Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[Dewey]

I remember the Lifted forums used to have hour practice competitions where artists would start something from scratch and the deadline was one hour. It's funny how some great stuff can come out under pressure and weird time restrictions sometimes. It's also funny how bad things can get too.

This really took me back actually. Reminded me of a lot of the old stuff we got here from people like Stan-SB and Rawrthaas. I liked that you did something other than that fat punchy snare you hear as a layer in 99% of drum and bass right now. I'm so guilty of it. Fuck, I need to start downloading some Rawrthaas right now. This is total plug:

http://rawrthaas.newgrounds.com/

I'm sure you'll be able to make connections and similarities. Great job Mich.

Mich responds:

I felt like I needed such a restriction after several sessions where I just focussed to hard on a synth and got totally sick of the "melody" I wrote for it, then abandoned it. I was just super glad to put out a track. Defo for from polished though :p

Checking out some of Rawwrthaas' stuff now, I can vaguely see some similarities, though at much higher quality. Thanks for the recommendation. :)

As for the snare, it's probably due to not spending more than 10 minutes selecting appropriate drum samples to work from, otherwise I'm sure I would've landed on something punchier.

Thanks muchos for the review :-)