Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[honk if your brain isn't working (mine hasn't in a while) [jamuary2022]]

Glad to have you back, track sounds great. The instruments work really well together, trippy modulations on those patches. Loved the perc. That little ball whistle sample is a smart detail. I don't think I've ever used a ball whistle in a song. I really wanted to use one in my highschool band but I suppose we all had creative differences :'c

vermeen responds:

thanks so much quarl! i live for these oddly-specific anecdotes. glad you liked it

[Cruisin [Jamuary Day 6]]

Love those funky clav pitch mods. I just used your track to demonstrate an effect to my mate. Reggie Watts will use his loop gear to make fast pitch modulations on his voice, noticable on his performance of "Kwanzaa Juice," but they're more obvious on your clav thing than his voice.

If you've never watched Kwanzaa Juice... do it.

milkypossum responds:

I'll have to look it up, but phasers and pitch mods on clav are always the way to go for funky beats!!

[Midnight Feeling (Jamuary2022)]

Sleepy jams, love the simplicity of it. Incredible music doesn't always have to be an extravagant affair. Drums rock solid. That melodic sample pad is perfect on this. Or at least, I'm guessing that synth patch is based off some heavily modulated sample? Whatever it is, I like :3

Only constructive crit I might make would be to add a few atmospheric samples. Birds chirping, waves crashing, wind chimes, a loud crowd, some traffic. Something like that would turn this into a classic. This track has some hella romantic vibes, dank, wish you liked it as much as I do. Give it some time, you might come back to this track in five or ten years and laugh at how much it's grown on you <3

DiosselMusic responds:

Im glad to read your comments :)
and about the atmospheric sample... i was about to add vinyl sounds, but after i added it i said to myself:
hey, this sounds bad
I was trying for a while to get it to work but then I gave up lol
Sometimes I get a little lazy looking for samples, I always end up using the same rain sample

[Thoughts]

Old school hip hop vibes, RJD2 ghostwriter, lo-fi goodness <3

I love what can be done with a good drum kit and some nice samples. To be honest, I'm actually more interested in the drum rhythms and textures than the melody samples. Just pointing out a drummer's bias, beats get my attention fast :3

Casper responds:

The melody isn't that special, i was too lazy to write my own stuff lmao, i always focus on drums a bit more, over this period i learned how to compress and eq them properly (well for lofi i also turn down the project's sample rate sometimes when its boom bap drums instead of rims and stuff).
Thanks for the review <3

[2022 - Loop #1]

Just wanted to let you know, I voted 5 because you told us to in the Jamuary thread. I'm such sheep D':

Screch responds:

Excellent..

[Jamuary 2022 (Day4) - Flat North]

This takes me back to Alfred Uni, 2007-2011. We composed sonic art and music using analog Doepfer synthesizers. Your synth patch has an analog sound and style to it. I love a good patch to make the machines sing their weird songs. Bless your heart KamskiSketchi. This is cool : ]

Kamskii responds:

It's nice to see that this song brought you back some good old memories. I'm a big sucker when it comes to synthesizers, and seeing your warm comment makes me want to keep experimenting more with using synth patches for future tracks. Thank you and best wishes Quarl!

[Road Merchant]

Love that melodic syncopation, hella groovy latin grooves. Those güiro wood blocks and string slides, swoon. Very mysterious little jam. That stand up bass holds that off beat melody perfectly. I think the shaker could use a little more dynamic sensitivity but it's not noticeable until about 00:33. The shaker notes all come in at the same velocity but a live performer would be all over the place, getting tired and whatnot, so sometimes shakers will benefit from volume automation. You only have to draw one or two peaks then copy/paste the automation a bunch of times. The MIDI can also carry velocity data if you'd rather get dynamics that way. Volume is often times the only thing percussion has in regards to sounding "emotive."

You ever see the cowbell SNL skit? Put Will Ferral on those shakers. I have a fever and the only prescription is more dynamics, baby <3

LoveBelow responds:

Thank you for the kind words! I'll definitely be working on dynamics in my music. It's actually one of the things that I want to focus on this year.

[LIFELINE]

This has some really chill pop electronica vibes, but those vocals are hella awesome. I always envy people that can write and sing great leads. Channeling some MGMT? Maybe not, I have no idea what's cool with the kids anymore. Whoever you're listening to is giving you echos of talent, good musics :3

Usually I like big powerful snare drums but this one scratches a little on hi-fidelity headphones. Turning the snare down some could fix that but you could also try lowering the treble on it, using an aux send to filter/shave off some of those highest frequency noises. I love the snare textures, they just a little loud. It's the only feedback I'm gonna nit pick, I love this track a ton. This is some good song writing :')

Droid responds:

I am going to fix the snares right freaking now because I forgot to mix them!!!!!!!!

[The Year Of Doing]

Chill vibes, big sounds. do what you can to keep up on the song a day challenge, you're clearly very talented :)

vermeen responds:

thank you so much! prompts like these are the bane of me but i'll keep chugging along