Lich's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gad]

Listened to it nice and loudly on my ADAM A5X's and it sounds pretty damn glorious.

While the strings themselves sound pretty simplistic and don't seem to offer too much other than an underlay for the rest of the composition, the Evolving crystalline-like pads which kick in half way through counter-balance it perfectly. The drip-like hits which repeat monotonously throughout the track are just the right volume and sound, neither being overbearing or underwhelming.

The Mixing for it is pretty much spot on. What reverb plates are you using for this? IT just sounds so smooth! The bass rolls really well and there's just enough crisp high end present in the crystalline pads to make it sound awesome. Saying that I have noticed several small segments of the track where the bass-y string beneath can get overbearing at select parts when it's the only thing present.

I really don't have too many extra gripes with it. Maybe if you do a second revision you could always consider adding an additional subtle texture underneath the track to detail it some more?

But yaaaaaaaaaa, excellent job all around!

Chemiqals responds:

Thank you for this awesome review! I actually used Fruity Reeverb 2 for all the reverb here. Though, I did mix the reverb a lot differently than I normally do. I tried to give the strings a really subtle and muted sound. I upped the sub bass on the main strings to give it that deep tone. Then on the crystaline pads I cut out the low end completely and added a really extreme reverb in comparison. The extra strings that come in at the end were probably the toughest part to mix. I ended up giving them some really strange reverb where the dry levels came down a lot. But I upped the volume of the instrument itself. I really wanted them to sit in the background perfectly, haha.

Thanks again for the awesome feedback!

[Amy's Wrath]

Yup, sounds pretty Wrath like!

[S.D Tactical Clubbing]

I think a Lichiel Stomp Brigade version of this lengthened out would be amazing! *wink *wink

[They took my nose]

My head has seemed to of been taken.

[Lucidance]

So I've made sure to have a good few listens trough on my monitoring speakers nice and loud before reviewing.

This kind of piece works really nicely as a concentration aid, it even goes well when playing a RTS like Starcraft, AoE, Civ etc. The variety of synthesized patches and instrumentation playing during the track is refreshing to hear as it takes on a psychedelic quality from start to finish.

The glitched samples in the presented style from 2:10 onwards are the kind I think would only work for this kind of track. Strange on their own but with the Acoustic kit along with the gated and reverb-driven gate slowly chopping away over it, it works. Bravo, I'd find it pretty difficult to achieve such a thing myself haha. I must compliment you on your FX work as well. Nothing is overly saturated in Distortion, Reverb or Delay. The job is done pretty subtly and adds a higher caliber of quality to the piece.

The structuring of the track is fine. Nothing mind-blowing but it works. Not much else to say here, I can't really offer any advice in this department. Really the only thing I would change would be to make the end fade or complete out instead of cutting off so abruptly.

My major complaint about this track is that it isn't bright-sounding enough EQ-wise for it to sound comfortable to listen to for long periods of time, especially towards the last quarter of the track. Where has most of your high end dissapeared to? I've also found the bass to spike higher at random intervals during the track and cause some strange resonance to project out.

Overall I think you done a pretty admirable job on it and I think you easily have the potential to make something even better if you spend some time consistently cleaning up the track and mastering abit better in the future!

[Madness Impersonation]

Catches the feeling well, it definitely works for the Madness genre!
Good job like always, I'd give this a 420/69

[Walking in the Air Improv]

I've been listening to this piece a couple of times over while I was sorting out some stuff for work tomorrow, it's such a nice composition to listen to in the background. It doesn't really matter if any imperfections come in note-wise as with the tone of the song it actually seems to enhance it even more!

The Piano tone is really nice and the Reverb usage is perfect for the composition as well. Just out of curiosity what room/hall plate are you using for your Reverb? It really does go so well with the song.

Favorite'd, 5/5, will listen again (several times!)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I think that piano improvisations in general are quite fitting as background music, as lng as they are not too overtaking :)
I've actually grown to like imperfections myself as well. The only thing that actually bothers me in this improv is the brain fart between 2:07 and 2:08 :p

The reverb in this track is something I'm definitely happy with, along with the EQ:ing. This is an old recording, but I mixed it quickly yesterday before uploading it, and I think it went well.
I'm using one of the piano sounds from my Yamaha Clavinova (CLP - 230) electronic piano (recorded with audacity). The reverb itself is a lazy kind that has worked well for me whenever I want something to sound a bit out of this world... Maybe not far away, but... Dreamish?
If I remember correctly, I actually combined three different halls/rooms, instead of just choosing one and editing it. I think I combined an "Arena", "Cathedral" and "Church" setting in Cubase's RoomWorks Reverb VST.
I don't know if that tells you anything really...
Basically, it's a shit ton of pre-delay and reverb time.

Thanks a lot for listening to my stuff and for reviewing it! You've posted a lot of cool stuff yourself recently. It's a shame I've been to busy to keep up with everything lately -_-
Now I'm back though, and should have a lot of time for such things :3

[Joyflight]

Just had a listen through this several times and I'll share my thoughts

First of all, from a composition side, it's fine really. It's not overly repetitive as you thought of it as and the length of it is pretty acceptable aswell. That's a pretty good main lead from 00:50 onwards, it works pretty damn well with everything else going on!

Next, the actual sounds and patches you are using. The Transition FX you are using I recognize straight away (I use the same booms, fades and splashes haha). You may want to stretch some of them out and maybe do some pitch adjustment to them so it sounds more unique and fuller. Secondly I am struggling to hear the Kick you are using properly on both my ADAM A5X's and through a variety of cheap and pricier headphones. It may be worth compressing it abit more and then raising the volume on the Kick so it sounds more 'forward and present' in the track.

The 3x4 Tremolo Guitar tone you are using seems to clip itself after each note and has no release on them. You may want to increase the release of the notes via your plugin or if that's not possible, some short-size diffused reverb should solve the problem and make it sound much better.

Bonus points for your pad work though, it's atmospherically impressive to hear!

Onto the mastering, apart from the kick as mentioned above it's generally ok. Bass response is smooth and not overbearing. Not much high-end hiss coming out of the track apart from the hats you are using (I'd say just to be safe next time I'd cut off all frequencies above 17,000hz when dealing with hats, crashes or china).

That's all I can really offer to say at the moment, I would be interested as to how you will progress from this stage. I'll definitely be lurking in the background, listening out to any of your future releases you upload to Newgrounds. I've scouted you aswell to help speed the process through to proper ratings and presence on here!

Hope you found what I've mentioned helpful!

Mor1 responds:

Just had to read through that several times, it was so beautiful ^^

I know the problem with kick, but i didn't know how to properly fix it. I'm still pretty new to mastering stuff. And i'll find a fix for the guitar.

I'll definitely keep all those tips in mind! And thank you very much for scouting me!