Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fly Away]

Thanks for reminding me about Renoise, had to do a quick learn. Program looks like a lot of fun and so is the music. For some Reason I thought it belonged to Propeller head studios, I'm happily wrong.

I'm gonna have to give this another listen later, am away from my sound equipment which includes headphones. The mix looks nice and full via the browser's media player's sound wave.

Happy jump up, good feeling down tempo DNB. I say down tempo only because I'm a slut for 180+ BPM. Push it a little faster, I'm into that.

He hasn't uploaded since 2011 but go give Rawrthaas a listening to. He used to make an identical DNB style to this, I'm friends with him on Facebook.

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/398318

[March Towards Freedom - Into the Astral Skies]

It's got a romantic garage band feeling. I can visualize some young punks getting together, smoking some skunk weed, and grunging up the music together. Full love, reminds me of what I thought was the best possible genre of music at one point or another while growing up. I don't trust anyone who didn't have a punk rock phase :')

MercyfulDeath responds:

Ay thanks bud, truth be told the garage feel is exactly what I aim for with a lot of the shit I do. My favorite decade for metal and punk was the 80's, a time where the genres exploded in a lot of garages of disgruntled youth, that element is what makes it so attractive to me, the fire and reckless abandon of youth, which is exactly what I try to capture within my stuff. Thanks for the writeup b, I appreciate it.

[Elevator Trap]

Hella groovy, loops nice. Has that perfect elevator music vibe meets some flamenco reggaeton. Could of used some pad ambiance for the intro instead of jumping right into things but that's a minor crit. A slightly larger crit is the sadness I feel when you write really good stuff and it's not even a minute long. Write full tracks you rube, you got mad skills home slice :p

Edit: elevator music is one of my favorite genres.

[Violins]

Super hot chord progressions and melodies. Vocal recording/fidelity is tight. Mad creative funk future hip hop jam vibes. I love this track, hella artful and masterfully crafted. Adding to my favorites :)

I noticed someone else didn't like the pitched up vocals. Personally, used to hate that vocal sound but it became romantic after 20 years of hearing it. Some songs sound amazing with them. IMO, maybe you can make those vocal clips a little more sparse? They still sound good at certain parts. Those kinds of samples make sections like 1:18, 2:17, or 2:33 fire and ruin sections like 2:40 to the end. Would personally remove them from the first 39 seconds, during the violin solo, the small samples at 00:49 and 2:00, then maybe a few other spots?

Let's call the pitched up vocal samples a motif. Motifs don't have to be constant in a song. A personal romantic favorite of mine, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 is famous for introducing the motif early, then never introducing it again as the larger movement progresses. Echoing a motif throughout a work is expected, but some motifs are just better when they are sparse :)

Fuck, I love that violin solo followed by that slow downward vocal pitch bend. Seriously love it when people get creative with their recordings <3

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Damn, just want to give you so many props for how detailed this critique is. Thank you so much!! I'm going to definitely go back to the lab with this and keep in mind what you've said here. Again, thank you so, so, much! ❤️

[Infinity Zone]

Jesus fuck, how am I supposed to go about my day without addressing how cool this is? Blast my phone, will be giving this track another quality listen on my computer later. Creative as usual wax. Got zero criticism for the noisy atonal style <3

[Time to Soar]

It's unfortunate I'm in a situation where I have to listen to this on my phone. That wave form looks nice and well rounded. Can't wait to hear this on some diaphragms that can produce some low end frequencies. Melodies and rhythms are all on point, hella bouncy <3

I guess you can cry about not getting a critical review. Whatever kind of music you set out to make in 2014, you grew into something to be super proud of. I wouldn't necessarily call it a "unique" style and sound but it's definitely a mature style, well thought out, and honestly better than a lot of other stuff out there. Don't let that get to your head though, the world needs role models without huge egos.

Love that clean synth slow down at 1:46 with all of my spleen. Final build up and drop at 4:11, woof. I'm glad you are as happy as you are with this track. I got a few musics that made me feel the same way so I'm happy to share in your joy. Write that funky music Spade :')

Edit: in regards to not being the most "unique sound and style" that's probably not a bad thing. Unique doesn't always translate to good :/

Spadezer responds:

Thoughtful reviews are just as cool as critical reviews, and more fun because they don't have negative comments lol.

Yes I understand about what you mean with unique styles. I've always made it my goal to want to make what I want to make, even between both songs. This also has meamt that I can range from a bunch of genres I'll say with what I've made, which could range from heavier electronic, to lighthearted chipstep like styles, funk, and whatever else is in between. This song in particular though also kind of gravitates to what mostly takes up my playlist on Spotify and resonates withe the most so being able to recreate it, while there genre itself isn't unique, I would think is also a skill of it's own. Not to say I can't put my own spin on it lol

[Human Being, Machine Doing]

Tight noises King. Crisp drum samples, creative panning, tight glitch rhythms. This is what I love to hear from techy idm but I'm not as into the pure ambient sections. Those ambient spots set the tone of the track nicely, intro was great. I just wish there was more of that 4:12 - 6:00 in comparison to all the ambient that surrounds that section. There's like four minutes after that 6:00 minute time stamp I'd have just cut or saved for another track. You play dangerous games by trying to steal 16 minutes of my life King xD

Kingbastard responds:

Thanks for the review, much appreciated. This is a continuous mix of an EP I made back in 2017. There are four tracks mixed into one long piece. The EP is here if you'd like to listen separately;) https://kingbastard.bandcamp.com/album/error

[i made a song using only a soviet era drum machine]

lol, love the creative choices. Can relate to a couple of them. Recently used audacity to change the speed of a track substantially. I loved the new tone but there was a good bit of fidelity loss.

I'm so over critically naming songs. My highschool rock band would name stuff like "The Song That Starts And Stops Alot" or "The Song In Seven Eighth Notes." Cool to hear some very specific hardware get used. I wasn't familiar with the Elista. I would have so much hardware if I had a place to put it :P

ADR3-N responds:

I actually find myself falling in love with emulations of older hardware, done right. It allows me to pack all of that gear and warp it to my heart's content -- and really when we're recording, what are we really doing but digitizing analog. There will be funny things like artefacts and such, but I think emulations give old technology new life. :)

That said I'd love to play with the originals, just to hear them for myself

[Pico's Handbag (Pico Day 2021)]

WOOHOO PICO DAY MONEY. CONGRATS MR NACHO :D :D :D

Sick amen fills and diddles. Grimy vocal pads. Constructive criticism: end on a fade out loop next time. That suddenly chopped ending deserves an edit <3

[Stroll off on a Tangent]

Love those snare rhythms, drums rolls, and aux percussion. Drums are hella tight. Light korg keys padding the track, sexy clavinet chords and melodies, driving bass lines... track is awesome. Love this chill jazz/rock fusion style Czy, hearts and stars <3