Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AGNOSIA SHATTERED]

100% less glitches? Awwwwww, put them back D':

Just kidding, I went and gave the old version a listen, gabber section is cut. Looks like there's a fair number of difference between the two versions, I love remixing my older tunes. Track grooves something nice :D

SoTshu responds:

yo thanks a lot! the uptempo section in the original was specifically made for a GD level, but I just felt like I could do so much more with the first part, and that's how the shattered version was made. the original also got a small remaster with this version. im very glad you liked it, have a great day! cheers!

[Chocnoon - Tellurium (DXLVIII)]

After giving the author's comments a quick glance, I just wanted to say that I feel the exact same way. Everything you just said, it exemplifies my feelings entirely. The drums were rbdfssg, the synths were asdasfasfasd and the chord progressions were dytjiybbxbikbg. Mixing could have used some jnrnjbfjnfbjo but I think with a little more jndbjubdgjobdgoj you can really sedsjnodsvjo this to another level. Peace homie, and remember: vsdhkkhhkfkhn. Always <3

name responds:

Thanks for the sdoiaufgqwoiugf!

[WorldSound - Chase From Cosmic Fortress (Ft Charlmot)]

YES, FRONT PAGE. FEEL THE MAGIC OF NEWGROUNDS WASH OVER YOU, OUR COMMUNAL JUICES FLOWING. SMELLY CREATIVE JUICES, gross right? Here's the communal towel, I forget to ask who washed it last. Just spit on it, it's yours now :'|

Loved the story element to the music. A little direction like that helps keep my focus, I'm mad attention deficit. Keeping that in mind you took this to a lot of different places! Attention was held wonderfully! Arpeggios are classic, chord progressions interesting, instrument diversity was awesome :3

Fidelity and sound quality needs a little tune up but finding all the right tones can take years of adjusting your ears, playing with fidelity tools, watching tutorials, and constant vigilance against one's own laziness. I'm currently doing an OST for someone else and I've sent a few files across that weren't perfectly mixed and mastered. Feels like I shot myself in the foot a little but I have a good relationship with her, we good :3

I'll let you in on a few general fidelity techniques and tricks that should work in most scenarios to get a little extra out of your sound:

EQ units, compressors, limiters, "informed" stereo imaging...

Compressors and limiters will help you get more "presence" out of your instruments. People will warn against over compressing everything and to a certain degree I'm on board with that logic but I.M.O. you have to mix a few armature bricks to really find where the limits are. Compressing can make things quieter as well as louder, it's very sensitive dynamic play. You know you're over compressing when you export a file that sounds quieter than it did in the DAW, go back in and pan instruments while turning things down. Panning DOES create the illusion that a sound is louder than it is so you can get away with turning a well panned sound down a tad. If you pan something you have to try balancing it in the other ear as well, asymmetry in the stereo field is amazeballs to break monotony but doing it too long can create an annoying disbalance, vibe killer.

Doesn't sound like you have to worry about over compression at the moment, there's plenty of room for more tonal goodness. An EQ can help you boost very specific tones and textures on a sound or instrument. Combined with careful compression EQed bass tones can glow, arps can glitter, pianos can punch, orchestral drums can violently thunder. If you're worried about amping things up too much a small limiter can help prevent an instrument from overdoing it and frying the stereo field into an over compressed mess. Nothing is a miracle salve though, just gotta be aware of your options while your working...

Easy sauce technique: start out with good samples. Most digital instruments use samples to relay their sounds, especially orchestral/live instruments, as such, samples aren't something to be ashamed of. Never be afraid to go on a journey to find the best drum samples. It's easier to model new drum sounds when you just have good ingredients from the get go. Layer drum samples to "model" new sounds.

You can spend years modeling drum samples, layering them, balancing them to punch just right, changing snare pitch to get the right snappiness, deeping bass drums, playing with their envelopes... tbh, I sampled a vibraslap ages ago from some demo vid on youtube because I was too lazy to spend $20 on some cheap slap and record it myself. The guilt of it washes over me once or twice a year. I'm starting to feel it again right now, THE SHAME OF IT-and it's gone. See, nothing to worry about, very temporary shame.

I mentioned something about "informed" stereo imaging. Panning creates space, emulates location. It can be really exciting when sounds move across the field. Automation lanes on the pan data can help you find new locations for instruments and sounds as the track goes to new places.

I'm getting lost in this review, I'm so sorry. I hope something here was in any way helpful, I gotta run back to my own project and roll on it until everyone knows it's mine >:3

trevor8 responds:

haha; i am printing this out and sticking it on my bulletin board! thank you so much!

[Delusion]

Ah, the fun process of naming a track. imo, lonely streets was a better title but don't let my opinion change anything. Sorry the mix killed you, classic problem. I'd ask for stems, I can hear things I'd do differently but I'm really busy at the moment. I'd buff that kit up with a little more EQ, more compression, or possibly even a distortion unit. No reason for that kit to be so gentle when it can crisp up some mid to high tones and make the track glitter...

I'm really busy today or else I'd drop this an essay. You're probably ready to move on to the next track so there's no real need to nitpick things... but imo this track is missing a lot of texture. Instruments and sounds in the background are getting lost to the frequency mud. Those background sounds should shine more, those cute little arps want SPACE, presence, reverb. It's weird how simultaneously powerful and weak that bass is (kind of my own weakness tbh). Tighten up the envelope on that bass, increase power of your sidechain signals, EQ that clap snare to have a little more texture, maybe layer another kick drum?

Like, there's so much that could be done to the mix but I totally hear you when you say "mixing was a headache." Sometimes you just can't get the fidelity where you want it and I'm never happy. Hopefully this review isn't too bothersome Dio, I'm being a little vague today. Have a better time with your next one :D

[Existential Emptiness (Full Album)]

I came for the title but stayed for the fun frequencies. Celestial hits nice. The titular track Existential Emptiness had some really slick breaks. I love the sonic explorations <3

I'm not gonna give up a long review because this is a full album but with a little more polish on fidelity you'll have a pro sound. Things like melody, percussion, arrangement, pads... all these things are inspired. Fidelity is the last push and it's a tough one because every explorative track needs a slightly different balance or mixdown. Was talking to another producer the other day about having a wide range of mix quality from track to track, inconsistent mastering. It's just part of the game. A formula will work for a minute but the moment you start experimenting or trying new stuff you have to adjust your techniques.

Drums are kind of my favorite thing to work on, I think your drums can be a little more prominent in the mix. Not sure if you got much sidechaining going on but I like to send the kick drum and sometimes the snare signals to various compressors attached to other instruments. That kick signal can then control levels of the chained instruments. A chained kick drum signal will momentarily mute the bass or a pad... when listening to Existential Emptiness in particular I felt like those drums could have punched through the mix a little more and side chaining the drum signals is key.

There are a lot of drum techniques, not sure if you use MIDI or drum loop samples but I prefer the freedom of MIDI. Dropping other people's breaks into my tracks never jived with me but if you use them you can actually sidechain stuff using a secondary muted drum kit. Just quickly MIDI up the core rhythm the sample follows, then send the signal to compressors attached to other instruments, then mute the sidechain drum machine before it gets to the master. I use Reason's spider merger/splitter to multiply drum signals for sidechaining but I'm sure most programs let you split a signal with their own tools. Regardless of whether you use full break samples or broken up MIDI samples this type of stuff can be fun to play with and folds back into what I was saying about needing different techniques for different situations :3

Regardless of which drum techniques you use you can still layer new drum sounds on top of those. I love the sound of the drum samples on Celestial but they're a little lonely. I'd add some aux percussion like tambs, shakers, toms, cowbells, vibraslaps... there is a world of percussive instruments that can help add life to that groove! Then there's the classic layering, most my snare drums can be two or three samples deep. I got a work flow where I take the snare samples from the drum machine, send their signals into a merger, then I send the combined drum signal into an EQ unit, compressor, limiter, stereo imager... sometimes I bypass the fidelity units but this signal flow lets me get snare samples all on the same page. From the drum machine I can change the pitch or tone of individual snare samples, the end goal is to make them all work together, as one! It's a little convoluted at first but I've been doing it for decades now and this is just the way it is now :3

Automation lanes can provide some rhythmic life with a little dynamics, I quickly draw peaks and valleys for hi-hat and shaker rhythms when I don't want to play with their individual note velocities. I'd also add snare reverb every few measures. End a measure with some reverb on a snare just to see what I'm talking about. You don't want to go too crazy with snare reverb, this isn't the 80s but a little snare reverb automated in once or twice a track... beautiful mix trick.

I said something about keeping this review short. I was lying D:

MixxyHD responds:

It really was a huge criticism xD but I'm still in shock about the frontpaged...

I made this album for a whole year and it evolved as it went along. Existential Emptiness was made in 2023, probably halfway through the year and I was in that phase of very rapid evolution, I could have improved a lot and done a lot more, but at the time I just didn't think that way... Even so, I managed to finish my album and this project is finally going to get some recognition.
A thousand apologies for not knowing how to react to your incredible criticism of my songs, but you've given me a lot of ideas for my future songs and projects! I hope you had a great time listening to my album. That's very special to me <3

Anyway, thank you so much for the criticism and the comment!!!

[NGPR #4: Quarl]

*Comment why you think NGP fcked up real bad! Theories in the comments!*

So, my theory is that at around the time I guested on the show it came to light that one of the hosts was masturbating on their side of the microphone for an entire season. Despite flying under the radar the thought of it made the work of editing really awkward so yall just kind of drank heavily to get through the hardships. The feelings never numbed though so the Newgrounds Podcast team turned to harder and harder drugs until you collectively hit rock bottom. Times got really hard, Shal had to sell his mint condition Golden Girl Doll collection. Through some kind of Christmas miracle, Tom Fulp got you guys back on the straight and narrow. You spent time working out, hitting the gym, Droid got his masters degree. It was a complete 180, everyone was happy.

During this period of happiness you burnt the hard drive containing all the show data. It took you a really long time to remember that there was a cloud back up but honestly your hearts just weren't in it anymore. Despite masturbating, getting addicted to drugs, getting clean of drugs, and accomplishing everything you ever set out to do, uploading digital files seemed insignificant now. What was the point of it all? Who are we? What is reality? After grappling with crippling existentialism it became clear what needed to be done. The team put down the peyote pipe one last time to start uploading episodes and so here we are today: harder, better, faster, stronger. Work it. Make it. Do it.

So how close is my guess?

[feverdream </3]

This is a lot of fun! Melodies are romantic, the pulse goes hard. I wish there was more breakage like around 2:12 but you do you. I'm not on good speakers right now but the wave doesn't look as full for the breaks. Without hearing the subsonic sounds I'm guessing that big four to the floor kick drum was filling up massive amounts of space. That dnb section might have had some space to get compressed a little forwards? Wish I had my headphones right now, I wanna know if there's a sub bass doing work :'c

I'll come back to this later for the melodies <3

[Free Bass Loops Bb pack demo]

...and I will stuff these into the decades old Soro folder. You make great resources :p

sorohanro responds:

More to come in the future ;)
You always make awesome stuff out of them.

[Shopping Spree]

I wanted to get something together for the mall collab but failed to do anything because lazy. Love this melody, chords are magic, beat holds down the foundation perfectly. Not sure I agree with a house groove being certified "mall music" but it grooves really nice. All you need is Marc Rebillet in a German grocery store screaming in the background @ 1:30 and it's 100% funked up <3

Casper responds:

I guess "house" itself is more so club music, the song's instrumentation is more mall-y haha, i liked the rhythm and how it fit tho. I wasn't too fussed about making it tradionally mall or whatever, just went for something funky and fun, made the first part during jamuary and the switchup at 1:30 was done like one day before the deadline lmao. Transition is a bit rushed but I actually think it fits in the context

[Andromeda]

I can really hear that BOUNC3 influence in the melodies. Mix is tight, track is a lot of fun! Powerful stuff, classic dance sounds with a contemporary mix of techniques. Got nothing bad to say Synami, great track!