Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Extrapeculiar]

Pretty good sound from garageband, I wonder how that program has evolved since I used it last in High School. Very well written track, guitar solos gave off a David Maxim Micic sound. Creative genre switch ups kept the track hella interesting. Almost a full 9 minutes, that's not easy to do. There are probably four or five separate tracks you could have pulled out of this but you refused to get repetitive and just kept going. Awesome work Chord C:

ChordC responds:

I assume that garageband was not as advanced as it is today, it is relatively easy to use, at least for me.

Yess, I generally don’t like monotone/repetitive songs, I prefer listening to songs that are ‘out of the box’. I was inspired by the band Dream Theater when making this song.

Anyway, thank you for coming here, have a good one ;)

[modus - Displace]

Clean, refreshingly unique modus style. You have a way of making an arp sound fierce, and those leads... woof.

iammodus responds:

Thank you! <3

[Feeder!]

Lol, I played with beep box a while ago and couldn't force music noises out of it. Sounds cool to hear someone using that tool to write some actual tunes with. I'm not sure how far you can take an app like that but I'd look into some other software to start boosting your repertoire of noises...

*looks at catalog

You've been using Beepbox since 2019? Woof, that's some dedication right there. Working on an artists budget is tough but there are plenty of apps out there that are affordable in a weeks pay. Please, no pressure. I just wanted to try pushing you towards unlimited fidelity, sound banks full of professionally recorded instruments, and unlimited synthesis. God like power could be YOURS. UNLIMITED POWER >:D >:D

[Master]

I'm happy you posted how old you are on your page. A lot of us legacy newgrounds users started at a ripe young age too. This totally takes me back to early jam sessions with the bands, friends, and rouges in highschool. It doesn't necessarily have a very polished or professional sound but it's honest and that's what I like about it. I'm practically in tears over here thinking about my old band mates. We would get stoned, hang out, and just make things. Had no idea what those early days meant, we were just scratching our instruments and yowling our songs aloud. It can be hard to pull a full band together but get a percussionist and this could turn into an Explosions In The Sky vibe.

I'd nit pick the shy vocals but it honestly feels really good to hear young unspoiled energy. It almost feels like I'm in the room with you all, I would totally be beat boxing to this. You've got an acoustic sound and another year of highschool? Force one of your friends to start beat boxing right now. It only takes a week to learn how to "BFFF" a good bass drum, "KAH" a good K snare and "TISS" a decent hi hat. Simple 6/8 rock rhythm would go "BFFF, TISS TISS, KAH, TISS TISS" or bassdrum, hi hat, hi hat, snare drum, hi hat, hi hat, then repeat one million times. Look, you don't have to learn how to play the drums. Just force the Asian kid to do it. That Asian kid is going places and you need to make friends with him right now.

FOUNDDEADINLA responds:

I should note that my music is all me—most my friends find my music too expiremental—and I've got fuller sounding peices as well (expecially on my blackgaze inspired earlier works), but this was an amazing read. I do hope in college I befriend a percussionist and form a band :). Ill have to try beatboxing on a future track too.

[Just Move - First Upload in 15 years :)]

Had to look into your older work to see if I recognized anything. Was happy to see those early experimental noise tracks. During my short time as an audio mod in college those tracks might have got you banned from uploading spam. Every mod had their own style but it's basically impossible to tell how someone is going to grow and evolve. Just Move is a far cry from those humble origins.

I didn't actually recognize any tracks from your catalog. I'm guessing you remember a time when the audio portal exclusively played ParagonX9 samples on the front page? Was looking for something from that era but you seem to have sidestepped the larger EDM phase that hit newgrounds at that time and stayed true to hip hop. There's some seriously great stuff in here. Newgrounds let another good artist slip through the cracks. Not that it's anybodies fault. There are so many social circles here it's common to have two similar artists writing music for each other without any notice to the larger moving and happenings around them. Hope you stick around Miggles :)

Miggles responds:

Yes, I think I will. Thanks fams! I remember how lively the community was and I'm glad it still is thriving. There's a ton of talent here that definitely needs to get more shine.

[yesno, you will won't]

I grew up on Squarepusher, get as "ballsy" as you want. Experimentation is the spiritual origin of the drum and bass sound. Not sure if you're using straight break samples but if you use sliced drum kits you could get cleaner drum sounds. Every individual piece of the drum kit could have it's own fidelity units. Heck, if you really like the classic uncut sound of popular Jungle samples you could make a midi drum kit that emulates the general rhythm of the breaks, keep it mute, but use the drum signals to sidechain pads, vocals, and basses to help give some glitter and pop to the fidelity of those uncut drum breaks. You'd be using a silent instrument to sidechain with. It's kind of an advanced idea but worth playing with just to make those breaks pop a little more. Drums are always the most important part of any EDM genre, make them the cleanest you can :D

Alot of the sounds seem like they're coming from the center of the field. You can pan things like aux percussion, sound FX, and pads rather hard which will create the illusion that those sounds are louder than they really are. This will let you turn the levels down on those instruments a little to give you more room in the field for other sounds! Panning is love. Panning is life! Keep bass frequencies to the center but play with all sorts of things to find those sweet spots :)

I'm not familiar with Mixcraft but it looks like it has everything you need to get some good fidelity out of it. Would love to see your jungle style continue to evolve milk p!

[Critical Meltdown]

Track bounces nicely. I think you guys had a little more room to boost the sub bass with a compressor but aside from minor mix down nit picking this track rocked both styles in a way that didn't sound out of place or strange. Would love to hear another collab like this :D

spiritmusic responds:

Thanks Quarl, Im always looking to improve as an artist and take advice whenever I can

I appreciate the feedback <3

[PandoraBox.data]

My favorite part was when you peaked out the wave shape and didn't give a fuck.

[Rewind]

So the problem I noticed with the final mix down on the other track isn't here. The wave visual shows your chorus is hitting the frequency zones that were missing from the other track. This one is newer so I'm guessing you did a few pushups between tracks :)

That final chorus is colorful. Love that instrumentation. Powerful. Would love to hear if you play with this some more but if you don't, track is still great :D

[Tunturi]

Lol, another Reason producer. Love seeing others in the program, it can feel lonely surrounded by all these FL people. This musics reminds me of the house we'd get here back during the introduction of the audio portal. It's a romantic sound and I'm loving it. I'm gonna nit pick the mix down a little because it's what I do :p

Track could hit harder, it looks like the master out is being over compressed somehow (the visual shows the wave is cutting out well before peaking). Usually over compression leads to loudness but this kind of compression just leads to limiting your audio field, less room for sounds to exist in. You're basically masking 5 to 10% of your canvas with negative space.

Check the master out, Reason used to have a default "Mastering Suit Contaminator" which would set up the final out signal with certain fidelity settings. The maximizer in the combinator had a button called the "limiter," turn that shit off or bypass the unit entirely. I've always preferred the mclass compressor over the limiter, simpler UI. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might not even be there. I have a lot of files going back to Reason 4, I think the default Mastering Suit was tossed to the side in older versions but you can still program one. In anycase, set up the final signal going out with a few fidelity units on the way to the amp. I always have an equalizer and compressor on that final signal for mastering.

Feel free to hit me up in the future for any fidelity talk, Reason has great tools to get the most out of your sound systems. Just gotta know what your option are :D

EppuJoloZ responds:

Yeah, I get what you're talking about! I actually don't use the MClass Mastering patches, mostly my mastering is done with VSTs. It's nice to see more Reason people here too, I just effing love the workflow of that program :D

Also thanks for the feedback, I know that mastering/mixing is my weakest point at production at the moment, and your tips are really helpful!

Glad you enjoyed the track too! <3