Azhthar's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Opera Of The Dead]

Too much awesome stuff for halloween here this year! Love the squeaky door at the beginning and the toy piano is simply awesome! I wish it would have been longer, since it gives so many imaginations....

Mattashi responds:

Thank you Azhthar!

[Abyssal Reflection]

Beautiful and haunting! I love musicboxes! The theremin like whisteling is also awesome. ZipZipper is right, the chord progression is really cool. I think it loops quite well, at least I didn´t realize the looping point while writing this review :) The melodies are really beautiful and I love the eerie atmosphere of this piece. I was a bit confused from the "laser-like" glitch sounds, since they didn´t really serve the rest of the atmosphere. At the beginning I thought the music box could be a bit louder but at the end it´s cool that it feels like the music is coming from far far away. I have the feeling that the knocking impacts are a bit too loud compared to the rest of the sounds washing them a bit out. But that´s really just minor issues :) That´s a really lovely piece and definitely one of my favorites from the spooktacular so far!

ChronoNomad responds:

Thanks a bunch for the review, Azhthar! Who doesn't love a nice, creeptastic music box for Halloween, am I right? Happy to hear that the spooky whistling sounds so awesome, too! Also really jazzed to get so many comments on the chord progression, and I had a blast making the track on the whole, so...bonus!

The sounds that you hear as being laser-like glitches are actually springy, metallic twangs. I do get how laser effects would seem wildly inappropriate unless I were adding a weird Sci-Fi twist to the whole thing, haha! It seems like the overall plan of making the music box sound like it's coming from pretty far off has worked quite well, and while I can agree that the knocking effects are pretty loud, I rather like them like that! xD

Thanks so much for taking the time to review, and I promise to write one up on your Spooktacular track soon! Youdaman.

[Adventure!]

That´s really some chilly track! Damn you managed to get these analog sounds so clear! Did you sidechain on the bassdrum? The pumping sounds actually a bit weird here but maybe that´s just a matter of taste... I have the feeling that there is a very dissonant tone which doesn´t really fit at about 2:47. I love how the drum beat variation is dropping in about 3:50. I have the feeling the track could need a tiny bit more dynamics or variation but it would be perfect as a background track for a game. Mixing and mastering sounds very clear to me. If you really did all the sounds wit the Korg MS20 this is quite awesome! I always wanted to have the chance to play around with this nice tiny semimodular beauty :) I hope to hear some more nice analog sounds from you. Keep it up!

Astrolope responds:

Thanks for the kind words!
Yeah, all the sounds (including the drums) came from the Korg except for the ride cymbal at the end :)

[Loose CanniBall]

Yay, it´s nice to hear that you also did something for helloween, since I miss your music a bit here on NG :( This piece is so cool! As Zip already pointed out your production is definitely top notch! I really love the sounds you are using. The section at 2:09 min reminds me a bit of Jacky Giordano - Gipsy Manou (same chords and arpeggios). I don´t think this was intended, since the piece is not very well known I guess but if you did this by purpose I really like this small allusion :) Listening to your track motivates me to finish my track for helloween, too! Keep it up!

steampianist responds:

thanks so much. your piece for halloween was quite epic :) and no im not aware of jacky giordano but the build-up piece, Gypsy Manou sounds awesome hehe serendipity

[Propter Bonus Mundi]

Hope you don´t get bored by my reviews but this is just awesome! You sang all the voices for the harmonies by yourself for which I have have deep respect (I can´t sing at all). Your composition is getting better and better by each piece I hear. I mean this you hear classic chorals here mixed with glitchy stuff and your typical circussy sounddesign. Actually I heard a lot of music in my life including lots of contemporary stuff but I never heard something like the stuff you do. I mean the arangement is just awesome and you really hear your classical background including all theory of form and everything but you bring it into some contemporary context... I maybe sound nerdy and stupid here but I mean what I say... Man all the contemporary music is just based on algorythms and serial or spectral stuff (or minimalism if contemporary composers want to hide that they are lazy. Not that I don´t like minimalism though) but you take all the classical stuff, lead it ad absurdum and mix it with just awesome cool sounds. So--- Enough of praising but keep on doing what you do. And if you didn´t consider already: Try to spread your music to some serious composers and not only to the cinematic stuff. Okay... Some of them are quite conservative and your style might not really fit to them but I met some people who are really open to some more freehearted music. Keep it up!

ZipZipper responds:

That all actually means a lot to me, thanks! I wish I could meet similarly freehearted people...but I am definitely going to try spreading and hopefully yeah...

[Sierra Rising - Badlands]

Nice trip hop feeling! I really like your beat. I think it´s pretty well mixed, although the piano sounds a bit too dry. But maybe that´s because I just mixed a track with way too much reverb. Around 1:29 the drums suddenly are very quiet. I would increase the volume a bit (except for the louder cymbal crash, which is already loud enough).

The piano melody is nice at the beginning but I have the feeling it doesn´t really go anywhere. I think you should decide in this case: Do you want to make a completely ambient like track? In this case your melody is way too much in the focus and gets way too much attention. If you want a more melodic piece, you should develop the melody. Vary it a bit. Use some different chords once and a while. As I said, if you are going for a more ambient piece it´s fine if you don´t vary that much.

You did I nice work here with the stereo placement. Sounds very roomy. One last thing for the piano: It could need a bit more humanizing. Some velocity editing can help to give your piano sound a lot more feeling.

All in all this is definitely a nice relaxing track to hear.

SierraRising responds:

I´m glad you like the beat! I was going for a more ambient than melodic feel, but I will try to develop the melodies more in the future, as well as playing with the piano velocities some more. I´m glad you enjoyed this, and thanks for the review!

[The Mostly Monsters Trail]

Was waiting for something from you for helloween. It´s awesome as expected ;) At some point you have to explain me your secrets how you do your awesome insane sounds. Textures are changing constantly... Grotesque, insane and some awesome harmonies! Maybe the ending is a bit to sudden Hope I will be able to do something for halloween, too. I just spent way to much time writing some melancholic kitsch but I was in the mood. Hopefully it will be finished soon and it will just turn out as a phase ;)

ZipZipper responds:

You better do something for Halloween or I'm gonna......

[Dark n' Damp]

This is a really cool atmospheric track! Did you play all the instruments by yourself? In this case you have a lot of respect from me producing more than 7 mins of music in this jam. I love the voices and the atmospheric cricket sounds and stuff.
The doomy part around 4 mins is definitely really cool! The quality of your recordings is also very good. The mixing is not overloadet with highs to achieve a superclear mix which actually is perfect for the track, and it´s dark atmosphere. Although you went for a bit darker mixing every instrument has it´s own space and sitting perfectly imo. Everything is also played really tight (especially the drums). Usually I try to figure out what I maybe could be done better but I really don´t find anything here. At least not in the style of track you were going for. As a bassist by myself I maybe would have played a different bassline sometimes, but that´s really just a matter of taste/style I guess ;)
Congrats to this awesome track and good luck!

thebitterroost responds:

Thanks man! Yeah, there's actually no synth/MIDI in this track, since my dabbling last time wasn't too hot. I'll try to hone those skills maybe during a time when I'm not in a judging situation, lol. I did play everything; I've had to one-man-band it for a number of years, so I'm trying to expand my instrument palette. Which is good (for experience) and bad, for the reason you just touched on: my bass playing is clearly the weakest link in the track (or any track of mine, honestly). I'm still learning, got a long way to go. Good luck to you as well!

[Unsung Hero]

This is beautiful! I also really loved your track from the first round but I didn´t find time too leave a detailed review :(
Your production here is stunning. Everything is mixed and mastered perfectly. You´re right joshgawaldomusic is indeed an amazing guitarist. You have these awesome melodies and you give this track so much power with the additional orchestral instrumentation and it feels so natural in the way it´s played. There is also so much going on in this track. I mean I listened it now for a few times and always I think when I press play: "If it started like this how did it end up there?" And I listen it again and it all makes sense, despite all the time signature changes ;) Okay, like LunacyEcho said, some transitions work better than others but I know that sometimes you can work on a single transition longer than on a whole passage, especially if the two parts are very contrasting. I really love the power of the toms at the ending! Something I didn´t like that much was the abrupt ending with the string arpeggio. I guess I would have ended with the guitar or a longer decrescendo afterwards. But these are really just minor complains here. You got yourself some really catchy track here but you didn´t just stuck to simple catchy stuff you mixed that with cool prog riffs and made a really unique mixure!

bassfiddlejones responds:

Thanks man! It's tough to find time to leave any kind of reviews, so I'm grateful you stopped by.

Josh did all the mixing/mastering, he is indeed a guru. We really wanted to keep this track fresh and constantly changing, but remaining so with a sense of continuity and wholeness in the piece. Like I said to LunacyEcho, definitely agree about your criticisms (transitions take forever!). Thank you for the feedback, it helps us become better at what we do!

[Facing the Foe]

Could just join neBSounds oppinion. The intro is awesome! It pulls you directly into the track and you´re right that this would definitely fit into a JRPG game. I have to say that the sounds actually remind a bit of retro PS1 games, which actually wasn´t that bad for this track. Actually I was surprised to read that this is EWQLSO because I always thought they sound a bit more... modern? But I never worked with EWQL so I don´t know. Composition wise there is not too much to say. You got a catchy theme and continue and vary it nicely without it getting boring. I love the fast marimba lines. Sometimes the transitions are a bit abrupt like around 43 sec. Actually this is the only part in the track where the melodies appear a bit random while they are very conclusive all along the rest of the track. It also sounds like you switched from minor to major without introducing it which feels strange but maybe my ears are tricking me here and I´m wrong... I have not the best ears sometimes :) The loop in general works fine. It loops more or less seamlessly. The only point is that you maybe realize the looping point because of climax in the intro but I guess that´s fine because there so much more musical content in this piece. Maybe some countervoices would help in some points to make the melodies a bit fuller. Sometimes you do this but sometimes the melodies feel a bit naked. I think already an unisono with different instruments in diferent octaves could help.
I think 40 hours of work is not too much time for 3:30 minutes of music with so many voices and much content. Of course there are people who might do this faster but they are mostly professionals, doing this there whole life every day (and probably repeating themselves a lot). Production wise I think it could definitely be mixed and mastered a bit clearer but I think as I read your text and I know from your other works you know this yourself already ;) I also wouldn´t give lower score because of mixing issues because I think a good composition is much more important. So... all this said. This is an awesome track again from you. Congrats!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Cool!
Great to hear that people like the intro, even if it's a bit much.

This track was from the very start designed to fit a JRPG game, so I'm glad to hear that it shines through. Eh, the reason the sound quality is like that, is probably just because of my not so existent mixing skills. On one hand, I tried to mimic the sound I've heard in both newer and older games a bit. On the other, I probably crammed too much together, but still wanted to keep some kind of volume. Keep in mind too, that this is just EWQLSO Silver, which is pretty limited, even if you get around. I also used next to none reverb for this track, as I found that most of the sounds are pretty wet on their own. But for slower tracks that use less intruments at once (or if you can manage with it in general), you'd probably want a bit more reverb than there is here. But I am not displeased to hear that this sounds a bit old school in quality XD

I like that you use the word "catchy". That may come in handy for one of the judges, hehhe... I definitely aimed towards making melodies that stick with you, even if specific repetition is a bit lacking in the track.

Interesting point about 0:43. While I don't think it's random, it is different than many of the other parts in the track. As is the next part, with the trumpets and horns. The different segments were generally inspired by different tracks from different composers/from different games, roughly. While there are parts that follow a kind of a main feel of the track, I tried to include other things in between as well. I don't have a real breakdown in this track (a slower part with strings would be pretty nice), but instead, I try to keep it varied, and killed the percussion (mostly) at a few spots too. 0:43 is kind of a segway in between that leads to the next part at 0:54, I guess. 0:43 uses a bit more Kingdom Hearts:y melodies, I'd say, while most of the rest has a more Final Fantasy vibe (though with more KH-ish feels, as well as some other stuff). Maybe this part sounds better on solo piano though, on which it was originally composed? (Oh, and this track constantly moves between major and minor, so I don't know that it needs any specific introduction every time, as this is more of a fast paced track, than one that progressed gradually, except for a few points). As for other seemingly random parts in the track that are just kinda there, there's 2:33 too :S

Yes. I agree that there is too much climax in the intro. As a standalone track, that's fine. But if this really were to be in a game, I'd change that, and make the intro (and the ending) slower parts, so that the transition would not require as much attention from players. I just wanted to include that intro, as it was the first thing I made for this track, and ended up being the last thing I tweaked too.

I get your point with the countervoices, although there's a reason I didn't do this for the most part (at some points I did though, as you mentioned). If you pay close attention to the track, you'll hear that more often than not, there are two or more melodies, playing at once. A bit like you might hear in a slightly more complex piano solo piece. Mostly, I used the french horn, or the backing track in general, for the second melody. A good example is 0:54, where while the trumpet holds the main melody (in two octaves, if I recall correctly), the french horn is playing a slower, similar melody, more in the left ear, and at a lower octave (or simply the last big segment of the track, with the violas and horns). This goes on in various forms throughout the track, be it at 2:09, where the backing track is playing a completely different melody in a different rhythm than the solo viola, or be it at 2:47, where there are at least 3-4 melodies playing in the same rhythm. At other points, like 1:34, I really wanted that solo violin to bear the entire main melody, though a piano is layered more in the background, playing the same thing. There are several other parts too, like 0:43 that was mentioned earlier, where the marimba is partly playing the same thing as the cello. Also, nudity is okay in my book if the melody looks nice, hehhe... (Forgive me, please).

May be that 40 hours is not all that much, especially if you consider the pace of the track. But it felt like a lot, especially since I just started my studies :s
I also know that indeed, some people could do this in waaay less time. That is what I am aiming for, as I couldn't hope to be putting this much time into every NGADM round ;)
Thanks for the encouragement though!

Yes, mixing especially I feel I still need to grasp. In general, I'm fine with the balance between the intruments. All of the marimba/harp/piano (even a secret timpani) aren't necessarily meant to be super clear, but more aim to help move the rest along. But the sound quality in general, could be so much higher!!!

I do think this needs to be judged partly on mixing too, of course, as it's part of what everyone is being judged by in the competition, even if I definitely agree that composition is more important. I wish that my complex composition will make up for some of the worse mixing, but you can't erase all of it. I don't feel like the mixing is horrible though, just that there's tons to improve. I've, so to say, both heard and done worse :3

Thanks a lot for the pretty long and awesome review, and sorry for the super long answer! XD
I promise I'll get to your track at some point in the relatively close future ;)