Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Brainzap]

Super tight brain dance kb. Fresh sounds, perfect mix. Wouldn't expect any less from you champ. That break down had me jazzing.

<3 <3

Kingbastard responds:

Thank you, Quarl. Much appreciated.

[The Pianist]

Short, to the point, clean. I think those drums could have used some tambs or rides to brighten up the track a little but otherwise the song really grooves. Why the fade out though? You could have looped the track a bit and given us something a little more substantial to listen to. I'm of the opinion that most drum and bass track can get everything across at a little over/under 3 minutes. Two minutes just felt awkward because it feels like your pulling out just as the song was getting to it's climax.

There's a reason people mention hating fade outs. It's not always a bad thing but for such a short track it sounded really premature :)

Edit: If this is going to be the only track you upload this year do us a solid and give us another minute in heaven <3

[Nintendo Switch Type Beat]

It's times like this I wish I still rocked Nintendo. This track is dope. Dandy kick triplets. Happy glitchy square lead. I see that ambient end is no longer just an experiment but a feature. Relaxing.

Seriously Protaganacho, this track is so cute and perfect <3

Edit: thanks for the video too. Seeing other people make music feels enriching. I usually just open my DAW and cry for a few minutes before opening Steam.

larrynachos responds:

It's really difficult to get the ball rolling on some tracks. If I don't get something nice sounding in the first half hour, I usually just quit. Luckily, the switch samples were plenty of inspiration!

Thank you for the review Quarl! I should have extended the actual beat part instead of immediately succumbing to making an ambient section and calling it a day, but I started getting self conscious about being on stream so I just wrapped it up lol (even though apparently the stream cut off before I finished the song loool).

Thanks again :)

[X3LL3N - Higher (FuzeNG RMX)]

Really warm vibes from this. Sassy happy melodies yo. I spent a few minutes nit picking the drum kit. Something felt off. At first that bass drum was too weak but when it goes to DNB it just pushed everything out of the way. Sidechain like "hi, I'm sidechaing." Do you layer your kick samples at all or is it just one phat sample? Maybe a second kick with more emphasis on mids/highs would make Quarl happy. Same with the snare actually. I know all you kids are into a ton of bass on your snares these days. It's cool, I get it. Punk rock dude. But give us older tone deaf people something to bite onto. I need some more mid/high from a snare because I listened to loud music when I was growing up. Feels.

Dynamics! It took me a few listens to realize those piano notes sound really static. Maybe give some life to that robo-piano with velocity changes. Emulating the velocity of a live piano drives me crazy. I don't know how to record dynamics proper in reason from my digital piano so I have to fiddle with numbers after the fact. IT SUCKS, kill me. I get lazy and automate the levels instead. It's not the same but I pretend it is.

Loved those snaps in the beginning. You're production style is tight. Clean. Pure. Keep doing you Fuzion <3

FuzionTech responds:

I used different kicks when making this. no I didnt stack them. I just placed them in an order. intro has that soft-like kick, the main has a hard hitting kick. and I forgot to post process the piano. my bad. and thank you for the comment

[Mirage]

Damn, this takes me back to my young days here on newgrounds. Fox Steven used to have a sound like this when he first started posting as StanSB. That wobbly synth melody, a two step drum pattern, and some pretty melodies. It's a classic sound. What program are you using to make your sounds in Kite? Let mew know if you'd like any feedback, I love giving people something to think about :D

ElderlyKite responds:

Thank you so much for commenting my song. I am using FL Studio. I am always open for feedback so I'll appreciate if you'll give me any!

[Moog 3]

Solid track! Super creative vibes I'm getting from this. Loved all the rhythmic flourishes and bass tricks. I can only nitpick the mix down. Things sound a little over compressed. I need some more dynamics :)

Bass overpowers but it's not so much the sub bass as just... everything. You got bass coming out of your bass. I also feel like I hear that low end heavy snare a lot from other producers. I'm getting a little fatigued from hearing that bassy snare. It might just be the pitch? I used to love hearing the bass snare, dunno what happened. I guess I'm just old and need higher freq noises to compensate for my hearing loss :C

After listening to this loop a few times I think I'm not hearing enough panning. Rig once taught me that panning creates the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are so the more you can pan things the more you can turn them down and create room in your mix. I can hear some panning going on with those hi hats but I feel like those aux instruments, pads, and sound effects could use more pan in a direction. Bass to the center, everything mid/high can get it's own place. Pay attention to which channel on your mixer is doing more work and pan an instrument or two to the opposite channel for that section of the song.

I like to send my lead synth through a splitter so I can dedicate it to two channels on my mixer, then I split it into opposite directions to make room for sub in the middle. My lead is usually a lot of mid/high.

Not sure if any of that made sense but I leave you with this: keep following your dreams! Believe in yourself! Stay in school! Don't do drugs.

dedsh4d responds:

Thanks for the response and the criticism! I don't typically think of panning in my mix (and I don't know why), but now that you point it out -- I do agree. I see myself missing the entire feature of panning within production fairly frequently on anything other than percussion. I'll definitely take your response into consideration and practice! Greatly appreciated!

[why does everything fall apart]

This track is hella relax. Only problem I had was the drum sound. I'm not super familiar with your techniques but if it's all recording I got nothing. I gave up live musics a decade ago. Getting a proper mic set up on a kit requires a little finesse and probably more mics than you ever have on hand.

Guitar ripped, bass was sex.

[Project 14328]

Old school newgrounds dnb vibe. Nice atmosphere and melodies! You know I want a crisper phatter drum kit but I'll take what I can get. Props Mich :)

Mich responds:

Cheers Quarl! I think I wanted them a bit more mellow than that; maybe next time. :)

[DoomDaDoomDaDoomDa feat. Quarl]

I remember that piano thing xD

Glad someone did something with those drums. That snare drum pitch bend at 2:12 lit made me laugh. It sounded like a cat :3

SymbolCymbal responds:

Glad you enjoyed it. I recently found the piano on an old hard drove figured it would be fun to add in. Most stuff I have been making is just seeing what weird shit i can accomplish with the software. That snare pitch bend was all about pushing things as strange as it can go. Most of the time i spent on this track was making drums stutter, flam and pitch bend. Had alot of fun with this drum pack <3