Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Montage of You]

Lol, I'm getting Circa Survive vibes from this. Your voice is incredible. Damn good pitch control. Sorry to point this out but I'm guessing english isn't your primary language? What kind of accent am I hearing? Again, it's not important. I just love accents.

My inner critic wants to point out that the bass drum could be a little softer. A filter can trim those highs. Your mixer might have a treble knob, I use Reason. Not sure if you want this kind of feedback but I typically splice three separate bass drums through an EQ, Compressor, and stereo imager before sending the final sound to a drum mixer. So much fidelity control, drool*

Bass drums benefit widely from alternate note velocities too. I don't even think about it anymore, I just randomly grab bass notes and drop the velocities to create dynamics.

But I'm listening to this on my phone, so literally disregard everything I just told you.

[Cafe Byte [Electro]]

Pushing my buttons with nice funky chords, melodies, and hooks. Mix sounded a tad thin, maybe boost your bass a wee bit? Add a sub layer? Sorry, I don't like getting critical when I like stuff as much as I like this. Fatten that bass and this is next level.

[Tundrata]

How dare you challenge my listening skills by tossing out a 3:35 time stamp. If I have to listen to relaxing chill vibes for three and a half minutes than I shall decidedly suffer. I'd have put some reverb on that snare drum. Probs would have tossed in an odd cowbell or gong.

That 3:35 drop at needs a pikachu sample. You can take this critique seriously or not. I'm just saying, a cute "PIKA" would satisfy my simp sample ass. That ambient section leading into it could have used a nice long dialog sample. I came to the realization recently that newgrounds has a lot of voice acting talent which could be useful for giving tracks a unique atmosphere. Do it :)

TeraVex responds:

I’ll add a Pika but only because you told me to! I struggled to find some good gongs/percussion for this, I really wanted to add some but I wasn’t finding any with the flavor I wanted... I’m probably gonna look around a bit more because I feel like it’d improve the tune

[Kahiel Al Saqedi Tribute]

DANK. Funking hard. Not sure what kind of vibes you were going for but this could maybe use another layer on that snare. Some hi fizz 808 snare or something brighter to add? That's my only critical feedback. You ever think of using a vibroslap sample? Once you start using one you never stop. Intro could have made use of one. It's next level percussion :)

edit: also, a tamborine on the up beats could have brightened this a little :D

[DrUm aNd BaSs LoL]

This song rocks my socks, packs my glocks, and invests my stocks.

Father-of-Death responds:

WORD!

SUP QUARL!

[Police Brutality]

Fuuuuuu, this is some sick nuero. I'd have gone harder with my mid sounds EQ'd but that bass is so beautiful I can forgive missing a little texture. Ouch... this song hits so good. How would a more prominent ride cymbal sound in this track? I caught sound of a ride at one point [1:17], maybe add a different ride at different parts? Cowbells? Lol.

Edit: cowbells. This song needs a cowbell.

[Centralia PA]

That intro reminded of what it felt like to listen to Boards of Canada in college. Super colorful chords and interesting choices. I loved that modest guitar. That note at the two minute mark was either too loud or could have been an octave higher? That's my constructive input. Legit perfect track otherwise :D

RazzmatazzMania responds:

Lmao tbh I was stressin’ about that note. I thought I turned it down more, but now I know I’m not crazy.
Thank you for the kind words!

[Side Hustle]

lol, that slap bass jazz drum kit combo reminded me of some old fashioned squarepusher. Check out his band Shobaleader One. Squarepusher is better than bass Jesus, IMO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-j_D-O1vwM

Flashbulb can also give bass Jesus a run for his sheckles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8N9tDDQT4&list=RDZD8N9tDDQT4&start_radio=1&t=0

No shame in working to pay the bills. I'm not sure where this luxurious idea of artists being rich comes from but it needs to stop. The dirt poor homeless artist is far more common. That's not a particularly good cliche either.

Don't feel guilty for writing about yourself. We all have lives away from the internet. I love knowing more about the people I stumble upon here. It may often feel like you're alone, tossing bits of your life onto a lonely internet canvas, but people lurk in the shadows. Those little scraps of life feed stalkers. OWN IT :D

After listening to this for an hour or two I started to wonder, did you ever consider writing a section of this song without drums? A melodic pad or arrhythmic break down would have been acceptable at the beginning, middle, or end. This track could have been at least three minutes long with an intro. Maybe four minutes if you copied the intro and pasted it at the end while changing one note.

:D

TeraVex responds:

Thank you! I do hear some Squarepusher in this! I've been thinking about making some mini tunes as part of a pseudo music journal series but I haven't really figured out how to approach it but your review has given me inspiration! I like the idea of the song extension too!.. Maybe I'll play around with that for a future extension!

[Run]

Lol, this is so cool old school. Reminds me of old Calyx and Timecode, early millenium. At that point the Moving Shadow label was transitioning between the old school dnb to more of a nuero sound. I stayed for the synth work that came in around 00:50. It was so CUTE. I just want to pinch the cheeks of that sawtooth wave reese.

HypercubeRecords responds:

Thanks XD

[Aurora]

This took me back to High School. There was a time when newgrounds was so heavily inundated with oppressive amen break samples and filtered Reese saws. That might sound like an insult but that time period shaped so many of my tastes in the last couple of decades that it is essentially a part of me. I kind of miss that period of wonder and mystery.

Track could use a little more polish but I'm not gonna try not to hound you for it. Couldn't tell if there was any panning going on. Might of been able to slip in some auxiliary sounds left and right to add character. Maybe a simple high pitched synth with a soft release?

On that note, moar aux percussion! Gongs, chimes, vibroslaps, some wood blocks... on that note, I haven't used wood blocks in a while. I'm stealing this idea...

SchattenDnB responds:

haha, no offense taken! i might actually work on a second version of this track since i'm not proud of how it turned out. But thanks for the response, means a lot.