Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Choose Your Fighter! [Jamuary Day 19]]

I like this one a lot. Funky jazzy jungle chords, rad breaks, fun and playful patches. I'm feeling the sweat roll down my face as I swap back and forth between a character I really like and a character I've never played before AND I ONLY HAVE 30 SECONDS TO CHOOSE BECAUSE PLAYER 2 EXISTS, FUCK. I REALLY WANTED TO PLAY ROCKMAN BUT HAVE TO PLAY DR. STRANGE? I DON"T KNOW HIS MOVE SET WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

[JUICE BOY]

Oh my god, you got that Marc M sound. The best part was that wholesome shout out at the end. I could perfectly picture his animation style with this. Only thing that could have made it more authentic would be one or two stutters in the dialogue. I notice Rick and Morty also takes full advantage of the comedy stutter, it's a... it's... look it's a thing :3

Edit: you stuttered like six times at the beginning. I'm dumb.

[Mellow Misery]

This is a really good swing. Loved the crisp glitch effects and off beat modded clap snares. This is probably my favorite thing all month but I'm such a slob I hate to admit that haven't had the chance to listen to everything.

Such clean sounds on this. Amazing :' ]

Casper responds:

Thanks, i've been wanting to layer those snares or make my own so i can fill up my drumkit but haven't had the time, glad you enjoyed it:3

[BETTER DAYS]

Hella chill Droid. Very well composed, loved the motifs and progressions. Snappy side stick snare drum with those happy up beat hi hat hits <3

Fun, bouncy, and thrilling ^o^

[GBA Getaway! [Jamuary Day 11]]

Reminds me of Mario Sunshine but whoever writes those happy Nintendo jams has a monopoly on good vibes across a multitude of games and genres. This would fit right in with any old Nintendo property regardless. LOZ Windwaker, island people jamming it up? Milky can do that. Yoshi hanging out with his fam? Milky was there with a kalimba. Even a franchise like Final Fantasy needs happy, upbeat jams and Milk is prepared with her tropical margarita musics. I'm not a fan of playing triangle but if you approached me to just stand still for five or ten minutes and hit a triangle once a minute to something like this I would Will Ferrel the fuck out of that triangle. 10/10.

[N. Different (feat. Yasiin Clemens)]

Gonna have to give this more listens laturz, tablet monitors at the moment. Only way I'd have made this better would be with a 2x osc saw/sine lead programmed with sweeping portamento, pitch/shift mods, and automation lanes for them. Portamento slides and pitch/shift modulators are awesome but the option to automate them on/off creates a very human feeling.

That is such specific feedback but the track itself is amazing. Chord progression is lush. Drums sound nice and full (on my tablet). Aux percussion is killing it. That vocal melody is hauntingly gorgeous. I'm curious what that is. Sample, recording, midi instruments, or something more mysterious?

I'm gonna ask you guys to gush a little bit about the creative process under author's comments. An artist's statement is an important tool to communicate ideas. Telling us to check out Yasiin is legit, he is very talented. Though, you could include some more feelings or thoughts. Newgrounds is a community of creative people and artists. They love to learn and share ideas. While it feels safe to assume that your music will speak for itself, saying a few things might attract a larger audience. Make yourself personable to some degree. I realized at a certain point that if you say nothing about your work, you are just a webpage to everyone that stops by. A webpage serves to be used. Force people into acknowledging that you are a person, not just a webpage :D

Hairmilked responds:

Hey Quarl!

Massive post so I'll do my best to break it down and any good points will be put in the bio.

I synthesized the bass myself and originally it was more of a Halftime sine with a deeper sine under and modulated at 16ths but Yasiin wanted a more analog bass which I think fit better in the end.

The analog was sequenced so I agree it wasn't that human, I tried modal randomness but that didn't go great so I left it alone while I had my sanity.

The chords were Yasiin's he did a bunch more stuff but I personally wanted the drums, snare and hats that I made to be used as I thought they were floaty and spatial.

The chords were so bouncy and I needed to match that, once the bass was done I need the lead. The mysterious piece you speak of is actually a simple synth. Harmonic series and saw at a high pitch, gated as a pluck and EQ'd for high frequency.

I'm super proud of the melody, I started with Yasiin's chords and worked backwards to make the rhythm more bouncy and infectious. I'm glad you thought it was a vocal as that was my plan hehe.

There are also some pads that in truth I got from Splice as I was racking my brain for something to layer on the bridge.

I of course want to be more personal in the future but have struggled with getting real on the songs, I will do my best in the future.

Take care,

Stache :D

[Without Stress]

I hate to burst your bubble but I counted the drums in 4/4. Snare always falls on the third quarter note but that fourth pulse is still there. You can count this in 3/4, the pulse will eventually overlap 4/4 every 12th quarter note but I'm not getting a prominent 3/4 pulse out of this.

Time signatures can be a strange concept but I'm glad your trying it out. Writing stuff that divides time in ways your not used can lead to interesting ideas and new jams. Try 3/4 again, try to get the drums on a good triple "waltz." You can do it!

Wouldn't be fair if I left you on a critical note, the jam still funks nicely. Moody, chill, pro. Loved the birds, they always make wonderful pads. Just googled this for the musical trivia, birdsongs in music:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdsong_in_music

Birds have always informed our musicality so I'm always sampling them and noticing when others do it too <3

Casper responds:

Yeeeah i had to do the drum pattern several times due to weird rhythms and awful sound selection , i've been producing way too little to get time signatures haha. This was rushed, I'm working on some music for a video game and figuring stuff out for my album. Thanks for the review:)

edit: im counting.. 2/4? tf did i do this is a disaster, a chill disaster

[stormz uh brewin]

Lol, "pop."

I'm listening to this on some low fidelity tablet monitors but I love the crazy eccentric jungle energy. Nice breaks, synths all contribute to a good harmony. That lead goes all over the place. Your my hero, this goes hard. Great track beenie :D

beenibroh responds:

thanks man :)

[Jamuary 2022 (Day11) - A Possible Mission?]

Don''t you mean... see if you can HEAR it? Sorry, it's a semantic issue and has nothing to do with the track itself. Great work. Love that play around the mission impossible theme. Love me some 5/4.

metalblinga responds:

Thanks! 😄