Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Avizura - Stardust Memories]

I'm feeling this track way more than the previous, and I was genuinely feeling that one too. This has a video game, manga vibe going on. I can see this introducing some neo Megaman cartoon. This was a solid mix down from start to finish. Melodies were fun. Stan Fox Stevenson Bryne would be proud.

AvizuraNG responds:

Thank you very much. That means a lot to me! :]

[Avizura - Break The Silence]

I love this sound. I can fault paint drying though so I'll just say that the melodic synth from 00:25 to 00:47 might have a little too much focus in the mix and the moments of silence, especially 1:46, I'm not a fan of. Other than those gripes everything here is super fun and awesome. I love that break down, cool tempo stutter. Sounds are nice and clean.

Those captain falcon-esque guitar riffs. I have no idea what to call them xD

AvizuraNG responds:

Youre right about the mixdown, I'll have another mixing session soon.
Glad you liked it !

[Trial and Error]

You've got a fun style evolving. I don't know anything about LMMS so I can't offer up any advice specific to the DAW but I might suggest a few mixing tips that might help :)

Sounds like you could experiment with layering drum samples. You can start to build your own rich drum sounds by layering snares that have different frequencies & fattening up that sound spectrum. Example; you can get a nice fat mid snare from the amen break, layer it with a thin 909 snare. Then try adding an extra or so. You can get really creative with layering and even apply it with basses and pads :D

I'm not sure how much panning you're experimenting with but feel free to throw a pad to the left or right. Hi hats can get panned hard in one direction or the other. You can make room for everything and clean things up at the same time! Panning will create the illusion that sounds are louder than they actually are which will let you turn down levels here and there to help create space for other instruments. Experiment ;)

I remember when sidechaining was a huge deal. If you're doing hard dance genres you might want to see if LMMS has an option to control the volume of an instrument with the signal from another. Example; you can lower the levels on a bass synth for a split second every time a bass drum hits. That will clean up things and give the drum more punch by momentarily making room for it. For dubstep, I always sidechain the synths, basses, & pads with the bass drum and snare. It really adds punch to your drums.

Hope this doesn't seem like I'm being mean. I always leave reviews like this when I like a persons musk. Some of the kids I've reviewed over the years went on to do amazing things, music or otherwise. I think you'll be something special if your not already. Keep writing keep living ^o^

MRM3 responds:

Wow, this is literally the "dream comment".
THANK YOU!! The "cool" or "good job" comments are not helpful. But yours sure was :O
LMMS does not have a sidechain function, and to be honest, I'd heard about sidechaining, but didn't know what it was till you just explained it. That is probably the thing I've been missing... well, one of the many many things...
I've done a little bit of layering but, am just getting into that, and have barely gotten past the tip of the iceberg. (Side note, I've been listening to Tear Down That Wall for hours on repeat.) :P
Thank you again and again.... and again, for actually taking the time and writing such a nice comment!!!
I can not tell how much it means. :O
Just thanks! :)
Seem like you're being mean? That is the best comment I've ever gotten on anything in my whole life. Honestly.
So, thank you again!

[Paralysis]

Legit. I love shorties. I used to try and make 4-10 minute bangers but I've learned to just be happy with little things more and more. Brevity can have just as much value and potency.

Everratic responds:

Thanks for the review!

[Sunlight]

Holy shit, this has some old school newgrounds drum and bass vibes. Sounds like something Rawrthaas would have put out back in the day minus one really hard amen break sample. Add a cliche amen break and you have jungle GOLD.

Not that I could convince you to open up an old song file. I have a hard time digging through old tracks, myself or others. Could you give me a couple tracks that your proud of for me to listen to?

Shout out January 2009, go listen to Rawrthaas right now and drop harder breaks :D

https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/206536

ADR3-N responds:

Oh God all of my old material is literally the worst. I think the only thing that did well was Acceptance, Attrition, and Skyfall. And I had no idea what I was doing. Hardest break, probably Overdosed. Some of the better writing I've done, Flight or Clear Skies -- they're basically the same song commissioned by two different people. I've been thinking of revisiting that one with metal in mind what with some decent lead writing going on... Claustrophobia is an avante-garde piece... Non-ethanol and Byzantium are pretty much companion pieces, trap. Wave After Wave is a video-gamey techno piece with some swang. Song of the Dragonborn is the Skyrim theme as elevator music. Everything 2017 to present I'm fairly okay with except for I Need a Hero, which I need to go and redo with the leads sitting lower in the mix.

Basically every piece over a year ago is going to have serious mix issues excepting some of my trap. I don't know how to stress how much I had no idea about that stuff LOL. I could probably open those project files but the problem remains that I no longer have any of the instruments I made them with bahahaha

Thanks for the recommendation! Send me a PM with some of your old stuff in return, eh?

[JUSTIFY THE HEAT]

lol, up that BPM a little, change up the hi hats and you have a super aggressive drum and bass. You have serious strength with your synths. What tools are you using to make those growls and basses?

There's so much going on in the background here. Sweet pads and samples ^o^

ActualElf responds:

Thank you Quarl

I hadn't had the thought about an up-tempo version but I hear it now in my head, I've been listening to so much really modern dubstep lately that the inspiration kinda flushed into this track and took it in that direction.

Most of my sound design is done in Serum, the LFO shaping and workflow really works for me. I feel at home using it and like I can make deliberate decisions as opposed to stumbling around in synths where I don't know what I'm doing lmao. I tend to find it harder when I can't visually see how I'm modulating a sound.

Post processing wise there tends to be multi-bands (OTT), saturators, various free VSTs and I've been working on a "Big Phatty" effect rack that is going pretty well but I have yet to use in a song.

The basses in the section from 3:14 were written really weirdly, making each bass and recording them to the same audio track, I'm mid transition from my old laptop to my new PC so those CPU limitations still had a hold of me for this song.

Thanks for checking in, always happy to hear from you <3

[Since We Fell Apart]

Hell yeah N-3RDA, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this when the track started up because I immediately picked up on the digital instruments. Plus I was thumbing through a new book. You were competing with David Lagercrantz's "The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye." About halfway through the song I put the book down and started the track again from the beginning with my headphones on. Then I looped it a bunch of times.This track kicked fire.

My only gripe is how the track just... starts. Do something about that. Create some atmosphere. Maybe add a sample of a passing train or a dog rubbing it's but on a rug. Anything would be better than nothing.

The writing is great. The rhythms are spectacularly all over the place. All inside 4/4 but it's not like anyone cares. You can do a plenty with the standard duple or triple meter. The sound of digital instruments stop mattering really quick. Hell, after a few listens I forgot what real instruments even sounded like. Loved this a lot <3

ADR3-N responds:

Yo! Thanks for the review, and the tip! I really need to work on my intros. Isn't as glaring with vocals, but I can never really seem to get an intro I'm happy with, ever.

Fun fact #1, N-3RDA is actually one of my old nicknames, but like, with an A where that dash is because I'm not that cool. 2, there are one or two instances of 7/4 up in the first couple minutes of the track. I forgot where, but I had written most of it in 2/4 and deleted half a measure by accident. Ended up liking it because it made for a pretty sick drum solo.

Part of the digital instrument issue is like I mentioned earlier, not knowing how the hell to use Real Eight properly since its velocity triggers are NOTHING like Shreddage. Subsequent use has been a bit better.

Glad you liked!

[W.M.B.B]

Nice housey beats Elf. Those synth leads had some old school jungle vibes. With a harder crunchier snare instead of a clap snare this could be a Noisia level beat. You ever listen to Noisia? Their house music is unique as phuck.

Seriously digging those lead synths :D

ActualElf responds:

I adore Noisia and sometimes listen to their music purely to alter my production approach, hyper focusing on all the layers as I listen and trying to re-create them in my head fueled by a need to understand and learn.

I love that their approach seems to be half perfectionist, analytical hair splitting and the other half as lol whatever let's see what happens.

Thank you as always Quarl <3

[Eerie Robot]

Damn seq, this is tight. Jammy down tempo. Kind of had more of an Armenian vibe than 1930s but I'm really scratching my head with this years robot day requirement. Did music even exist back then? I'm pretty sure everyone was listening to big band jazz in that era... what the hell does Duke Ellington have to do with robotics?

Sequenced responds:

who needs music when you have memes

[To Save You]

I'm with sequenced on the mixing & mastering but you will always hear that crit from techno snobs. Great work you two. The strings were epic as fuck. Smart move to have two authors working on this given that the artwork seems to have a hard duality.

I had to speed through it a second time when I noticed that lovely piano melody at the end. Was that the only part to feature a piano?? Maybe the mix would have been fuller with some underlying piano chords or little piano motifs through out but given how intentional everything seems, perhaps it was decided not to do so? Either way this is a smart piece and I love it :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Sure! We're always happy to consider serious mixing advice, so that's great. The violin we used is just something else (Embertone's Joshua Bell Violin). The rhythmic strings are Native Instruments' Action Strings, for the most part. We probably used like a million plugins.

Fun story. We went through maybe a hundred artoworks from our own favorites in order to figure out what we both loved, felt inspired by, AND knew we could allow our own styles to shine through. We both feel like this artpiece is perfect in all those regards. There's some crazy good art on NG for sure.

I (LSD) felt like I wanted to include a little homage to what I'm perhaps most known for musically; the piano. There's something natural about playing an actual instrument (which hopefully adds to the emotion). Composing with a computer can certainly be great too.

There is some piano at one other part, but it's only light and a bit hidden. It's easiest to hear between 3:07 and 3:12, slightly to the right in the mix, playing the same melody as the violin. Other than that, we didn't feel the piano fit the other parts that well. The mix is probably not as much an arrangement issue, as a production one. We'll work on that some, after the competition. Thanks for listening, and for the neat review!