Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Nurture]

Latadenata, Nurture
Composition/Structure:7 Production:8 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:7

Respectably unique, loved the song. Unfortunately the inspiration could be brought into question. It's always a little dangerous to pick a piece of art that is predominantly lone figure surrounded with negative space because you're essentially writing a theme song for the character. The image can convey all sorts of ideas to you: the musician, but you're banking on the idea that the judges will hear the things you saw and feel the same things you felt. I'm glad you wrote about what you did because I can't say you weren't "inspired," that was brave and respectable, but this music might as well work with a lot of other works of art: it's interchangeable. I want to hear music that is so unquestionably inspired by the music that I can't separate the audio from the visual. I'm not tasting fruit in my mouth from this song. That is the one immutable feeling this art provided: fruit in mouth.

Subjectivity is always a tough cookie but this contest is going to put a ton of serious contenders in front of me and I focus very heavily on subjectivity. You've kind of shot your shot with a very specific character drawing. Aside from how well drawn the image is (it's beautiful), it doesn't convey a lot of musical ideas past putting a mango in my mouth. You could have just as easily wrote reggae, calypso, ska, salsa, or some other world genre and claimed that the image inspired you.

I'm going to focus on the yellow background because it's obviously a picture of a forest ran through a filter and the colors were all changed to yellow. You didn't seem very confident in what the background was (again, thank you for sharing your feelings). I can see ferns, a tree trunk, and vines hanging from the top of the yellow square to the bottom. It's not a "(kind of?) nature background," the background is very obviously a rain forest. Given that, you probably could have included more samples from nature? I gave you one extra inspiration point for that babbling brook sound towards the beginning but the score sat at 5 for a while because I just couldn't tie the work to the character in an indisputable manner. Though a babbling brook conveys a rain forest nicely, the image has no discernable moving water in it. Samples of birds singing are a very popular means of conveying a natural setting in a musical composition, they live in trees. Might seem cliched though, no one wants to sample birds for the umpteenth time but it might have helped you? I never hear anyone sample a rain-stick, an instrument literally invented to convey the sound of falling rain. That white noise towards the end almost hit that vibe, there were some percussive sounds that may have expressed the character eating fruit? It took me two to three hours of listening to this song on repeat to actually pick up on that though.

There is a lot I can say about the art and there is a lot I could say about this song but almost none of those thoughts happen simultaneously. We have a great song, a great piece of art, and they feel somewhat smashed together via questionably subjective ideas. I do love this song, it's very well done. tbh, mix is a little thin. There was plenty of room to boost some sub bass. I noticed that the song doesn't really climax either, it's one energy level the whole time. In a way, it's very plain and repetitive. Maybe the art is kind of plain too? I don't know, I've now listened to this song enough times that I'm starting to judge whether or not the image is even remotely inspiring in of itself.

I didn't volunteer to be a judge to have to nitpick the art that people choose but you picked a very plain piece of work and delivered a very plain piece of music. Coming to that conclusion hurts to say, so I'll toss in that I'm very sorry for saying it. No one wants their work to be called "plain." I gave some of your catalog a listen to see if your style changed to suit the art and I think it did. Maybe next year pick a work of art that has more going on in it so I can't sit still; typing up a confusing review for three hours. I tried my absolute best honey, I think you have a lot of talent and I'd love to keep hearing from you. Your style is beautiful. Force judges to hear the connections you hear, force us to feel what you feel. Eliminate "maybes" and deliver a work so confidently inspired that no one can question anything. That might mean that you have to pick a different kind of visual next year but you now understand some of the pitfalls better.

I think I've said everything I wanted to say so thank you for keeping me very busy today. I was averaging one hour per review, you just destroyed that record several times over. Stay unique Latadenata <3

EDIT: this was added at the moment I posted this, I've started calling certain sounds "low hanging fruit." The imagery didn't provide you a lot of low hanging fruit, you were banking on "a vibe" instead of finding the sound effects and conceptual ideas that would have compelled a higher score. Comparatively, this is still a good score but it was also one of the first songs I judged and one of the first reviews I wrote. Hope it doesn't hit any nerves, best wishes Latadenata.

Latadenata responds:

Please take no worries on how your review made me feel, because I found it FANTASTIC!!

I'm so glad and happy you took so much time on listening to my song (I don't think even myself could be put through listening it to THREE hours repeatedly!) and it means a lot to me.

I'm also really glad you focused on the things that could have improven and not the ones you could have felt were already "done right", since what I always seek is for improvement and criticisms like yours are definitely a big help on making me improve!

It is very fair indeed to say the original art wasnt really inspiring, but personally I just fell in love with it and wanted to dedicate it a song.

I felt a lot of love and attention coming from your review, and I think the part I appreciated the most besides just the fact of taking so much time to review the song is telling me how unique you find my music! It is really one of the compliments as an artist that I have recieved that have made me most happy!

Thank you so much for this and I hope you will find my next submission even a lot better!

Best regards!

[AIM 2024 - the emo machine with a side of cigarettes]

Yoshiii343, the emo machine with a side of cigarettes
Composition/Structure:6 Production:6 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:10

Happy to hear your work, glad you're still kicking your indy-rock stylings. Right off the bat, full scores for relevance. Looking at the art I'm perfectly imagining her playing the first 2/3rds of the track. I've been learning guitar for a little while and that whole first section sounds like a little loop peddle jam. Having grown up around a lot of that sound it's just romantic AF to me. Unfortunately the genre can sometimes encourage a lo-fi mixdown. I'm taking particular offense to the fact that the last section sounds like a highschool 3 piece post hardcore band recording on a cheap 8 track mixer that was gifted to you when your parents realized the equipment they bought to make mix tapes for their spin-classes could better serve their kid's music endeavors. Gotta make what you love any way you can but you're not in a highschool anymore. You've been doing this sound such a long time that I'm wondering why you don't sound like David Maxim Micic by now (totally unfair comparison, his stuff is mixed tip-top.) Your drum rhythms are powerfully written but the mix makes it sound tiny. You might have been better off for this contest dropping that last section in favor of something else. That last section will inevitably effect production scores across the board and you know it... but it's also the section that's giving me massive emotion, contrasting with the slow build up. It's almost like the girl in the drawing is imagining that section in her own head, what she might sound like if she had some friends to play with. SAD EMO FEELINGS YO D':

Dude, "how i wished i could go back to those days." I know that feeling so hard at this stage of my life. While I don't wish I could go back, I just want to find some random people to make a shitty grunge band with and it's impossible. I would play any genre on drums or piano right now but the creative process has become a lonely, self-reflective grind into a computer screen. Your entire creative process and the songs you've made are relatively existential to my own experiences. I feel lonelier having listened to your music which is a very powerful confession. I just want you to improve your mix techniques at this point so your ideas can go even harder.

One last section because it feels like I have to explain the composition/structure score. You have always been very experimental with structure, it's kind of a Newgrounds thing. Alot of artists here aren't writing to formats, formulas or popular expectations and it's inspiring to have that sandbox feeling when you're structuring a song. That last section powerfully comes out of nowhere though. In EDM you have something called "risers" which are sounds that help transition sections into each other. In post-production you could have used some guitar feedback or a cresendo to help change the vibe from section to section. At one point or another you loved Explosions In The Sky, DON'T LIE TO ME YOSH. YOU LOVED EXPLOSIONS. RECALL HOW THEY CRESENDO INTO POWERFUL CLIMAXES. WE BOTH KNOW, THOSE MOFOS HAVE THE BEST CRESENDOS D':

Ultimately, I know you have it in you to write some of the most romantically powerful indy vibes. This isn't your best work but I don't want that statement to hurt. Your mixing skills have plateaued for a long time, I share that issue in that I haven't looked up new production techniques in ages. We all have our comfort zones but I'd love to hear you punch through this invisible fidelity wall that's holding you back. You're my hero Yoshi, now eat this senzu bean so you can come back even stronger than ever. We're going to teach those anime villains a lesson when we show up to the next fight with muscles coming out of our muscles >:C

Yoshiii343 responds:

hey quarl, thanks for the review!

>"you're not in high school anymore"

true. i guess the music i make is just my way of grieving the care-free teenage life i never had or wished i had. but you know...could've, would've should've...

>"Your mixing skills have plateaued for a long time"

mixing has become such an afterthought for me that im legitimately considering outsourcing it.
coupled with the fact that i've stretched the free drum library the best i can just exacerbates the problem

the whole sudden section change is simply because i like to surprise my listeners >:)

i jest. i can't make that guitar feedback sound consistently enough, and even then, it feels really cliche to me unless if it's a part of a riff

/shrug

now im just making excuses
again, thanks for taking the time to write this. it means a lot.

[AIM - An enemy that is slightly more than dangerous]

DumbOctopus, An enemy that is slightly more than dangerous
Composition/Structure:9 Production:6 Emotion/Atmosphere:10 Art Relevance:2

You did good by picking a piece of pixel art that benefits your chiptune style. I kind of take small issue with the source of inspiration being just a bunch of concept pixel drawings for bosses when there are so many pixel works to choose from that would have better conveyed your music. This is relatively perfect MegaMan music from the NES days. I'd fully expect to hear it in a side-scrolling game from that era but to really drive home my issues with the relevance you should have considered including different sections for all the different bosses included in that image. If you had just gone with some regular old Megaman fan art, it would have better served the relevance by being more specific. The song feels like it would only suit one or two enemies from the source drawing. It's a great little jam but am I going to battle each enemy in that image with the same music? Is it static music for a boss rush, one after the other?

One thing I always say when I judge this contest: use the artist's description space to really drive home how the art inspired you. Doing so can really remove a judge's ability to claim that a song is uninspired. One lone sentence feels incredibly uninspired and dishonest, how did this art move you? Your music in particular isn't speaking for itself, though that's definitely the end goal. You only get a 2 there because I'm in a bind wondering if you made this song and then just picked a random pixel image from the art portal to try and wedge your way into the comp. After listening to some of your other tunes, it's all chiptune. I'm not convinced that you were at all inspired by the source material as opposed to just picking a random pixel thing to match a general vibe. Feel free to say otherwise, correct me.

Given the genre, another judge might be a little more forgiving of that mix down but I'm not going to be. It's a relatively small sound for contemporary gear in 2024. The original Gameboy had four sound channels: two square waves with adjustable duty, a programmable wave table, and a noise generator. I could imagine your sound coming from the tiny GameBoy factory diaphragms but my Sennheisers are THIRSTY for contemporary mix techniques, which you have no excuse of avoiding if your using modern equipment with good fidelity tools. Chiptune can be so much more than this. You can still make chiptune appear high fidelity with the right amplification, compressors in the right spots, or louder drums. This track would have sounded great in 1990 on my Gameboy but you're totally allowed to use all your contemporary tools to your advantage in 2024.

It looks like you have something over-limiting the sound on the master out forcing you to unnecessarily lose range from the available sound spectrum. Could just be the program if you're using an online service? Going by the old tech it actually sounds true to the time period. The visual artist used a method called famicube, which I looked up and it's a general list of rules to follow to make art in the style of certain game systems. If you did something similar, mentioning it in the artist's description could only have helped you. I don't even know what program you're using and as an old regular on Newgrounds, I like knowing what my peers are using. You have a space when you upload music to include your software and gear, you can make a template so it only takes a second of your time. I would have loved to know more about your ideas and what kind of technology is driving it, regardless of whether it's a DAW or a free online browser tool. Everyone has their tools and techniques...

The music itself is good and I'd like you to continue doing your thing which is why I'm handing out a 10 for Emotion/Atmosphere and a 9 for Composition/Structure (song could have been a little longer, 3 minutes for a contest track is i.m.o. bare minimum, hence I stole one point there). There's just a lot to have to consider for this competition and I'm not totally impressed with the presentation or convinced by the "inspiration." Do what you will with this information and keep making the music you love. My feedback may seem totally useless to you but I'd love to hear you try and expand your music language past chiptune to better inform a larger body of work that includes various genres, styles, and techniques. I'll post this review later but on 5/1/24 I wished you luck with the other judges and may you have wonderful days! Peace and love DumbOctopus <3

DumbOctopus responds:

Thanks for the review and pointing out some mistakes. I must admit: I should've explained how exactly this track is inspired by the art.
The only thing I totally disagree with is comparison to Mega Man. With all respect, this track sounds barely like Mega Man music for several reasons, and wouldn't fit at all in a Mega Man game.
Thanks again, even though I didn't win, I was happy to participate in this contest :D

[Tunnel Vison]

Perf.

SchattenDnB responds:

Thank you so much for listening!

[Qshunt - Comfortably Numb (Vocal Mix)]

Super clean, loved that kit. Aggressive but chill, fun breaks, cool vocals, sick instruments, relaxing melodies. Pro :3

Qshunt responds:

Thanks Quarl!

[Sazzy Boi - Texcore Thing]

Looks like gabber is back on the menu <3

SazzyBoi responds:

YEAAH!

[X3ll3n & BARY - Cybernetic Pressure]

yes sir

X3LL3N responds:

yes sir

[X3ll3n - Vibin' wild for Tom (Fulp-EDM)]

This is the best Tom Fulp themed song I've ever heard with the exception of "My Name Is Tom" by Tom Fulp. Nothing beats that one.

X3LL3N responds:

This has to be propaganda, my piece "Tom Fulp Disstrack" is unbeatable, Carl !

[Head Up High]

It sucks I keep hitting your music when I'm on my tablet, I've been wanting to say how much I loved that dnb you did a while ago, time passed, here we are today. Sick track, awesome work. I'll listen to it again later when I have a better sound get-up but I'm not missing an opportunity this time to say "fuck yeah, shit is tight."

ADR3-N responds:

If it sounds good on the tablet, that's good enough for me! After all, that's what mastering is for. Now, if it's actually good enough to go out and get the proper sound system going, that warms my friggin heart

Also, I just wanted to say that before I was any good at this music biz, I always looked up to you for insight. You've inspired me a lot through the years. Poke me with a track would ya?

[The Devil's Slide / New Life]

It's painful to admit, I skipped around at first to get my bearings. I'm attention deficit but when I read "...these pieces are dear to me, so more than technical feedback I would love to hear how they make you feel..." I felt compelled to really give this a full listen from start to end. Art is an experience after all...

Wouldn't say I heard complex textures or patches but I love the simplicity. Good minimalism is beautiful, that build up in track one was magic. That climax gets grating with high frequencies though, I'd have pushed the sub bass more to counter it. I can hear a bass, wave shape looks like your compressing to a certain degree but there is so much room in the spectrum to hit further tones. Mix isn't always easy, no recipe works every time but I notice so many sound artists pick weird limits that quiet the tune too much, which is especially noticeable on certain apparatus.

I don't check my tunes on PA monitors, just pointing out that I have hypocritical blind spots in regards to mastering...

The second piece is beautiful, I'm really noticing an over limited/compressed mix though. I'm at max volume, totally unbothered by this small sound, while knowing the track could be bigger, shinier, tastier. The tones are beautiful, rhythm bouncy, melodies peaceful. I'm curious how big this might get with the master-out fidelity tools bypassed...

The last section is a wonderfully contemplative track. I used to live on an island, I'm reminded of the way the waves would feel attacking my feet, moving soft wet sand across skin. It's missing presence in the same way the other tracks do but you don't really care about that, the emotions and feelings are very inspired.

There's a lot to like about these songs, they are indeed very special. They convey feelings beautifully, feelings I often lack when writing. Track one would make a great morning alarm, track two steadily progresses the rhythm of the day, and track three is the return to dream world. Almost had a seamless loop with that water sample making a return towards the end. I know these tracks come from some older project but a small fade out towards the end could have kept me in the water. Instead I felt a sad longing for whatever that voice/string pad was, that patch sounded lovely. Oh well, you got your reasons :3

It's nice to see that you put soul into the work, thanks for pointing out that the work is dear to you. Too many people aren't willing to pour their feelings into the track descriptions but it's an important element, many genres and sounds are an acquired taste. Peers know all the complex feelings and emotions that come with making music but the average listener has no idea a person even exists on the other side of the screen. Artists are often just digital commodities, faceless web pages, and free downloads but our feelings give it all a reason.

This was a long distraction in my morning but I'm glad I took it. Thanks for coming back to Newgrounds, you're a talent :)

SHE-RE responds:

Wow, I really appreciate you taking the time, both to listen and to write all this! There's a lot of technical ideas here, a few of which have occurred to me and many of which haven't. I don't have a lot to add there besides that I'm absolutely going to be thinking of them as I work on my next projects. I have to say I'm more interested in responding to the commentary on the artistic choices. :)

First— I'm so happy that you heard magic in the buildup in The Devil's Slide. That's one of the defining moments of these two pieces for me. Though I can't say I was going for alarm clock with that piece, but if that's what you heard that's what you heard lol? That climax definitely bursts open loud and sudden like one, anyway!

I also love that the image of an island came to you in the third part, because that's almost exactly what I was going for, and that tells me that I did something right there! I grew up on the west coast of the US, and so I got to see the sun setting into the ocean fairly often, and that was what I was going for there — my mental image was of standing on a sandy beach as you described, watching the sun set, a picture full of bright golds and oranges. Not unlike my current profile picture lol. I'll also say the cutoff at the end was an intentional artistic choice, but I think I hear what you mean about keeping you in the water and now I feel a little torn about it? I don't know if I'm going to change it but I do hear how that would work.

It's definitely really special when emotions and experiences can inspire music the way it happened for this piece, and for some of my best past music, and for much of my favorite music in general. It's something I've been trying to tap into more, and to me it's so nice for it to be seen when it works out.

Thanks again. :)