Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Accel-yo, Adventures of a Noodle Girl: 10,8,8,12 (38)
So I decided to give you an impossibly high "Relevance to Artwork" score of 12/10, haters come fight me. The digital score sheet Annette sent me won't let me write 12/10 so I'm stuffing the points into "emotion," it will be our little secret. The score is entirely based around the fact that you managed to make use of that stupid Navi "hey" sample in a creative way that related back to the visual hilariously. I literally laughed out loud when I noticed that. As a dubstep/drum&bass producer, I'm a little tired of hearing that sample. Though it can sound crisp and well placed, samples can also come across like a bumper sticker slapped on top of a million dollar dubstep track. That sample is massively overused but your approach to spill it on top of the entire song like a sabotaged salt shaker legitimately made me laugh. You went with a more-is-more approach and it made me very happy when I first heard it.
I have to take off points for that static pan data. I've been getting on people to make better use of stereo data, panning can create the illusion that sounds are louder than they actually are which means you can turn the volume down a little and make room in the mix for other elements. It's also very exciting to feel like sounds are unexpectadly coming from all directions, I'd have peed my pants slightly if I got a "hey" in my left ear followed by a quietly nonconsensual "hey" in my right ear, automation lets you add dynamic pan changes like that. Panning properly can take time to master but feel free to experiment with that kind of stuff and learn to identify what sounds good and what doesn't. Bass frequencies and textures usually get mixed to the center and mid to highs have a thinner quality that can be pushed to the sides more easily. People develop mix styles and preferences, I like to use the drum kit to emulate space. As a drummer myself, I like to pan tom fills & rolls. First tom will get panned a little to one side, next tom center field, final tom opposite side of the first. That creates a quick left to right and/or right to left sound, exciting! You can do similar tricks with other instruments and samples to create space or create the illusion of movement, imagine the way a marching band is always on the move. I love when an instrument frantically rushes across the stereo field like "no wait, I'm supposed to play this melody over here now..."
Drums and synths are all very lofi and colorless but it kind of works with the art nicely. The art is not overly ambitious or arrogantly complex. It's just good ol' noodle girl, less than ten colors total. I'm taking a couple points off emotion for being static with velocity data as well. I'm hounding contestants to use more volume control on drums but any instrument can powerfully use volume to convey emotion. For the most part, the only way a drummer can truthfully convey emotion is via volume while slamming percussion instruments with fury and anger or bashful drunken little taps. An instrument can crescendo and decrescendo to convey human feelings. The song is still cute with minimal velocity data which can arguably play into the art style... but I like when a song drags me back to it over and over again. I'll remember this track, it's one of my personal favorites but a masterclass mixdown would have guaranteed that I circle back to it in the future for further laughs. When this contest is over, will I say to myself "I miss Adventures of a Noodle Girl, I need to go listen to that again?" Only time will tell.
(Additional note worth saying at the time I'm uploading reviews, I did in fact come back to this song and even told the other judges via Discord how much I loved it. hey,hey,hey,hey,hey...)