Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 - 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!

[AIM - Pole Position]

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

This was a wonderful surprise, Sega Genesis tier. The music gave off some seriously high class grand prix stylings. The melodies and drums were very well written. That synth work beginning and ending the track totally sounded enough like a car starting up and wizzing by to garner the recognition I needed to give this some high relevancy points. So many users missed the opportunity to allude to visual elements, whether via sampling or recording atmoshperic samples. You didn't go over-the-top with that kind of stuff, done poorly samples can sometimes sound cheesy. That guitar was great so I looked at your tags and researched the Gio. I had a Korg M1 a long time ago but after years of travel and abuse, it died. The M1 is a wonderful jam machine, thank you for posting some of your hardware data. The illustration is surprisingly minimal but still manages to convey incredible motion, depth, and clarity. I suppose I could simultaneously complain about or praise how mechanical the dynamics sound relative to the image. Some additional velocity information or automations on volume knobs could have helped certain instruments pop. Drums in particular benefit from evolving levels. Volume is one of the few ways a drummer can produce emotion and show off technical skill. If that static velocity data was intentional, you should have said so. (On dropping the review I noticed a nice dynamic hop in the hi-hat rhythm, sue me.)

One of my biggest gripes in this contest revolved around the simple idea that many musicians choose not to take the time to write stuff in the author's comments section. It literally couldn't hurt to direct the judges into your thought process a little bit by telling us what inspired you and what your aspirations were. We are your peers, let us know what you're proud of. It feels strange when I have to sit here and try to make all the connections to the art on my own. For a competition like this, saying anything can only help you out. I don't think I should be able to say more about the music than the person that created it. Some users wrote endearing poems or lyrics, some promoted their other social media pages. There were a few users that ventured to say nothing at all. Newgrounds has really opened up into a global community, I'd recommend not missing a chance to have a voice in it. I personally don't like being a webpage that lets nameless people download my music for free. I share my thought process when I make music because what better way to get into someone's head than with some human empathy?

I think that's reason enough to take off one emotion point, I've done it to almost everyone at this point. Loving the music enough to overlook flaws is bias when the theme of the contest is inspiration. I'm sure the artist would love to know why you picked their art, tell them it's pretty and perfect. I recall an original intention of the Art Inspired Music contest was to get musicians reaching out to artists to ask for permission and grow relationships (not required anymore). This is a great community, there is some tremendous talent. Be accessible, be personable, and keep making amazing material. You're a gem Teffy and I wish you the best!

Salutations :D

TeffyD responds:

Thank you for your very thorough response, and I appreciate the kind words. I very much enjoy using the M1, very cool lead sounds and pads, sadly it is the VST version since I couldn't find a real one, and when I put it in tags It would say its hardware so just left it lol. velocities was mainly because I liked how it came out and very robotic like an 80s drum machine, but it has a real sound? Idk if that makes sense. I also liked thinking it sounded like an engine idling with the constant hi-hats.

I will say that I never thought of explaining myself in the description. Like explaining why I chose a specific piece or what I was going for, because I assumed (you know what they say about assuming) that the song was supposed to convey it enough and that writing it in the description defeated the purpose. Just as a post review response, I chose this piece because it fit the F1 style I had in my head to make the song for, minimalist but stylistic in a certain Japanese way, that fits an 80s F1 Highlight TV Show song. His art in general is very cool as well. I also enjoy seeing people come to that conclusion without me having to say, because that conveys to me that I did my job well, and that's what I'm personally proud of the most.

I guess the hardest part for me is being personable and branching out and networking with others, idk why but it's hard to for me, mostly because most music I make sounds generic or 70s to 90s and it doesn't vibe with a lot of what others make. I can't write lyrics because I don't really make music that has a meaning to me, or of a time in my life or story etc etc, but I make it because I think it sounds cool, and I want to show it to others to chill out to or jam to or anything, because at the end of the day the listener will get his own interpretations on how to listen to the song, and I like that. I also think I have a knack for that kind of music, a very simple BGM that could fit in any application given I think of that application lol.

Thanks for the kind words and if any of you homies ever wanna collab or do something hmu cause I'm always down.

TeffyD

[AIM - Dusk]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
ChordsInMotion, Dusk: 9,8,9,7 (33/40)

By the time I'm done writing this review I'll have listened to this track more than a few times but I'm already loving it on the first take. The melodies are inspired and romantic. The delayed blips and arps are a good fit for the pixel art you chose. It's not an "ideal" chiptune, this is more progressive. You've notably put a fair amount of work into those high resolution instruments and I love it. The drums in particular are really making me happy, those are some nice samples and loops that match the energy of the surrounding track. I like to engineer my own drum samples and rhythms but I don't mind when others make use of a nice loop. Familiar drum loops have helped make the world of EDM go round. The art you chose has a fair amount of depth and detail to it. I love the song a lot but the next part of my review might sting a little and for that I apologize.

I've been hounding people to say more about how the art inspired them. This has been my number one critique. I decided to review everyone in the contest so that everyone will have something to think about. It's unfair that 99% of the time I was able to say considerably more about the music than the people that wrote the songs. Take a minute to think of how the judges will spend their time listening to hours of music. We're trapped and will read anything you post. Having a little blurb about your inspirations can only manage to guilt us into giving you higher relevancy points. Music doesn't always speak for itself and you're never going to hurt yourself by sharing what in particular inspired you. Was it the colors from the image, the time of day the artist selected to draw, the temperature of the colors, the artist's style in particular? You can endear yourself to your peers by sharing a little more about your goals and inspirations in the authors comments. There is a language barrier going on for some of the contestants but I can respect that barrier with google translate. There is no excuse but laziness when an artist doesn't take the time to describe their work with a few choice words when given the chance. Especially when you use a platform that surrounds you with like minded artists and creative juggernauts.

I'm now going to segue into the technical information. I'm only taking a point off for structure because I felt you could have spent a little extra time introducing us to the scenery in the image. Other competitors have managed to use atmospheric samples to really paint amazing soundscapes but I doubt the majority of them own field recorders. You can use a free program like Audacity to record sounds straight off YouTube videos to your hard drive (assuming your DAW doesn't already let you do that). Please try your best to stay within the realm of creative commons or fair use when sampling; a simple semi tone pitch bend is often enough modulation to claim fair use. Courts have sometimes found specific samples triflingly unworthy of litigating, or "de minimis." I am not a lawyer, just very interested individual in the storied history of sampling and the legality behind it.

You COULD in theory grab some peaceful waves crashing from an hour long meditation video. Grab some birds cooing and cawing from nature documentaries. Sampling can be edgy territory when it comes to legal but a Newgrounds judge for a contest like this would never know how you acquired something like the sound of traffic moving through a city. Literally any video that takes place in a city can be sampled for that noisy crowd ambiance. Cut and mix atmospheres from samples to create new ones, gradually pitch bend them up or down for lols. Filter the volume of your samples rhythmically, samples cut with 32nd notes are fun! All of this is theoretical of course, I'm not recommending illegal samples. YOU WOULDN"T DOWNLOAD A CAR, DON'T DOWNLOAD A CAR CHORDS-BOY D:<

That arp and glassy piano combo at the intro was beautiful, but some atmospheric samples could have really transported us to another place. This is a small structural issue AND a small production issue. I'm not going to take off points for the next few suggestions because getting a hold of samples can be hard but I'd track down some orchestral & auxiliary drum samples if I were you. Samples like cymbal swells, bass drum swells, chimes, vibraslaps, waterphones, bass drums, kettle drums, cowbells, gongs, güiros, tambourines, shakers, bells, rain-sticks HOW COME NO ONE IN THIS CONTEST USED RAIN-STICKS, DAMN THEY HAD LITERAL RAIN IN THEIR IMAGES WHAT-THE-EFF-YO. In all seriousness and without joking, a slide whistle would have sounded epic in this track. Pixel art is playful and when I hear a slide whistle I think "fun." You could have made it work Chords, you'd have been the only person in this contest to feature a slide whistle :'C

Thank you for the information provided about the track, I was curious about the drum samples in particular. I have been getting on everyone to write a little more about their stuff but what you did share managed to be insightful. I got a ton of reviews left to distribute but happy AIM! Salutations and salud mi amigo :]

[AIM - 14]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
Cresince, 14: 10,10,10,9 (39/40)

Somebody else used the same image MINUS 40 POINTS, YOU LOSE HAHAHA- just kidding, I'm actually really happy with this song a lot.

This is very unique. It expertly crafts some very haunting tones and textures. It's a definite favorite of mine in regards to musicality. This has amazing depth and texture. I think you could compress certain tones forwards a little more, there's still a small amount of space in your field for more amplification but you still got a great sound with the space you did use. I'd have definitely gone a little louder with bass tones. I had to take my headphones off and do a double take, there was some wonderful panning data in this. That guitar breakdown was romantic AF. The pads and random instruments are very cool.

I need to take off a point for not giving me a few ways that this art inspired you. I've been really leaning into people that don't share their inspirations. I can look at the image and see that the cityscape is hectic and everchanging. Buildings tower over buildings giving serious depth to the landscape. Though the scene seems infinitely complex, we view it from a distance that makes it appear deceptively peaceful. There is a feeling that many of the sounds you wrote could reasonably exist in this atmosphere. The sounds span the world of progressive jazz and musique concrète expertly. My brain is connecting a lot of dots but it's unfair that I had to mention them explicitly. A critique I've used regularly is that it's not fair that I can say so much about the art and the music but the people writing the music sometimes couldn't be bothered to say anything at all. Music doesn't always speak for itself, people can lapse and judge art & music contests based on personal taste and preferences. By saying a little more about your work you can endear yourself to the regulars here and make some friends! As a judge, I love seeing people engage their listeners. Newgrounds is a community of like-minded renegades and scoundrel. So many users are young and can absorb information like a sponge, this community feeds off of itself. You can tag instruments, tools, and programs to help us weed out bad actors that submit stolen content. That's been an issue in the past, I only bring it up because it's an unfortunate fact regarding any creative community.

I thought about taking off a production point for not making use of atmospheric samples like city noises, moving crowds of people, foot steps, construction vehicles, car sirens and traffic. That section with the panned guitar duo could have used some samples such as the ones I mentioned to help create a little cityscape. You still managed to convey great diversity and space with what elements you did use. I could pretend that French horn was a car driving by. There was a small arpeggio I could pretend was an exotic sci-fi city bird. That ending felt like the metropolis was winding down ominously much the way a city often does when it gets late enough to be the early morning and the only people up are the scofflaws. I'm absolutely in love with this track, the competition has been difficult to judge because I love music so much. I can't expect others to write essays much as I do but I think that I've managed to demonstrate the simple fact that you can freely talk about your work here. No one with any mature sense is going to read the author's comments and act a jerk.

Endear yourself to your listeners with a story about the image, anything. This is such an expert composition, it hurts to take off any points but I believe I was able to identify a key aspect that you were missing. This is my first time coming across your work and for all I know, you just happen to write amazing music all the time and it has nothing to do with the art. Addressing the few critiques I brought up, I think I can justify taking one point off of your work. I got to keep working through reviews but I hope this was helpful or explanatory. Salutations and good day Cresince!

Cresince responds:

Thank you so much for judging this year!

I do agree that I could have offered more insight about the song, especially since I write instrumental pieces that feature no lyrics, that is something I will definitely work on in the future.

You absolutely nailed the ending of the song analysis, of course my songs are free to interpretation to whatever a person feels like it is saying, however, that was what I was going for in that ending haha. And yes, my mixes could definitely use some more loudness/balancing so your advice has not gone unheard.

Thank you again for your hard work making sure everyone gets a thoughtful response and detailed review. Hearing your words has definitely helped me get some perspective on my music! <3

[AIM - Cold Breath]

Quarl AIM 2022 Review
Composition/Structure (0-10), Production (0-10), Emotion (0-10), Relevance to Artwork (0-10)
SomeguyMusic, Cold Breath: 8,8,9,6 (31/40)

I was really curious what this was going to sound like after loading up the image first. You've managed to endear yourself to me quickly with that modest piano work. A piano melody can feel chilling and lonely. The practice rooms I've sat and played in are usually impeccably clean, to say the least: immaculate. The empty space in the image reminds me of a particularly large practice space I got to play in at Alfred University. A space like that would have some interesting resonance.

I'm really hurting from judging this competition. I'm listening to such incredible music but not many people are using author's comments to write even a little about what inspired them. There have been some amazing tunes that I took points off of because the artist missed a chance to throw a few compliments to the graphic artists or mention what their goals and inspirations were. You remembered to advertise your other media sites. I struggle to remember to do that kind of stuff when I post new material but for the sake of this contest you could have written anything about the illustration to help tie it to your music somehow. Even tracks that I felt had little to do with the illustrations would receive some relevance points for just saying a few key things about what kind of atmosphere they wanted to produce and why. You've left the ball in the court of the listener to decide whether or not the image and the music go together but music doesn't always speak for itself.

You have nothing to lose by saying something like "I wanted to portray a chilling scene with a cold nocturne. There are sparse elements in the image so I used sparse elements in my song." It's kind of silly that as a judge, I can say more about your work then you can with two quick sentences. Don't let the judges in competitions simply judge your work and move on to the other submissions. Give us some of your thoughts or inspirations, doing so will never hurt your chances. I'm still giving you a decent score but it's really difficult to look at that scenery and draw the connection. I'm also not terribly impressed with the production quality but that's due to the overall simplicity. You could have amped the piano and vocal pad considerably. I'd have been a little more forgiving in ALL categories if you had just helped me piece the connections a little better. A perfect structure or production quality isn't always important but it's impossible for me to give you a higher relevancy score.

I apologize if this review comes across as too harsh or too wordy but I want to encourage everyone in this competition to learn to analyze every step of their creative process. Just because you've exported the song doesn't mean your done. You need to think of a few clever things to say that will help endear yourself to your listeners, often it's just a song title but in a contest like this you're being judged by your peers and we love to build friendships here. Your not just a webpage. Your a person, a musician, and an artist. So are your peers and so we love to know more about who we're interacting with. Never be afraid to take a risk by sharing a little bit more about yourself or what you're proud of <3

Salutations SomeguyMusic!

SomeGuyMusic responds:

I'm sorry about that but my mindset sending it off is that it would be obvious what inspired me. You probably might mean more of the creative process to which I say the cold nature of the picture was all I had in mind when I made the song. I went for a cold, spacious nature - hence the name. I don't mean to sound rude but I thought this would be quite obvious to people. The cold nature of it was the main target with the spaciousness supporting it. It didn't feel like I needed to explain this because it's what the AIM's task is. I get you're looking for how it inspired me but like I said I thought that would be obvious. It wasn't really anything too deep. It was just more of a song for fun. Just cold and spacious. To the point of the picture. As for the mixing and composition yeah it definitely could've been better but at the time I made this my skills weren't as good as they are now. I thank you for you time. I'll keep these things in mind though for next time.

~Someguy