Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nosferatu Tales]

I didn't find it super halloweeny or spooks but it was still a nice listen. Really laid back and easy to relax to. Catchy cords. Good resolves. I could see this played on a loop at a party. The track could easily erk out 40 minutes unnoticed. Unless that drunk girl shows up and demands we play the spice girls. Ughhhh, I hate it when she plays the spice girls.

S3C responds:

thanks Quarl! how are things holding up on your end

[Broken World]

Can't believe I didn't drop you a review. The whole track is great but I'm wondering what the creative motive was behind losing that "horrible world" sample to the drums at 00:20. I could hear a liquid track letting that sample play out all the way and delaying the song for a few more measures before kicking the drums back in but you decided to get right into the track instead. In doing so that sample gets momentarily over powered. I'm not sure if the track would really be at all better or worse if that sample were played with but that's really the only problem I have. The drums are sexily mixed, all the pads are perfect, bass isn't obnoxious. This track is gold :)

YakovlevArt responds:

I like your review!

So my thinking was it'd be cool to let the drums hit right as he says the title. It wasn't something to think about heavily, but i feel like letting the sample play out and then hitting the drums is just so overused and often times feels like it's there to fill the silence. I wanted it to feel like it was part of the track more. Honestly it wasn't a major decision and mostly going off the rhythm of the vocal mixed with the drums.

[An Improv on Life]

I love the lo-fi crackling going on in this recording. No bullshit, just authentic melodic exploration. I'll watch the video next. The technology definitely gets in the way a little but gives me a nostalgic college vibe. Spending hours in practice rooms with pianos, recording to garage band on my lap top. Thanks for giving us this shadow :)

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thank you for listening and for reviewing, Quarl!
Yeah :) While the sound certainly isn't the best, the authenticity is worth something, in the very least.
I'm glad that this did something for you ^ ^
It's really fun to spend some time playing on real pianos at the university, since I only have an electrix one at home :D

[°°Suffer°°]

Fits perfectly with the lyrics for Take on Me. That's pretty 80's, imo. I would know. I was born in the 80's. That makes me a professional 80's snob. On 80's day in highschool I'd just show up as myself because I always looked like the 80's. People used to call me "the thriller," after the Michael Jackson song Thriller released in 1982. did you know that the original game boy was released in 1989? That's the same year I was born.

I guess technically that makes me a 90's kid but I was an 80's baby. Look man, I practically AM the 80's and if you disagree with me I'll have to leave you a scathing review about your song. On that note, cool song. I'd have used some more hi hats to make the drum rhythm a little more dynamic but then it might not have had the same 80's vibe and we're all about those 80's. You could have also sampled some original 808 sounds and been like "look at me, I used an 808." But you didn't and I guess that's cool and all.

80's

Whirlguy responds:

Damn skippy! In terms of dynamics I could have used some nice LinnDrum toms in there I suppose. Personally I wasn't even born in the 80's, which is bogus. To be fair though, not a lot of 90's music was out in February 1990. I grew up with 80's music, so technically I am an 80's kid too. Totally! Thanks for the the bodacious review, I give it 80/80 rubik's cubes.

80's

[forever]

I don't know why but the spacing of your name in that url made me think "WILD-e-KEIZER" Your so will son. The willest. Skwillex.

Sequenced responds:

fags 4 trump

[Iηнυмαη Eяrør]

I some how missed this track, sorry Nachos. Cool to see it in the top three line up! How did you get 180 downloads? I haven't seen that many downloads since back in the olden days. I'm lucky to get 10 downloads on anything anymore. I'm only slightly envious.

Airy, breezy, drum and bass. That reese was nice and juicy. Gotta agree with strykur, those drums that kicked in with the reese were nice and fat. I wish you looped it a little longer. Still, with all the change ups you managed to produce a really creative track. The concept behind it all tuned me in as well. Love!

larrynachos responds:

I have a track with over 1000 downloads I think (or maybe 10,000?). Geometry dash makes it really easy, but I think 180 people just really liked the track, because I can't find a GD level with my song id.

I try to keep my songs shorter, because people always shit on my tracks for being too repetitive. Glad you liked it though! I enjoyed your robot day track as well :D

[hehe xd]

Is that the same reese synth you used in the "look how stupid easy it is to make dubstep" facebook video? I'd say I actually liked this track but then I'd be afraid that you think my taste in music is simple minded and bland. Art sucks man, be grateful that it comes easy to you.

Cool track, regardless of what you think about it.

Sequenced responds:

i don't care what people like its jut a silly genre

hehe

its an add on to that synth

[Gear City]

That was awesome, super crisp mids and highs. Super heavy tension, I love it. Arrangement is pro. I'm assuming that's a drum machine? If so, you got a little Robot right there in your song. HI ROBOT DRUM MACHINE SORRY IF YOUR A REAL PERSON :D

My only gripe is that it sounded like there were no sub sonic bass frequencies. The bass was a tiny bit underwhelming which is unfair because everything else is soooo goood, I could fuck to this song. Seriously, awesome awesome awesome.

TSRBand responds:

Thanks so much! Good ear, that's EZDrummer 2's metal kit you're listening to with a bit of tweaking on the kick and snare.

Sorry to hear the bass isn't quite up to scratch! Seems like a bit of a letdown, thanks for pointing it out tho, I'll definitely have to go back in and have a look at that sometime :)

[Robot Junkyard]

I really liked a lot of the experimentation I heard. There were some super clean synths in there and the arrangement was flawless. The one thing I'd have done differently is the tone of the drum kit. I loved the effects on everything but that kit could have punched me harder with some more EQing, compression, or layers.The kit was kind of thin. It sounded like it was under a filter the whole time, don't be a tease. Sorry to meander about the drums...

I love Kamikaye's work, cool shout out! Always makes me happy to see people tagging each other. I'll believe you when you said this took a long time to make. Composing songs out of seemingly random noises takes so much patience. A chord progression can keep a song together but IDM, glitch, brain dance... those genres take patience. It requires balance between experimentation and composition. Neurotic programming. Good luck shadow dreamer :]

LucidShadowDreamer responds:

Thanks for the review and for the support :)

I'm glad that you liked my silly experimenting. This is very different from the usual kind of music I make, which is very heavy on chords, melodies, and arrangement. Especially since I mostly compose solo piano stuff :V
But I always found it fun to see what all I can cook together whenever I am given a reason to :D

I totally agree with you about the drums. I did compress them some, but I probably went way too soft with it. Drums and mixing are my greatest weaknesses when it comes to composing in general!

Yeah, I love Kamikaye's stuff too! Along with a ton of other artists here on NG. I atually follow quite a lot of artists in secret >:D
You are correct here too. Most of the time went into finding/altering samples that'd fit okay together, and figuring out how I wanted to arrange them.
That said, non-experimental tracks tend to take even longer for me to make, as I put a lot more effort into arranging and balancing the mix when I try to make something, especially if it's orchestral. I am relatively slow at producing tracks in general though, so it's no surprise xD

Sorry for the side note!
Thanks for the review, and good luck to you too!