Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Underwater Bitz [Pixel Day 2021]]

Loved all the ideas coming into this. Breaking up the rhythm from time to time felt super organic. The house vibes meeting dubstep were nice and clean. Had some old Metroid atmosphere to it.

Mix sounded a fair bit over compressed. Might be something on the master out? Someone recently mentioned to me that the default in FL is to limit the master out. Turning off one button will give you way more room to mix with. I use Reason and when I started in Reason 4 they had a similar function. The limiter was automatically turned on and it took me like 15 years to realize that.

Happy PixelDay XTeckmo! Can I call you Teck for short? Te???

Teckmo-X responds:

To be honest this song was made in under 24 hours. I wanted to make sure I had something to present for both Pixel Day and the VGM Contest this year since I haven't taken part of these events for a while. I got the inspiration from 1788-L, Gluk’oZа (ft. ST) Ju-Ju, and "Fairy Fountain" from Zelda. As for the mix I do agree. I have always been aware of the limiter in FL Studio but I always choose to keep it on. The reason for this is that every sound in my songs goes through a huge amount of processing and with the limiter there I can finish adjustments to the master volume after I'm done. It also helps against higher frequencies that might override lower pass and high pass sounds, especially in basslines where every sound counts. I've tried a few other DAW's but Fruity Loops just hits that really good spot. Happy Pixel Day! and yes, you can call me Teck :)

[Chalice of Malice (Pixel Day 2021)]

Exciting boss music. Well written melodies. Driving drum line was hella adrenaline pumping. Those reverb saw pads broke up the tune in a way that jumps from the chiptune restrictions that a lot of people try putting themselves under. I liked that trance vibe it gave off though. It was like hearing a tuba in a metal song. Someone like David Maxim Mixcic wouldn't even bat an eye.

Writing long, droning reviews like this lets me listen to the track multiple times. By about the 15th time this track looped it became my theme song. This is now MY boss music.

You compressed the track really hard, not sure if there's a reason for that. Game coders could apply sound effects and game noises in left and right channels and it would actually be a really cool use of panning to help create space in the audio field. Again, sorry for this rambling review. 50 TIMES LOOPED, I HAVE BECOME ONE WITH THIS SONG.

ConnorGrail responds:

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I have no restrictions, just pure chaos is my goal. I do like the idea of David Maxim Micic hearing this, love that stuff!

[Bitburst]

lol, happy pixelday!

Glad you decided to participate.
Mayhaps with less reverb you could fit all sorts of aux sounds into the mix? You could try playing with arps next time to get some more of those classic video game sounds. Arpeggiators ran at quick speeds give you nice full VG sounds. Some sweeping sine wave synths with high portamento or pitch bends could make bird like chirping atmoshpere.

I don't want to focus on that kind of stuff though because the last thing I want is to come off as critical. The track is nice and relaxing. Doesn't have the polish of a producer like Albegain but I can hear the passion in this. You got a nice waltz 3/4 tempo going. That's not a natural time signature for most people but I always love it when people gravitate to it. Absolutely lovely Ara <3

ARAMort responds:

Oh yeah I def could've done more. I kinda threw this together to cram it into the timeframe of pixel day and I didn't take the more iconic chiptune sounds into account. I'll write this down for the next pixel day lol.

[My Collection!!!]

Lol, "I'll try being more bold with the sidechain in the future." Respect, it's such an awesome feeling when you finally take the time to start sending signals all over the place to control levels. It's not always necessary depending on what your mixing but it's like cooking with chives, oils, or spices. You never stop adding them to your meals and eventually you wonder what things would even taste like without cumin. Sidechaining is like cumin.

Track bounced something nice. Drums were all perfect, melodies flowed nicely with that chord progression holding things together. Outro was smooth AF, was expecting a blocky insta cut out based off the waveshape but that reverb and long cut off pad was tasty.

Awesome groove Prutte :D

Prutte responds:

Thank you so much for your lovely comments! Made me smile like crazy! <3

[Qubitstep]

Beautiful full mix down. All out assault with those pads and synths. Loved the sinewaves, growling saw pads, atmosperic melodies all worked perfectly together. Pushing that steel drum fill at the end was perfect. Followed it with a mario coin sample. I almost used one in my song but didn't want to anger purists.

Might have chained the bass kick a little more to the front or layered something with more mid to make it more pronounced. Sub bass is over powering the kick a tad but the waveform shows you still got some breathing room in there. Despite that minor nitpick the sound is perfectly pro. Great work Albe!

Albe responds:

Thank you Quarl! And thanks for the feedback too!

[Hyperborean Wanderer]

Totes could hear this in an RPG. WOAH, woah stop. You trying to push 32 bit snare drums past me on Pixel Day? Gonna have to fine you for using too much fidelity, send you to pixel prison.

Seriously though, I have so many fond memories I can't relive. Games like Golden Sun, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger... this gave me the nostalgia without having to open an emulator and get bored playing the intro to these classics. So much time spent looking at a tiny screen, making my parents angry on road trips because I was too interested in a Gameboy than in mountains and endless grass. Thanks for writing something that scratched the itch. I let it loop a few times <3

ChronoNomad responds:

You got me! I totally went ham on those drums, but I'm kind of in love with BiT BOX for all my Chiptune percussive needs. Arrest me and send me off to pixel prison, ossifer! (I always keep a Wild MissingNo. on-hand for just such an emergency)

I mean, once you've seen a couple snow-capped mountains and wide-open grassy plains, you've pretty much seen 'em all. Besides, who's got time for that kind of sightseeing when there are princesses to be rescued, final bosses to be vanquished, and worlds to be saved? I love every single one of those classic titles, and always will. Viva la Pixels!

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, Quarl! Stay pixelated. <3

[Classic Overlord]

Not sure what you're implying by asking "how many well-known pieces can you find in this song?" Did you borrow midi, motifs from video games? Classical composers? Not sure what you meant by that but it sounds great. I'm guessing it's a squishy Swedish translation?

Including the FL video was a great touch. Love seeing the work people put into sequencing their ideas. I'm not holding the reverb against you, I suck at chiptune. It's so hard to stick to the confines of the genre when you have an entire digital audio workstation in front of you with sample libraries and effect units. I used a live kit and slapped digital distortion on it hoping no one would care... this will be our secret ok?

Track rocks. Legit classic masters would be all about the chiptune if they could time travel :)

Manderby responds:

Thanks! The well-known pieces are very small, somewhat hidden melodies from classical composers like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and the like. I counted 14 references from 1:08 to 1:36 and maybe there are some more in the rest of the song to which I was subconciously inspired by.

Swedish translation? I'm Swiss, but thanks anyway. :)

And I will keep your secred very secure. Nobody will ever read what is written here. ;)

[PIXELDAY]

Funky classic chip vibes. Wave shape looks like the panning biased one direction over the other. I'm listening on a cell phone though so I have no clue, sounds authentic to me :3

Edit: I only mention the panning because of morbid curiosity. I've lost a little hearing over the years, one ear is better than the other. I always wonder what other people can hear that I don't.

edit 2: sounds great on headphones too. Visualizer is lies.

[iNESanity]

Was thinking this track had some Baroque to it, scrolled down and saw the sheet music. Duh, authentic notation.

Intro had that old-school sci-fi chip vibe. Atmospheric chip bliss <3 <3

Carmet responds:

I used to DREAD sheet music, but ever since I got into musescore, it's the way I prefer to write now.

[Silicone Ocean]

Got some mad nice trip-hop vibes off this. Waveform looks a little cruncy though. Maybe that sub could have been a little bigger? Slightly longer cut off, make it rounder? Just a personal preference, bass still sounds tight. Just nit picking it for maximum sub sonic sauce <3

Sinthology responds:

thanks quarl. Yeah the bass was extremely minimal in this; My original intention was to make this like an atmospheric neuro track with no drums but then it turned into this. I played around with complementary basslines but nothing I liked. I may revisit it when I'm not buried alive in engineering homework lol