LuckyDee's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oruga - ADM'22 Round 4]

Official ADM review:

This track blew me away. The minimalism of the first half is daring, but allows the quirks in chord progression and melodies to really shine. Very often they take unexpected turns, with the chords swerving into deep melancholy at 40s in and the melody feeling like it's going to victoriously resolve on the root note at the 1m mark before plunging the listener into regret instead. And all the while the piano and violin are darting around each other like lovers who have forgotten how to talk.

Then halfway through the soundscape begins to fill up, gradually but definitively confirming the anxiety of the two voices before boosting morale and ending on a hopeful rather than regretful note - the only section I actually think could be improved. The contrast with the first pass, featuring only piano and violin, is clear and appropriate, but the climax feels forced. The major chord that brings everything home feels like it either comes to soon or adds to little as it just fades out after that without truly adding to the story anymore. Compare it to reading your kid a fairy tale and finishing with 'and the wolf had eaten his entire family and he lived happily ever after' *sound of book decisively slamming shut*

But truly, that's the only criticism I can come up with. The composition is beautiful in its simplicity, the sound design is spartan but very appropriate and the production is lush and really supports the composition in drawing your listeners in. Great work, and good luck with the finals!

[A Villager's Dream]

Official ADM review:

Well, I'm starting to feel like I'm running out of new things to say here. It doesn't really matter what set of instruments you choose - and the choice for this particular piece is flawless - you make it work every single damn time. The flute might have been difficult to program, but even focusing on that, I can't find fault with how you went about this - it sounds natural and like it's exactly where it's supposed to be.

Once again your storytelling is simply magnificent - I can actually see the places our protagonist is traveling through as the music changes, starting in their home village, going into a dark forest with some curious occupants, a castle and a landscape of rolling hills only for them to start dreaming of home again, and going back.

And this is where I feel the only shortcoming of this track is. Pop culture has been bombarded with medieval/fantasy films and series over the past couple of decades, so much so that within half a minute the listener will have your track firmly pegged as belonging to this genre. This can only be achieved by stringing the right number of clichés together - which you do expertly, but they're clichés nonetheless. And because the cultural mind is so conditioned to hear this music in support of visual arts, hearing it out of its expected context immediately makes it feel like something is missing.

Compared to your previous two entries, which don't have as clear an established cultural framework to be viewed against, I think this one is a step in the wrong direction for these reasons. And you're still scoring incredibly highly because you are simply damn good at what you're doing, but at least I thought I could give you some feedback with this that may help you for the last leg of the journey. Good luck in the finals!

[Grant and LuckyDee's Spooktacular Adventure!]

Gorgeous work \m/ \m/
Thanks for having me on board!

TeffyD responds:

No problem, thank you for your wonderful voice acting!

[A Bedtime Story]

Official NGADM review:

As with your previous submission, evocation is key once again - the smooth, lazily drifting tones of first and third sections immediately ring true to the title, with the velvety texture of the woodwinds and strings floating over the more solid, anchoring feel of the glockenspiel and piano working wonderfully with the melody and chord progressions to convey that sense of a warm cozy pillow to sink your head into on a dark evening. For some reason Garance's face springs back to mind; there's a cartoony feel to your piece which would pair well with those soft colours, absent lines and rounded drawings.

Now I don't know exactly what this kid here is up to, but the second section took me quite by surprise - this section I associate with pits opening up in the ground and creatures, hellfire and/or general evil rising up from them - again, with a cartoonish take on the concept, albeit of a significantly different variety. On a conceptual level, they feel like two different songs to me, but I realize that's due to my association and am looking beyond that.

And there you are again delivering an incredibly solid contest entry. The composition embodies your concept very well, choice of instrumentation greatly suits the different sections and the changes in it keep the composition fresh despite its limited palette, and the spatial coherence is once again stunning.

High production values, great writing skills and beautiful storytelling. Hats off.

[Inquisition - ADM'22 Round 3]

Official NGADM review:

These are the sounds that accompany the opening credits, or better yet, a preparing-for-battle montage of a fantasy themed movie. They speak of action, of movement, of dogged perseverance in the face of adversity. The tide will be turned as the tribes are uniting, their hesitant leader flitting from one unit to the next to monitor their progress, unexpectedly building their trust and boosting their morale in the process. Peter Jackson eat your heart out.

Simply put: this piece is amazing. You write about the mix being lacking and the chaos in the composition with the four different themes, but neither are obvious enough to draw attention to themselves. Well, that's not entirely true: the changing time signature does register, and even though I couldn't figure it out off the cuff (it's 7am, forgive me), it still feels natural enough not to detract from the vibe of the piece nor hamper its momentum. Also, despite there not being a lot of repetition in the piece, the sections form a coherent whole with a natural flow and a solid overarching theme.

The choice of orchestration works really well; the brass adds a sense of urgency to the anxious mood set in the strings, the simple rhythm section allowing for them to perform cartwheels and flourishes in the background as the tension rises. The dynamics also work really well, giving it that roller coaster ride feel necessary to really build suspense. The only criticism I can come up with is that by contrast the final four bars feel forced and empty - I get why you would move into this section, but for a climax it feels incongruously sober and to the point compared to the rest of the piece - I envision the entire string section cascading in on itself, if not outright smacking each other around the ears with their instruments. Mental note: if you are playing the violin, best not to mess with the bass player at this point.

Anyhow, the end result is simply put very, very good. As might be obvious by now, it really sparks the imagination - for me at least - which I think is one of the best qualities any song can have regardless of genre, composition or production values. Keep up the good work!

Santi-Montali responds:

'Mental note: if you are playing the violin, best not to mess with the bass player at this point.' Well violin section has more players so I think overall you might end up winning that fight lol. Thank you so much for listening and reviewing! :)

[A Untouched Place]

Nice work man, the melody and the texture work really well together. And good to see you're still alive and kicking.

squidwardtesticles responds:

Thanks Dee. I mentioned it to starr and a few others, but I've been going through the process to become an EMT. So I haven't been active on the server because I'm busy.

[Year]

Official ADM Review:
Much like Quarl recently did to me, I'll start out by thanking you for writing down the purpose of this piece. Reminding me of old Laurent Garnier tracks, I can totally dig how this would be a great note to end a night of partying on; it has the right vibe both in terms of melodies as well as rhythms. Close your eyes and you can almost feel the crowd moving around you, tired, sweaty and probably off their gourds on E. Especially he final section, with the beat dropping away is a real nice come-down, seeing everyone home safe.

In terms of production and sound design, it's pretty damn spot on. The selected samples work really well together in terms of texture and everything has a clear place in the mix - from a technical viewpoint, you clearly know what you're doing. I could dance to this, even though I'm not a particular fan of the genre (or haven't been anymore, for a couple of decades).

On the other hand there's the composition, which I can look at in two ways: there's music made for listening to, and there's music made for experiencing. By your own admission, this track falls in the latter category, being composed for a very specific purpose. But for this purpose, I think it falls short. You can't come down from a night of partying and dancing in just under 8 minutes - you'd get hurt. For the intended purpose, I'd expect the track to be much longer, the build up (much like Garnier's stuff) much more subtle, the rhythmless section stretched seemingly endlessly, with the instruments meandering about and gradually dissolving into something equally pleasurable and incomprehensible. OK, that last bit may be personal preference, but immersion is key here, and in that respect time = money.

If you look at it from the other perspective, there's not much to see. This clearly wasn't written as listening music, as for that purpose it's way too long and uneventful. Had you not added your description, I would have listened to it as such, and your score would probably have reflected this for the worse. As it is, I'll stick with your explanation and tell you you have a storyboard for the track you intended to create, with a lot of merits, but not finished as is. And going for something on an epic scale like that to finish within two weeks, yeah that's steep - which makes it a risky move to submit a track like this for a competition.

You're absolutely on to something here, no denying, and I hope you manage to crank up the epic to 11 on tracks like this. Good luck on the competition!

Sequenced responds:

I'm glad you are able to appreciate it for what its purpose it. I've had some feedback from other DJs and the 3-4 minutes is enough, I had it drag out more while writing this but it just felt TOO dragged out. So how do you balance that?

The reason I'm submitting tracks likes these to NG is because of the international success they've been getting. So, is NG ready for something a little bit different?

Perhaps, I may make a rendition of my own for 10-11 minutes just in case for back up if I start touring. but when I listen to this, I think the length is JUST right. We will see :)

[SUNSCREECH - uruk tech]

Official ADM review:
Due to how I experienced this song when hearing it for the first time, let me take you by the hand to share it with me: OK so right of the bat you have me nailed to my speakers. There's a ton of promise in that haunting wail, that we're going to be in for a ride, a suggestion that the tentative chords and the building drums stretch out. And then - an unexpectedly empty section once the music gets going. But that's alright, of course, you can't put the climax in one minute into a five minute song. Except... the climax never comes. The floor falls out from underneath us midway through the song, allowing a new build-up - again, crafted really well, with the spacious strings allowing for a moment of respite before the chords and drums kick in again, this time accompanied by a rising synth tone to add to the vibe even more. This time we are tricked and maneuvered into a section that promises an even steeper ascent, except it levels out after only a handful of bars and stays there for the remaining minute of the song, leaving me much like Mr. Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLfdKtAMKEs&t=83s

If this makes it sound like I was disappointed, well, I was. I'm not a big dubstep fan, but to me, you stand out from the crowd in the way you create tension in your track. The fact that the root note hardly changes throughout the entire length of the song - only during the middle space synth section, if I'm correct - is not an obstacle at all, and that is a trick that's damn hard to pull off. Sound design plays a large part in this, with a wide array of instruments that clearly stand apart from each other but also form a coherent whole. Production too is of very high quality, with enough dynamics to give that roller-coaster-ride feeling and great placement of the different sounds in the mix to keep the listener on their toes. From a technical perspective, this piece is incredible.

Unfortunately, the composition can't keep up. I don't know whether the lack of climax was a conscious choice or the two of us just not seeing things the same way, but to me in the end the song fails to leave an impact. The release that is promised so seductively is missing, and to me, ends up sabotaging your otherwise excellent effort. Nonetheless, I wish you good luck on this round, and keep 'em coming!

[Garance's Theme]

Official ADM Review:
I scrolled over X3LL3N's review when I was listening to this for the first time. I didn't read it, but one word caught my eye: storytelling. And as much I want to do my own take on this, he kinda hits the nail right on the head there. The four sections each carry a clear emotion, following each other up in intuitively logical ways and painting a picture of Garance's life - looking at her picture again while writing this it is only now that I realize that's actually a stray hair coming down her forehead and not a Peanuts style nose, but that's neither here nor there.

There's little I can comment on the sound design. The choice of instruments is phenomenal and you know very well how to make them sound like an orchestra rather than a bunch of individual musicians. For a moment I feared this might not be the case, as - to me - the only thing that really stands out is the piano, introducing the arrival of the second section with its two bars of descending notes. It stands out from the rest of the instruments in how unnatural it sounds, which I think in part stems from the absolute lack of sustain (it somehow sounds too 'dead' to be mistaken for a real piano). But save for those two bars, whatever's left of the piano disappears into the ensemble and it turns out my worries were unfounded.

Likewise, there's little I can suggest on composition either. The different chord progressions between the sections work really well to carry the melody and keep things interesting without feeling forced, with the exception of the modulation going into the fourth section - it doesn't entirely come out of nowhere, but the lead-in and ensuing progression somehow don't entirely add up. I'm not knowledgeable enough of music theory to point out why this is the case, so purely going by my gut here. Another minor thing is the melody vs chords in the 2nd an fourth sections. In the 7th and 8th bars of the second section, the melody goes F#-G-A-C# over Em, so ending on a dissonant C# from the E major scale. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that dissonance, looking at it from a storytelling perspective it doesn't work for Garance, who might have found more joy if the chord progression starting that section were D-D-Em-A instead of D-D-Em-Em. (Hope I'm making sense here, it's hard to convey these things if you think you know what you're talking about, but not really how to actually say it D: )

But this is nitpicking, and that's all I can do here. You've done a great job, doing the young lady more than justice with an ode as beautiful as this. Good luck!

Everratic responds:

Thanks for the long and detailed review!

The piano is the one instrument in the entire mix that was recorded dry, whereas the other instruments were recorded stereo in a hall, so that's why it stands out to me. I do have "wet" pianos, but this particular piano had the right timbre for the song so I used it anyway. I do agree that it gets better when the mix is more full.

I agree that the modulation is not very smooth and seamless. This was intentional but it could have been executed better. Maybe it would sound nicer if performed by a real orchestra.

I don't think all dissonance is necessarily "dissonant". Dissonance can sound beautiful or charming in some contexts. I think that's the case here, for my ears at least.

[The Hungry]

Hey man, loving your style and the atmosphere you create, but the overall volume is really low - boosting the tracks a bit and adding a (subtle) limiter to the master bus wouldn't be out of place. Keep 'em coming!