Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The next VIP]

Psh, what a shitty review toast.

The drop was the best part. That nuero bass was so wet IF & D.matrix. Really crisp stuff. What are you guys using for this collab? I'd be curious to know how those basses were put out.

IonicForce responds:

Hey Quarl!

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed those basses!!

Our DAW of choice is FL 12 and the drop is composed with Sytrus, Serum, Massive, and FM8. That neuro bass was actually a vocodex bass and we used a bunch of slide notes. The Neuro FM was made of an FM8 Modulating a neuro carrier from Sytrus. Serum was used three times in this part of the drop. Two of the serums were growls and the last one was used for pitch bending. Massive was used for its performer functions, also a flanger and vocodex was used to create that "liquidy" sound.

I hope that helped a bit!

[baby baby baby]

I'm jealous I didn't write it first.

[Better Days [Glitch/Electro Swing]]

Nice vibes. Raunchy. IMO snare could have used a high frequency layer like an 808 snare or a clap. That snare had some nice bass to it but I like getting punched in the face by a snare. I'm a masochist. A ride cymbal or some tambs could have made that beat a little more layered.

Cool of you to note the sorrowful memory samples. I'm not that cool. I usually just shrug now a days because literally everyone that makes EDM samples in some odd way. Right down to the synths people use, there's almost always some kind of sample library behind the instruments. Like I said, that was really nice of you. I looked up 이문세 - 애수 just to see, I'm guessing it was the horns? I still have these Sorohan Mihai samples on my computer from the Hey Babulia remix contest ages ago. This track is giving me some inspirations!

Cool track Devil, 10/10 :)

TheMusicalGhost responds:

Thank you so much, and also for the very detailed review; I know what to do next time. I'm glad that I gave you some inspiration ^^

[Distress Signal]

Dude, I'm reading your words and seeing a lot of self deprecating. Drum and bass is such a hard genre to do right, don't be mean to yourself! I faked it for so many years, I still have no idea what I'm doing. Instead of writing a normal review I'll just type for a minute as if this was one of my own songs.

First thing I'd do is side chain that huge pad that fades in about a minute into the song. That pad has some nice quality to it but if you don't side-chain it will over power the drums like crazy. Drums always go up front in a dnb mix. Use the drums (or sometimes just the bass drum) to side chain the bass. I'm not sure if Ableton has a different word for it but look up side chaining if your not familiar. In short it lets you control the level of one instrument with the levels of another. Every time a bass drum hits, the bass guitar will de-amplify to make room for the drum. So good, sometimes I side chain everything cause I have no chill.

Not sure if your using a compressor but the drums need to be compressed stupid in drum and bass (unless your going for a liquid/idm vibe.) Compression takes a lot of practice so just slap a compressor on something and play with it until you can get sex out of it. It's going to diminish the difference between an instruments lowest lows and highest highs and flatten the sound to create something that sounds paradoxically louder. It's magic.

Hi hats are usually kind of like pads, further in the back of a dnb track but still important. Actually, turning them down just a little might be all they need. I'd screw with a pitch knob on that hat for like three hours until it's a pitch I agree with but that's just me. Some producers will say all the drums need to be in the key of the track but fuck that, it needs to SOUND right. Drums are a relatively atonal instrument and the texture of a voice is actually more important than the pitch when dealing with drums. Most my dnb drums are actually a layer of three to four different snares which combined makes a fat, atonal noise. LAYERING!

I made it this far without mentioning layering somehow. Find a few good drum samples and layer them up to make new drums! Let your snare drums all hit different areas of the spectrum. Play with the pitch knobs, volume, EQ and stuff for a few hours until your snare drums all work together. Drums are an infinite thing to play with. Be happy with them at some point but I'm not going to lie. You haven't written drum and bass until you've spent days just fucking a tone knob on one snare. And some producers say "match the pitch on your drum to the pitch of the track." LOL. Do what makes you happy. I have 4 snares, 3 bass kicks, and 5 hi hats to tune. I'd rather not worry about pitch when tone is the real battle.

I'll get into self deprecating now. It has its function as a learning tool of sorts but quality dnb takes so much self deprecating it get's suffocating after a while. I'm glad to see you're writing other genres too. Keep yourself busy and find happiness in your work to avoid suffocation! Find lots of inspiration. Don't be afraid to do anything.

I really like a lot of what I'm hearing! Sorry if you knew any of that already or if this review was boring <3

[Day of Yearning]

I hate it when data gets lost. Great track to revive! Loops perfectly. Most artists now a days get that digital arp sound with aid from a machine so kudos to writing it out! This track reminds me of something you'd hear out of a Final Fantasy sound track :)

Troisnyx responds:

Funny you mention Final Fantasy, because Final Fantasy X (the original OST, not the HD remaster) actually influenced a lot of my soundtrack-writing, along with Kingdom Hearts and a few other things. FFX in particular had this part orchestral, part synth, all MIDI sort of sound that felt like it belonged either in late 1990s enka music, or on the PlayStation 1.

Really glad you like it ^_^ That arp was fairly easy to write. Kinda doesn't help that when you're classically trained in piano, one of the things you're drilled into doing over and over AND OVER AGAIN are... well, basically, arps. What used to be the bane of my existence seems to fit perfectly here.

[Plastic Army Men]

Genre says "Metal, Rock" but if this is metal then I'm getting too old. Alt rock at best. Still, I loved the track. My only critique would be to find a means to get a crispy clean recording! My original three tracks from 2006 have the same grainy quality to them. In anycase, we have to get that sound out somehow. It's not really a critique. I'm more or less telling you to go out and spend money on new recording equipment or services and NO ONE wants to do that. Sorry babe :c

I'ma scout you and your band up. Submit some more stuff when you can!

[Dreaming Planet]

You're so modest when you self deprecate. "Oh, dear my gentleness. Here's something that I hope sounds okay." I get super into the self deprecation like "FUCK ME IM A HYPOCRITE."

Ahem. Lovely tune. The piano that punches me about a minute in is so effing nice. I might have tried dragging it in with a big crescendo and an obnoxious amount of rubato but I'm a whore like that. Your version resolves perfectly. I just rewinded 50 times to receive maximum satisfaction from it before even finishing the song. I came out swinging like "FUCK ME WHERE IS THE RUBATO AT MOTHER FUCKER??" before even listening to the whole track. The piano was perfect the way it was.

Holy shit why did your song make me hyper? I'm going to burn it to a disc and listen to it all the way to Philly tomorrow. Four hours. It's that good.

S3C responds:

:D

Domo Arigato, Mr. Rubato. Well I'm really glad you like this track! Have fun in Philly- going to Pico Day?? Thanks for the nice review!

[Lunar Transmission]

Holy fuck those heavily panned digitally distorted pads right at the beginning maxed out my adrenal glands. The funny thing is that if you made an entire dubstep song around that one noise people would shit tits. Can't tell if those are samples or what but hey: gold. I didn't even care about the rest of the song. I just kept going back and listening to that noise. It was yummy in a synesthesia kind of way. I think I tasted metal listening to that noise.

You obviously have a knack for aranging melodies. I loved those progressions and the chords were lush. I think your mixing needs some work. One last thing I could nit pick is that I felt like the entire song was a build up for a song that never came.

Please don't take this review as a negative. For someone that is learning you're making really good progress! I hope you keep at it and learn everything you want to learn :)

[Vintage Superman Theme Cover]

This brings back some oooooooold memories. I used to watch a few old episodes on VHS growing up. I was a damn little nugget last time I heard this melody :')

sorohanro responds:

Glad to hear you like it. There is a pack with the separate stems if you fancy a remix ;)
Thanks for the review.