Everratic's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[endK - Moon Café]

The sound design is phenomenal, and the instrumentation is great. The chimes sample is really nice, where did you get it from? I can easily visualize a moon cafe while listening :D

I'm not fond of much of the composition. It's not bad at all, but it's also not memorable or enthralling. At times I felt that the rhythms of some melodies were a bit odd and it briefly ruined the groove, but overall it's not a big deal.

I'm glad you tried incorporating jazz elements into your music! This is a really interesting track.

endKmusic responds:

Sample's from the pack named 'FX Pack', lol. Don't really remember where I got it from. There's also some video game, glitch, nature, bang, etc fx in it. (doubt it helps >.<)
Well, I certainly wasn't going for something that's too 'in your face', although I do find both of the main melodies somewhat catchy.
There were also a lot of harmonies / variations going on in this one.
Nevertheless I'll work more on that for sure. Sometimes I get lost in the production aspect too much. Totally aware of that.
Thanks for the constructive criticism and kind words BO! :)

[Tripping Through Time]

I listened to this for a half hour while doing chores. I enjoyed it a lot!

zybor responds:

Thanks BlueOceans! :3

[Rag 01]

How did you make this in 2 hours? The composition is phenomenal. The main melody is incredibly catchy and the chord progression sounds so nostalgic. :)

AzulJazz responds:

thx so much friend

[Markiplier: Game Over - End Credits (WIP 1)]

You’re very talented. The instrumentation is great, and so is the arrangement. You’re really good at build ups, I noticed. This evokes very vivid visuals for me.

FateModified responds:

Aw, you're too nice, thanks! You're very talented yourself, especially with how well you handle harmony in your compositions. I'm weak with harmony, so I've recently started learning counterpoint. Maybe I'll get to your level before too long! :D

[Gunslinger: Retro Rider]

I love the melodies. The main one is super catchy. The key change is a nice addition. I like the instrumentation, though it all sounds more or less conventional. The panning on everything feels perfect. The only thing I disliked is that the drum beats felt slow at times compared to what I felt the pace of the track should have been.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks for the solid feedback, BlueOceans! Since I enjoy doing these kinds of tracks quite a bit, I decided to try my hand at one that was solidly of the Chiptune variety for a change. That said, it's a pretty simple premise, though I tried to spice it up a bit and make it my own.

I'm happy to hear that the panning comes across well in the mix, but I can understand why you felt the percussive rhythm was a bit slower than the rest of the piece since that was intended. While I made it more downtempo on purpose, that doesn't mean that it will jive with everyone else's sense of musical style.

Sometimes I like sparser drums, but it seems that a lot of folks prefer a more driving beat. However, if the beat is constantly driving, there's no real increase or release of percussive tension, so I do my best give to create some semblance of balance. Of course, with the highly subjective nature of music, others will always hear their own musical ideas and visions. But hey, that's kind of the beauty of music!

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, my friend. Your thoughts are always appreciated.

[FFX Battle Theme (Piano Cover)]

This is a phenomenal piece. I can’t wait to hear this play thousands of times over the next month or so :p

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Yeah! This is the version I based my YouTube version on. Some people get tired of it, but I really like it :)

[Medieval Adventure]

Wow, this has a nice progression. It has strong ff7 vibes. There are some nice melodies in here. It’s actually not bad!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Haha, thank you! Sure, I hear what you mean. This too would need an update in production though xD

[Euneirophrenia]

The melody is so pretty. It reminds me of canon in d at times.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I'm really happy with the melody. If it wasn't used in a game, I'd probably update the piano sound :)

[God Jul Jeanette!]

This is so beautiful. It reminds me of the sleeping song from ff7. What strings did you use?

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks! I used 8dio's Anthology strings, and their 1969 piano.

[Darkness and Light]

You don't write lyrics often so I'm really impressed by how good they are! They evoked strong emotions in me, which you know doesn't happen very often with music. Much of composition is phenomenal, and there are so many delightful chords in there. I think I caught a few major chord anomalies, which were really sweet. I like the piano break in the middle, and it adds some welcomed variation.

I love these lyrics, and I feel like I can relate to it a lot. The line corresponding to the song title is the most ambiguous, but I found an interpretation that makes sense to me.

I feel like the way the song was produced makes it sound much colder that what you might have untended. The piano itself sounds cold probably both because of both the timbre and the dynamic range, and it sounds more upfront than usual. The vocals are also pretty upfront and seem to be compressed a bit. Overall, I feel that there's a bit too much compression and it slightly hinders the conveyance of emotion. I think the composition itself is very high in emotion, but the aforementioned factors make it difficult for the emotional appeal to be fully realized. Near the end you increased the reverb and that was really nice! I wish the entire piece sounded more like that.

I think this track would sound even more awesome with a more dreamy atmosphere. This is a fairly pensive piece, and I think that having a lot of reverb would reflect the vastness of consciousness.

The vocals sound a little flat to me, but I think I perceive it that way due to the great contrast in dryness with the piano.

I actually kinda agree with TL about the transition at :20, but there's one important thing he didn't mention: the contrast in volume can be startling when one listens to the first time. As I said earlier, this piece sounds a bit over-compressed, so perhaps that transition sounded fine beforehand and you overlooked it post-compression.

This is an amazing track, and I'm glad you tried something new!

Good luck in the competition!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I'm trying to write lyrics more and more often, although I still don't do it enough. I often end up thinking of all the details for waaay too long. I'm glad the lyrics spoke to you. I certainly had a few people in mind when writing them, even though they're mainly trying to convey a mindset/perspective of sorts. As for the chords, I try to do something a bit different as often as I can, while I still retain my style.

The song's title has a lot of meaning to me. I'll leave the interpretation to the listeners though.

I'm not sure what you mean with "colder" per se, but I admit it wasn't an easy song to produce. I'm pretty happy with the sound though. It's a very dynamic piano piece, with vocals in the mix. Even so, I think the volume levels are fine, and the arrangement is noticable in every part, including the busiest ones (which is surprisingly difficult when there's just a piano).

There certainly is some compression in the piece, though I'm not sure taking that away would affect the things you talk about. I'd say the piece sounds weaker and less focused with no compression on it. Maybe I have to listen with some different headphones though, as I might hear the piece differently.
I feel like composition is much more important when it comes to conveying emotions than the production. As for the increased reverb at the end, it wouldn't work for the entire piece; it's cumulative, so if it was used somewhere else than in the ending, everything would clutter up. I did have more reverb on the piece initially, but it started sounding muddy imo :)

When you say the vocals sound flat, do you mean as in they're out of tune?

I still disagree about 0:20. To begin with, compression doesn't generally increase the difference in volume, but it can decrease it, so removing it would likely make the difference starker. I also don't feel like the vocals are too loud, but that might be a matter of preference.
I don't think surprising elements in music is a bad thing, but I don't know what TL and you are hearing, possibly since I've heard the piece too many times, meaning I can't hear it "for the first time".

Thanks for taking the time to write such an extensive review, and good luck to you as well! It'll be fun to see what ends up happening in this round :D!