Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[promising.]

tbh, I'm actually not a fan of the complete and total lo-fi filter wash. Sounds like there's some gold textures hiding behind the effects.

A high fidelity rapper on top of the track and I'd probably be a little more forgiving but without a rapper it just sounds like the entire track has a filter on the master out and too much pad tossed on top. I'd love to hear a progressive take on the lo-fi genre where you pull the filters and wash pads off every so often to let the track shine with a fuller fidelity. You could pull it off at climaxes like 00:22 and 1:48, then reintroduce the filters during the break downs?

Blending lo-fi and hi-fi probably goes against what you wanted to accomplish. My two cents but I'd never filter a track through a can and string for three full minutes if I didn't have to :p

G2961 responds:

Thanks for the extended review!

[Dare to Dream]

Gorgous UwU

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you for listening 🙏

[Liftoff]

Woof, love that hip hop sound bleeding into this. Brass and guitars, lovely as usual. lol, 1:31 has that jump-up dnb vibe but mad down tempo xD

Filthy good :3

sorohanro responds:

Thanks. When lack of caffeine kicks, everything I make is mad downtempo...

[Inspire]

Great rhythms, snappy snare drums, fun syncopations, beautifully done melodic elements. Perfectly creative <3

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you so much! Great to hear from you, Quarl!

[I'm a Biscuit (feat. Lightning Striker)]

Big drums <3

sorohanro responds:

That coming from you means a lot. Thanks :)

[Overtime]

Absolutely fresh. Slightly minimal but each element is absolutely beautiful. I feel like when I write music it's a ton of elements working together and the lesser shit gets hidden. You mixed this in a way that I can hear everything perfectly, nothing is being hidden, and it's all good. Had to give this a listen on the living room speakers, was worth it for that sub. Classic subby pitch bends, clean arps padding the atmosphere, cute plucked strings, snappy up pitch snares, wonderful vocal samples, orc instruments used sparingly, cute synth voice modulations.

Beautifully written <3

DigitalProdigy responds:

Wow!!!! Thank you so much for that review. I'm used to mixing orchestra and film music which you know have so many stems, so it's natural for some instruments to get lost in the mix, but for me mixing EDM, where there's not to many stems it's easier to showcase all of the instruments and sounds a lot easier. Still, mixing is a whole art in its own and I still have not mastered that as of yet and let's not even talk about mastering OMG!! Lol
You are so appreciated!!

[Wood and Winds]

Since you asked for feedback on the Discord channel I'll totally mention some stuff! The music theory is spot on. Love the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and ideas. Not trying to insult what you know but the mix quality is amateur. Mix down and fidelity tools can take years to figure out on your own but you can do it without watching tutorials on youtube. I'd recommend watching those videos and tutorials though because figuring it all out by ear while twisting knobs sucks. Even just one tutorial can propel you in good directions for years.

When I mention fidelity tools, I'm talking about devices such as equalizers, compressors, filters, stereo imagers, maximizers... there's a ton of tools but the two most helpful will be the first two I mentioned. I just gave BandLab a look because I forgot what it was. I'm not sure if bandlab includes those types of tools but at the very least you could look for them and see if you got more goodies up your sleeve.

One last thought because I listened to this a few times, that high pitch synth tone at 4:06 is the worst. You can totally juggle tones like that into a mix for big bass dance genres but it feels so out of place in this. The song is generally relaxing and wholesome, then that tone shows up late and ruins everything you had built up in the previous 4 minutes. I love a lot of contrast and spontaneity but I'm not so certain it's working out here. If that tone did one thing right, it made me appreciate everything that came before it so much more.

Sorry if that comes off a little harsh but I do want to compliment the writing you did that was perfect! Great music theory, fun to listen to, nice long composition, bad ending. Keep trucking towards your album, I wish you best with it!

SirSandman0 responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I am going to start researching how to properly mix audio since I've noticed that being a common criticism for most of my songs. Maybe I'll write a better outro to the song once I get it figured out

[I Wrote an Album but I Scrapped It]

"lol, new EP coming out maybe at some point, dunno, lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Material sounds tight af. Word up to the contraceptive your parents didn't use! I really liked the mix on 4:26, super crisp.

lol, 7:24 hitting with that sad/happy energy that can mysteriously sell popular songs. Favorite track, sue me.

YasiinClemens responds:

I feel like I grew up on stuff like semi charmed kinda life by third eye blind so I love writing happy songs with wild lyrics and tones lol

[Heaven Energy]

woof, love that goofy rhodes upstroke chord bop! Reeses are tight, great sounds Dieswyx. I'm angry to be listening to this on a tablet with no bass but I'll get around to it with a better sound system asap. MY WEDDING IS THIS WEEK, BUT I'LL MAKE TIME FOR YOU BECAUSE LOVE.

Dieswyx responds:

🥺🥺🥺

[Let The Battle Begin]

Love the intensity Ketyri. That snare rhythm sounded lovely, would have loved to hear it just a little more. Only two suggestions I could think to bring that snare forwards is a combination of minimal sidechaining and some experimental pan data but most people probably won't care. I play the drums irl, call me biased. That rhythm was sounding feckin well programmed. I could really hear more of those dramatic snare dynamics towards the end. You brought life to that snare drum!

Maybe it popped towards the end because that last section has much less bass drum? The bass drum in earlier sections over powers a little with a long sustain, that drum might be a good thing to practice sidechaining? I'm not even sure what I would use to side chain it with. I don't even know anything- have been faking it for decades now. I'm a fraud. Don't take my advice for anything. I haven't looked at my credit score in a couple of years now, it's probably negative...

junipersona responds:

The snare isn't the focus of the track, but it does seem likely that at some point I will revisit this song and touch it up more