Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[modus - Displace]

Clean, refreshingly unique modus style. You have a way of making an arp sound fierce, and those leads... woof.

iammodus responds:

Thank you! <3

[Master]

I'm happy you posted how old you are on your page. A lot of us legacy newgrounds users started at a ripe young age too. This totally takes me back to early jam sessions with the bands, friends, and rouges in highschool. It doesn't necessarily have a very polished or professional sound but it's honest and that's what I like about it. I'm practically in tears over here thinking about my old band mates. We would get stoned, hang out, and just make things. Had no idea what those early days meant, we were just scratching our instruments and yowling our songs aloud. It can be hard to pull a full band together but get a percussionist and this could turn into an Explosions In The Sky vibe.

I'd nit pick the shy vocals but it honestly feels really good to hear young unspoiled energy. It almost feels like I'm in the room with you all, I would totally be beat boxing to this. You've got an acoustic sound and another year of highschool? Force one of your friends to start beat boxing right now. It only takes a week to learn how to "BFFF" a good bass drum, "KAH" a good K snare and "TISS" a decent hi hat. Simple 6/8 rock rhythm would go "BFFF, TISS TISS, KAH, TISS TISS" or bassdrum, hi hat, hi hat, snare drum, hi hat, hi hat, then repeat one million times. Look, you don't have to learn how to play the drums. Just force the Asian kid to do it. That Asian kid is going places and you need to make friends with him right now.

FOUNDDEADINLA responds:

I should note that my music is all me—most my friends find my music too expiremental—and I've got fuller sounding peices as well (expecially on my blackgaze inspired earlier works), but this was an amazing read. I do hope in college I befriend a percussionist and form a band :). Ill have to try beatboxing on a future track too.

[Just Move - First Upload in 15 years :)]

Had to look into your older work to see if I recognized anything. Was happy to see those early experimental noise tracks. During my short time as an audio mod in college those tracks might have got you banned from uploading spam. Every mod had their own style but it's basically impossible to tell how someone is going to grow and evolve. Just Move is a far cry from those humble origins.

I didn't actually recognize any tracks from your catalog. I'm guessing you remember a time when the audio portal exclusively played ParagonX9 samples on the front page? Was looking for something from that era but you seem to have sidestepped the larger EDM phase that hit newgrounds at that time and stayed true to hip hop. There's some seriously great stuff in here. Newgrounds let another good artist slip through the cracks. Not that it's anybodies fault. There are so many social circles here it's common to have two similar artists writing music for each other without any notice to the larger moving and happenings around them. Hope you stick around Miggles :)

Miggles responds:

Yes, I think I will. Thanks fams! I remember how lively the community was and I'm glad it still is thriving. There's a ton of talent here that definitely needs to get more shine.

[Critical Meltdown]

Track bounces nicely. I think you guys had a little more room to boost the sub bass with a compressor but aside from minor mix down nit picking this track rocked both styles in a way that didn't sound out of place or strange. Would love to hear another collab like this :D

spiritmusic responds:

Thanks Quarl, Im always looking to improve as an artist and take advice whenever I can

I appreciate the feedback <3

[1thermidor226 - krull dimension]

Heavy Bjork feelings. This manages to sound both old school and new school while belonging to it's own school. That hollow low pitch snare drum was endearing, rhythms were techy and cool without getting in the way of anything. I'm glad I looked into the sample source, always a treat to see what people do with specific sounds.

Love that drum kit. It's mad simple but effective with those pads and tones. Perfect for the track. I was fully expecting for the rhythm to switch back to those early breaks after you went full four to the floor but I totally respect the decision to just build on that pulsing bass drum. This track is awesome, creative, unique, and romantic <3

acheney responds:

thank you for the kind words! i really need to listen to bjork at some point

i actually synthesized the drum kit from scratch using synths i made in sunvox, i'm glad someone likes it

hey i remember you from your review on euler characteristic zero, god that was so long ago

[Tunturi]

Lol, another Reason producer. Love seeing others in the program, it can feel lonely surrounded by all these FL people. This musics reminds me of the house we'd get here back during the introduction of the audio portal. It's a romantic sound and I'm loving it. I'm gonna nit pick the mix down a little because it's what I do :p

Track could hit harder, it looks like the master out is being over compressed somehow (the visual shows the wave is cutting out well before peaking). Usually over compression leads to loudness but this kind of compression just leads to limiting your audio field, less room for sounds to exist in. You're basically masking 5 to 10% of your canvas with negative space.

Check the master out, Reason used to have a default "Mastering Suit Contaminator" which would set up the final out signal with certain fidelity settings. The maximizer in the combinator had a button called the "limiter," turn that shit off or bypass the unit entirely. I've always preferred the mclass compressor over the limiter, simpler UI. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might not even be there. I have a lot of files going back to Reason 4, I think the default Mastering Suit was tossed to the side in older versions but you can still program one. In anycase, set up the final signal going out with a few fidelity units on the way to the amp. I always have an equalizer and compressor on that final signal for mastering.

Feel free to hit me up in the future for any fidelity talk, Reason has great tools to get the most out of your sound systems. Just gotta know what your option are :D

EppuJoloZ responds:

Yeah, I get what you're talking about! I actually don't use the MClass Mastering patches, mostly my mastering is done with VSTs. It's nice to see more Reason people here too, I just effing love the workflow of that program :D

Also thanks for the feedback, I know that mastering/mixing is my weakest point at production at the moment, and your tips are really helpful!

Glad you enjoyed the track too! <3

[Se-ouls]

Love the chill anime vibes I'm getting from this. Some of those instruments and melodies are giving me Harvest Moon vibes. Mixing those nuero reeses with that feeling of happy bliss is a tough line to tow, I can totally relate to that desire to juxtapose such things. Personally, I think those heavy reeses would sound better in something not so tonal and upbeat but you can do whatever you want, it's just musics. I'd "save as" the file, create a new track using those hard synths, and go full Nuero with them. Melodies could get their own file without a DNB rhythm section. That's just my own take, this track has a lot of great ideas in it. You can always revisit music files later and gut them for those good things.

BACK UP YOUR DATA TODAY SO YOU CAN HAVE THIS TEN YEARS FROM NOW.

SuperSoniker responds:

Thank you very much guy, I thank you for this great advice that will be very useful from now on :)

[Glass Sun]

How dare you assault me with jazzy melodies and hip instruments. Rhythm section is a nice break from the contemporary drum kits I'm usually listening to and producing. I really love this. Now I want to write something similar, those simple but complex rhythms are dank. The way they all interact creates pro dynamics and alive energy not easy to replicate. Cute little sine pads, glowing bells... this has killer IDM vibes.

Dominuus responds:

Woah, didn't expect you to listen to my stuff haha

Thank you lots for the kind words! I actually got inspired by you a tad bit when making this, so it would be cool to hear your own take on the idea :)

[Do As You Please]

This has some really original vibes to it. Awesome mix down. A product of preferences and techniques, tracks like this are awesome because they go outside the norm and showcase sounds the artist has polished despite that norm. You took what you liked and sculpted something unique.

I understand the apprehension with vocals, it can take a long time to find a voice but I didn't think these were cringe at all. I'm surprised you didn't pitch bend any of the vocals for glitch effect. There were times the vocals take on minor processing effects but some quick pitch bends here and there would have matched the glitch vibe. Some quickly introduced/quick cut off high pitched sine wave synths would also have also sounded awesome. I'm just tossing in ideas I'd have sprinkled in... sorry.

This is something special. I don't hear tracks produced this good AND this original very often.

SynchroSpectre responds:

Thanks for the review! And yea the style that I make my tracks is something akin to Ekcle, Vorso, Copycatt, and several other of the Inspected artists. As for the vocals, I was thinking of making some granulated samples but I was beginning to think it was getting hella busy but something like that would definitely be something I might do in the future!

[RoboBass]

My foot this is drum and bass. At best this is downtempo house musics aspiring to become break-beat dance musics with orchestrated segments but I'll let you call it drum and bass today because it's really really cool. Orchestration was super creative. Drums were mixed something perfect. Synths were juicy and full bodied. The second half felt a little repetitive or redundant but that happens all the time to me too. Dance genres lend themselves to that repetition. A super high pitched saw lead/pad for that second chorus would put this in another dimension. That second half has all the room for a high portamento saw/square lead to rip in and jam. Just saying :D

Damn that ending was inspired. Loved that rubato and delay <3

AlbeGian responds:

Sorry, I'm not very good at labeling electronic subgenres lol. Thanks a lot for the feedback!!