Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Just Move - First Upload in 15 years :)]

Had to look into your older work to see if I recognized anything. Was happy to see those early experimental noise tracks. During my short time as an audio mod in college those tracks might have got you banned from uploading spam. Every mod had their own style but it's basically impossible to tell how someone is going to grow and evolve. Just Move is a far cry from those humble origins.

I didn't actually recognize any tracks from your catalog. I'm guessing you remember a time when the audio portal exclusively played ParagonX9 samples on the front page? Was looking for something from that era but you seem to have sidestepped the larger EDM phase that hit newgrounds at that time and stayed true to hip hop. There's some seriously great stuff in here. Newgrounds let another good artist slip through the cracks. Not that it's anybodies fault. There are so many social circles here it's common to have two similar artists writing music for each other without any notice to the larger moving and happenings around them. Hope you stick around Miggles :)

Miggles responds:

Yes, I think I will. Thanks fams! I remember how lively the community was and I'm glad it still is thriving. There's a ton of talent here that definitely needs to get more shine.

[Critical Meltdown]

Track bounces nicely. I think you guys had a little more room to boost the sub bass with a compressor but aside from minor mix down nit picking this track rocked both styles in a way that didn't sound out of place or strange. Would love to hear another collab like this :D

spiritmusic responds:

Thanks Quarl, Im always looking to improve as an artist and take advice whenever I can

I appreciate the feedback <3

[Tunturi]

Lol, another Reason producer. Love seeing others in the program, it can feel lonely surrounded by all these FL people. This musics reminds me of the house we'd get here back during the introduction of the audio portal. It's a romantic sound and I'm loving it. I'm gonna nit pick the mix down a little because it's what I do :p

Track could hit harder, it looks like the master out is being over compressed somehow (the visual shows the wave is cutting out well before peaking). Usually over compression leads to loudness but this kind of compression just leads to limiting your audio field, less room for sounds to exist in. You're basically masking 5 to 10% of your canvas with negative space.

Check the master out, Reason used to have a default "Mastering Suit Contaminator" which would set up the final out signal with certain fidelity settings. The maximizer in the combinator had a button called the "limiter," turn that shit off or bypass the unit entirely. I've always preferred the mclass compressor over the limiter, simpler UI. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might not even be there. I have a lot of files going back to Reason 4, I think the default Mastering Suit was tossed to the side in older versions but you can still program one. In anycase, set up the final signal going out with a few fidelity units on the way to the amp. I always have an equalizer and compressor on that final signal for mastering.

Feel free to hit me up in the future for any fidelity talk, Reason has great tools to get the most out of your sound systems. Just gotta know what your option are :D

EppuJoloZ responds:

Yeah, I get what you're talking about! I actually don't use the MClass Mastering patches, mostly my mastering is done with VSTs. It's nice to see more Reason people here too, I just effing love the workflow of that program :D

Also thanks for the feedback, I know that mastering/mixing is my weakest point at production at the moment, and your tips are really helpful!

Glad you enjoyed the track too! <3

[Se-ouls]

Love the chill anime vibes I'm getting from this. Some of those instruments and melodies are giving me Harvest Moon vibes. Mixing those nuero reeses with that feeling of happy bliss is a tough line to tow, I can totally relate to that desire to juxtapose such things. Personally, I think those heavy reeses would sound better in something not so tonal and upbeat but you can do whatever you want, it's just musics. I'd "save as" the file, create a new track using those hard synths, and go full Nuero with them. Melodies could get their own file without a DNB rhythm section. That's just my own take, this track has a lot of great ideas in it. You can always revisit music files later and gut them for those good things.

BACK UP YOUR DATA TODAY SO YOU CAN HAVE THIS TEN YEARS FROM NOW.

SuperSoniker responds:

Thank you very much guy, I thank you for this great advice that will be very useful from now on :)

[Glass Sun]

How dare you assault me with jazzy melodies and hip instruments. Rhythm section is a nice break from the contemporary drum kits I'm usually listening to and producing. I really love this. Now I want to write something similar, those simple but complex rhythms are dank. The way they all interact creates pro dynamics and alive energy not easy to replicate. Cute little sine pads, glowing bells... this has killer IDM vibes.

Dominuus responds:

Woah, didn't expect you to listen to my stuff haha

Thank you lots for the kind words! I actually got inspired by you a tad bit when making this, so it would be cool to hear your own take on the idea :)

[Do As You Please]

This has some really original vibes to it. Awesome mix down. A product of preferences and techniques, tracks like this are awesome because they go outside the norm and showcase sounds the artist has polished despite that norm. You took what you liked and sculpted something unique.

I understand the apprehension with vocals, it can take a long time to find a voice but I didn't think these were cringe at all. I'm surprised you didn't pitch bend any of the vocals for glitch effect. There were times the vocals take on minor processing effects but some quick pitch bends here and there would have matched the glitch vibe. Some quickly introduced/quick cut off high pitched sine wave synths would also have also sounded awesome. I'm just tossing in ideas I'd have sprinkled in... sorry.

This is something special. I don't hear tracks produced this good AND this original very often.

SynchroSpectre responds:

Thanks for the review! And yea the style that I make my tracks is something akin to Ekcle, Vorso, Copycatt, and several other of the Inspected artists. As for the vocals, I was thinking of making some granulated samples but I was beginning to think it was getting hella busy but something like that would definitely be something I might do in the future!

[RoboBass]

My foot this is drum and bass. At best this is downtempo house musics aspiring to become break-beat dance musics with orchestrated segments but I'll let you call it drum and bass today because it's really really cool. Orchestration was super creative. Drums were mixed something perfect. Synths were juicy and full bodied. The second half felt a little repetitive or redundant but that happens all the time to me too. Dance genres lend themselves to that repetition. A super high pitched saw lead/pad for that second chorus would put this in another dimension. That second half has all the room for a high portamento saw/square lead to rip in and jam. Just saying :D

Damn that ending was inspired. Loved that rubato and delay <3

Albe responds:

Sorry, I'm not very good at labeling electronic subgenres lol. Thanks a lot for the feedback!!

[Project 1]

Lol, this has a child-like feeling to it. It's as if a kid sat at a piano with a basic understanding of rhythm and just kind of hit random stuff according to that feeling. I emulate that feeling every day. When I sit in front of a piano I don't work with sheet music. I improvise and compose based on what my hands randomly decide to do. Granted, it's not totally random. I've been doing this for a long time and have developed an understanding of tonality, structure, and rhythm. I took drum lessons in middle school and piano classes in college but I've always aimed to preserve that child-like wonder of discovery. Music just isn't as fun when you know what's going to happen the entire time.

This track is a wonderful little melodic adventure. You don't have to know what you're doing to make good music, but it helps. You don't have to have a reason behind every note. People will nit pick every little thing about your music. Fuck them, and just keep enjoying yourself :)

BroHighVlady responds:

Thanks, :)

[The Messiah]

As the years dabble on, deciding what genre to put things into becomes kind of irrelevant. To be honest, I'd trow most my drum and bass into experimental because that's how I feel about it. I've tossed things into ska without thought because why not? Genre isn't as important as simply enjoying what you're doing. Genres are just recipes for artists to follow. Eventually you can splice together specific genres for your own amusement. I follow a progressive metal composer that will mix polka with heavy guitars because why not? Genres are just recipes you can spice however you like so long as you get the core ingredients together.

This reminds me of Lavender Town from the red/blue pokemon OST. Somber, dark, moody. You achieved a perfect atmosphere for telling a story. This would work well in a game or movie. Church organs hitting the chord progressions, a guitar for leads, church bells helping along those organs... everything worked well. The gunshot ending was an inspired moment. The work shows good promise for all sorts of compositions you may produce in the future.

Since you're open to criticism, some good instruments to pad the song with might include string orchestras, vocal chorus (MIDI instruments), and percussion. This track is lacking any percussion sounds, which is totally ok in regards to what you may have wanted. There is room for huge orchestral drums, toms, chimes, cymbal swells, bass drum swells, crash cymbals, shakers, tambourines... I'm a percussionist myself so of course I'll notice something like that. Again, percussion isn't essential. The artist ultimately decides what to do and why to do it. I just figure it might be fair to mention :)

I just went to see how long you've been uploading here, The Messiah is kind of an old track at this point is it not? For whatever reason you decided to share this specific track with me, I'm sure you've learned much about music since this was made. I got tracks I'm still proud of from 10 years ago. Just because everyone gets "better" at making music as time goes on, it doesn't mean that those early tracks don't have value. Sometimes those early tracks can really stand out against the newer stuff.

Thanks for sharing this with me Vlady :D

BroHighVlady responds:

Thank you for everything. <3

[CRY.NN - A Diabolical Journey Across the World]

lol, the female vox reminds me of an old track called "We Want Your Soul." I grew up with a remix version though so, this thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxRuOE2rg9Q

It's impossible to find a high quality version of that track because everyone uploads a compressed version. Talking about the quality on YOUR track now, I know there is unnecessary compression by looking directly at the newgrounds audio visualizer. Newgrounds creates a waveshape that we can look at and I can immediately tell there is something needlessly compressing the export because there is space at the top and bottom of the waveshape. A certain amount of compression is a good thing but I got this track on max headphone volume and am totally unphased by it. That extra room would normally force me to turn the volume down a little and enjoy a perfectly mixed track at say 80% volume. I can't notice any distortion from the compression with my ears because you did a great job mixing but I know it's there is more space in the field available for amplification.

On that note, my ears are telling me they like the end result. I just know that the track could be louder with no bad distortion by looking at the waveform. It's a convenient little feature newgrounds offers, start looking at other peoples wave shapes and nitpick what you like or what you don't :)

I'm in love with the hardstyle vibes you're putting out. This is some awesome musics. I only got that minor criticism for the final export because everything else is perfect. Find the fidelity unit that is over compressing the final version and try turning it off or minimizing the compression. Knob twiddle for a bit, compare and nit pick differences between exports. If you're worried you might ruin the track "save as" first so you have an original version and one to play with.

Final words, just know that the newgrounds visualizer can give you some basic loudness data just by looking at it. IMO, Demonicity is on newgrounds and he's my go to example for perfect mix downs. He leaves good space in his mix where needed to fit a DJ set format, but when his chorus hits, he gets that full range that the sound spectrum offers with no bad distortion.

Sorry I'm not dropping in to say "this is perfect in every way." I really do love all the elements. I'm only being super critical on one minor thing to try and get perfect tones out of you :)

edit: why wasn't I following you already? I follow everyone...

CryNN responds:

I was quiet shook by the looks of the waveform in the tab too. Thanks for the tips and critique. Helps alot ;D Oh yeah im in contact with him too. Thats a +
edit: might look at my latest release. thats a huge difference in the master right there o.o should be like that?