Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Brutely Butchin']

Lol, sounds tops awesome. You got room for some pads and instruments though. String ensembles, violins, soft airy synths, choir, sine waves... sky is the limit. Drums could benefit from some new layers. You can get nice and fat sounds by layering new samples on top of your others. All of my tracks have 3-4 snare drums that layer to make a new snare drum. You can use the drums interchangeably, solo one for an intro or break down, bend pitches for funzies...

I'm only tossing ideas in your direction. You got something fresh here and I would love to see your style evolve :D

ToasterPower777 responds:

Thanks for the feedback ^^ Only reason i didn't go into that much depth was becasue this was for a short that had to be made in 2 days so i didn't have too much time
Glad you enjoyed it otherwise tho ^^

[All Gun and Flames]

Lol, haven't seen someone producing with LMMS in at least a minute. Very creative story and coinciding musics. Surprise ending, I'll try not to spoil it for anyone else.

ToasterPower777 responds:

I'm glad you liked it^^
Also yeah i mainly use lmms because it's really good for a free software

[Farewell And Goodbye]

Loved the honest heartfelt piano melodies. I feel like you could have played with the note velocities a bit to get more alive sounds. I play piano and have midi controls but when I write melodies I always remember to try to vary loud and soft note velocities as if they were being played for real. Rubato also gives piano a more human sound. Some melodies can drag out or be a little off beat and that small detail can create so much life.

Track is so long, I have no idea how many times I listened to this loop. Due credit for making a five minute track. I remember on the first listen that the dubstep/DNB drums punched me out of nowhere. I'd have faded them in with a filter or something to soften that up and then introduce the full power kit at a later climax. Maybe the intro could have used a softer jazz drum kit? The drums here are so powerful. I was expecting this to go full nuero skrillex.

It's still a great track. You're writing great melodies and progressions. Drums, despite sounding like the wrong genre, are powerful and full. There are some great ideas here and I can't wait to hear more :D

TrandafirTeodora responds:

Thank youuuuuuu!

[Deeps of Europa]

Avent-garde, musique concrete. Love the atmosphere from this. Cool scifi vibes and sounds. Actually reminds me of the original Mass Effect trilogy musics. Simple synths and distant growling pads. I got nothing critical to say about this other than stick a compressor on something and amp up the sound levels a little more. You got plenty of room in the field for more noise :)

BlueTuxedo responds:

Oh thanks you, i made this after i heard a ping sound in FL studio library, and my mind after that cracked and i got flashbacks from game Barotrauma so decided to make something ambient about it. The game atmosphere itself is dark and scary if you look out of a window in submarine, if we also include scary monsters that swim around it becomes more scary.. but it all wipes out because game have a voice chat! Haha

[Calmedo]

lol, you got a fun little style evolving over here. You got the right idea for using hi fi sound samples. The drums hit nice, the bass is big and round. I'm getting some armature vibes from this but I'm also hearing good potential. A string ensemble or violin section could have sweeped in at 00:33. Another good instrument would be a simple sinewave synth with automated pitch bends and curves. Bird chirping samples is not a new or original idea but some bird songs might give this track some positive character. Wind chimes could also accomplish the same task. Some tambs and shakers could have helped tie up the rhythm into something that resembles are more contemporary beat. I love drums that are a little unpredictable but a good rhythm has a lot of different sounds working together and against each other to make a solid rhythm. As a drummer, I tend to zero in on drums. There are a lot of ideas in this track that could benefit from more aux percussion.

Thank you for sharing this with me Blue Tux. I can't wait to hear more from you :)

BlueTuxedo responds:

Thanks you for giving criticism on my song! I actually started to making music like not really long ago, like a week or so? I'm making it for fun when I'm bored, i love that someone likes my song's.

[Cabin]

I'm guessing this is also coming out of cakewalk? Wish I knew more about the program so I could offer suggestions for where to take your sounds. You've got a nice young but flexible style of writing melodies that can evolve in whichever direction you want to take it. All I'm hearing right now is the limitless potential of someone finding their voice :)

Catalystl responds:

Thanks for the review!

This track wasn't made with Cakewalk, I used some other program called Brel's Midi editor, which was a lot clunkier to use.

Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 is old and outdated, and so is its sound system, but its easy to understand. It just involves using SoundFont files (which contain many .wav files) to change the sounds of midi instruments when they're played.

I kinda like old programs more than new ones because they're just easier for me to learn, even when you can't look up how to do anything in them.

[Sawce]

I love hearing the early music that people make. In ten years you'll be producing some heavy future jazz musics and only the real fans will say "remember Sawce? Damn we're old now."

I think you got some room in this for some more instruments and techniques but the fun thing about digital musics is that you can always open an old file years later and hit it with new knowledge. There's room for basic sine wave pads, string or violin ensembles, Rhodes Mk II, saucy clavinet melodies, tamb and shakers...

That was a really interesting choice to put so much reverb on the hi hat & clap snare. That effect takes the place of potential aux percussion in the mix. I'd have traded the reverb for more percussion instruments like tambs, shakers, more hi hat layers... track still funks something nice. I'm just trying to get those creative juices flowing a little :D

DaVaP responds:

You think i know all this i just go 'tune bangin' and ship it

[Cosmic Druid]

Yooo, that snare slaps nice. Which specific frequency did you decide to amp to get those hi freq snare slaps?

Dude, get out of here with these perfect little scribbly nuero basses. Whatever drugs you are on right now, keep doing them.

Demonicity responds:

Pogo with camelphat ;)

[Ad Astra (VRC6)]

Punk rock rhythm, in-your-face bass. Love the melody progressions. If this was a Sonic or Mega Man game the stage with this song would be my favorite.

MaldivirDragonwitch responds:

You flatter me! So glad you like it! ^^

[Jaywalker]

I hear your 7/8 time signature loud and clear. My college thesis work was all about time signatures, love the world of syncopation <3

Melodies and rhythms are all really cool. Is this a Beepbox creation? The last five or six people I've listened to have been using that app xD

edit: Famistudio, read it on your other track :D

MaldivirDragonwitch responds:

Ah, yes, the prog fan in me can't resist having fun with odd time signatures now and then. Glad you like it! That college thesis work sounds sweet. :D
I personally never used Beepbox, this was done in a DAW with the some 16-bit sounding VSTs and some Genesis soundfonts. Not a "true" chiptune, but I think it sounds rather cool!