Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[CyberXXX]

Little bit of grind core, loved those wild intro drums. I haven't had the time to listen to musics off my phone lately, sorry dear. I can tell this is some quality metal and knowing you it's probably mixed more than well enough. Cheers Jonus!

Metaljonus responds:

No excuses Quarl! Lol jk thanks for taking the time to check it out!

[Waiting for Love]

Hell yes, amazing exploration of melodies. Loved how this swelled, could easily hear it in a JRPG like Final Fantasy. Potentially helpful feedback: add some orchestral percussion if you have any cymbal swells, crescendoing orc bass drums, or chimes... I can send you some chimes via discord at some point, haven't logged in for a couple weeks.

Thank you for posting that poetry, I love seeing Español on Newgrounds. Necesito practicar, lo siento D:

[Hallows eve]

Similar to the experience someone else mentioned, I was expecting heavy riffs and double bass pedal drums. I love it when artists compose outside of their comfort zones every now and then. Spooky 3/4 hobble, genre fitting harpsichord, creepy string leads, bizarre digital distortion percussion... I wish I wasn't listening on my phone. I want to hear those low frequencies and atmospheric sounds.

Adding to favorites for extended listens in the near future <3

Metaljonus responds:

Haha, It's to be expected I guess with what I write generally. Thanks for checking out my spooky loop! I hope you listened to it on speakers!

[Archvile Labyrinth]

The last time I saw the term "WAD" was in a history book or something. Using that term around here is some kind of right of passage that binds old people together. You were making audio before a lot of these new users were even born.

Get your butt back into the DAW and submit more musics. I need familiar faces around here. OLD PEOPLE REPRESENT.

S3C responds:

thanks for the review yo...and damn that's crazy

[today is going to be a good day, i can feel it]

Pretty 13/8 measure. One, two, three, one, two, three one, two, three one, two, three, FOUR YES. UNF, I LOVE THAT EXTRA PULSE IN THE SWING. Face melt.

Loved that cute little synth lead. Hell, all the synth patches are classic video game. It all comes together really well. Bass was tight. Drums are tight but I think the beat could be a little fiercer with more drum mods and effects. Pitch bent 32nd note snare drum fills. A tamb and shaker rhythm might help brighten the space a little. You can pan them in opposite directions and activate some more of the stereo field.

I'd have added extra an bass kick and snare drum layer. You can get really diverse IDM rhythms and textures with drum layers that emphasize one another and can take turns sharing the spot-light. A nice bass kick with sub freqs can have moments where it sustains to emphasize a relationship with the bass melody. I think a fidelity unit could push the low frequencies on that slappy bass synth some more. I paid stupid money on these headphones and am hungry for moar sub sonic textures :D

[Machine Learning]

Damn slippy, I love this. Love it when artists can merge grimy digital noises with gorgeous pads, atmosphere, and glitter. Vocal samples were wet and lush. Drums are nice without getting in the way at all. I don't listen to a lot of EDM so I kind of laugh when I hear a killer clap snare. It's my least favorite snare texture but you made really good use of it.

If you used this song as a pick up line, I'd pay for dinner.

[toastywav, Don't Tremble, cat.flp, Azkii, astr1d, Fkntay, Interpunct, F1regek - soup house]

This title summoned me. Thank you for composing a title as intellectual as the song itself. Breaks were hella rad, those pitch bendy filtered amen breaks around 1:00 ... I'm mad I didn't write them myself. Who ever did those, apologize to me now >:C

Some of the more ambient parts were very thin. The person mixing all the work together could have compressed those sections forward a little more...

Jesus Christo, give me some more of that 4:30 stuff. To whoever did that section, you should consider topping the lead synth with another filter and wub up those grainy beasts. That would clean it up a little. When you filter like that you can also add more distortion units, fidelity units, & boost mid frequencies. It's a messy process sometimes but those hard Reese leads can benefit from experimentation. I love splitting leads up into two signals, panning them off a little bit from each other, playing with levels, and processing the two signals a little differently. *Crisp panning, drool*

Edit: I wasn't done writing my review. Damn slippy fingers. Loved hearing that punk rock section. I found the distortion on the voice a little off putting but I know how hard it is learning to use your voice like an instrument. The distortion on it sounds like it's hiding something. The process of singing seems to come so naturally for some people that it can hurt a little not fitting into that category. We can't all be Ella Fitzgerald, a singer so good her band would tune their instruments to the sound of her voice. I have a certain level of respect for the vocalist here having the courage to seek out their Thu'um. I'm always trying to hone up my own singing voice into something better. Keep adding technique to that lovely voice :D

Cool collab y'all! So much talent :')

F1regek responds:

holy shit tysm for this review! i did the part at 4:30 btw :))

[Danger at the 2nd Floor]

This is cool! I won't try to lie to you, the track has a ton of amateurish vibes to it but that's one of the draws I like. A lot of users here have tracks from their early days when they were getting accustomed to their equipment. I love hearing the progression people make to their work. You is young lmfao, stick around Newgrounds and seek out feedback that can sharpen your musics!!

I'll give you a few tips that were handed down to me ages ago. Drums are always going to the be the most important element in any given EDM genre. Take a nice long listen to the producers you like and try to get an idea for what sounds and characteristics make up their drum kits. When I build EDM drum kits, I layer different drum samples to make new samples. I'll typically use three different snare drums. One will have strong mid frequencies and two others with more high for timbre, tone, and general character. Lot's of producers now a days use cool pitched up snare drums, clappy 808 snares always make good layers, I like having a small but woody sounding snare to play ghost note rhythms. Play around with layering and make really unique snare drums! It takes some practice and eventually you need to add fidelity tools to everything, but it's so worth it. Building drums is so much fun, the crazier you get with the signal flow the better :D :D

Bass drums can get that same layering treatment. Once you get a few good samples that resonate perfectly with each other, you can go crazy with fidelity tools but layering is a pretty game changing technique on it's own. Also remember to pick up good drum samples whenever you can. I posted a few drum kit sample folders a while back on Discord, let me know if you want them in a private message, I love sharing those.

I don't know if you've discovered automation lanes yet but if your program lets you use automation lanes, use them. Use them to give instruments crescendos and decrescendos, pan sounds from side to side, put a filter on a synth and automate changes to the frequency and resonance knobs, pitch bend things at will! Automation lanes are just recordings that emulate movement. If the MIDI tells a synthesizer to play a note at a certain velocity, the automation lane tells that same synth when to move certain knobs. Automation is power!

Again, let me know if you want those drum kit sample folders! They're totally legal to share, one folder is mostly just amen break chops but they make wonderful layers <3 <3

I hope you love what you're doing, music making is an awesome thing! You need to make a follow up track called "Drugs On The 3rd Floor," think about it! You can have a whole series of songs going up a really strange building, make an EP called "Really Big Building."

guiltlesslmfao responds:

Hey! I appreciate the review (probably the longest one I’ve ever gotten). This song’s couple months old and since last month I’ve been trying to learn how to make my own drum sounds and playing around with em. I’ve also been using automation lanes for couple years actually (at least I think so) though I didn’t use it here. Those drum kit sample folders sound nice, so you can share them to me! And yes, a series sounds awesome, if I do it I’ll probably remake this track as well. Thanks!

[Theme of Love (2021 Mix)]

Melodies grow and evolve into symphonies over time. After many years of moving your hands up and down along the piano it starts to feel like you have cozy little hand spasms that belong to you. Triumphant little soul melodies :']

I've read you talk about playing before and you have a lot of passion for it. I'm happy to hear a work with such an intimate short story. Also loved the 6/8 maybe 3/4 triplet meters. I'm a wonton lady of the night for some of those good old fashioned waltz time signatures <3

junipersona responds:

this song is years old btw

[Spider Stones]

Classic jungle, lush instruments, funky breaks. Sub bass is perfect. The whole track is mixed perfectly. I might crave some more mid freq drum kit punch but I have a bias for louder drums so you can choose to ignore me and keep grooving.