Azhthar's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Unstoppable]

That´s cool! I love retro synthwave and you pretty much hit the spot here. The only thing is that the middle part with the choir feels a bit off. The beat and the synth melody in rest of the track are awesome. If you like this kind of stuff I suggest to look for Oscillotron or VHS Glitch, because they are the most awesome producers of 80´s style synthwave I found so far.

TIMETRAVL responds:

I already know them, and a lot more synthwave producers:D
Also thank you for your feedback :)

[A.I.M. - Voices of the Sea]

That´s one cool chilly ambient track! I love the slow groovy bassline and percussion with the shaker popping in later. The violin (or is it a viola?) could be a bit more close and intimitating. But I always get complains, when I do these things, so it´s probably just a matter of taste :) Great job from Darren with the background vocals. Maybe the percussion could vary a bit at the end, they feel a bit naked here. Maybe a layer of a slow pad which fades out? Great track! Good luck for the two of you.

ForgottenDawn responds:

Hey, thanks for your review! Glad you enjoyed the mixing.
It's actually a cello, and I can confirm it's definitely not easy to get the tone you want and placement in the mix. Thanks for your suggestions!

[Force of Life]

Hey! I was afraid that you wouldn´t be able to submit something because you left. Hope Japan is good! Your piano playing here is stunning! The piece is a bit melancholic but also very positive on the other hand... So I guess the piece fits dem0lecules art quite well in an abstract way (i didn´t know he does graphics, too). Like the beginning of life or a new born or so. And again I just can say your piano playing is awesome!

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to submit anything as well! But I decided to sacrifice one night of sleep, and get it done just in time. I'm lucky that the improvisation dem0lecule's art inspired me to play before going on the trip turned out to be fairly nice, and easy to work with.
I agree about the dichotomous feel between the melancholic and positive. I've been told that many of my compositions have that sort of ambiguous quality to them, and I would have to agree with such a sentiment as well ;D

I know! He's actually a really talented artist in many ways :O

Thanks! Piano playing is definitely my strongest suit when it comes to music, so I like to lean on it quite much at times, especially when I have to make something in a hurry :3

Thanks for listening and for reviewing! I'll check your stuff out when I get back home :)

[Pas Clair]

What can I say... You hit it again, this... spot! Me abla no france. Love it anyway... Maybe it´s mastered a bit too loud since it´s overpowering my movie )a lot( So much too my crapppy review. love your icecream ttruck biy

[[Tsets] - Trapped Within a Dream]

First: I like the chilly atmosphere and it would be a neat track forthe background or maybe also for a level in a game if the beats wouldn´t get so dominate in some parts. As a standalone track I feel that it is a bit too repitative for its length to be honest. I know that this was somehow the intention also because of the genre but in this case there could have been much more work with sounds and filters and smaller variations of the beat. Also the beat seems to be with the same velocity all the time if you would slightly vary the velocities all the time and maybe put in some ghost notes it would add a lot. I like the sound of the keys coming in at around 3:00. They remind me of somehow of an old jrpg. Some notes in the small impro at around 2:40 feel a slightly bit off (like the one at 2:44). There is also something about your chord progression, which doesn´t feel right. I would have probably not used a cadential 6/4 as the last chord in your progression (it´s when you put the fifth of a chord into the bass and it sounds not very good but in some cases, for example if you use it as suspending chord at the end of a cadence). I hope I didn´t went to deep into theory here but I think it´s good to know not to put the fifth into the bass of a chord unless you really intended something with it. I think that would not have been a problem if you used some kind of bassline because you could use your nice pad progression and just put the prime or third below the chord. Mixing and production wise the track sounds good. I like the big space in the sound. I hope that wasn´t too much nitpicking here but I thought if you ask for a review it should be constructive in some way. As I said in the beginning this is a nice and chilly track but it has some space for improvement ;) Hope this helps.

[The Great Trump Wall]

Yay! Everybody likes walls!

[Atlantis]

Honestly, this is fucking great. I wouldn`t call it trance since it is more synthwave imo. It´s pretty untypical for your style I guess. I don´t really like pads and the following sidechain from 3 mins I guess but I really like the retro vibe in the track in general. I´m a really big fan of "VHS Glitch" which you really should have a look on if you like to do more music like this.

[Virginia Slimm VS Lexa Hergon - Im Evil [Mashup]]

Wow! That´s one awesome collab! I wonder when it will go to the frontpage... I heard the vocal solo track before and it was already good but you did some really great job in harmonization. The instrument choice is great (chipsounds, some gritty sounding synths and even a violin). The only thing which would be missing are some backing vocals to make this song even more full. Production is good as far as I can tell from my crappy speakers ;) Hope you will do some more stuff together!

[Neat's new demos!]

Hmm... It´s a bit hard to review three track snippets but I give it a try. From what you can hear in the demos you seem to be quite good in what you´re doing. The production of the tracks is good so far. I guess for EDM the stereo image could be a bit wider. It´s mastered a bit too loud for my taste so a bit less limiting would be good if you don´t want everybody turning the volume down immediately. Composition wise there is not much going on in the tracks so far, so I can´t really give input here. I think you wanted to vote for your next track to produce here so I would prefer the second. In the third one the pads and lead are a bit noisy and unpleasent sometimes...

GGMiXsiMusic responds:

Thanks for review and voting! Currently the only ones voted are first and second (once), so i'm getting close to a solution.

Also these drops are not going to sound EXACTLY as they sound now, when the tracks are finished, but they will be based on them. The third one is really noisy, i wanted to decrease the reverb effect, so it fixes it. We'll see how it will be going.

By the next month, the winner must be decided, at that point, i'm uploading it.

[Hectic Bells]

Awesome!!! Thanks a lot!! There is definitely no reason to be ashamed, since it was meant as a gift ;) This track is indeed a classic you. I really could imagine some hectic overworked christmas elves rushing through houses and destroy everything by coincidence. It´s like a sequel to ZipZippers overworked christmas elves ;) A piece of coal is a good thing considering that I´m happy if I find one in The binding of isaac ;) It´s a bit short but considering you rushed it over the holidays it´s pretty damn great! Thanks a lot again ;)