Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Iηнυмαη Eяrør]

I some how missed this track, sorry Nachos. Cool to see it in the top three line up! How did you get 180 downloads? I haven't seen that many downloads since back in the olden days. I'm lucky to get 10 downloads on anything anymore. I'm only slightly envious.

Airy, breezy, drum and bass. That reese was nice and juicy. Gotta agree with strykur, those drums that kicked in with the reese were nice and fat. I wish you looped it a little longer. Still, with all the change ups you managed to produce a really creative track. The concept behind it all tuned me in as well. Love!

larrynachos responds:

I have a track with over 1000 downloads I think (or maybe 10,000?). Geometry dash makes it really easy, but I think 180 people just really liked the track, because I can't find a GD level with my song id.

I try to keep my songs shorter, because people always shit on my tracks for being too repetitive. Glad you liked it though! I enjoyed your robot day track as well :D

[hehe xd]

Is that the same reese synth you used in the "look how stupid easy it is to make dubstep" facebook video? I'd say I actually liked this track but then I'd be afraid that you think my taste in music is simple minded and bland. Art sucks man, be grateful that it comes easy to you.

Cool track, regardless of what you think about it.

Sequenced responds:

i don't care what people like its jut a silly genre

hehe

its an add on to that synth

[Gear City]

That was awesome, super crisp mids and highs. Super heavy tension, I love it. Arrangement is pro. I'm assuming that's a drum machine? If so, you got a little Robot right there in your song. HI ROBOT DRUM MACHINE SORRY IF YOUR A REAL PERSON :D

My only gripe is that it sounded like there were no sub sonic bass frequencies. The bass was a tiny bit underwhelming which is unfair because everything else is soooo goood, I could fuck to this song. Seriously, awesome awesome awesome.

TSRBand responds:

Thanks so much! Good ear, that's EZDrummer 2's metal kit you're listening to with a bit of tweaking on the kick and snare.

Sorry to hear the bass isn't quite up to scratch! Seems like a bit of a letdown, thanks for pointing it out tho, I'll definitely have to go back in and have a look at that sometime :)

[Robot Junkyard]

I really liked a lot of the experimentation I heard. There were some super clean synths in there and the arrangement was flawless. The one thing I'd have done differently is the tone of the drum kit. I loved the effects on everything but that kit could have punched me harder with some more EQing, compression, or layers.The kit was kind of thin. It sounded like it was under a filter the whole time, don't be a tease. Sorry to meander about the drums...

I love Kamikaye's work, cool shout out! Always makes me happy to see people tagging each other. I'll believe you when you said this took a long time to make. Composing songs out of seemingly random noises takes so much patience. A chord progression can keep a song together but IDM, glitch, brain dance... those genres take patience. It requires balance between experimentation and composition. Neurotic programming. Good luck shadow dreamer :]

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks for the review and for the support :)

I'm glad that you liked my silly experimenting. This is very different from the usual kind of music I make, which is very heavy on chords, melodies, and arrangement. Especially since I mostly compose solo piano stuff :V
But I always found it fun to see what all I can cook together whenever I am given a reason to :D

I totally agree with you about the drums. I did compress them some, but I probably went way too soft with it. Drums and mixing are my greatest weaknesses when it comes to composing in general!

Yeah, I love Kamikaye's stuff too! Along with a ton of other artists here on NG. I atually follow quite a lot of artists in secret >:D
You are correct here too. Most of the time went into finding/altering samples that'd fit okay together, and figuring out how I wanted to arrange them.
That said, non-experimental tracks tend to take even longer for me to make, as I put a lot more effort into arranging and balancing the mix when I try to make something, especially if it's orchestral. I am relatively slow at producing tracks in general though, so it's no surprise xD

Sorry for the side note!
Thanks for the review, and good luck to you too!

[Spectral Fun ~P~]

Really awesome sounds! This experiment was super well produced. I had to research SpectralLayers, looks like a fun app. $400 seems like a hefty price tag for something that kind of looks like a gimmick but hey, I bet people say the same thing about Propellerhead's Reason. After watching the demo video I have to say I want it. Could I get some opinions on SpectralLayers? Is it as easy to use as the video makes it look? I need to know how you feel about the app. Pretty pretty please?

Half star taken off because what was that stutter in those kicks at the beginning? Is that a side-effect from chopping frequencies in SL?

Phyrnna responds:

Ah thanks! :D
I decided to yank it as part of their Audio Master Suite which included both SpectraLayers and SoundForge (which I already had been using extensively) for $600. Honestly well worth the money for the incredible utility of both softwares and while other "cheaper" alternatives exist it's well worth the investment.
The interface isn't as super intuitive and easy to learn as FL's, but it's a very easy pick up especially if you look up tutorials or just read the instructions. The few stuff shown on their video is definitely as easy as it seems (though further tweaking yields more fun results) and already lets you do quite a bit. I've done some further experimentation to get some further interesting results and sounds.
As for the kicks at the beginning, that was a side effect of spectral casting tempo sync'd kicks but with slightly different decays and attacks. I guess you could say I created a sort of destructive interference lol.

[start it simple]

NO WON CAN STOP YOU FOD!! KEEP MAKING GOLD TRACKS SON AND WON DAY YOULL BE THE KING OF GOLDEN TRACKS, GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD GOLD. I have always believed in you. I will always believe in you. Believe.

Father-of-Death responds:

I BELIEVE IN YOU QUARL!!! MAKE MORE BEATS BRUH!

[Pastel Raindrops (demo)]

You mentioned that you used Logic, a program that I know little about. I use Reason, an equally pretentiously named program that's 100 times less learner friendly than the name would suggest. I'm going to program a DAW called "Common Sense" and the learning curve will be so steep kids will literally get hurt trying to climb over it.

"Picking out instruments." It's always good when a sound bank has what your looking for but I might suggest toying with initial patches or resting devices so that you can synthesize your own instruments for a second? Presets aren't dirty or anything but learning to make your own synths is like learning to make your own food. You will never go hungry ;)

Like I said, Logic is not my baby but this little tutorial video looked like a solid bread winner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktXARX-qDnI

If newgrounds adds a space in the html you'll have to delete it.

The arps in the second half of the song were pretty! What did you use to write them? Pure curiosity. Was it the preset instrument? Most DAWs have an arp effect or device of some kind that you can plug into most things. Usually. I'm not fact checking that but it's true. Arps are a totally legit way to compose. Just... don't let anyone know you do. Shhhh. Arps are the sexiest way to make chip tune synths from squarewave and sawtooth oscillators. Don't. Tell. Anyone.

Ahem. You have a knack for arranging musics together! Hope you hang out a while and keep composing :)

Lanmola responds:

Thanks for listening and reviewing! Actually, I tweak all the preset instruments either a little or a lot. I want to get my hands dirty building sounds from scratch more or less in the future. The arps are my favorite to mess with, getting the patterns just right for the song.

I generally start with a chord progression and build from there.
<(-.-<)

[Ruined]

I BELIEVE IN YOU FOD! NEVER GIVE UP MUSIC THIS SONG IS TITS AND I LOVE YOU!! SHOW ME YOUR TITS FOD!!! PLEASE SHOW ME YOUR TITS >:0

Father-of-Death responds:

( > Y > ) they are pointy cuz im excited