Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[New Born]

Beautiful track. Drums are super dry but I love hearing less common tones and textures. Absolutely glorious melodies Dieswyx. Cool break down, I'd love to hear some drum modulations but I venture that IDM sound is just something I'm a little more into. I started programming a second snare drum on my Alesis rim trigger to switch up a monotonous snare tone which makes drum fills lush when the snare drum evolves. In Reason I give the drums their own mixer and chain it to the other mixers via a bypassed filter inbetween that can be switched on and off for automated tone filtering, freq and res knobs...

I love the energy Dieswyx, love it. You have a really chill style :3

Dieswyx responds:

Your reviews are always worthy. Thank you very much. Glad you like it! <3<3<3

[Breakfast Pirate Tango (Day 2)]

CHAOS D:

Dank day two track. Mix is probably about half as goofy as the melodies and patches, track is prog AF. Frank Zappa woke up from his death slumber just to bop his head to this. (Actually, I think Frank Zappa hated synthesizers and EDM for the majority or entirety of his career but I bet he'd be doing digital stuff today if he lived to see the advent of the loop station.) Love the time sig, my thesis work revolved around atypical time signatures so I got mad respect for anyone that can work the flow beautifully :3

[H0L0 [Jamuary Day 1]]

Yo girl, use the drum signals to side chain literally everything and turn a few of those limiters off to find the edges of the spectrum. Drums can pop more... there's space in the far corners of the spectrum that are being clipped off from bashfully overzealous fidelity tools. I like to put a compressor on almost everything even if just to bypass them so that I have the option to put kick and snare signals through instruments. The sidechain feature will let your drums ring crisply and you can play with sidechain knobs until you get a fidelity you love! I'm pretty all over the place with fidelity but sidechaining is essential tech to get powerful drums.

An EDM track without sidechained drum signals is like a bear without a bicycle. Everyone loves a bear but if you put that bear on a bicycle, everyone will love the bear more...

Atmosphere is pro, loving the techy dial up noises and breaks. I usually only use drums to sidechain stuff but towards the end, that melody patch could have made some more room for itself by pushing aside the pads. Just like a bear on a bicycle...

I'm not sure how much you pan, my ears are faulting today from all the recent headphone usage but you can also clean up mix downs by finding space for everything. Bass tones and kick/snare patterns work really well in the middle but everything else can be biased to find lovely homes and spaces. I go ham to the left & right with aux percussion like hi-hats, tambs, and shakers. To get powerful reese leads I'll use a splitter to turn the lead into two signals than pan hard left on one and hard right on the other. People use that same technique when mixing guitars, I've done it on my pianos... it takes a little practice but that trick helps inch out some extra fidelity :3

Sorry to hit you with fidelity feedback on Jamuary day one like this but I'd love to hear what you can achieve with god tier mixing skills. Song a day challenge will give you some time to play with some of these ideas and maybe by the end of the month your mix downs will be tip top :D

milkypossum responds:

I appreciate this so much!! I am TERRIBLE at mixing and I wing it 90% of the time haha, I have noooo clue what I’m doing when it comes to sidechaining anything so I try to use panning to accommodate and atone for my sins lol 😭 I def need to actually sit down and try to play with the space in songs more and find a happy little space for everything though. I feel like I’d be a lot more confident if I knew what the hell I’m actually doing in terms of mixing!

[Never Enough]

Damn, this is a super tight track, hits nice and hard. I was complimenting Casper earlier today over some amazing trip hop... hit him up and trade beats, spit rhymes, DO IT <3

YasiinClemens responds:

Hell yeah 😎

[DUMB FUCK]

FUCK YEAH, LET'S GO 80s NOFX CLASSIC CRUNCH, SCOTT PILGRIM VIBES IF YOUR NOT OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW WHO NOFX IS. Mix is nutty but I'm in that disbelief mode that this isn't a live recording... you sure you don't use any guitars yo? This sounds so effing live, love it. You should get permission to redo Punk-O-Matic, that game needs a remix :p

Droid responds:

Yeah I need to work on the mix but I just wanted to get it out lmao

[Iron Lung (Day 1)]

"I also want to get comfortable with my vocals and lyrics because I want to do MORE." That feel is so real. I've been playing with a Boss RC 600 Loop Station lately and I'm coming to the realization that I haven't sung much in the last couple of years. You wrote a wonderful Jamuary introduction.

I had a dream a little while ago for the perfect funk song but you wrote it instead. I guess when I woke up my dream floated into your brain and I forgot about it. I'd take all the credit for writing your song it seems kind of petty. Good job Teravex :p

[Redundant Viewing]

imo, you got some of the best trip hop sounds on Newgrounds. Love the mix down, rhythms, melodies, and sfx. Super wet and colorful <3

[tonight on sick sad world]

hxc slowdown, this song is a constant musical breakdown. Fucking rad drums. Crunchy mix, could be a tad cleaner but pro sounds can take decades to figure out. Also I'm listening on a tablet, not a fair medium to listen to anyone's music on. Would have loved to hear some guitar scales... WHY CAN'T I TURN OFF JUDGE MODE, TOO MANY CONTESTS JUDGED, THIS TRACK KICKS ASS SIS. IGNORE CRITICISM, BECOME DEMON <3

...hiphop modern? lmao xD

[NGADM 2022 Grand Finals Podcast]

Someone tagged me with saxophone AND I APPROVE. Haven't touched sax since third grade but I'm cool with it :3

It's touching to hear your voices, holy damn it's wonderful. You people are amazing and congratulations to everyone! Top shelf talent in every bracket and round! I'll come back to this recording again a few times to let the artists statements sink in.

LuckyDee responds:

Pleased to meet you, even though I might not have shown in my activity on Discord - or through this generic message I'm posting under all the judges' comments XD

But I had fun nonetheless and had a chance for a little personal development, so thanks for your contribution to that.

[And You Shall Know Release]

Definitely love the riffs, killer energy Banana. You know what I have to say about the all around mix down, same words from my review of Footnotes. Over compression, more room is available to give your instruments the space they need in the far corners of that sound spectrum. It's such a beautiful arrangement, just needs a bit of polish but getting that pro mix sound every time can take years and a lot of experimentation. Compression is a wonderful tool but it's something that needs to be used in responsible amounts. I'm taking away your car keys until you can work off some of that compression D:

Banana-head responds:

Thanks again for the review! I guess i do use a lot of compression lol, its mostly what i learned to use along with a bit of EQ. Ill be figuring that out with time.