Lich's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Catalyst (No Sample Edit)]

Your sidechain and Pluck-Patch design is excellent! The whole mix sounds pretty spot on, some of your sounds you are using in general have a more analogue sound to them compared to typical softsynth design. I recognize that with some inspiration and some experimenting you could take this track one step further and make it into something even better!

[The Night Shift]

Could easily fit into something like Earthbound in a night-time setting.

Quirky and simplistic, it presents itself perfectly with the patch choices you have used/designed for this track. Enjoyed listening to it!

biologysound responds:

I was going for quirky and simplistic, so thank you.

[The Time Before Madness]

Happy Madness day Deshiel, awesome track like usual!

DESHIEL responds:

Oh stop it you...
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please continue. :3

[Stimu-Psych]

Sounds like you made each section up on the fly, but it does sound pretty good.
I really do like the lead string sound you are using, is it recorded straight in or are you using a Kontakt Library for it at all?
I would be interested if you had a jazz-styled drum kit to go along with the next track of this style you make, I think it could sound really good with a Jazz kit personally;y (but that's just me) :)

Solisio responds:

It's actually a midi file thrown onto FL studio. I am more than happy to give you the midi file if you wanted to do some stuff with it, just as long as you give me credits for the original part of it :). I just want to mention that it has been explained to me I suck at putting labels on genres and I basically have no concept of what jazz is >.>. But yeah man, if you want the midi, shoot me a PM.

[need GuiT collab proposal]

If you export a score of the notes for me to open up (which you want the Guitar to play), I can try and run Shreddage2 & Amplitube for a guitar sound for this.

[Alien Assault]

I could easily imagine this being a very good sound-over for a 1950's/60's Alien Sci-Fi like movie (thinking along the lines of War Of The Worlds). The track does exactly what is says in the description. Can't hear any faults, it's all good to me!

Valon129 responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

[Angels In The Sky]

After listening toa few of your tracks, the way your Synths in general are sequenced sound metal-influenced in structure, I bet that if you used the same Score but with a Guitar Kontakt Library like Shreddage II it would sound like a metal-like guitar driven track as well :)

Now what I have noticed is your synth sounds while they go well together, they seem weak individually (if that makes any kind of sense). I would say add a chorus plug-in and deepen the depth and see how that sounds. I'm not a fan of that snare sound, it sounds like it's cutting off too suddenly and it's too tight-sounding for the track. A little bit of extra reverb might do wonders for it.

Overall, a solid tracks but there's always room for improvement :)

idfpower responds:

Interesting observations :) And you're right: I've been playing metal on and off for a long time and I do have another sort of "in between" project - an industrial band. From there I ventured into the Electronic genre so yeah, that can be felt in Telurica's songs. Metalheads have a distinct way of composing/arranging a track and in my case it's still a bit difficult to shake those old habits :) I do try to come up with non conventional structures, but no matter what I do, I'm still addicted to arrps and harsh edgy sounds in general :)

On a different note, the synths might sound weak individually if you dissect the songs, but that's on purpose, because I prefer to use multilayered themes so each sound is just a small part of the whole, and in order to make them blend well, IMO it's best to use presets that don't stand out on their own. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm right :)

Agreed, there's always room for improvement (especially considering that mixing/mastering is not my strong point...yet) :)

Thank you very much for the honest opinion and for listening to my music :) All the best :)

[Confused]

I read your comment on the Newgrounds Audio Forum and I thought I would drop you a quick comment.

Whatever you do, don't give up in making music because of other people's opinions. Yes, it is nice to see people like tracks you make but at the end of the day all that really matters is if you enjoy making music or not. Keep playing around with your DAW, your Sound Design, your sequencing and just simply sequence whatever good idea sticks into your head. It takes time but eventually you will build up the knowledge to enjoy yourself and slowly build up a fanbase of people who appreciate your music.

Honestly, I felt pretty much the same when I started to upload content onto Newgrounds (I do have some disasters which I have deleted altogether). Not everyone will appreciate your music but they will judge it less if it is well-mixed/mastered and your notes are keyed together nicely. I gather my inspiration and structuring from many bands I listen to roughly within the same genre. I composed as a tribute and an inspiration to most of them and it has helped me move forwards to this point. If you can ever find a solid source of inspiration which you love, stick with it. Grow with it and develop your music around what you love to hear and do.

I do hope that you are still thinking of composing more material. It would be a shame to lose you because of other people's opinions.

[A Little Bit]

It sounds nice and clean, every element of the track is hearable and balanced out. Now it might just me my generally weird taste but I absolutely loved that pitch drop at 1:34, I would be interested if you done a whole track with the pitch lowered with some heavier elements incorporated :)

[Slither]

Now this sounds like something I would expect to hear in a Futuristic Adventure or FPS.

While I do admit the delay-driven hat-like sound does sound annoying, that beat you introduced straight away makes the track. The deep and tech-like synth works with it extremely well and I love the timing on it. For some of your darker sounds are you using 8DIO's Free Radicals at all? (Some of your sounds your are using sound very similar to the Kontakt pack).

Mastering-wise, I can't really fault it. From what distortion I am picking up, it's crisp and crushing without it destroying the sounds in the track. Playing the track loudly on my Alesis speakers everythingthing from the low-end to the high-end sounds good to me.

I would be very interested in listening to the full version once it is complete!

ZLEAP responds:

Everything you hear was either recorded by myself and manipulated or brought about from FLStudio synth instruments.

Fruity Granulizer and Sytrus are the main instruments being used there. Oh, and a shit ton of filters.