Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Listerine 2.0]

I'm not sure if we politically see eye to eye on everything but your lyrics were vague enough that we can still be friends! Rejoice! Really nice writing ADR. Back track kicked nice. Loved that slap bass, drums were tight :D

ADR3-N responds:

Haha, as long as you don't think it's okay to shoot people who disagree with you for being "fascist", I can come sit at the table. And I mean that in the sense of you shooting me, not me refusing to talk to you. Bolshevism is a dumb, failed ideology. <3

Thanks!

[Galaxy far away]

Loved it. Those atmospheric pad sweeps were really mellow and nice. The hook had such a lovely upbeat swing to it. I'd have liked crisper sounds but that's probably because I'm old and can't hear certain tones as well as I used to. I'm so flipping old. Still, a little more mid to high freq snare layers would have pleased me. I bias hard when I say that drums are the single most important element for dance genres so if they don't hit the right tones, it hurts.

I'm loving those melody change ups in part two. It's a little subtle though. That second hook might have benefited from a solid lead instrument playing harmony with the other synths. I'd have glided in a rich 2 oscillator saw/sine synth with high portamento to give off a floating vibe. Drool.

Keep pounding out cool tunes Bary <3

[Life Support System]

Tops idm wax, really love these atonal rhythmic noises <3 <3

[Death to Ye Three]

Those violins were feeding me some serious Mendelssohn vibes, couldn't get enough. Sorry to ask but what are you using to get those vocals? They're great but they sounded a little cramped for space at the intro. After 00:17 every thing works out really nicely. Might have just been the highs of that white noise. What was that white noise supposed to be? Is that a result of EQ? Sounded like it could have been perc but I think the mix could have been better without it, imo. I also noticed there was a flanger or phaser on the vocals before the two minute mark. That was kind of weird, maybe that caused the mix problem I'm having?

Seriously, those violins blew me away. Good stuff lsd <3

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hey, and thank you for the review!
I think in the intro, what happened is... Normally when I go through a mix I check the sound on many different headphones as well as my speakers. But as this is the NGADM, I finished the song somewhere around 5am, and I used only my main set of headphones. Thus, there is just a little bit too much reverb that is heard in headphones with less space, especially on the high end. All of the parts in the intro end with "nus" or "mus" or "tus". This leads to the "S" syllable becoming a bit intense, which is probably the white noise you're referring to. I wonder if maybe a de-esser could've worked, or maybe I could've worked on the release. I don't really mind it, but I can hear what you mean!

It's a flanger indeed, but the effect is only active between 1:47-2:00, for the slowdown and unconventional key/chords.

I'm glad you like the violins, those were definitely the hardest and most time-consuming part! Even though I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them, I had to spend hours putting all the notes and harmonies in :'D

[GAY]

This sounds like it was a ton of fun to record. I'm kind of jealous.

[Taekwondo Energy Drink]

I've been meaning to stop by just to say that this track is seducing me. By the way, this track is seducing me.

[ARCADE]

Really clean and hella dancy. The melodies were super kawaii. I felt a little embarrassed while enjoying it but if this started banging in public I'd get down to it. No shame. That second chorus around 1:15 grinded nicely <3

RedSkiesOfficial responds:

omg THANKS!

[MM8: Flow Beyond Tragedy]

Why'd you put this under experimental? You've got some classy rolling two step drum and bass patterns. The late 90s early new millennium scene would have loved to hear this in a moving shadow mix.

I wish I wasn't listening on my phone right now but I'll add this to my favorites and totally give this another listen later tonight <3

EDIT: do what you're comfortable with. It's totes DNB but if you want to put it in ska, whose stopping you? I used to drop things into odd genres just because it gave me a small power trip.

Anchorwind responds:

My love, I put almost everything in experimental by default. Hide out here in the quiet corner of NG. Where do you recommend I move it to? Drum and bass? It does have a lot of liquid influences but there are other bits to it.

[mind over matter]

Just thought I'd pop in and point out that I too have a track called Mind Over Matter. If you take only the first letters of each word it spells "mom" :)

SchattenDnB responds:

i'm not sure if i responded to this but thank you for your response, that information is actually quite funny. i made this very early on during a time where i didn't know what i was doing, i am still slowly improving, thanks for stopping by!

[Dec 7th]

Lol, love that low pitch snare. Most dnb peeps do a high-pitch mid to low frequency snare these days. It sounds great but I miss hearing these deep pounding snares. Smart amen break :D

A few tropes I never avoid that might have sounded nice, some drum filtering for dynamic atmosphere and reverb on that final snare to give that ending some transitioning flavor. Maybe a smaller snare for that first down tempo rhythm? It comes in a little jarring at first but comes into itself later. You've got that pitched up snare after the amen break... maybe that snare would have sounded great in the intro too? Just some thoughts :)

The melodies had such an awesome atmospheric vibe. I love the title too. This has a really sweet funk to it Shatten <3

SchattenDnB responds:

Thank you! i layered two different snares in order to sort of create that "punchy-ness" for the break, on the transition to the other break, i had recycled a break that i made earlier on, thus the difference in snares whilst also adding another snare into it as well, thank you for your feedback, it means a lot and again, thanks for stopping by :)