Aalasteir's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Inktober #14 - Shrimp]

It looks delicious! It's great to hear you had a killer meal. I like shrimp as well; they are delicious. It's nice to hear you're also honoring amazing food in your songs.

How did you discover that there is an International Shrimp Sandwich Day?

-- -- -- --

@Cyberdevil, I have eaten them and I think they taste great.

Cyberdevil responds:

Eyy a compadre in the culinary crafts! :D Do you do shrimp sandwiches too, or different seafood dishes for the most part?

I... don't know really. It must've popped up somewhere in the stream of content I was perusing on the way to work this particular day, didn't know about it before at all. Though we love shrimp sandwiches. Eat 'em at least a few times every year.

[Inktober #13 - A Sunday When All Is Said And Done...]

Great rhymes and rhythm! There’s very strong storytelling in your acapella, and I appreciate how well-formulated the structure of your rap is. You have a great understanding of constructing bars.

Cyberdevil responds:

Thank you! Storytelling really was the foundation of rap back in the day, oughta practice on keeping a red thread and really telling a particular experience, oftentimes I feel my thoughts are just all over the place. For the sake of rhyme more than reflection. But better and better, forever and ever! Never settle just push that pedal and riiiise.

[Inktober #12 - Anticipation]

Awesome chiptune! This is a very unique song with great vocal harmonization!

Cyberdevil responds:

Appreciate ya Aalasteir, thank you!

[Inktober #11 - Orange Days]

Thank you so much for making such an awesome song! I really appreciate you using the instrumental. The lyrics are great, and the imagery is amazing.

Cyberdevil responds:

Hey thank you for making it too Aalasteir! Good instrumentals always bring out the best in one's mental bento rental. :)

[ADAM DIX | CREATIVE BLOCK #185]

Amazing episode!

Sean, there's too much gain on your microphone—it sounds especially distorted at the beginning. Great discussions, though, about how ugly drawings can sometimes be more appealing. Very insightful with many amazing points!

1:30:34 - Thank you so much for answering my question about; "Is overworking a necessary part of the creative process, or is it possible to organize a project pipeline in a way that avoids those stresses?"

Super thank you Adam Dix! You are right.

It's crucial to build the habit of resting and maintaining a consistent schedule of work and rest. Burnout is incredibly difficult to handle, and it causes me immense pain. The hardest part for me is actually being able to rest, as there's overwhelming self-imposed pressure to keep moving forward. However, the quality of work diminishes when you're tired, losing critical thinking and focus. High performance is directly linked to being well-rested, and people often end up in a bad mood because they’re physically drained from not getting enough rest.

CreativeBlockPod responds:

Apologies. Sean's mic will be fixed for the next episode. Thanks for listening!

[9:32 PM]

Great melody! The atmosphere is fun and happy, and I really like the DnB style—it's very cool. I'm impressed you did all of this in OpenMPT. The breakdown is fantastic, and the way you combine the instruments is excellent. They complement each other well, which shows that you're strategic in your instrument selection—a great strength to have!

@wineplume, how did you discover Newgrounds?

@wineplume, how did you get interesting creating music?

@wineplume, what are your inspirations?

wineplume responds:

thanks for such an extensive review, glad you like it.

1) stumbled across newgrounds because... flash games! i used to play flash games a lot back in 2011-2012 on my mom's laptop. then ~10 years later i decided to become a musician and create an account on this website to post music (my current account was registered on 11/19/23, but this isn't my only account, i have older ones (e.g. @ravestarGT))
2) (i suppose "interesting" should be "interested in"?) i've always liked listening to music and dreamed of creating it myself. music in general is a very huge part of my childhood and present day life.
3) aphex twin, venetian snares, cardopusher, squarepusher, s3rl, basshunter, waterflame, nemesistheory, bt (brian transeau), halley labs (FKA lapfox trax & vulpvibe), bomfunk mc's, vangelis + my friends & acquaintances who are also musicians: dem0n1x, djlomka, silnava, xnothsis, meuny, mixxy, lgmusic, unimportance, g2961, octopus58, aalasteir (look it's you!), hushfox, etc etc etc etc... pretty much everyone and everything inspires me in a certain way.

[Tunetober24 #05]

Your song takes the listener on a great journey, with excellent rhythm and creative sound design. I can completely understand why you enjoy color bass music. Your drum and bass are fantastic! I think it's really good. Your music has incredible energy, and I think you should be proud of being able to create so much.

@larrynachos, how would you recommend building the habit of creating music?

larrynachos responds:

Thank you for such a kind review!

I'm not qualified to answer your question, but giving myself the challenge of making a song every day, and having a friend to work alongside me and hold me accountable (cyberdevil) is a powerful source of motivation.

Fundamentally, the way to build the habit is to not think about wanting to make music, but to actually open the program and start playing

[Inktober #4 - The Freeze]

Great song, awesome vocals, and amazing music from Larry. A fantastic collaboration! I like the sense of progression. I think it would be cool—though I know this isn't possible due to time constraints—but adding glitch effects to the vocals could really help set the atmosphere.

@Cyberdevil, how do you create lyrics?

@larrynachos, how do you process drums?

Cyberdevil responds:

Aw yeah, that'd be an idea for a remix, if @larrynachos is up for it sometime maybe? ;) He's good with that type of stuff!

As for the lyrics I just write, I really don't have a process. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes slow. I try rapping what I'm writing as I go to see how it sounds; if I need to change words, or shorten something, make room for a breather, maybe improve the rhyme schemes. The fast part here for example took some tweaking to get right, much easier with the latter half.

Thank you Aalasteir, good to see you here too!

[The Québécois [ft. TeffyD] (Steam Demo Version)]

Happy Spooktacular! And Happy (early) Halloween!

Another amazing composition and collaboration! Yes, I’ve wishlisted the game Croak Crusader: Spawn of the Spore Spectre. The track absolutely captures that classic horror motif. Thank you for listening, sharing your inspiration, and for your comments. I’m excited to read more about how you created such an elaborate arrangement, and I’m so happy you’re planning to post your wonderful music on Newgrounds!

@TeraVex, what do you think about Halloween, and what specifically do you enjoy about spooky music?

@TeffyD, what was your favourite songs on Rocksmith?
I also tried Rocksmith, but I couldn’t quite get the hang of it. I’m shocked to hear that you played for eight hours a day for years! That explains why you’re so skilled—it's really amazing. How did you manage to stay focused on training, especially being self-taught? That sounds like a huge challenge.

TeffyD responds:

Favorite song on Rocksmith? Hmm, maybe Hanger 18 by Megadeth or Thunderkiss 65 by White Zombie, it was a lot of fun to play, could never get the solos down though.

I never treated it as "training" so I just ended up doing it way longer than I expected. Its relaxing just messing around, and I guess eventually you get muscle memory.

[Coolchasm]

Fantastic use of panning! The placement of the sounds is excellent, and the spacy sci-fi effects really accentuate your composition, adding a great level of depth. I appreciate that immensely—very well done on this great song!

@joeyvfx, how did you decide on the name "Coolchasm"?

@joeyvfx, when did you become interested in creating music, specifically IDM? Why do you think you gravitate toward electronic music, and how has your perspective on the genre changed compared to when you first started?

@joeyvfx, would you say that your work with effects blends into your music in terms of inspiration?

joeyvfx responds:

Glad you liked it! I think the name came from me thinking about a "cool mechanism" & somehow it was shortened into "chasm". Which is a totally different word. But it's fine

I've been making music since middle school. Was inspired by Sam Gorski from Corridor Digital & always wanted to make soundtracks like he did for most of their early videos. I always liked synth music, but seriously got into it around 2018-2019 when I began listening to pilotredsun more. I was very drawn to the idea of designing my own synth patches. Feels very powerful to essentially forge the majority of the track from scratch. As I've progressed I've just learned how important it is to finish sketching out ideas as quickly as possible. Working with haste is crucial while the spark of the idea is there. Ideas are worthless if they stay in your brain forever.

The VFX stuff is mostly a subconscious influence/association, although I like the idea of somewhat procedural computer generated music being accompanied by somewhat procedural computer generated visuals.