Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Reunion - Pico vs BF FNF Song]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
TheSWOLEST, Reunion - Pico vs BF FNF Song: 5,6,1,5 (17/40)

I never played FnF but I spent a fair amount if time listening to kawaiisprite so I'm aware of what to expect from that genre of sound. I'm sorry to open up by saying that the art you choose was weak (I'm sorry because apparently you two are friends and I don't like being hurtful or meanspirited). The image was uploaded sideways and I can see the Dell logo, is this literally a quick cellphone picture? This is painful to look at because I have to crick my neck 90 degrees, I'm too old for that yo. There is a ton of FnF fan art you could have chosen but you chose to represent your friend and honestly, it wasn't the best decision for a contest. Your friend needs to improve their illustrative chops. The low emotion score comes from my general annoyance that I felt by the image your trying to claim inspired you.

I quickly looked at your catalogue to try and get a better idea of your breadth or what kind of music you make and you only have three songs. I like it when artists challenge themselves by going outside their comfort zone but I have no idea what your comfort zone even is. If you stick around and get to know the audio community a little more I'll try to keep an eye out for you, but at the moment I'm not sure what to think. You got some inspired jungle sounds, the handbag melody, pitched up vocals representing kawaiisprite's style but all I'm hearing is an emulation of kawaii's music style. The production was OK but I'm not necessarily impressed by it with everything else in mind. Your panning data was very experimental, static panning was one of my biggest gripes for other contestants so great job with that. Masterful panning gives you all sorts of production boons but I'm not hearing the pay off this time. Panning a sound with a bias to the left or right can create the illusion that a sound is louder than it actually is so a sound that you pan can then be turned down a little to make room in the mix for more sounds. Panning can create the illusion of movement. All I'm hearing is some random strobing and it doesn't echo the art at all. The art you choose can inspire all sorts of musical devices or ideas and I'm just not getting a lot of inspiration from the art. I see poorly executed art (sorry again Therealskeptic) and the music just emulates kawaiisprite's eccentric music. If anything it sounds like the music from FNF inspired you more than the art did.

I hope to see some more from you in the future, I'm a big DNB nerd and I can hear all sorts of potential from you but challenge yourself next year, listen to some of the winning pieces from this contest, and read some of the other reviews to see what others did well. With some additional awareness you could become a very strong composer. I hope this review was helpful. I'm giving everyone the time and attention they deserve but I tend to write less when something makes me happy. If I'm judging this again next year aim to shut me up with flawless work. You have a good day Mr. SWOLEST and may your ambitions bear fruit from the metaphorical tree of success and love!

TheSWOLEST responds:

Trust me fnf stuff is a lot different from sprites normal work & yes I was tryna emulate that instead of KS' normal work. And thx for the tips on panning. I'll definitely apply that to my future songs. The inspiration was the characters in the art squaring off. I've only been making music for 6 months so seeing constructive feedback like this is great! This review has it's issues but overall it's a great critique & I'll apply it in the future! TYSM!

[AIM - Red Dawn]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
HiddenVris, Red Dawn: 7,6,6,4 (23/40)

Probably my most common issue while judging this contest is that artists didn't take advantage of the author's comments section to mention their intentions or what might have inspired them. Though I can sit here and make guesses at how the song relates to the image, as the artist you can draw your own connections and guide the judges a little. It's a lot harder for me to take off points for "relevancy" or "emotion" if I can see that you took the time to really try reflecting the image. Personally, words can guilt me into handing out better scores because I know what it's like to have a vision. Conveying what it was about the art that inspired you isn't always easy with music alone. Were your instruments supposed to represent something physical like machines, clouds, or animals? Did the image seem relaxing and therefor you wrote relaxing music? I'm in the dark over here trying to figure out how the music you wrote reflects an image of a sunrise behind a city on the ocean front.

This is the perfect scenery for samples of gulls cawing and waves gently crashing. You could even have used a synthesizer to generate the white noise necessary to emulate those waves. I notice some of the flags are blowing in the wind, you could have sampled some windchimes. Though I felt the relaxing nature of the track was ideal, I don't necessarily feel like the song and the image are inseparable from each other. That synth/drum section in particular confused me to death. The song might have been better with those percussive elements muted. You wrote such lovely piano and pad melodies, you wouldn't have been shooting yourself in the foot if you just replaced those pseudo aggressive sections with more of that melodic genius. As a drummer myself it always hurts to tell people "mute the drums" but it's a valid critique. In the future, you can defend these kinds of musical devices in the authors comments by drawing direct parallels and that would make it harder on us to give out lower scores. Use every tool you got.

You wrote a very quiet mix. It would have worked with this scenery but I like to tell people "you can maximize your spectrum and still write relaxing music or soundscapes." You could have used panning data to emulate the space in the image, a wave crashing SFX can move from left to right and put us directly in the path of the water as if we're standing in it. Gull samples could be "far away" and biased to the left or right to emulate location. This song could have been amazing, you have some of the right elements in place that would have worked very well with some of the other ideas mentioned above. I feel bad giving you a relatively low score that I didn't want to keep taking points off but the more I wrote, the more I did. I'm sorry if this comes across as rude or hurtful. I only want to see the Newgrounds audio community make the best music they can possibly make. You've got some ideas to wrestle with but I know you'll be a very strong contender in the future if you keep up with it. Hopefully I'll see some more from you in the future, live long and prosper HiddenVris! Always upwards :3

HiddenVris responds:

Don't worry! I never felt this review as something rude or hurtful , instead , I thank you for your feedback and believing in me! I hope to participate in the next AIM and it'll be with a better work. Again , thank you

[AIM - Techacardia]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Aterum, Techardia: 10,10,10,9 (39/40)

Thank you for mentioning some of your intentions. I can respect that you aimed to evoke cogs and heartbeats. Many users didn't take advantage of the author's comments to direct our attention. I took a very similar approach during a "photo inspired music contest" back in 2008 with a song called Aeronautics. My exact words were "I really wanted to do an IDM track to replicate the complexity of the airplanes inner workings combined with the fluidity of the ideal of flight." So I get it, I understand the connections you were aiming to make with your comments. I'm not certain I understand the "irregular heart beat," I assume a machine would be able to perfectly time the pulse of a synthetic heart but the music managed to convey the idea better than the statement.

Since I'm going to nit-pick that heartbeat idea, you could easily have used a bass drum and filter with reverb units to engineer a realistic sounding heart beat. It almost sounds like you were doing exactly that at 2:19. It's not very difficult to do and the idea isn't "original" but originality isn't necessarily a metric that we are judging for. I just wanted it to stand out a little more if that's what you were doing. Since robots are a theme and we're not heavily policing samples, I'd have recommended looking up some power tool videos on YouTube and grabbing some industrial sounds. Personally, I love the sound of hydraulics. You can also engineer all sorts of sounds from synthesizers, one competitor managed to replicate a revving race car engine beautifully. I like to use hi-hats to emulate the sound of a peddle bike's drive chain slowing down as it clicks from fast to slow. Though the music you wrote was inspired and musically on point, I feel that you missed a small opportunity to get a little more creative with sounds in that respect.

Still driving my tiny "atmospheric sounds" criticism home, I'm noticing what looks like pools of oil leaking into a small environment. There's a crab and some coral reef at the bottom of the heart, a flower is growing haphazardly from the bottom of a ledge. There's a fair amount of room for organic sounds in a very mechanical illustration. The robot in the middle of the heart looks like it's crying. You could use a simple sinewave synth to emulate water droplets with some quick pitch bending and a little reverb. You might have been able to track down some atmospheric samples on YouTube of pressured steam releasing or water boiling to emulate the bubbling oil vats leaking into an organic environment. Many users were able to make smart use of atmospheric samples and you're obviously a strong enough writer to have used these ideas.

Despite how much I have to say about it, this was a very small criticism. You wrote a very strong piece of work and I felt like it honorably reflected the art. You made excellent use of panning to create space which was another common issue I mentioned while judging other competitors. I feel like I have no choice but to give you high scores on production and composition/structure. The song stayed very interesting throughout with solid transitions and change ups. I'm giving you an almost perfect score. I'm probably the only judge to go all in on the review process like this, giving everyone the feedback they deserve but I really want people to understand why they're getting the scores that they're getting. This is a very difficult contest to judge since we have to take so many possibilities into account in regards to subjectivity or taste.

You have a wonderful day Aterum, hopefully this review is helpful and I hear more from you in the future <3

[AIM - Nightly Stunts]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
BusanBlack, Nightly Stunts: 10,7,7,2 (30/40)

Why is everyone writing such wonderfully inspired soundscapes? This has been a difficult competition to judge. I'll make sure to mention what I liked further below but I'm not going to waste anytime pointing out how you could have used the author's comments space to better illustrate connections the judges might have missed. It's a wonderful image but I'm not certain I can hear much of a connection to the art. By using the author's comments you can help draw connections to the inspirations. Was it the neon lights that inspired you? Is this music that would have playing inside the car? Rain on the window implies a white noise of percussive sounds, you could have sampled the sounds of a storm or rainfall and risked nothing. Judges for this contest are very laidback when samples are used. Google "YouTube one hour rainfall sounds" and use your audio programs to rip audio from your hard drive directly. So many of the meditation/sleep aid videos can be creatively applied to your work to help emulate an atmosphere. A free program like Audacity can grab the audio data off your hard drive when you're watching videos. This looks like a city street, some traffic sounds or car noises might have gently mixed well into the background. The environment in the car would give those sounds a slightly muted presence. Even at night, a city can have all sorts of sounds working in the background. Some synths or sounds panning from left to right or right to left could have created the illusion of movement. As your car drives past locations you might hear some loud noises coming from a car garage crescendo and decrescendo. You might hear soft beeps from a cross walk as you wait for the traffic lights to turn green. For such an inspiring image I feel you really missed an opportunity to make use of atmospheric sounds to put us inside this location. The song itself is well written and beautiful but I need some cues to make the inspirational connections, you can't expect the music to always speak for itself. Aside from samples, you could use instruments to symbolize certain elements of the landscape. Chimes might hang from a shop door and can crescendo or decrescendo. An arp synth could emulate an emergency vehicle you might pass on a city block. A simple sinewave moving from one side to the other could represent all sorts of things but you can always use your words to direct the listeners attention to something you may have intended.

I'm not certain I liked the climax compared to the ambiance in earlier sections. The hi-hat is the loudest instrument in the climax which was a little strange. You could have used a compressor and graphic EQ to bring out the lows in those drums, made them thunderous. An automation lane sending some spurts of reverb to the drums can make for a crescendo swell of tones, waves of sound. An odd snare drum with a ton of sudden reverb can be interesting and unexpected. So many people put static reverb units on stuff without thinking of how to use it emotively. Something else I'll mention is that you could layer a new snare drum on top of what you already have for most of the song different sections to help give some nice color to things (the snare at 1:35 seemed to pop more than it did in other sections). I loved the overall structure of the song. I've always been a fan of Explosions In The Sky and their style of building a slow crescendo. Since I gave you such a raw score for relevance I decided to be friendly with composition/structure. You do have some wonderful melodies but the theme of the competition is inspiration, you can't necessarily expect the judges to understand all of your intentions. Another competitor really impressed me with a synth that sounded like a race car engine. Another musician perfectly transported me to Japan with regional instrumentation and true to culture rubato. The sad two points I gave you for relevance was mostly because the image was peaceful, and the music was mostly peaceful but there was so much more that could have been done. Do understand that I enjoyed many aspects of your song. It was still good, despite me being perhaps too picky. Have a wonderful day Busan <3

[AIM - Sprawl]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
isostatic1111, Sprawl: 9,9,10,9 (37/40)

I like that you included a few thoughts about your work. I'm nailing people hard for not writing enough or anything at all. This competition can be very hard to judge but making use of that author's comments space is a secret emotional tool to endear yourself to the judges. Not that all judges are guaranteed to take note of author's comments but I totally did. Had to sit here trapped for days listening to everyone's music. I took everything into account to judge as fairly as possible. Ultimately, there is no harm in saying something about your work or what inspired you so good job on using your words isostatic! Porygon is a favorite oddball Pokemon of mine, I felt like you wrote an inspired soundscape that reflected the subject uniquely. That percussion was all over the place and could have easily echoed the mechanical sounds that a wall clock might make. You actually missed a small opportunity to sample an actual grandfather clock or something similar. You could have opened up and ended the song with a ticking clock to really make a romantic impact on me. As a beatboxer, I love using my tongue to tik-tok when I'm waiting for something. Many clocks will gong once or twice throughout the day, an orchestral gong might have sounded nice to reflect that. Orchestral bass drums or swells could have fattened up your stereo field a little. I would have sampled and used old computer OS start-up and shut-down noises, some recognizable beeps or notification sounds might have benefit the psyber aspect of this. None of the judges will get squeamish or upset over small samples for a contest like this so long as the sample doesn't become the primary hook in the song. Give me some classic Microsoft error sfx please :3

The glitch rhythms were very nice but I like hearing EDM artists balance spontaneity with control. This is a little more spontaneous than I thought it should be but I found myself never really getting bored of it either. It's a very fun atmosphere and space that I looped many times while writing this. This is a very strong piece but you could have included some auxiliary percussion like tambourines, shakers, hi-hats, and the such to structure this a little more. A digital framework needs a little more structure. Porygon kind of exists in that digital world of zero and one switches like an animal that doesn't quite belong. I think you have too many organic sounds and not enough digital ones. I'm so torn on this atmosphere, it's beautifully abstract and seems to float but a more coherent orchestrated climax might have been a plus? Some reverse drum sounds that crescendo into sections would have pleasantly surprised me. Reversed kick drums, snare, or cymbals: play with them! I'm taking off minimal points for this track, it's so beautifully unique. This song is amazing, and I love it. I hope this review was helpful, I feel like my words don't do you justice. This was a very difficult competition to judge, there have been some wonderfully inspired soundscapes and I feel like you deserve to be in the top echelon of music makers for this contest. Have a wonderful day iso!

isostatic1111 responds:

wow!!! oh my gosh thank you so much for the kind words! this was excellent feedback and it really really REALLY means a lot <3 i've only been doing music for around two years now and reading about how i can flesh out weird & surreal stuff like this is very helpful!!! i hope ur doing well and have a great day :DDDD

[AIM - Cosmic]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
JoMoMusic, Cosmic: 8,7,6,3 (24/40)

You'll have to excuse me, I write a lot to justify my scores. Your approach was novel and unique, very "Shoegaze." I've played percussion in a fair share of experimental noise bands, I got some respect for this as a result. Thank you for including those hardware tags, I like to look that stuff up. I got a few PRS guitars recently but it's the Squire bass I'm really loving on right now. I have a lot of respect for people that work to mix a few live elements and recordings into their music. I'm seeing a lot of elements in the visual you choose but not necessarily hearing the connections you could have made via the music. With 12 reviews left to write, by far the single most irritating issue in this competition was the fact that so many musicians chose to assume their work spoke for itself. The author's comments is just another chance to stand out and explain your intentions. You are surrounded by peers on this website that love their creations just as much as you love yours. I like to know how an artist is feeling, I like to share in their inspirations. By giving us some insight into how you think your music reflected the art, you can at the very least guilt some of us into giving you higher relevancy scores via an emotional connection. There were musicians that I didn't agree with in regards to the connections they tried to describe but I respected the visions that many of them had based on their commentary. I'm also going to point out that I'm over here writing far more than the majority of the people I'm reviewing did. No one had to go overboard with their commentary but some people choose to write nothing at all. Around ten years ago an original theme of this contest was to build bonds, develop social skills, and have Newgrounds users reaching across creative portals to work together. It's not a rule anymore but the original contest required composers to reach out to the artists. I only noticed a handful of artists mentioned reaching out and speaking to graphic artists. It's certainly extra but I respect any amount of insight into the creative process so I can better gauge whether a work honestly reflects the art and that the artist truly deserves the victories.

Many users took advantage of lax sample policing and included atmospheric samples to draw connections. There were many animals in the stars and those cries could have been nabbed from YouTube animal documentary videos. Though many DAWs can now record sound straight from the hard drive, a free program like Audacity can also rip sounds and requires almost zero skills to use. A sample can be modulated until it's indistinguishable from the original sound and that makes it fair use. Length of samples can also play into that kind of risk. Not making money off your work is another legal safety feature. Aside from using samples, I wanted to mention that there a huge rocks flying about in this illustration. A program like Mixcraft might have orchestral percussion sounds, I've never used it so forgive me if I'm wrong. A booming orchestral bass drum could resemble an earthquake. Chimes could twinkle like stars. You have the outlines of animals in the sky, I'd have made use of some nature documentary sound effects. Given how laid back this contest generally is, no one would have criticized you for tracking down some whale calls or fox screams from a YouTube video. I generally use the author's comments section to link back to videos for samples like that to avoid confusion and controversy. Not everyone can afford a good field recorder, nor can they travel the world to track down a whale so feel free to get a little experimental with your auxiliary sound and where they're sourced from. You could also have made use of synths to engineer some decent whale calls. I'm not terribly familiar with Mixcraft but it looks like a complete DAW from what google images I'm looking at.

Despite the challenge you brought upon yourself by composing with the true tools of a rock-and-roller, I felt the music was a little flat and unsurprising. You managed to use a lot of your stereo field via volume but it's probably time to start playing with panning data more creatively. Panning has been a major criticism of mine in this competition. Masterful panning can provide all sorts of fidelity boons. While bass tones sound best in the middle gluing the mix together, anything thin or high can find happy little locations biased to the left or right field. Panning creates the illusion of depth and space, you can do a surprising amount with only two channels. There's a reason surround sound never really caught on, a good stereo mix is typically all you need. Strobing left to right or right to left with panning automations can create the illusion of movement. Arguably there isn't a lot of movement in the illustration aside from those giant rock chunks as most of the movement seems celestial. In that sense strobing a sound from left to right makes no sense but you could have employed nature samples panned slightly to good effect. Drums benefit massively from pan data with bass drums and snares to the middle, everything else gets biased and balanced. Auxiliary percussion like chimes, hi hats, bells, shakers, or tambourines can all benefit from a left or right bias. Panning makes a mix more interesting.

Panning also creates the illusion that a sound is louder than it actually is so you can pan a sound then turn the levels down a little. This also creates space on the opposite side, always try to balance your stereo field. If things get too loud in one ear the brain will notice it. You can make use of automation lanes on panning knobs to move sounds out of the way while introducing new ones. Think of an automation lane on a knob like a "recording of movement," many keyboards come with physical mod wheels that can be programmed to a virtual knob. When you play with the mod wheel a program can sense that movement and record it. I don't think I've ever set a mod wheel to a panning knob, between the two of us you could be the first!

I feel like I've said enough to justify those scores, I'm sorry if they feel low or disappointing. I felt like the genre you chose was the wrong energy for an image like this while coming off as more psychedelic than celestial or earth moving. I suppose there were elements I could have tried tying to the art but you'd have benefit massively by writing just a little more about your own work to guide me. Do have a nice day JoMo, and keep jamming. I'm only looking to give people things to think about, everyone deserves good feedback :)

[AIM - Red Hell]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
EvilRacoon, RedHell: 10,10,10,10

I knew I was in trouble when I saw that extra long description and a time stamped image. Judging this contest has been hard but I think you really outdid yourself to demonstrate the theme of "inspiration." I didn't give out that many perfect scores for this contest but you really nailed the challenge with the cinematic fidelity of a pro. I didn't even make it halfway though the song but I knew you deserved a perfect score almost immediately. Every instrument has it's own location and conveys action beautifully. Choosing a small comic strip was unique, no one took advantage of situational comics. A lot of artists used animated pixel art to their chiptune benefit but I'm a huge comic book nerd. Comics have become incredibly glorified in the last decade or two and this is the kind of music I'd expect to hear in a MCU block buster. If anyone is reading my reviews they might be a little upset to realize that I'm not taking off relevancy points over your failure to use atmospheric sound effects to convey location. A beach scenery could benefit from the sounds of waves crashing, or an image of a racecar could employ the sound of a revving engine. The image you chose might of featured gun shots, explosions, alien grunts and fast footsteps. You didn't use samples that could transport us into the image but your audio description was incredibly inspired so I ignored that. I also have a lot of respect that you reached out to the graphic artist and talked to them. An original theme of this contest when it was introduced almost ten years ago was that musicians would reach out to the graphic artists and develop relationships or social skills. It was a rule to get permission from the artist. You get massive Quarl credits for that.

I spent a lot of time writing reviews for this contest but I'm grateful that I don't need to spend much time on yours, I'm just buttering you up at this point. You did an amazing job and I was rooting for you. Salutations Racoon!

[AIM - Journey of a Traveler]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Kysertron, Journey Of A Traveler: 10,7,9,7 (37/40)

You selected an incredible work of art to echo. It's a very peaceful image but I felt that the action was a little too intense for the scene. The percussion is very mechanical. I'm sorry, I don't usually start out by going into what I didn't like about a song, I prefer to start reviews by focusing on the positive qualities. In that vein you wrote a very powerful song, the melodies were inspired and lovely. There's a huge diversity of orchestral instruments and ideas but it's hard to focus on those aspects positively because in my opinion it just didn't fit. I'm a percussionist, I despise having to say "less drums" but I know when it's a valid criticism. You would have been better served with some gentle chimes to symbolize the movement of wind blowing. If the illustration called for booming bass drums you could have emulated live percussion with dynamic change ups. A drummer often only has volume to express their emotions over time. Crescendos can be triumphant, loud noises angry or energetic. The scene you chose is so peaceful, maximum velocity pounding drums just didn't make sense to me. I played Wind Waker a lot in high school almost two decades ago. Orchestral sounds are great in a stormy ocean when the action is heavy and the waves are huge. Despite a full gust of wind inflating the sails, the water in the image is so flat it's noteworthy that the sail boat failed to create ripples in the water. The image has an almost silent ghost of movement, your orchestral percussion unfortunately overpowered everything. I'm giving you high points for emotion but taking points off relevance for missing some key opportunities. You could have transported us to the ocean with some gulls crying or some gentle waves landing on the ocean shore. Gentle cymbal swells at low volume can emulate waves if you don't feel comfortable sampling literal waves crashing from one of those one-hour-meditation videos via YouTube. Atmospheric samples were used expertly in this years contest. For such strong song writing skills it's note worthy that you didn't take advantage of those.

A noticeable lack of panning data was another criticism I leaned into heavily during this competition. Panning sounds can help create the illusion of depth, location, and movement. You don't always have to actively pan a sound from left to right or vice versa via automation. You could literally just bias something a little to one side and suddenly you can trick someone's eyes to try seeking out the location contrary to the other sounds. The human ear isn't that amazing but we rely so much on directional data. An orchestra comes to life if you can expertly mix sounds to emulate that orchestral space. Panning can create the illusion that a sound is louder than it actually is so after you pan a sound you can usually turn it down a little and make more room in the mix for other sounds. Plus, you automatically make room on the opposite side of the stereo field. Getting a good stereo balance takes work but good panning data helps give you professional fidelity. A panning pro stands out from the crowd with a mix that masterfully emulates space.

Hopefully this review was helpful, I'm going a little overboard by giving every contestant the time and energy I think they deserve. You have strong song writing skills and I can't wait to hear you overcome these masterclass mixing hurdles. There is always room for improvement but you're not far from a professional sound. You have the inspiration! I hope you have a wonderful day Kysertron and can forgive me for being perhaps a little too critical but these reviews are to help demonstrate the logic behind our scores. The judges for Newgrounds competitions often grew up here and we like to push each other to drive up our skills and become stronger composers.

Salutations and cheers!

[AIM - At The End Of the Road]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Mikaiah, At The End Of The Road: 9,5,10,10 (34/40)

Loved that atmospheric car sample at the beginning, too many people failed to use elements like that to connect the inspiration to the visuals. Those sustained reverb engine revs might have gone on a little long for what looks to me like a very peaceful scene but I won't take off any points for that. Another user managed to emulate a racecar engine sound entirely with a saw synth, I was very impressed by that competitors ingenuity. The live car sound was a little out of place in a synthwave song that echoes a pixel drawing but not everyone can emulate a car engine with a saw synth so it's really not a problem. Just an idea for the future. I can easily give you a full 10 on relevance to artwork for what you wrote and how you executed your inspirations. I'm even going to give you a full 10 on emotion, the melodies were inspired and well written. I think the track was a little too high action for such a peaceful image but that's something I'll choose to ignore to a degree. I really tore into users that didn't share their feelings or inspirations, so I feel it makes sense to reward you for writing as much as you did. Know your audience, we're your peers and we love to know more about the people we bump into here :3

Despite synthwave echoing older decades and styles, I felt like you could have made that production quality a little crisper. Retro doesn't necessarily mean low fidelity. Most notably, those drums were very weak. I'd have used the drum signals to sidechain all the other instruments out of the way a little. The quality of an EDM song often relies on crisp, powerful drums. I'm not sure if you're making use of fidelity tools, but things like compressors can boost sounds towards the front. Graphic equalizers can give you massive control over what frequencies to boost and cut. I put fidelity tools on ALL of my instruments, you can always set the fidelity units to "bypass" if you don't like the changes they make. Fidelity takes a lot of practice to master but your track is crying for some crisper tones and textures. All that hard work you put into the gorgeous melodies and rhythms, only to come across sounding dull or weak because of the mix is very unfortunate Mikaiah.

I spent a lot of time sharing the concept of panning data to other contestants, I'll do the same for you. Though you only have two channels to be creative with, that's more than enough to create the illusion of space, depth, and field. A sound that gets panned creates the illusion that it is louder than it actually is, so you can pan a sound to a side, turn it down a little, and you'll have more room on the other side for other instruments. Panning is a balancing act, done poorly it can be very annoying. Done masterfully, panning is life! Panning can also create the illusion of movement as a sound moves from left to right or right to left. Since movement was a very important element to the art, it's a little sad to hear everything hitting me from what sounds like the middle. A momentary but subtle chirp in the right ear might draw my eyes to look to the right. An engine moving from right to left would help give off the illusion that a car is driving by. You can create a lot of "movement" with panning data, it creates dynamics to a slight degree but even sounds that don't move at all create space by sitting on the left or right channel. I use automation lanes on the panning knobs for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes I'll automate a new location for an instrument when I introduce another instrument just to better balance the field. It can feel kind of nuts to focus so heavily on the pan data but good panning can really sperate the pros from the armatures. Those arp synths at the end could have teleported back and forth, I'd have loved it. Low frequencies and often mids are best mixed to the middle to help structure everything, but those leads and pads could have had a small panning bias. I have listened to a lot of really cool songs in this contest but since I gave you such high scores on emotion and relevance I have to really dig into what made the song fall flat. The production skills need a little more polish. You'll be a very strong composer if you can focus on getting those high definition sounds and techniques. I hope you have a wonderful day, and salutations Mikaiah! Always upwards :D

Mikaiah responds:

Yep, this was another big response to my song, thank you so much for it again x3, ye i must say that i too consider those faults kinda evident now that you mention it n.n', buuuut... i think it's kinda fair but i'm thankful that you made me realize this, i'll try to keep those things in mind, to try make my productions even better! :D

Thank you so much again, and despite the flaws, i'm really thankful that you managed to find enjoyment in my piece, wish you the best on luck in your endeavors, and projects and wish you a nice day! n.n

[AIM - Zone Zero]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
wobwobrob, Zone Zero: 8,7,8,8 (31/40)

I only started listening to the song but I already feel like going with these gentle vocal pads was a bold decision for what looks like a hellish dystopian metropolis. The image reminds me of Midgar from Final Fantasy 7, thought you might try to Nobou it up. Since you managed to write a fair bit about your inspirations and ideas I'm being friendly with my "relevance to art" points. Too many competitors missed an opportunity to say something nice about the illustrations. Literally saying anything helps draw judges in and endears you to us. We're trapped here listening to hours and hours of music, people need to take advantage of that human aspect. I feel like you missed an opportunity to use atmospheric sounds or samples to relate back to the image. Sounds such as space craft flying from left to right could be emulated with saw synths and panning data. A shooting star could be referenced via sinewave or slide whistle and could also use panning data to help create depth or illusion of movement. Glittering stars or lights could be brought about with chimes. I've promoted the idea that musicians can use a free program like Audacity to sample sounds, edit them enough and you could claim fair use and the mods won't mind. You wrote a very inspired song but with the addition of atmospheric samples and instruments you could have really turned your song into a work that effortlessly related to the image. Instead I have to try and make connections on my own. I can agree with you that minimal sounds could relate to space in that sound doesn't travel through space at all. The vacuum of outer space has essentially zero air. Sound is just vibrating air and space has no air to vibrate and therefore no sound. If you are sitting in a space ship and another space ship explodes you would hear nothing but that would make for a very boring "John Cage" sound track. However I don't immediately relate this image to an outer space scene, it could very well be an industrial refinery underground. You could have sampled power tools or hydraulic presses, traffic moving. When I see this image I imagine the sounds of metal scraping and machines working. The drums were industrial enough to give me some of that mood but those melodies were gentle and soft. You can be proud of the fact that you put some serious emotion into things but I'm not sure if I agree with the emotions you chose to use, sorry my dear.

I love the description you chose to write to symbolize space travel, that you created "a sense of arriving on a spacecraft, isolated and free to absorb the sheer scale of the place you are approaching". I respect that you "wanted to create an optimistic vibe, as you calmly float into the unknown delights of the planet below you." Looking to the left of the image I can see that this industrial space is still being constructed which implies grating machinery. I think you managed to perfectly convey your aims but I'm in too much disagreement that it was the right feeling for what I was expecting, personal bias to be honest. You could have mentioned that the light pollution from the structure obfuscates the stars that would be present in a space setting? I'm sorry if it feels like I'm coming down hard on you but you did a great job. I love this but I have to feel like I've justified the scores and to be totally honest other composers came through much stronger. The last person I judged engineered a synth to emulate the sounds of racecars. An image with waves crashing could feature the sounds of literal waves crashing. You did a good job conveying what you aimed for but there's always room for improvement and I would love to hear sounds that echo the sci-fi soundscape I was anticipating. I'm justifying that "production" score by pointing to that pan data. Everything in space is constantly moving, even if technically without sound. Pan data via automation is the best way for a composer to convey motion.

I have to keep moving with my reviews to get this work done in a reasonable time frame but I hope I was able to illuminate some new ideas or inspirations. I hope to hear more from you in the future, salutations wobwobrob :3

wobwobrob responds:

Mate, your comments are truly appreciated. As a judge myself for the first time (NGUAC2022) I hope I can be as eloquent and clear as you are with your constructive feedback. Thanks so much!