Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Master of Wealth (Halloween type HipHop)]

Woof, rapping with the power of the diaphragm. Love the grime on this track :3

[Liftoff]

Woof, love that hip hop sound bleeding into this. Brass and guitars, lovely as usual. lol, 1:31 has that jump-up dnb vibe but mad down tempo xD

Filthy good :3

sorohanro responds:

Thanks. When lack of caffeine kicks, everything I make is mad downtempo...

[Inspire]

Great rhythms, snappy snare drums, fun syncopations, beautifully done melodic elements. Perfectly creative <3

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you so much! Great to hear from you, Quarl!

[Insert Your Soul]

Absolutely love this. Super creative with those wet melodies and hip hop perc. Beautiful textures and ideas <3

edit, I'll be listening to this all day. I just put on my head phones because the mix looked dummy thicc. It's so entertaining and cool :3

[I'm a Biscuit (feat. Lightning Striker)]

Big drums <3

sorohanro responds:

That coming from you means a lot. Thanks :)

[Overtime]

Absolutely fresh. Slightly minimal but each element is absolutely beautiful. I feel like when I write music it's a ton of elements working together and the lesser shit gets hidden. You mixed this in a way that I can hear everything perfectly, nothing is being hidden, and it's all good. Had to give this a listen on the living room speakers, was worth it for that sub. Classic subby pitch bends, clean arps padding the atmosphere, cute plucked strings, snappy up pitch snares, wonderful vocal samples, orc instruments used sparingly, cute synth voice modulations.

Beautifully written <3

DigitalProdigy responds:

Wow!!!! Thank you so much for that review. I'm used to mixing orchestra and film music which you know have so many stems, so it's natural for some instruments to get lost in the mix, but for me mixing EDM, where there's not to many stems it's easier to showcase all of the instruments and sounds a lot easier. Still, mixing is a whole art in its own and I still have not mastered that as of yet and let's not even talk about mastering OMG!! Lol
You are so appreciated!!

[Wood and Winds]

Since you asked for feedback on the Discord channel I'll totally mention some stuff! The music theory is spot on. Love the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and ideas. Not trying to insult what you know but the mix quality is amateur. Mix down and fidelity tools can take years to figure out on your own but you can do it without watching tutorials on youtube. I'd recommend watching those videos and tutorials though because figuring it all out by ear while twisting knobs sucks. Even just one tutorial can propel you in good directions for years.

When I mention fidelity tools, I'm talking about devices such as equalizers, compressors, filters, stereo imagers, maximizers... there's a ton of tools but the two most helpful will be the first two I mentioned. I just gave BandLab a look because I forgot what it was. I'm not sure if bandlab includes those types of tools but at the very least you could look for them and see if you got more goodies up your sleeve.

One last thought because I listened to this a few times, that high pitch synth tone at 4:06 is the worst. You can totally juggle tones like that into a mix for big bass dance genres but it feels so out of place in this. The song is generally relaxing and wholesome, then that tone shows up late and ruins everything you had built up in the previous 4 minutes. I love a lot of contrast and spontaneity but I'm not so certain it's working out here. If that tone did one thing right, it made me appreciate everything that came before it so much more.

Sorry if that comes off a little harsh but I do want to compliment the writing you did that was perfect! Great music theory, fun to listen to, nice long composition, bad ending. Keep trucking towards your album, I wish you best with it!

SirSandman0 responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I am going to start researching how to properly mix audio since I've noticed that being a common criticism for most of my songs. Maybe I'll write a better outro to the song once I get it figured out

[Ganymede]

Followed you from the NG audio pub Discord channel. Mix is over compressed but ignoring that massive over compression the elements are great. Love that lead bass synth. Drum samples and loops sound great. That's a nice unique tone from the ghost snares. Pad melodies are liquid AF.

Your mix down is the one thing really separating you from the pros. You need some new mixing and mastering tricks to spread around. It sounds like your slapping compressors on everything and boosting levels instead of keeping the levels to a more reasonable level. My mixing tends to vary a lot from track to track but some stuff to experiment with:

More sidechain signals. If you're already sidechaning the lead bass synth & sub using the kick drum and snare, I might recommend pushing the sidechain signal to really get that drum kit controlling bass frequency levels. I use a splitter in Reason to send that sidechain signal to anything I've slapped a compressor to. Your compressors should be able to increase or decrease the intensity of the sidechain signal, push it harder!

I can't tell how much panning is going on but when you pan stuff, there is an illusion that the sound is louder, letting you turn things down a little. I like to split my leads into two signals, one left and one right, to give me a little more fidelity control in each ear. This also lets me drop the levels a good bit and make room for other elements towards the middle. Obvs bass frequencies should be center stage but anything mid to high can be biased left or right. I like to automate the panning knob on the really high frequencies, make things pulse left/right/left/right. Panning data can give the illusion of movement but it's also just interesting to drive a listeners attention around the field instead of one static location.

A good thing to experiment with this on in this song would probably be that saw pad behind the bass lead. Using an 8th note pattern I'd try automating the panning data: 45, -45, 45, -45, 45, -45 or a more potent 55, -55, 55, -55, 55, -55 to give that saw synth some massive dynamic character.

Mixing for DNB requires some good balance and contrast to avoid a static mix down. You can really drive yourself crazy on the mix down but do spend some time focusing on it. I wasn't kidding when I said the only thing separating you from the pros is the mix (and a big following/cult). Sorry if my tips aren't helpful but there really isn't a cure all solution to mix and master. You have to compare yourself to the pros you listen to and try to find the techniques that will give you more fidelity control. You have LOUDNESS which is something a lot of producers don't understand, instead choosing to keep their mix downs quiet. You figured out the compressor, now work backwards! Make things a little quieter to make room for all that loudness :)

Sorry to drop this all on you. I really like everything going on I just want to hear my peers at their absolute best!

[I Wrote an Album but I Scrapped It]

"lol, new EP coming out maybe at some point, dunno, lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Material sounds tight af. Word up to the contraceptive your parents didn't use! I really liked the mix on 4:26, super crisp.

lol, 7:24 hitting with that sad/happy energy that can mysteriously sell popular songs. Favorite track, sue me.

YasiinClemens responds:

I feel like I grew up on stuff like semi charmed kinda life by third eye blind so I love writing happy songs with wild lyrics and tones lol

[Heaven Energy]

woof, love that goofy rhodes upstroke chord bop! Reeses are tight, great sounds Dieswyx. I'm angry to be listening to this on a tablet with no bass but I'll get around to it with a better sound system asap. MY WEDDING IS THIS WEEK, BUT I'LL MAKE TIME FOR YOU BECAUSE LOVE.

Dieswyx responds:

🥺🥺🥺