Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Thinking]

Nice! I loved those harmonies. Great melodies! Sounds like it's time for you to focus on mixing and mastering. I'm going to bullet a few things you may or may not already know. FYI, I use Reason so what I say might need a different fix in FL. Also, my hearing is going so you can use that factoid to gauge the usefulness of anything I post.

- Panning creates the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are. You can pan your instruments and lower their levels to help create space in your mix. Not everything needs to be panned though. Bass frequencies should get mixed towards the center. Pads can go to the sides. When I mix my drums, I put my bass drums and snares towards the middle while the aux percussion does whatever I think sounds best, left or right.

-In reason, I like to split certain audio signals so that one instrument gets sent to two simultaneous mixer channels. I will then pan the two channels in opposite directions and drop their levels. Both signals can be treated individually and can add a level of depth to the instrument that the mix might have been missing.

- Sidechaining is a useful tool in Reason, no idea what the equivalent in FL is. You should be able to use the level of one sound to control the level of something else in FL. Bass drums are a great tool for controlling the level of your sub bass. The sub bass in your mix is super over powering, so using the bass drum to momentarily duck the level on your sub would create a lot of space and structure.

-Listen to the pros! There is a reason why you see the same people in the industry ten years on. The pros know what they are doing. If you can hear a difference between their mix quality and yours, you know there is still room to improve your work. Aim to achieve that crisp sound you hear from your favorite artists!

-Watch youtube videos from the pros AND amateurs. See what other people are doing to achieve their sounds, if just for inspiration. The most helpful thing I ever did was collaborate with Stan-SB back in college. Just seeing his audio files taught me so much about my mixing tools and the DAW itself. No improvements can be made living in a vacuum. Stay active :D

Hope this review isn't seen as obnoxious. Just trying to help nachos. Love what I'm hearing. You got space to grow and so do I. Keep pumping out music :)

larrynachos responds:

I did pan my sub towards the middle, but I chose to have the bass pluck panned slightly for a synthwave-y effect. I panned the synths at 1:26 super hard, but they still don't sound as big as I wanted them too. Is there a certain plugin I should be using for stereo panning/widening?

I'm pretty sure I side chained everything that needed to be. I probably should have lowered the sub and sidechained it a bit harder and for longer.

I definitely know what you mean by crisp, but I still have no idea how to do that. My songs are always so... uncontrolled? Maybe I don't automate enough, but I feel like there are some techniques I don't know that would help me get to the pro mixing level. I don't know where the good tutorials are at, and I can't wanna pay for college ><

I've lived in a vacuum my whole life, same house, same town. And change is hard.

[Re:Reveris]

Nice! Never heard the original song but I love Troisnyx. Why not not link to the original track in your description? I love the elements here. I just wish the mix was a little cleaner.

I reiterate a lot of what RealFaction felt. The mix sounds pretty high end. Maybe up the mids on the distortion of that guitar to help balance out those highs? I'd lower the levels on those crash cymbals a little. Crash cymbals take up a ton of space but don't need to be very loud to effect the quality of the entire track. I used to wham on my crash cymbals so much in high school. I've learned to be a littler more conservative with them as my hearing has dissipated over the years. It's a piece of percussion that mixed into something, can be a whisper but still have a ton of presence.

You can improve drum rhythms if you add some variety to the velocity of drum hits. I used to automate the levels on my hi hats to emulate the crescendos and decrescendos of a live drummer. I'd focus on putting that kind of variety into those bass kicks. For those double pedal rhythms I'd use a slightly higher velocity for the first kick hit. It's a small detail but we notice that kind of thing.

Love this track! Could you give me a recommendation for one of your original tracks? I love metal :)

ADR3-N responds:

The original is over in the sidebar, but I could probably drop it in the descrip, sure.

Yes, the mix is super dirty, partly because I only now am figuring out multiband compression can do what an EQ does, but better. Part of the whammed crashes is in the master bus and I'm not sure where that came from but will do. Maybe compress them less and let the room do the work.

Mix is a tad gainy and high. I'm still learning my way around this genre. Coming from swooshy EDM and Trap, you get used to that fizz.

Also, yeah, still getting a feel for kick velocity. E-drums don't have a great deal of sensitivity either. Need a new set.

As for my original tracks, Jesus, they all suck. Old Wounds was fp'ed tho. That's more of a ballad. Venom and Devil in the Mirror are crappier mixed because I'm a noob, but you might dig.

Thanks for the awesome review!

[I made this in my sleep.]

This is really cool, don't call it garbage. I can relate to your vibe but it's not a good ad strategy. A lot of artists and musicians work in one of two mindsets. Some get super arrogant and think they're hot shit. I suffered from that mindset for a long time. Then you have the overly modest artists that self deprecate themselves into obscurity. You fall into that second category but it's wrong. You've been producing for so long, and you've been consistent about it. Your work is prolific. You have a very unique personality.

This track is really dope and goes to a lot of places. It had two super distinct parts but each motif evolved. The melodies were tight. I loved that reverse drum rhythm. Love it when tracks rubato the tempo... I used to do that in every song I wrote. Must be a bias :]

This has a down tempo Aphex Twin vibe. I want to comment on how much I loved that end but I let it loop too many times. It didn't feel like the end anymore. It's a good loop :D

Father-of-Death responds:

holy shit i do gota stop putting negative comments on my shit but i they aren't some ad strategy thats for sure. I'm going through some dumb shit lately and idk.... and newgrounds feels so dead at the moment yet its the only place that listens to my music so you're right i shouldnt be spamming sad comments all the time it's probably wearing some people out..... i dont even work on songs anymore i just sit down and make little beats/loops and feel like im just shitting out stuff. Just havent been able to focus lately, or ever really....

QUARL YOU ARE AWESOME! :) I'll be more upbeat in my comments from now on.

[Sensor]

Edgy and cool! I'm typically far removed from anything "minimalistic" but this was crisp and engaging. I thought some of your decisions were super unexpected. Really creative stuff. You made alot of atmosphere with very litthe. My favorite thing is either that loud breathing pad or that snare. Sounded like a baseball hat hitting homers ^o^

Jassummisko responds:

Oh hey Quarl! I'm happy to see you're still around. Glad you liked it.

[YOU KNOW WHAT!?]

This is food.

Father-of-Death responds:

QUARL MAKE MORE SONGS N STUFF, hope all is well my n***a

[Ebullience (Original Mix)]

I got really excited around 30 seconds in when the bass said hi. The melodies are super fun and unexpected. Cool drum fills and background stuffs. I really liked those piano pad melodies. This would be so much fun to remix ^o^

Mich responds:

Bass kicking in is always fun. :3 Thanks for the praise Quarl, and feel free to remix if you want; you can poke me if you'd like some stems exported to play with. :)

[Flow]

This is really relaxing. Works great as a short loop. I'd love to give you better feed back but I'm not well educated in a retro genre like this. Adding a cowbell would take the song out of its decade but I think some more percussion or background noises like that would be cash. imo :)

JDawg00100 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you like it :D

[Evil (instrumental)]

I really liked those drum rhythms at the beginning. Unexpected quick bass kick hits. Reese bass is tight too. Really tight track Ricky. You got a dubstep vibe but with some 16th note hi-hat rhythms and 32nd note fills this could be a Prodigy level break beat.

I'm really impressed with that reese bass. Kids these days write the filthiest basses.

RickyCroci responds:

thanks ;)

[God Uzi]

Happy Pico Day Deshiel! I enjoyed hearing your advanced percussion. Next level beats. Mix was a little crunchy but I usually get peeved when people talk to me about mix quality so I won't do it to you, on this most holy of days. Would hate to get any salt on the pico wafers and wine I'm about to pass around for pico day communion.

DESHIEL responds:

Happy Pico Day to you too Quarl. Sorry for the quality haha. Tried to make it sound enjoyable, guess I was too selfish in that department.

[For A Small World This Place Sure Has Big Problems [LD38]]

Was gonna call you out on the genre but it looks like you took care of that for me in the authors description. Thanks I guess.

Those pitch bent melodies are super fly. The organic sound of simple drum samples gives this track a funk vibe. Turns out electro-funk is a genre. Gank that genre John. Funk is totally an option :D :D :D

johnfn responds:

Heheh. To be honest when I write music I don't think about genres at all. And then NG asks me for a genre and I don't know what to say. WHAT POSTMODERN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE WERE YOU CONTEMPLATING WHEN YOU WROTE THAT SONG? BETTER THINK HARD BECAUSE IF YOU CHOOSE WRONG 100 PEOPLE ARE GONNA SAY THAT A DIFFERENT POSTMODERN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE FITS SLIGHTLY BETTER

I'm glad you like it tho!