Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Eien]

Nothing I like hearing more than clean IDM. A lot of brain dance has good vibes but lacks fidelity. You pushed the spectrum and maxed out the creative elements <3

Zerisan responds:

Glad you enjoyed the experience.

[Humanity]

I'm not an avid listener of ambient musics. I wouldn't assume most people are. The genre has a reputation of sounding a lot like someone found a good pad and left a brick on the keyboard. This was nice and short though, kept my attention, changed up often enough, and was very pretty. I actually kind of wish it was longer. Those sweeping square pads sounded lush. I would have dropped some saw arps into it, blips and what not. Maybe a high potamento sine pad, long cutoff?

I guess my personal beef with ambient is that it always feels like there is more that can be done to a track. I'm not taking off points though. Most of my feedback just comes down to preference. I got my enjoyment from this, and listened to it a few times :)

XORVUX responds:

Thanks! I like to think of ambient music in terms of layers, for which I say the more the merrier. Lots of different voices give you something to pick out through each chord. Saying that though, I was pretty conservative with this track. Couldn't think of much else to stack on top... But a sliding sine pad sounds really nice! Oooh, and some one-shots too? Both really clever ideas. I'm definitely trying that out next time :D Thank you for the feedback!

[236]

Mix had a little too much high frequency range and not enough bass. Might have turned down the saw chords then layered in a slap bass with a distortion unit to help push mid freqs? A stronger bass line could have pushed this to a whole new level. All the melody elements were perfect though. I loved how hard those lead melodies went. Seriously, that lead synth went so hard <3

[Toxic]

"Dubstep is sometimes related to danger." My mom told me to stay away from three things growing up. Drugs, strangers, and dubstep. She is no longer a part of my life.

Great track by the by. Could have pushed and compressed things a little more, that wave shape is kind of thin. I'm not sure where to start in the mix, instruments are sounding pretty well mixed. Maybe boost those drums a tad, up the sidechain signals to help those kicks and snares cut to the front. Things are sounding pretty mono. You could pan things like mid to high drums, sound fx samples, and pads further which would give the illusion that they are louder. Panning lets you turn things down and make more room for more elements like lead synths, pads, and basses.

There's a lot of good stuff going on in here but get those fidelity tricks under control and this could melt a dance floor.

SuperSoniker responds:

Thank you very much for the comment, when making this song I only focused on making epic grunts, but in the next attempt I hope to improve and add more elements like the ones you mention, I appreciate your advice :)

[Fuck It All (and fuck you)]

Dank, I feel totally fucked. Thank you :')

*check the voice actor threads and forums. See if you can get some throat singer to drop some pig squeals on this.

djt820 responds:

Still waiting for our toilet collab bro

[Cold Climb - The Fall]

That percussive sounding synth lead hurt my ears when it came in on those high notes @ 00:22. Had to turn the volume down. Since this was for a game I can basically guarantee the programmers turned the volume down and made it a non issue but please, think about my tinnitus.

From a production stand point, those high freq noises could have been drowned out with some bass instruments, amplification automation, booming drums, filters or some other non sense but I bet the programmers were happy all the same. Track is a dope little ditty. But again... fak those high frequency notes. My ears are still ringing :C

[Bacon Lord]

You gonna make this full length? It bops mad nice. Might help to add a tiny crisp snare layer for texture, shakers, tambs... the usual suspects as far as auxillary percussion goes. Cowbell? Make this longer Czy, all your tracks are too short :]

That popcorn, hot butter era pad got me loving this <3

[Qshunt - Vortex]

Can't pick out the vocal sample, sorry. Track has some of that driving pendulum two step. A tamb might have brightened up that rhythm a little but that's the best crit I got for you. Loved that break down around the 3 minute mark.

Again, I can't pin point the vocals. Only 90's trance artist I can name is Aqua. Sorry :/

Qshunt responds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqSYFSvicJw&ab_channel=ohral_tv

[Moon]

I'd have tossed this under drum and bass instead of dance. Has that IDM vibe. I almost never go below 180 bpm but I'm guessing this is somewhere between 165 and 170? Sue me, I could be wrong :p

Those guitar sounding pads had an old school Minus The Bear sound to them. Loved those glitchy melodies. Fluid ambient break downs and pads. Loving it Ruko <3

Only constructive crit I can give you that there was plenty of room in the mix for random background samples. A mario coin or sonic ring with reverb comes to mind. People will avoid recognizable samples for fear of copyright retribution but if you have the project files you can always change those kinds of samples out for something less obvious. Mods will usually turn a blind eye to minor sampling, just be up front and responsible about it.

There's good sampling and bad sampling. Sampling is complicated. A friend of mine tried to pass off Aphex Twin's "Flim" with ambient noises tossed on top as his own. That's some BAD SAMPLING. Had he chose to make his own song first and then sprinkled tiny identifiable nosies on top? That's better sampling. Always be prepare to defend your work or change a file. I use to love Noisia's track "My World" before they had to change the vocals because they couldn't get the rights to use the Motown recordings. The version on their album "Split The Atom" never hit as hard, IMO.

Sorry to gush on sample use but it's such an integral part of what we do. I can't tell you how many times I've opened a sample folder and laughed because it was 90% amen breaks passed off as "pendulum" or "skrillex" drums. lmao.

[N.L. - CyberRosa]

Heavy, lush, sounds great. I might have punched the initial drums a little more forward (0:00-0:30) but all the elements mesh perfectly. The drums get a little more powerful after that first section, dank. Mix just comes across a little too bright at times, might counter that by making the bass a little more prominent? Not sure what to say other than make this longer. Track is fucking awesome <3 <3

NightLover responds:

Thank you, very appreciated ^^