Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[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