Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Death to Ye Three]

Those violins were feeding me some serious Mendelssohn vibes, couldn't get enough. Sorry to ask but what are you using to get those vocals? They're great but they sounded a little cramped for space at the intro. After 00:17 every thing works out really nicely. Might have just been the highs of that white noise. What was that white noise supposed to be? Is that a result of EQ? Sounded like it could have been perc but I think the mix could have been better without it, imo. I also noticed there was a flanger or phaser on the vocals before the two minute mark. That was kind of weird, maybe that caused the mix problem I'm having?

Seriously, those violins blew me away. Good stuff lsd <3

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Hey, and thank you for the review!
I think in the intro, what happened is... Normally when I go through a mix I check the sound on many different headphones as well as my speakers. But as this is the NGADM, I finished the song somewhere around 5am, and I used only my main set of headphones. Thus, there is just a little bit too much reverb that is heard in headphones with less space, especially on the high end. All of the parts in the intro end with "nus" or "mus" or "tus". This leads to the "S" syllable becoming a bit intense, which is probably the white noise you're referring to. I wonder if maybe a de-esser could've worked, or maybe I could've worked on the release. I don't really mind it, but I can hear what you mean!

It's a flanger indeed, but the effect is only active between 1:47-2:00, for the slowdown and unconventional key/chords.

I'm glad you like the violins, those were definitely the hardest and most time-consuming part! Even though I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them, I had to spend hours putting all the notes and harmonies in :'D

[ARCADE]

Really clean and hella dancy. The melodies were super kawaii. I felt a little embarrassed while enjoying it but if this started banging in public I'd get down to it. No shame. That second chorus around 1:15 grinded nicely <3

RedSkiesOfficial responds:

omg THANKS!

[MM8: Flow Beyond Tragedy]

Why'd you put this under experimental? You've got some classy rolling two step drum and bass patterns. The late 90s early new millennium scene would have loved to hear this in a moving shadow mix.

I wish I wasn't listening on my phone right now but I'll add this to my favorites and totally give this another listen later tonight <3

EDIT: do what you're comfortable with. It's totes DNB but if you want to put it in ska, whose stopping you? I used to drop things into odd genres just because it gave me a small power trip.

Anchorwind responds:

My love, I put almost everything in experimental by default. Hide out here in the quiet corner of NG. Where do you recommend I move it to? Drum and bass? It does have a lot of liquid influences but there are other bits to it.

[mind over matter]

Just thought I'd pop in and point out that I too have a track called Mind Over Matter. If you take only the first letters of each word it spells "mom" :)

SchattenDnB responds:

i'm not sure if i responded to this but thank you for your response, that information is actually quite funny. i made this very early on during a time where i didn't know what i was doing, i am still slowly improving, thanks for stopping by!

[Dec 7th]

Lol, love that low pitch snare. Most dnb peeps do a high-pitch mid to low frequency snare these days. It sounds great but I miss hearing these deep pounding snares. Smart amen break :D

A few tropes I never avoid that might have sounded nice, some drum filtering for dynamic atmosphere and reverb on that final snare to give that ending some transitioning flavor. Maybe a smaller snare for that first down tempo rhythm? It comes in a little jarring at first but comes into itself later. You've got that pitched up snare after the amen break... maybe that snare would have sounded great in the intro too? Just some thoughts :)

The melodies had such an awesome atmospheric vibe. I love the title too. This has a really sweet funk to it Shatten <3

SchattenDnB responds:

Thank you! i layered two different snares in order to sort of create that "punchy-ness" for the break, on the transition to the other break, i had recycled a break that i made earlier on, thus the difference in snares whilst also adding another snare into it as well, thank you for your feedback, it means a lot and again, thanks for stopping by :)

[Diversity of Thought]

Unf, dank. Super epic trance Mich. Were you using any of your hardware for this or did you stick to digital? Also, how do you write an 8 minute song? I get to about 2 and am like "time to clock out and call it a day."

EDIT: Oh, so you COPIED SOMEONE ELSE'S STRUCTURE just like a real musician. I'm so proud of you Mitch :')

Mich responds:

Thanks Quarl! <3 The vast majority is just softsynths and samples, but a tiny bit of the bassline (the acid-like stuff) is done with my DIY modular synth thing.

For the structure, getting it to 8 minutes, I listened to a trance track I thought was very well laid out and took notes where what should happen, roughly. Put all that in the FL studio playlist and went to town building the track up that way. Focused first on getting the structure laid down, then made transitions better and tweaked stuff til happy enough. :)

EDIT: Lol, all about those recipes. :P

[Quiet Shores]

Love it, my favorite bit is that I can hear those keys getting hammered. It shows that the recording isn't top tier but who cares. Acoustic piano has a special vibe to it. Being in the practice space of a warm piano is such an overwhelmingly positive memory for me. Curious, what kind of piano are you playing with?

philbofett responds:

Hey, I appreciate it! I may or may not have used my phone to record this- hence the raw the sound haha
The piano I used is an upright Ricca & Son piano.

[Bubbleman 2.0 nguac tryout]

Classy syncopated idm beats. That tech step pattern coming in was a little unexpected after getting tossed around at the beginning. Cute little ditty Snow :)

snoballandthmonyshot responds:

Ta, glad to see you're still on it
Px

[House V1b3S - Audition 2020]

Dank atmosphere and pads. Definitely has it's own funk. Has a bit of that house sound but is far enough removed that I can only agree, putting this under "dance" was a good move. I just looked up tutorials to see if Live 10 can sidechain. This track might groove a little harder if those bass kicks were side chaining some of those pads. Heck, I'd even include the snare signal into the sidechain. It costs nothing to play with it :D

CaptainBoomcake responds:

yeah there's sidechaining in live10 with the basic compressor, but the reason I didn't was because I didn't want it to be tooo punchy just so it could be relaxing at the same time as dancy if you get me, a lot of my other work has heavy sidechaining, I might side chain my pads to create more space when I do the vocal edit though :) watch this space, and thanks for the review appreciate it! Because the bass throb is definitely all encompassing and needs to be dealt with on my other edit!

[Rumble]

Tasty melodies and change ups. Really sexy elements love. Mix sounded pretty mono and flat but that's my only complaint. All those great elements would have sounded more crisp if they all had their own place in the field. Just have to get brave, play with panning, and trust your ears a little.

It's a well accepted rule of thumb to put your bass tones, bass drums, and snares towards the center field. You can play with everything else. I like to split my lead synths into two signals, route the two signals into a mixer, than pan the two channels hard to the left and right. I'll send hi-hats, tambs, bells, rides, and crash cymbals off to the sides where ever they sound best.

Panning creates the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are so you can pan something, then turn the level down on it to give room for other instruments! Go nuts Valent, would love to hear these dank melodies and elements in a crisper field :D

UmValent responds:

Somehow this slipped under my radar, but thank you so much for the review, Quarl!
I'll keep on working on stereo balancing and mixing in general.
:)