Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gang-Plank Galleon - Donkey Kong Country Metal]

Lol, David Maxim Micic would appreciate this. I'm actually not familiar with the original DK soundtrack but David MM was my first thought. That guy blends genres like a juice blender. Chimp Spanner is my next go to influence guess. I only know two metal artists though so I'm basically tapped at this point.

[The Wellerman Sea Shanty Metal]

Glad I gave this version a listen. Youtube videos automatically dip out on the fidelity. That video really doesn't give the mix down justice. Ripping solo, 10/10 :D

[From the Darkest Side]

Track is pretty good but that second segment from 1:40 onward was tops. Loved that plucky pad. Next on the list of skills to aquire is some sidechaining to get those drums punching forward. Snare has such a huge envelope, I'd start with just the bass drum. Slap a compressor on the lead synth/bass, then use the levels of the bass drum to control the levels of the synths via signal flow. A compressor unit should have a sidechain function. Would clean things up a bit :)

Not sure if you pan much but playing with that in the future gives you more space to work with. Someone once described it to me by saying that panning creates the illusion sounds are louder than they really are. You can pan things then turn their levels down a little. Makes more room for other sounds in the mix when everything gets it's own place in the field :D

Keep pushing Dieswyx, this work is really promising.

Dieswyx responds:

Thanks for the tips Miss Quarl. Although I could't fully understand, I know they will be of use to me in the future.

Thank you very much for your comments, I appreciate them very much. ^^ ♥

[Having a New Day]

So I'm giving your tunes a listen and it's odd that some of them have heavy compression and others don't. You mentioned this being quiet, is there a limiter or some similar unit on the master out? Perhaps there's a compressor on a specific mixer? Not sure how your workflow looks but you had bass drums breaking out of the compression at 1:04, 1:48, and 2:10. It's visible in the waveform image above. Someone mentioned FL does that compression by default, something has to be turned off or bypassed manually. I use Reason and only recently figured out to check the fidelity units on the master out. Literally one button was the difference between bad compression and more mix room. Was eye opening.

Seriously, track sounds like it's pretty hot but it would be even tighter if you could find what's shaving down your fidelity :)

[Pixel Joy (Pixel Day 2021)]

lol, this is some happy go lucky good feelies. Those melodies made me smile and that rhythm had me bouncing. Cute bass line :3

[Crypt Voice - Vile Tape [MIX OST]]

So much pleasure from a few constant sounds pushed hard. Kind of wish the drum samples came through the mix harder. An extra punchy mid snare layer or two would do the trick. The kit you used has a nice old school industry vibe going for it though, and you evolved it over time to keep it interesting. Just wish it hit a wider frequency range.

Those synths were really lovely in a depressingly oppressive manner. Max love <3 <3

[Yes Man]

I had been meaning to drop this a review today when I gave it a quick listen earlier. Bass is huge, kit is awesome. I feel like there could have been a few extra aux drums like tambs, rides, cowbell... it's a minor nit pick though. This track has some of that old spor nuero vibe when he was hanging with the demoliton room. Love it Sinth <3

Sinthology responds:

Spor is my DnB daddy so this is a massive compliment

[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