Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Time Attack (Remastered) in E]

My opinion, that sound can be phatter. This track is missing some serious frequency range. It's unfair because the track kicks ass in every aspect minus the mix. It's not even like the the mix is bad or anything, it's just small. Everything can use more volume and punch. Maybe more layers with those drums would help. Conservative amounts of compression on everything. Mind you compression can make sounds louder as well as quieter. Hit it.

You can also pan things way harder. Rig once told me that you can make sounds seem louder than they really are by panning them. That illusion will allow you to drop the levels on those instruments which adds more overall room to the mix for other instruments and noises.

Rig referred to those same background noises as background intangibles. Background intangibles don't contribute to the rhythm or melody. They just add sass and character to the track. Atmospheric sound effects. Think of a game like Mario cart where you're driving along and something you pass on the track makes noise like a volcano erupting or a hawk screaming as it zips by you. Atmosphere.

This track is so dope. I just wish it was louder so I could turn the volume down a little. I'm listening at max and my ears are still squinting :p

Edits: accidentally spelt "ass" instead of "add." Oops, Frued slip.

Noisysundae responds:

"And you still gave it a 5 despite all these flaws, so thank you. :D

As the title suggests, the original mix was made long ago. One of my goals for the 2019 remasters (which includes 15 menus I'm going to release on Sundays) was to alter the original elements only where it counts. Anyway, this one in particular has a very small number of instruments to begin with. This was pitched up by 2 semitones, and the detuned saw was buried under a heavy reverb. Those might explain the lack of mids and everything lower than that in some parts. I do make use of compression and layering (though maybe not much for the latter) for newly made menus lately.

Regarding the stereo field, I completely agree with that. I've committed murder with using stereo offset in almost every instrument in the past for the sake of widening things, but that works only on the headphones. Pretty much all of them older menus are ruined in merged mono. It's either panning or inverting one of the channels for me now, but to do the latter means to sacrifice some sounds when played outside headphones (due to the phase cancellation).

Sound effects too are what I hesitate to add to the menus. While it helps emphasizing the atmosphere, it can also limit what this menu can be in listener's mind, and that's not good if someone wants to use my menu for their contents. Sure, I can give them a version with no sound effects, but I doubt anyone will bother asking me for it. They'll just go for something else in that case.

Oh, I didn't mention this since I've literally rewritten this reply because I lost all of it by pressing escape, but I'll go with doing stereo stuff to make it sound louder. I want to keep the same mastering rules for all my menus." — The Manager

[Bones WhiP]

Not sure If I'd call this dubstep. This drones like industrial, IMO. Not that I'd know what real industrial sounds like, I'm only 30 years old. Real industrial was made before I was born and therefore I do not contain the knowledge needed to identify the genre properly.

I need to listen to this again on my computer but I was afraid of walking away and forgetting to listen to this.

How are you liking Ableton Lincohn'Ham?

SymbolCymbal responds:

I think my original intent was dubstepish and just started hitting buttons and keys and drawing automation. But yeah you are right this does have a touch of industry. :3

I'm absolutely loving Ableton Lincoln. It has a very smooth workflow and it genuinely fun to use. I'm still just working out some kinks here and there. Honestly I'm just happy that I can make music again. It's been years since I have had software and been able to create anything.

[trippy count]

This came through my feed I check once every day or two. Thanks Death, for continuously doing your thing for as long as I live thus far. You are always going to be top tier in my book.

Father-of-Death responds:

QUARL~~~~~! WHUDDUP! I'ma go to sleep atm but now i'ma review bunch of your songs yo!

me and you go waaaaaaaaaaay back

[We Are All Doomed]

EDIT: In response to your comments, ALWAYS SIDECHAIN. I'm not sure if your DAW lets you modulate the size of it but even a tiny bit of drum to bass sidechain will help keep things level. You don't need to use 100%. Tweak some knobs, even if your ears don't notice a difference. Be neurotic about it. I side chain the bass AND my pads with the drum kit. Sometimes just the bass drum signal and sometimes I include the snare. I'm surprised you didn't sidechain at all here, good kit samples, though it would seriously help. Crisp drums :3

Fug dude, you have come far. This kicks ass. Sounds like the bass over worked my low end monitors but I had to give this a listen with my Sennheiser 650's when I realized this was next level... I splurged on next level headphones for stuff like this :3

There are minor tweaks and nitpicks to make about the mix down but you know what your doing at this point. Nitpicking the mix from where I'm sitting seems unnecessary. Holy shit this track made me sex groan. Literal g-spot noises.

This track is too good for newgrounds.

larrynachos responds:

The only thing I know I didn't do was side chain, because I couldn't make it not sound like garbo. If you have nitpicks, I'd like to hear them. All in the spirit of improving.

Thanks for stopping by Quarl! Good to hear from you :D

[Walking the Wavelength]

This was super dope. Cool unexpected rhythmic choices from the drums. Keys were on point. The mix was a little amateur but that's totally ok. You've got a lot of instrumental talent on showcase here and getting good quality recordings can be challenging. A good recording requires a good studio and not everyone has that at their fingertips. Also, mixing/mastering isn't as organic a process as just picking up an instrument you can rock in the moment. Mixing is boring in comparison.

The lyrics were simple but well written. Some people like to write crazy rambling stanzas. Yours were straight to the point, curt. The accent threw me off a little bit, so while I read the lyrics I kind of tuned out eventually and let your voice become just another instrument. It's unfair, you're singing was great. I guess I'm not used to hearing a Polish accent. I don't want to go into detail about the accent though because I know how hard and embarrassing it can be to find your voice when you sing. Vocals take so much courage, I'm happy you just let it all out. Seeing as how you're Polish I'm guessing you choose to record in English for a reason? To be frank, I'd have been totally ok if this was all in Polish. I listen to so much metal, half the time I listen to music the vocals are totally a mystery to me. I'm a tone lover :p

GemeroftheWind's sax was on point. Super tasty wails :D

This is a good long listen. Was nice to hear something fresh today. Thanks Czy <3

EDIT: I'm listening to some of your other tracks. The mix quality is notably better on some of that stuff. I'm just going to assume this one being 20 minutes long is some kind of passionate one off :)

Czyszy responds:

Thanks for the super detailed review! It's a pleasure to read. I can't do anything about my accent but a lot of people have told me my voice sounded better in English. In terms of mixing and mastering I tried hard to get a vintage lo-fi sorta vibe. It's a shame that it didn't work out.

[Burning Sands]

You mixed a hell of a brick there. Any more room in that spectrum for... anything? Would a dog whistle fit in it or would that clip the whole project?

BoomKitty responds:

Ahaha isn't this waveform beautiful? It's still nothing compared to a RIOT track LOL.

[Open Wings ~ M ~]

Woo, cool to hear you orchestrating. I love the melodic experiments you're pulling off. That square sounding bass was a nice element to mix into what I expected to be a plain old classical composition. Things sounded kind of baroque there at first and then that bass slides in <3 <3

Not gonna lie, 10 hours is a relatively short amount of time to put into something but this still came out sounding great. I got off to KrinnValKhristi's review. I see we all have that vibe. I can sit in front of my piano for hours and just release new ideas non stop... but none of it ever gets written down. Music can feel so in the moment. A melody disappears as quickly as it came but it feels so right to just hit the instrument. Then you sit in front of your computer and try to spit it out but the process is comparatively dull, repetitive, and boring.

I found a few decent tricks to speed up the process and generate more tunes but they can be a little unreliable or distasteful...

First, I like to open up old rsn files that sounded great, delete the notes and loops in the sequencer, then just recycle the bones. It's probably why I have such a distinct sound. Most likely I've been gutting the same rsn file for the last 15 years and never realized it. I try to change up the samples and tones but I must not be doing a good enough job. I'm so forking lazy. Just remember to Save As before you start changing things up so that the original song file doesn't get over written...

Second, if I can't make something decent in an hour I delete it. If you can force yourself to do that every day you'll have spent 30 hours that month starting a new track everyday. You don't need to delete the ones that have potential. I open random project files from 2012 or 2017 all the damn time. I forget about them. Digging through my folders can be a treasure hunt sometimes. A friend of mine recently showed me a track I burned to CD for him ages ago and I have no idea what file it is. I have never found it but I know I wrote it. I wish I knew what file it is...

MRM3 responds:

OH my goodness I had this whole response typed out yesterday, and I was sure I sent it, but apparently not, and my browser crashed for some reason and HRMPH >:#
This stuff happens to me Far too often.
First off. Thank you for the wonderful wonderful WONDERFUL review <3
The squarish bass... YAASSS i love how well it goes with this genre, it flows so well, and adds a separate level... mixing two vastly different realms in a magical inbetween!
Thank you for the review, the rate, and THE FAV, Q!!! :DDDD
10 hours isn't a whole lot to put into a song, I agree... it was spread over a few days, and after I had spent around 10 hours i realized that honestly there's not anything else i could do to make the song better for my tastes, and it was as perfect as I could get it. Eh, :shrug: sometimes things happen :P
And ouuuu thank you for the tipss!!! :DDD
As a result of numerous (3 to be exact) data losses, i have nothing from past oh about 3 months ago, so, going through old files is uh... kinda not an option :/ I wish it was tho, because i've wanted to remake old songs, and make use of little things i randomly made soo much.
And ouu forcing yourself to make little new ideas is a really good idea... develope it as much as you can in that short period and then move on.. sure will make coming back to it a possiblility!
yeah thanks a ton, Q!
^^

[°°Dragon's Den: Panic Mode°°]

Pretty damn good chip for a 6 hour throw together. Only complaint is how those arp triplets at the intro kind of sound weird when they loop. Not sure what I'd do differently because I don't make chiptune but the point might just be because my brain is expecting a new chord progression or a different drum rhythm and instead I just get a loop. Meh.

This sentence was only added so that my review looks longer than your author's comments.

Whirlguy responds:

Why thank you! I see what you mean with the ending looping back to the beginning. I find this to be less jarring in the original "Normal Mode" of the song, which is a lot slower. The reason I use arpeggios so much is because PSG chips were monophonic and I like to work with chords. The problem with arps is there is nothing subtle about them. I also blame the current NG player for being terrible at looping ):< Or maybe it has something to do with the song jumping between 4/4 and 3/4?

This sentence was only added so that my response looks longer than your lovely review.

[AIM - Losing Control]

I came back to this song a few times while judging. It had some decent elements that made this track mid-tier for me. The thing that really hurt was the mixing quality and lo-fi sounds. It gave off an old school RPG element which actually paired nicely with Toradh's art. The fire crackling was a nice touch too. Always smart to toss in some musical element that calls out to whatever inspires it.

In regards to the melodies and structures everything sounded great. I loved the chord progressions and pacing. It's actually a really good composition. It just suffers from those digital sounds. The percussion was simply done but exciting. I can hear that tiny snare drum working hard back there. Worlds smallest drum kit :)

If you want to wow the judges for these kinds of comps avoid those lo-fi sound banks. Not everyone will buy EastWest virtual instruments but there are plenty of cheap alternatives that won't sound like Finale Notepad. I've been composing with Reason for over a decade now. I paid for my program a long time ago. Reason will always allow you to redownload your purchases years later when you log in to their website and they let you upgrade for free if you pay attention to the version updates. I'm not sure what program you are using but it might be worth asking others what they use to get their sounds with. See if you can't find something cheap or free that others recommend and comes with better virtual instruments right out of the gate. Make sure it comes with mixing & mastering tools.

I just want to drive the point home that your biggest focus should be to beef up your instruments. You can probably export the midi notes from this track and slam them into some better instruments later. You'll thank yourself so much if you can manage some kind of upgrade. Since your profile says 17 years old, I have no idea if you have a job or means to pay for software but it can be well worth it. Do your homework and pick up some equipment that works for you.

There are means to pirate software BUT NO ONE ON NEWGROUNDS IS ALLOWED TO ADVOCATE THAT, HOW DARE YOU EVEN ASK. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT. I DIDNT PIRATE REASON 4 AND FRUITY LOOPS IN COLLEGE AND SO WHAT IF I DID. I LATER BOUGHT REASON VERSIONS 6 AND 10 LIKE A GOOD CONSUMER WHORE, STOP JUDGING ME. I'M SUPPOSED TO BE JUDGING YOU. THIS IS ME JUDGING YOU >:C

Have a nice day Sleven. I hope this review inspires you to build wonderful musics :D

SI-7 responds:

Thanks for the feedback.
The DAW I'm using is LMMS, and most of my instruments were synthesized using the plugins built into it. I am currently looking around for better instruments that don't crash LMMS, but it's starting to look like I'll have to swap to a different DAW because LMMS conflicts with a lot of different plugins and instruments.
I do think that a decent part of the mixing/mastering being bad was my fault though. I'm still learning how to use some of the tools for it. I still don't quite understand how much of compression works, though I've learned the basic idea of it.
The only paid-for thing in the entire song is Valhala Room reverb, which was a prize from Zelazon's contest a few months back. I don't currently have a job or a means of paying for software. I have done some research, but it's still very hit or miss, since sometimes I can't find any info on whether instruments are compatible with LMMS.

[AIM - Level One Start ~ Alien Landscape]

My love, I had you in my top 20. This was a track that fought valiantly for a higher spot on my list. I recall one of the other judges putting your name forward when we needed two more tracks to round out the final list. Try not to take that personally, we listened, we liked.

I told a few other contestants to write more about the creative process. Your description helps judges find their way through your creative process. If there were any unique challenges or elements you were really proud of, talk about it. Troisnyx wrote 11 flipping pages about her methods and thought process. It was a little excessive but I could totally relate to her passion.

I noticed that your from Brazil, so maybe English isn't your first language, Portuguese? Write in your native language, do a blurb in English for everyone else. We love getting diverse artists on newgrounds. Different cultures have unique perspectives. MUSIC JUDGES LOVE DIVERSITY. Stick some Brazil up in us.

This track had an indie video game vibe. I could easily hear this in a cheap steam video game like Starbound. It's cute little style was a positive but I think where it failed a little was in how short it was. Not everything needs to be long but making a loop for a contest might affect your total score with some of the judges. It doesn't loop proper on my end. I can hear how it's supposed to but I think there's a problem on export or with newgrounds player. Some of my "loops" don't loop proper. Sad face.

JessieYun hit on some points that I think were veering towards dynamics. Live instruments and orchestrations will have dynamic crescendos and decrescendos. I didn't even bother to consider that when I listened because it never felt like you were going for a huge cinematic orchestra. This is a song that feels like it belongs in a video game and I felt it did a good job of giving "Alien Landscape Commision" the atmosphere it needed. Sadly, I know what other judges want and they want orchestrations, expensive sounding sound libraries, and evolving instruments.

On that note, you didn't give the judges what they wanted. I don't like to participate in competitions here because of this. You can't hand the judges your best work and expect them to review with an open mind to things like genre. It's a small bit of luck if you happen to get judges that genuinely love your work. I went to art school, so I can love sandpaper on violin strings. If I went to school for music, maybe I'd have been more critical of your song.

I wasn't critical by the way Teb Cat. I loved this. I just happened to love a bunch of other songs a little bit more :'C

KEEP MAKING MUSICS, PUSH YOURSELF TO THE LIMIT!! FIND YOURSELF AND LOVE LIFE!!! LOVE LIFE TEBRY, LOVE IT >:D >:D

TebyTheCat responds:

Thanks so much for the sweet message!

Not sure why I left my description so short, I'll keep that in mind when I write about my work in the future. Yes, portuguese is my first language, but I do feel confortable using english (... with the help of google translate to check from time to time)
I also will keep in mind the loop thing, even if I like to compose loops I also know how to end them

Overall thank you for the kind words! I just felt a little sad in the beggining when I saw the results, but it is totally understandable! I loved lots of entries as well, many are in my favorites :)