Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Safe to Say]

Newgrounds has been getting some really fierce future style artists lately. You kids are super impressive with these progressive up beat sounds. I'd have liked to hear that drum kit side chained to the front, the aux sounds get a little convoluted. The drum kit would help clean it all up. It's a minor nit pick, drum and bass nerds like the track to revolve around the drum kit so we get antsy when a drum kit doesn't punch to the front :p

DoctorNoSense responds:

Thanks for your feedback <3 I definetly write that down ^^

[QShunt - Purple Skies]

Lol, this has that old newgrounds dnb vibe you'd get here all the time but crisper. We used to get a lot of melodic genre bending DNB. I suppose we still do, I just immediately thought of Rawrthaas when I heard this. I think I was craving some ghost snare rhythms, some tambs, a fierce ride cymbal, and maybe a crisp saw tooth synth with some high portamento and long release but you can't always get what you want. Track bangs without my needy ass griping.

Those vox towards the end were a sexy touch. The piano through out the track activated my love organs. Nice full pad with equally full chords. That snare roll at 3:11 had a sexy experimental glitch vibe <3

Bonus points, TotalHarmonicControl is a really cool name :)

Qshunt responds:

Thanks for the kind words!

[AIM 2020 - O'Malley]

Nice swing 4/4 rhythms and the melodies grooved. Sounds were well mixed and compressed to impress. I can see some people griping over the power in that snare drum but hey... it's drum and bass. The kit is half the point. I realized years ago listening to Noisia and Evol Intent that a good drum kit can fill all of the space in the mix on it's own.

My only direction is that there might have been some more variety in the aux percussion. Some tamb triplets, a couple of splash cymbals, a vibraslap, maybe an orchestral bass drum swell. If this wasn't AIM I'd recommend some vocal samples of Bernard Shaw or Morgan Freeman saying something inspirational but hey, samples skirt the line of acceptability in comps.

Good luck Wolfie, I really love this sound <3

RosesWolf responds:

You're the first person on this site to call me by my nickname (Wolfy) since I joined this site, lol!

But that's all very valid feedback, and I'll definitely look into some vocal samples, that's a really neat idea! I'll definitely look into further auxiliary percussion.

I haven't seen anyone really complaining about the snare myself, and I think it's a relatively light snare for something like DnB, but that may just be my inexperience talking.

Thanks so much for the review, and I'm really glad you liked it!

P.S. Not sure if this counts, but all the high hats throughout the piece were played in 12th notes, so a sped up triplets :3

[Coherence]

Fuck yeah, dark two step. Those reese basses were tight. I wish those drums hit a little harder but that's a critique coming from a girl that doesn't know how to turn the drums down. I just keep pushing the levels up but after that I lose track of where the knobs are and couldn't turn them down if I wanted.

I'm loving how techy everyone seems to be getting. Stay classy Elf <3 <3

ActualElf responds:

Hey Quarl, thank you ^^

I'm still around and always make sure to check in to see what music you've been putting out.

I've always had the same thing where I made my drums super loud in the mix, I'll probably forever be on either side of the line during the search for balance ahaha

Thank you for the kind words as always <3

[Bad Report Cards]

Nice swing rock vibes KB. I was about to say "wish I knew what that guy was saying" then I remembered that a classic trick for music producers is to name the track after something said in the track.

[Horizon]

Bleen isn't wrong about the mix but I didn't really focus on that too much. The melodies were really well written. My attention just slid back into the tasteful progressions and happy vibes. I tend to not give a damn about the mix when it comes to genres I don't jive to. I'm just happy to hear people doing their thing.

I loved the variety here. I was expecting a full on house song but you let your drums explore a good bit. There was even a little dnb in there at one point. It was adorable. My favorite part was that somber outro though. Like fuck me, you went from full happy hardcore to let's all be sad now. Damn.

LazerwingMusic responds:

Thanks for your positivity <3

[Acceptance]

Straight, simple, somber. Nice piano you fab individual you :)

[BROKENIMAGE.jpg]

Tight glitch, clean drums, dank synths, amen infusion, tempo shift. Are you just trying to activate my impulsive sex drive? I'll hear some high society jazzy dubstep on the front page and say to myself "I need to write something like this now" so I'm glad to hear something like this because it reminds me that people like atonal noise as well. This is great.

[Greyscale Cascades]

I wish I didn't spend all day working on stuff because my ears are a little fatigued. This track has a lot of creative energy. I wouldn't say it's as clean as all the other dubstep out there but I kind of hunger for more rawness anywho. Whenever I hear something that's too perfect I knee-jerk assume it's stolen content. I miss out on some cool stuff like that :/

I decided to really give this a listen with my headphones when that climax hit. That part was powerful. Again, it's not the cleanest mix but it has so much unique force I just couldn't care. That intro banged, the melodies swirled and evolved, and no fucks were given. Away from the polished elitist crowd, you have a super cool sound that goes somewhere different.

Curious, why didn't you upload any commentary? I like to know what artists are thinking :)

Diivi responds:

Ty for the lengthy review! Sorry, i didn't upload much commentary because i don't have much to say about the song

[Among Others]

Damn clean jazzy drums, sassy vibe melody, nice full bass... you're on some good drugs. This track pulled me in when I wasn't paying attention and forced a review. Happy and somewhat unpredictable breakdown melody was super cool. Stellar work Jass <3 <3

Jassummisko responds:

Yooooo Quarl, how's it going? Really glad to hear from you again.
Super happy you liked the track!