Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dog Bus Remixed in the style of QUAKE]

Super avant-garde. Creepy space vibes. Most people wouldn't consider this to be music but those people haven't spent enough time in a small room with a bunch of video artists learning about Fluxist stuff. The is the kind of track that would cream my sonic art professor's pants. If the instruments here were plugged into a surround sound mix, this would qualify you for a BFA from a University :p

Redead-ITA responds:

Well to that i credit trent reznor and the quake community for the feedback!

[Warp]

This is so massively cool. Only suggestion I might make is a crisp snare layer, maybe an 808 or a clap to give the track a little more of a spine... it sounds like nuero and idm had a spineless jello baby... track just melts. Bass reeses are nice and wet. You got my attention so hard with these creative breaks. Drums are busy doing their own thing and I can't get enough of them. Again, only suggestion is to add a crispy snare layer. I feel like aux percussion can always fit places. Chimes would sound nice at 1:23. Tambs, shakers, and rides could add a little more diversity at 2:07. I notice a lot of producers seem to avoid toms but I love tossing in an odd fill or roll. I keep reminding people that vibraslaps and güiros are awesome instruments to sprinkle in.

That's all I'm gonna say about suggestions. You have such a unique style. This is mad cool and I love it.

HypercubeRecords responds:

THANKS!! Alot!!!

[bloom]

This is some pretty cute music. That glistening triplet scale @ 00:36 hits kind of loud out of nowhere but gave the track the feeling of playing a video game. It sounds like a power up I guess :p

That instrument could have led some pretty lead melodies but it always kind of acts as a pad instead. It's not what I'd have done but I like what I'm hearing <3

I'm on phone speakers right now but the wave shape is showing that there's room in the field for other elements or instruments. It can be hard to squeeze the right tones out sometimes but fidelity units hold all the power...

Sorry if this seems at all critical. This would fit in really well with many a videogame or cartoon soundtrack. I just want other artists to enjoy the same level of overthinking that I feel. I want to cherish the moments of indecision with you :D

trevor8 responds:

thank you for the incredibly thorough review! i have never had anyone look at my waveforms before (i am a little embarrassed). i honestly thought i was on the cusp of blowing everything into an indiscernible mess if i added another track, but i see what you mean with the triplet, i obsessed for a while last night whether to even keep it in, but it might be fun to experiment a little with expanding it, although i fear the patch in its current state would bear too tinny and harsh to carry much more burden. sorry if i am rambling a little, i do like criticism and feedback is always appreciated and implemented! thanks again!

[modus - Sector Five VIP]

Some dance music aficionados might get a little tossed at the rhythmic change ups but I'm loving the techy break downs and chin-strokingly smart syncopation. Was looking at a comment that used the word "disjointed," and I get that. Was listening to "Beyond The Satellite" by Prolix recently. That track had a good balance of offbeat nonsense but he brought the groove back every few measures and I think a lot of DNB fans like that dance floor capability. Gotta give them something solid to groove to every so often. Predictability, controlled chaos. Toss the groove out the window and suddenly all the jump up kids are like "I hate it." I veer more towards IDM and breakcore, so naturally I love this.

Gotta give you props though for passing a sound that's way cleaner than the typical producer of either said genre. I've been listening to your music lately and while I might not fall in love with everything, all your tracks are tops clean. Your music went through the wash twice.

Was that a fucking pikachu at 1:59? It might not have been. Sometimes when mixing songs I hear shit that's not happening. Certain frequencies sound like my boyfriend so I rip off my headphones like "WAS THAT YOU? TOM, ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE?" You ever hallucinate to audio like that?

iammodus responds:

Controlled chaos would be the perfect term for what I was trying to achieve. The track as a whole was pretty dense so the mix was the number one priority. Glad it shows!
And that's not Pikachu - just a tapestop effect! Kinda see the similarity now that I think about it though

[Shadow People Jam]

New favorite techy jungle. Drums rocked something unique. What programs you using to make tracks with??

LaserBrain responds:

Thank you. At this point I was using ableton live and my own Max/MSP patches/devices, as well as a bunch of old freeware plugins

[Implant]

Tight drum loops. Probs a tad over compressed. That bass kick hits so hard it sounds like it clips stuff, might also be the hi-hats working at the same time. You got that loudness thing down pat though :)

You side chaining that sub bass at all? Letting the bass drum counter the levels of the sub would let you fatten both sounds up, juicy. Toss in some liberal panning on the hi hats to give off the illusion they're louder than they really are then lower their levels to make some room. You could also fit a shaker or tamb and pan it into the channel opposite the hi hats. It sounds like there is some white noise when the drum kit plays... not sure what that is, might be a shaker :)

Damn, I love how experimental it gets. I usually don't recommend people put silence into tracks but I liked that fuzzy silence at 4:40. You could have slipped a sample into that spot there but, meh. This track reminds me of old Violence Recordings with Hive, Gridlok, and Keaton. Keep bumping the breaks :D

edit: six minutes long? Calm down there LazerBrain, you're flexing on the rest of us with our 2 and a half minute romps.

LaserBrain responds:

Hello, thanks again. I resampled all the drums through an old tape deck, that's why everything is clipping. I'll take notice of the side chaining. Violence Recordings is class, thank you. Cheers

[Botched Break]

Despite wanting to move away from dnb I always find myself moving back towards it. It's a tough genre to move away from for some reason.

That drum kit sounds like it could be massive with more side chaining forward. Kicks sound pretty clean, but I'd toss a snare signal into the sidechain too to help those snares pop a bit more. Maybe the snare can be crispier with an 808 layered in? Your breaks are going so hard but with some cleaner fidelity this could rock as hard as anything else out there. I'm really feeling those breakneck drum lines...

Last crit, maybe a tamb or shaker rhythm panned to the left or right a tad would add some action to those drum rhythms?

A friend recently mentioned that the master out in FL has a limiter/compressor default turned on. I only point that out because I ran into a problem with Reason where 90% of my tracks were getting needlessly compressed and the problem was fixed with one button. Default fidelity units can ruin you.

I only mention all of this because I want you to experience the same second guessing and self loathing that I feel every time music happens. I want you to write music that kicks so much ass that you have to keep making it to appease the inner demons. Do it for the demons Morty. Do it for the demons D:

larrynachos responds:

"Do it for the demons Morty" made me laugh so hard, thank you for that.

I'll try layering the snare and sidechaining it, thanks for the tip. I always start an empty fl file so it doesn't throw a limiter on the master or anything, but I did throw ozone 9 elements on the master with the default preset because it does a good job of evening things out and bringing out the best in each element.

I guess my main problem is that it takes too much setup to hit my musical flow state. I always start each track like "what" and usually either fizzle out or diddle with a neat preset or drum pattern until I eventually slide into it. Coming back to a project gets harder each session, and I can only do 3 or 4 before I just start duplicating and call it a song. I try to watch tutorials and music production videos, but I don't really take much away from it or use it in practice. I guess I'm very aimless when making music. Right now my inner demons are like "make music, or a game, or something else, or don't. But also you have to do something right now MAKE SOMETHING MAKE MONEY"

Thanks for stopping by and listening :)

[Icryke]

Cool amen break chops. Voice pad was tender. This had a nice ambient vibe to it, despite the eccentric drums. The mix needs some work but the rhythmic and tonal elements are working for you. It's awesome when people can take the harsh sounds of the amen break and make it into something loose feeling or happy. The sub bass really helped give it that ambient feeling.

I guess if you want to try filling up some more space you could add some extra pads or samples. There sounds like a lot of room for more mid frequencies. Maybe some water droplets, bird songs, chirping sine waves, arp pads are just a few ideas that came to mind. Panning synths, leads, piano melodies... this mix has the room for it :D

Rakshal responds:

Thank you for the advise! I do tend to make things a bit too on the minimal side. I am probably going to try to use songs I like as references for how to fill out a track better. ^.^

[BJ - Bleeding Nature]

Woof, nice loud mix. Bass could be fatter/subbier, drums a little smaller but you def got that loudness thing down. The drums don't seem to hit as hard when I use low fidelity speakers like laptop or phone, so the mix problems just come down to whatever speakers a person uses. I happen to have wasted a lot of money on speakers, amps, and headphones to master tracks. Seriously, despite minor mix qualms this rocks hard. Loved all the jazzy down tempo vibes. Horn sounds were sublime <3

GhostlyDoobies responds:

thanks man, i'm glad you kinda picked up on what i was going for here. struggled with the bass, since i fitted so much, so relied more heavily on the kicks.

[Rain Dance]

I second the "I just wish it was longer" feeling from wilbert. This track has a great breakbeat vibe to it, just ends way too soon.

You can always fluff up a track 30-60 seconds with an ambient intro. Just take what you already have, copy & paste it, then subtract the drums and move it to the front. You can also drop those ambient pads minus the drums at the end to earn another 15-30 seconds of track.

Bonus round, add another 30 seconds by copy and pasting the second half of the track but add a 2 OSC lead or another pad of somekind. A decent 2 OSC could be a high portomento gliding sinewave and the other OSC a quite triangle, square, or sawtooth. That pitch bending effect from the portomento would sound great in this.

I seriously have no idea how you manged to write something so cool and then only let it loop for a minute :p

St0mpy responds:

Wow I really never thought this one would be felt this way. I'll take your notes and consider them for the future on other tracks like this. You have all inspired confidence in myself to make more songs like this with longer "storytelling".