Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[Let Me Out of America]

Loved that intro melody. Upbeat with a few jazzy sour notes to get my attention. The work you put into the melodies here is superb! It got a little hectic with the vocal samples around two minutes tho. Side chain those drums to the front and drop some of that hi emphasis! Wait... what was 3:44 about??

I also felt like that kit was kind of flat. Drum and bass usually puts a fat emphasis on a huge kit. To be honest, the whole mix sounds thin to me. No worries, I still love the track. I just wish there was a nice round subby bass holding things down instead of that lo to mid slappy bass. Heck, a round sub layer can fit on top of what you already got :)

Very experimental but enough tonal familiarity for me to still groove to it. I can tell you put serious work into this. I just wish every moment was as clean as the first two minutes.

Great work Cacola :D

Cacola responds:

Thank you for the compliments and criticisms!There were a lot of ideas put into this track, so not all of them were flawlessly exuecuted, lol, but I'll take all that into consideration!

3:44 I dropped the volume to fuck with your expectations to create tension to transition from slow to fast drums

[Catacombs-Metaljonus]

I just wanted to chime in to compliment those drums as well. Sexy down tempo rolls and fills <3

Metaljonus responds:

Thanks man! I just acquired getgooddrums and I am loving the power these have to offer.

[Thunderdome]

Damn tight Danman. I really liked the pace of the percs. The strings had really strong dynamics too. I loved the way this changed up so much. Super colorful textures. Pro.

Danman87 responds:

Oh hey, Quarl! Glad to still see you around here! Happy you liked the track, thanks so much for leaving a review! :)

[Downpour]

I mean, I love it but I'm siding with Varsity. A high pitch sine wave or a punchy piano would make a great lead here. A motif melody can help the track stand out in someones memory. This track would be on another level with some kind of brain piercing lead.

Something else that helps a track stand out in someones memory is some kind of voice sample or audio clip. I mean, it would probably change what you were going for but something as simple as Homer Simpson saying "doh" softly in the background over and over again with slight reverb would have helped the track stand out a bit.

Do it.

ActualElf responds:

Viewing this as a standalone track I totally agree with the both of you, really solid advice and criticism, thank you for that. Whenever I listen back to this track I feel the arrangement feels incredibly lonely with no solidly stated melody, which is exactly what I was going for at the time. Just a feeling of pure loneliness and hearing eerie things shifting around you whilst you're in the dark, so that weird slightly empty feeling the track gives off to me from a production standpoint I guess was in my mind kind of the point of it upon writing.

Thanks to you guys though and one or two other comments I've had more of a shift of focus to viewing my tracks as a whole more often instead of honing in and making the harmony or sound design the focal point, something I do need to pay more attention to.

Thank you as always for reviewing Quarl, you always steer me in the right direction or point out things I don't always notice myself, it means a lot (Homer may now make an appearance in a track someday) <3

[AIM - DRUGS]

I loved those juicy synths. Super fly melodies. This track bounces. It's hard not to envy how cool it is. I think it's fair to say the drum could use a little extra kick but I'm also a snooty drummer.

ActualElf responds:

Thank you Quarl <3

I agree that the drums could use a bit more punch and weight, I started the track quite small and cute to follow with the art inspiration but somewhere along the way it became bigger and fuller and I never thought to adjust the percussion to compensate, thank you again for popping in every now and again, it really means a lot!

[Distorted Artifacts]

A good four and a half minutes. I loved those quirky melodies and squeaky pads. Rhythm section stayed interesting too. Sassy 303 bass at 1:13.

If I may make one critical remark, it felt like the drums could have been way more powerful. Looks like the wave shape of the file has plenty of bass. I don't get the cleanest mix downs but something in this mix is kind of over powering the other instruments. Perhaps more emphasis on a punching drum kit might drive this better. Whats the bpm?

Good Thor I love that piano at the end. BRING THAT FORWARD. It's so soft. I want to hear those sweet jazzy melodies but my ears are old and wrinkled.

Great track, one last question. Was that sudden end meant to loop around? :)

CrystaluxX responds:

Sorry for the late response.

I could have made the Drums louder and punchier but I wanted it like this.
I make nearly all my Tracks with loud and overpowered bass because I like the heavy sound.

The bpm are 170.

The end was meant to be like this because I thought it sounds crazy and interesting.

and thank you for the review!

-Crys

[Puppet Master]

wooo, inspiration credits. Loved that goofy melody. I'm not sure how much side chaining you use but I'd have made those kick and snare drums punch through a little more :D

Loved how dirty this was :]

larrynachos responds:

Glad you liked it quarl! I was going to add another punchier snare, but I never got around to it. I sidechained the kick though, as well as one of the hi hats.

I don't really use triplet notes much in my music aside from hi hat patterns, so it was refreshing when I kept leaving it on while making melodies.

thx for the review as always <3

[RIDDIM]

Spooky af. I waited all day so I could get home and review this with my headphones. Sounded lit on my laptop when I was getting ready for work in the morning. Talk about pay off. You worked hard on this. The quality is top notch and those evolving synth bass leads were pro.

I'm wondering what kind of money you paid for your laptop? I haven't seen an audio program crash a computer since 2007. You need to save all your lunch money and get a decent machine.

ActualElf responds:

Wow you have no idea how much that meant to me, thank you!

My production set up is a bit of a funny topic amongst me and my friends, my laptop is a fairly outdated hand-me-down that my parents bought to send emails with years ago and all I have for mixing purposes are a small bluetooth speaker and some earphones (I'm very poor right now ahaha). It's such a case of making the best of what I have at the moment, having to learn what good mixes sound like on my low quality equipment and referencing from there.

I'm saving my lunch money and in the meantime learning what I can so I can spend it wisely.

Thank you again <3

[∀malgamation - Falling Through]

This is like some old school Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. It's not very loud but neither were their tracks back in the 90's. Just chill sounds. Curious if you've found the glory of layering drums? I like to use two or three snares simultaneously to create new snares. Same with the kick drum. It takes some experimentation, not all snares compliment each other but you can aim to cover the sound spectrum of lows to highs and get really full drum sounds.

You can apply that same technique to lead synths, pads, basses... I mean, you're already layering sounds like drums and synths to make songs but you can really compliment a mid bass with a low sub bass and no one will know the difference. People will be like "damn, that bass is so huge" :D

Skiddle responds:

Thanks, Quarl! I'll definitely use these techniques the next time I make DnB :D