Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 :-)

[Crunk Loop (Ft. Lil Jon)]

pro beats

Father-of-Death responds:

YEE DAWG, RESPECT

[Shiver]

lol, nuero is a hard genre to pull off. You did a really good job but might I suggest not relying on that deep skrillex snare everyone defaults to and instead looking for something a little grimier? You could always keep the original snare as a background layer and just raise that thin snare layer you already have a little more? That bass kick might have benefitted from slightly longer release? I'm nit picking, mix is always hard as fuck with nuero but this is pretty damn tight. That reese was nice and dirty :')

Reminded me of the old API & Paragon days. This was actually way cleaner than one of those old nuero tracks. I just went back on Paragon to listen to Airbass and Chaoz Devotion... holy shit has dnb changed since back then. This track puts those sleepy legends to shame. Good job Rav :D :D

Ravitex responds:

Oh wow, didn't expect to get a long review/comment/thing today. Thanks for the feedback! I admit tho, the snare kinda sucked here. The reason why I keep my kicks short tho is because they really mess with my sidechain. I do have some ideas on how to improve that in the future. Anyway just wait a few more days, there's another neuro track coming, just alot better, with more fitting drums.

[Jim's Theme - Piano]

Stop writing goodly. Soon it's going to look weird when half of my favorite tracks are by you and I'll have to be honest with myself about whether or not I'm stalking you :\

Half star minus because I feel like you could be composing arrangements with additional instruments just as fucking dope as this. You have so much talent as a piano composer. Why not ask someone like Mihai Sorohan if he'd be interested in doing some additional instrumentation for something like this? Why not ask him if he'd perform for this piece in particular? You can tell him I suggested it. He's very nice and at the very least would be too busy to say yes but I'd be willing to bet he'd still be down to try. I have a lot of respect for him :)

Don't let my suggestions slow you down at all. Being in a comfortable creative mode where the music just flows is something I envy. Just keep pumping out stuff and you'll be dead before you know it because life is really short but at the very least you'll have made a ton of radical stuff :'0

Sorry this review got spooky right there at the end.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Haha, I actually recorded this more than a month ago, so my pace isn't that fast. I intend to compose something new real soon though! Thanks a ton for the compliments ;)

I actually have a few collaborations brewing right now, but they're on slow-cooking mode :'D
Most of them won't use many real instruments, but some of them will include song! A few of them are covers, and a couple are originals. It'll still take a while to get them anywhere ready for uploading, I think :p
As for a collab where I play the piano, and someone else actually plays another instrument for the track, I think that's something I have yet to do (IRL band playing and such obv doesn't count, as I've done that a lot)! It's a cool suggestion. That said, I think I'm ready to leave this song be, and move to newer projects for now :)

I do know of sorohanro! I haven't personally exchanged too many words with him, but if I end up making a similarly themed piece in the future, I might steal your idea and contact him! :D

I still need to cover "WWW" for you. I find myself playing that riff a few times a week xD
If I end up making an actual piano cover, is that something I could upload to youtube/NG?

I can see where you're coming from with that philosophy, heh. I have a blog where I occasionally write some interesting thoughts as well, so I don't find it to be that creepy ;)

Thanks!

[Get Into It]

This was some super clean liquid dnb. Drums sounded a little crunchy, maybe strap a filter or EQ on them and lightly shave off some of those higher frequencies a little? IMO.

Melodies and arps were beautiful. Reese synth was nice. A little too conservative for a nuero reese but perfect for liquid. Those female vox were a great touch too. Reminded me of Ben Sage's old dnb tunes. Check out this track by Ben Sage & Subsonic and tell me you don't like this :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARzboHt1Gwo

MavMusic responds:

Thanks for the tips! I do agree that the drums sounded a little too loud and crunchy, which is my fault. and i listened to the track and it sounds great. It could help me with a new song idea but i wont copy off of it xD Anyways, thanks for the tips and feedback, I appreciate it.

[The Aberrant Snowflake]

Beautiful, emotional, melodies. As a huge sap I'll admit this honestly jerked a couple tears. Don't let that go to your head. I'm super easy to jerk these days. You have good hands. Uh, I mean for playing the piano. Your hands are good at playing piano.

Punnuendo intended.

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Little known fact: This composition was actually partially inspired by "Watching Winter Waterfalls". After learning to play your riff, I realized I haven't made many compositions where there isn't as much of a direct melody, as a repeated pattern of notes with the right hand. Even rhythmically, you may notice the similarities!

I'm glad you enjoyed this :)
Also, I do indeed like my hands. They're very useful when it comes to playing nice melodies indeed ^ ^

[Atom (Demon-Wolf Remix)]

If there's one negative thing to point out about this it's that atomic bomb sample. I've had friends make fun of atomic bomb samples right before I showed them one of my own tracks with an atomic bomb sample. I think the criticism he was getting at back then was that the idea is super cliche at this point. I kid you not, I felt really dumb showing him my newest song right after he said that. I've always noted atomic samples after that day. You'll hear them in heavy metal, drum and bass, hard styles... fuck man I wouldn't be surprised if Madonna or Lady Gaga decided to be edgy with an atomic sample.

That's basically all I gotta say crit wise. The whole track is super slick. Loved those arp melodies. Maybe those synths were a tad grainy but who am I to judge? I'm a fucking failure. For totes serious, don't listen to me. I'm always wrong.

DEM0NW0LF responds:

That escalated quickly

[Very Tired]

Oh my god. I love this. Good job jamz. Glad I came back around to poke through some more of your musics. This made me super happy. Will 2017 see some more IDM? Please??? I loved the neurotic drum programming.

jambrother2 responds:

I honestly don't know, I don't seem to have much choice on when I'm capable of making certain music. Sometimes it just pours out of me so naturally, but then I can go months/years without being able to. I'm really at the mercy of whatever it is that inspires me. I go through phases where I can only really make one type of music.
I released an IDM album on my bandcamp not too long ago though.
https://youstolemydomain.bandcamp.com/album/void
Thanks for your support Quarl :)