, naive me. :D

Great work! I'm reticent to say it, but I'm going to take a risk here and say that I just think you might've advanced to the next round.

johnfn responds:

> etherealwinds

It's hilarious that the complaint you had about him was actually my fault. In reality I ended up chopping up a little stem he gave me and reworking it into what you here now, so all the weirdness is just me. :p

> Non-bassy kick

That would be because I'm using an acoustic drum kit, rather than an electric one! I like it for more acoustic songs. Bass-heavy kicks only really work imo in heavy electronica stuff.

> end on a more conclusive chord

Well, it's the tonic, how much more conclusive do you want ;-) But yes. SADNESS FOR ALL >:D

[Action Crusaders Theme V2]

One of the best qualities a musician can have is being willing to go back to their old work and improve it based on others’ ideas. Never stop being as good as you can. :)

So, the first thing I noticed about this version of the song is that it’s much longer and more complete than the first Action Crusaders (still loving the title, btw). The fact that it’s now more structured and sounds a lot more like a cohesive theme song makes it much more adventurous to listen to, and it’s making me question why you don’t have more followers. :D

Its structure seems to be ABCABDC(filter out). Definitely not bad, but a little bit heavy on the repetition. Of course, this is a theme song, so a bit of repetition would be expected. Still, I would have loved it if you’d maybe added in some sort of melodic solo or something. That might be a bit biased; one of the things I value most as a musician is progressiveness, and lots of people would disagree with me on that.

The instrumentation definitely got a lot better from your previous one. Now that you’re keeping the eighth note plucks all throughout the intro, it definitely gives it a much more connected feel to the song. I’m also glad you took the advice about the first melodic synth coming in too loudly. Now that it fades in, it transitions into the song much more smoothly every time it comes in. I also love the quavering it has. I know that was in your original draft, but they just sound so epic!

Speaking of transitions, the way you transition in and out of your song are pretty interesting. You don’t hear many fade-ins to a song without some sort of filter alongside them. The filters you did use to transition in the middle of the track (0:30, 1:45) were well done. I’m just a sucker for filter transitions, I guess. :D In fact, I think your transitions are where you improved the most. I enjoyed all of them (except for maybe 0:56, which sounded a bit abrupt). The anticlimactic buildup from 0:26 might be a bit polarizing to an audience, though. I personally like them, but there are some who’d say that the buildup leads to nothing and therefore ought to be changed. Just keep an eye out for that. Also, your ending was a bit iffy for me. The chorus was all energetic, but then it just felt like it trailed off. The filter didn’t really help either. :/ Another thing to watch out for - make a satisfying ending, especially for an action-packed song like this.

I mentioned repetition before. The melodies of the song itself are a bit repetitive as well, in my opinion (although maybe that’s because I’ve spent too much time listening them trying to analyze it :P ). I still really enjoy your chorus, although I miss the piano/high-pitched hits that you had in the original chorus. Where’d they go? It’s always good to have high mids/treble sounds in your most exciting and packed parts. Also in your chorus, your kicks are powerful and drive the song forward well, but the inclusion of snares on every 2 and 4 would be helpful in varying the sounds of the percussion. In your first version, the distinction between kicks and kicks with snares was somewhat noticeable, but in this one, I can’t even be sure if you have snares.

So in conclusion, better structure and instrumentation, great transitions, a bit repetitive and some chorus problems. Don't get me wrong, though - I still love the song! I’m really glad you completed it, and I hope I’ve been helpful. I doubt you’re going to upload a third version onto the site, but still, I hope you keep making music. You really deserve more fans. :D Keep up the great work!

kinggrinyov5 responds:

Once again, a great Response, it is quite likely that I wont post a third version, chances are because no one ever has and probably never will. But if I ever finish developing my actual game I may just tinker with the music once again. Thanks again Lunacy! Cheers :D

[Mysterious Calm]

WHAT THE WHAT

I saw your four-minute song and was like "ooh, a longer song than usual." Never thought you'd surpass 'Clarity'. I was wrong. :P

So, this is impressive. I love the sound of vibes, and they fit so well here. Wouldn't have minded some accompanying piano, but that might've just sounded all muddled up. :D

Hang on. I've heard 0:32 before. Is this where part of Misguided Passion comes from? In fact, I can hear lots of stuff from your "older" (time-travelling here) songs that are reused here. :) Everything's a remix, right?

I've listened to the whole thing twice now, and I wish I could analyze it, but it does make extremely peaceful background music while I'm working. You're very talented, and an excelled improvisational pianist. Keep it up!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

That the that!

Lol, yeah. The length of my pieces tends to vary from very short to very long, as I'm sure you've noticed...
I've played single improvisations for more than an hour at times. Unfortunately, I've never recorded any of those... They don't usually sound good all the way through either XD

I don't think I could've fit a piano in here, considering it's only one track, and the most my electronical piano can play at once is two. I would've had to run the MIDI file a separate time for the piano, and I'm not so sure the result would've been that great...

I haven't consciously used 0:32 anyplace else at least :/
That said, a mind usually thinks in somewhat similar patterns, so a lot of stuff that is improvised here can be very similar to other stuff I've made (or will make). The part I was thinking of that I know I planned somewhat on beforehand is the part between 2:30 and 3:10. The rest is fully improvised, but as I said, it's difficult to improvise something that sounds entirely unlike something that has been made before. Sometimes I'm almost afraid to play exactly what comes to my head, in fear of it being "stolen" from something that I only unconsciously remember from long ago :p
As I mentioned in the description though, I have nowhere close to a perfect pitch, so I don't think I should worry. I really don't know what I'm doing when I'm improvising...

Listenend to the whole thing twice o.O? Well, I can understand that, as you used it as background music, but I think this piece gets pretty monotone after a while :p

Thanks for the millionth review or so, and for being so encouraging! :'D

[FFX Battle Theme (Piano Cover)]

Amazing. You're only getting better and better at piano.

"I kind of came up with the arrangement of(f) the top of my head while learning the chords and melodies." WHAT ARE YOU

I love the way you incorporate those beautiful arpeggios at places like 1:53. They seem a little bit off-tempo, but they sound so nice it's almost forgivable. :P

There also is a bit more reverb in this song than I'd like, but it's still great. While composition is important, rearrangement is another cool way to expand your musical abilities, and I think you're doing really well at that.

Great job! Loved it a lot.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks :)
That might be, but I'm not improving as fast as I'd hope to, as I barely have any time to spare for playing the piano :(

You know, if you keep correcting my grammatical errors in my descriptions (though I could swear I wrote it with two f's yesterday!), I'll just have to leave them there so that your reviews will make sense! XD

What am I? I dun knuw :3
When I began learning pieces I always looked up specific arrangements that I liked, and played pretty much exactly alike (from sheet music or a MIDI file for example).
As of late, I've been learning songs very loosely and played them kinda like I want. After a while I tend to stick with a certain arrangement of my own that has come from apparently nowhere. It's almost like writing your own piece, so learning is a lot faster, and playing the songs gets easier o.O

Those arpeggios are really fun to play (and perhaps not as difficult as some might think, although as you mentioned, the tempo is probably way off :p).
This is the result of me exaggerating my piano playing to the max :'D

The production after recording is less that half assed for sure :)

Might be that rearrangement is a good way to expand musical abilities, but I know I'd have a really hard time trying to come up with serious rearrangements of songs! If I try to put too much genuine thought behind what I'm doing, I'm destined to fail XD

Thanks again (I love your stuff a lot too!) XP

[The Door - Fibonacci]

Dammit! I was planning a math song! :D Man, this is awesome. You know how much I love gimmicks when it comes to music. It feels like you'd really love this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E36qMxXGo3A :)

As for the track itself, it's pretty awesome. It's mixed really well; all the different instruments are nice and clear. Some of the instruments sound a bit loud, especially the synth that comes in 2:08. I know it shows up in other places in the track, but it really feels a bit loud there. After you automate the volume down in the next bit, it goes back to sounding normal.

There's tons of cool rhythmic stuff going on here. I'm pretty bad at coming up with creative rhythms while I'm noodling around on the piano, since my basic rhythms are ingrained in my brain, but you always have these awesome syncopations that make your tracks really memorable. The only place where I think the rhythm might be a bit confusing is the synth that plays by itself at 1:09. When I first listened to it, I was caught a bit off guard, but once the bass and drums started coming in, it sounded much better and I'm pretty much used to it now. :P A thing I've noticed about having too much syncopation is that if you don't have any background instruments playing a steady beat, it gets disconcerting upon first listen, which is something I think tons of musicians ought to keep in mind.

Your melodies are getting much better. :) A few of your older songs have some off-key notes, but recently, your stuff has been improving a whole lot. It's cool to expand your range of musical abilities in any way possible; you seem to have B minor down to a cinch. The chord progressions of the majority of my old songs revolves around F, C, and G, and you can hear the lack of melodic quality when I tried leaving them. This one sounds great!

The overall atmosphere of the song is quite eerie. The breathy instruments, the thin pads, and those background sweeps at 1:02, 1:06, 2:40 contribute so much to the mysterious, somewhat creepy vibe of the music. Also, I'm not sure if this should be a loop; the intro and outro don't have that much connectivity. Still, I really enjoyed the song. You're improving a lot in your melodies and composition. Great work and good luck in school!

(How exactly would one express Pascal's Triangle through music? Hm...)

TaintedLogic responds:

Thanks so much, LE! :D That Pi Prog Rock track was awesome, btw (I listened to the whole thing)! XD

I'm glad you like the mixing. I worked on it a lot. There were a lot of volume automations in this one...one for almost every instrument. I see what you mean about the loud synth there, but for a lot of the piece it's one of the more interesting riffs IMO, so I decided to bring it out a bit more there.

I totally agree with you about the syncopations at 1:09. I almost wanted it to be a bit disconcerting, though...sort of adds to the haunting vibe, right? I definitely took a risk there, but I wanted it to stand out.

I'm glad you think my melodies and composition skills are improving! ^^ Creepy is what I'm going for...usually I either go for creepy or chill (or both)!

Now that you mention it, I'm not sure this should loop either. I'll fix that right away!

How to express Pascal's Triangle through music? Maybe you'll see! >:D

Thank you very much again, LunacyEcho!

;D

[The Gauntlet]

HI! I saw your request in the forums and thought I'd give reviewing this a shot.

So you wanted feedback on your mix with emphasis on the bass? Personally, I think the mix is pretty good, except that i feel the drums could be brought out a bit. Also, the mix feels a bit cluttered in the low mids region, especially in parts such as 0:40-1:00.

Bass-wise, I feel the bass is a bit louder than normal. Now, I have bass-boosting earphones and enjoy a good amount of bass, but it does feel like it overpowers the low mids a bit here. Still, the mix was great, as I could hear most of your instruments clearly. Your stereo imaging was also done well, although I would have preferred a bit more in the right side in places like 0:17-0:25.

Great work! I enjoyed it quite a lot. Hope you have fun recording it and good luck on your project!

DSykMusic responds:

Thanks for letting me know! Appreciate it.