Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Affliction]

lol, I think every metal composer has started a track on that grainy filtered guitar at some point or another. Was listening to a chimp spanner track the other day like "yep. I've heard this filter before." It's always filthy though.

I'm wondering if this track could have used a little more bass compression to being those low tones forward. The guitar work is phenomenal which is why I'm noticing that lack of bass. It also helps that I'm wearing some expensive headphones :/

I wish I could get the same level of variety from my melodies and rhythms. I feel like most the time I just copy and past until I call it a day. Seriously great stuff JD. I love it when a track feels like it tells a story. This composition goes places <3

EDIT: I noticed that guitar at the intro was all the way to the left. I couldn't ignore it after that. I'm noticing a splash cymbal is hard panned too. I spend a lot of time panning but I usually don't pan something 100%. It creates an empty feeling because tones become unbalanced. It creates a lot of extra space in the mix but in a genre where your guitars are each creating unique tones, maybe go softer with that panning to help balance?

I don't know why I'm nit picking all this. Maybe those NGADM reviews below put me in this vibe. Let's just blame them. Your work is great as always :p

JDawg00100 responds:

Yeah for some reason I decided on keeping the bass low in the mix. It might have just been the way I recorded the guitars. I used IR responses instead of what I usually do. I haven't tried to go back to the way I recorded this song ever since, it's so much trouble and latency. I always try to record my guitars as tight as possible

As for panning I always pan hard left and right for the rhythm guitar, maybe have a fortifier rhythm in the middle (which I didn't in this song because I was essentially using two different tones for each panned guitar). That leaves me a lot of room for lead guitar, or my favorite harmony guitars. As for the drums I really don't mess with the panning of my vst. I'm so bad with mixing drums, I've barely got the parallel compression down

This NGADM I didn't really care an awful lot. Got pretty far by the skin of my teeth too. I've had some awful years, I stopped joining them after a few really bad years. So much so that the songs I made for those specific years I just really hate, I need to go back and listen to them after so long. But really I just wanted to join it to force myself to get back into making music, so that definitely did that for me.

Thanks for the review :)

[Brainzap]

Super tight brain dance kb. Fresh sounds, perfect mix. Wouldn't expect any less from you champ. That break down had me jazzing.

<3 <3

Kingbastard responds:

Thank you, Quarl. Much appreciated.

[Nintendo Switch Type Beat]

It's times like this I wish I still rocked Nintendo. This track is dope. Dandy kick triplets. Happy glitchy square lead. I see that ambient end is no longer just an experiment but a feature. Relaxing.

Seriously Protaganacho, this track is so cute and perfect <3

Edit: thanks for the video too. Seeing other people make music feels enriching. I usually just open my DAW and cry for a few minutes before opening Steam.

larrynachos responds:

It's really difficult to get the ball rolling on some tracks. If I don't get something nice sounding in the first half hour, I usually just quit. Luckily, the switch samples were plenty of inspiration!

Thank you for the review Quarl! I should have extended the actual beat part instead of immediately succumbing to making an ambient section and calling it a day, but I started getting self conscious about being on stream so I just wrapped it up lol (even though apparently the stream cut off before I finished the song loool).

Thanks again :)

[X3LL3N - Higher (FuzeNG RMX)]

Really warm vibes from this. Sassy happy melodies yo. I spent a few minutes nit picking the drum kit. Something felt off. At first that bass drum was too weak but when it goes to DNB it just pushed everything out of the way. Sidechain like "hi, I'm sidechaing." Do you layer your kick samples at all or is it just one phat sample? Maybe a second kick with more emphasis on mids/highs would make Quarl happy. Same with the snare actually. I know all you kids are into a ton of bass on your snares these days. It's cool, I get it. Punk rock dude. But give us older tone deaf people something to bite onto. I need some more mid/high from a snare because I listened to loud music when I was growing up. Feels.

Dynamics! It took me a few listens to realize those piano notes sound really static. Maybe give some life to that robo-piano with velocity changes. Emulating the velocity of a live piano drives me crazy. I don't know how to record dynamics proper in reason from my digital piano so I have to fiddle with numbers after the fact. IT SUCKS, kill me. I get lazy and automate the levels instead. It's not the same but I pretend it is.

Loved those snaps in the beginning. You're production style is tight. Clean. Pure. Keep doing you Fuzion <3

FuzionTech responds:

I used different kicks when making this. no I didnt stack them. I just placed them in an order. intro has that soft-like kick, the main has a hard hitting kick. and I forgot to post process the piano. my bad. and thank you for the comment

[Mirage]

Damn, this takes me back to my young days here on newgrounds. Fox Steven used to have a sound like this when he first started posting as StanSB. That wobbly synth melody, a two step drum pattern, and some pretty melodies. It's a classic sound. What program are you using to make your sounds in Kite? Let mew know if you'd like any feedback, I love giving people something to think about :D

ElderlyKite responds:

Thank you so much for commenting my song. I am using FL Studio. I am always open for feedback so I'll appreciate if you'll give me any!

[Moog 3]

Solid track! Super creative vibes I'm getting from this. Loved all the rhythmic flourishes and bass tricks. I can only nitpick the mix down. Things sound a little over compressed. I need some more dynamics :)

Bass overpowers but it's not so much the sub bass as just... everything. You got bass coming out of your bass. I also feel like I hear that low end heavy snare a lot from other producers. I'm getting a little fatigued from hearing that bassy snare. It might just be the pitch? I used to love hearing the bass snare, dunno what happened. I guess I'm just old and need higher freq noises to compensate for my hearing loss :C

After listening to this loop a few times I think I'm not hearing enough panning. Rig once taught me that panning creates the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are so the more you can pan things the more you can turn them down and create room in your mix. I can hear some panning going on with those hi hats but I feel like those aux instruments, pads, and sound effects could use more pan in a direction. Bass to the center, everything mid/high can get it's own place. Pay attention to which channel on your mixer is doing more work and pan an instrument or two to the opposite channel for that section of the song.

I like to send my lead synth through a splitter so I can dedicate it to two channels on my mixer, then I split it into opposite directions to make room for sub in the middle. My lead is usually a lot of mid/high.

Not sure if any of that made sense but I leave you with this: keep following your dreams! Believe in yourself! Stay in school! Don't do drugs.

dedsh4d responds:

Thanks for the response and the criticism! I don't typically think of panning in my mix (and I don't know why), but now that you point it out -- I do agree. I see myself missing the entire feature of panning within production fairly frequently on anything other than percussion. I'll definitely take your response into consideration and practice! Greatly appreciated!

[Project 14328]

Old school newgrounds dnb vibe. Nice atmosphere and melodies! You know I want a crisper phatter drum kit but I'll take what I can get. Props Mich :)

Mich responds:

Cheers Quarl! I think I wanted them a bit more mellow than that; maybe next time. :)

[DoomDaDoomDaDoomDa feat. Quarl]

I remember that piano thing xD

Glad someone did something with those drums. That snare drum pitch bend at 2:12 lit made me laugh. It sounded like a cat :3

SymbolCymbal responds:

Glad you enjoyed it. I recently found the piano on an old hard drove figured it would be fun to add in. Most stuff I have been making is just seeing what weird shit i can accomplish with the software. That snare pitch bend was all about pushing things as strange as it can go. Most of the time i spent on this track was making drums stutter, flam and pitch bend. Had alot of fun with this drum pack <3

[My Onism]

Can't believe I forgot to review this. I listened to this when you first put it up and said to myself "I want to take the time to listen to this proper with my HD 650s.

I've always made fun of ambient genres as being a super easy. You can essentially fake it by sitting a brick on top of your keyboard. That's a gross oversimplification for a genre that can be anything you want it to be but I'm a jerk sometimes. From a conceptual standpoint I really love the way you fill out the majority of this track with grainy sweeping pads. The drum and bass is a small tease but I actually love that it's such a small fraction of the track. It's a strong track.

I think I wanted a little more texture from that ambient section though. You could have fit some juicy pads and samples in there to help give that area some character. It's a great pad but give me some running water sounds, a train thundering by, a park filled with children, a lion growing, maybe bring that drum and bass back later... anything. I get bored easily when I listen to ambient genres so it's more my own fault for wanting more from the second half of the song. I need to chill more :p

This is a really powerful track. I'm glad you wrote something so different from everything I've been listening to. Great melodies and pads. This reminds me of the experimental drum and bass I used to hear on newgrounds back in high school. This track has some serious flavor. Just throw some samples in next time to make grandma quarl happier next time, ok? Much love protagonist Nacho.

larrynachos responds:

The ambient sections in this song and "I Want What I Can't Have" are both just the first sections reversed, stretched, and drowned in reverb and distortion. So yeah, it's lazy and "easy", but whenever I listen to the second half of this song I get anxiety, so hopefully I'm evoking thoughts and emotions in people.

I could have added more elements, but I think this was a song I made in a few hours before work one day, so at some point I just settled for what I had.

This definitely should give off that 2008-2011 vibe cause I think I exclusively used sytrus presets xD

Thank you so much for the review! It's always good to hear from you :)

[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