Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[LS&L - Dust]

Needs a lead.

No offense man but this song is kind of boring. My opinion, it could have used a banging distorted sawtooth filtering through mad crazy like. Those vox samples are unbecoming of this track. The guy says "I bring death." I wish he brought pillows and blankets instead.

This song is incredibly empty. Throw a pad in there for great justice. Anything in the background would help fill the track up. You started to hint at it at times but something bright like a piano or some strings would have really helped out the track. And don't give me that "oh, but I was going for a really dark and boring atmosphere kind of vibe." This is just lazy all around.

Some more background fx and instruments would really have breathed some life into this. I guess I've already said that but I'll put some emphasis on it. Actually, experiment with putting some heavy distortion on that "lead" you already have and EQ the fuck out of it until you have something powerfull. What DAW you using man?

DLBeezy responds:

Well, I wasn't exactly going for the melt your face off track that most people love to hear. Given that I only spent a couple of hours making this I really just dropped some powerful wobbles in there with a nice back end sub to really WOMP the speakers. I guess I was a bit lazy to add on more effects and random percs but again, I was quite limited on time. I'm trying different things. This wasn't a 100% serious of a track either. Just testing the flexibility of my producing skills. I'm using FL. Though, a lot of my new stuff is the "melt your face off" dubstep.

[S.U.I.A- Augmentation (RD2011)]

lurp.

Saw this sitting in the adverts thread. Right off the bat it sounds like things are clipping pretty hard. If you're not familiar, clipping is distortion that arises when you overdrive the signal. Clipping can be nice in the analog world but digital clipping always sounds really lame. Try compressing your sounds a little and turn some levels down.

I liked what you were playing with in terms of panning. Panning can create the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are so if you pan things up a good bit you can actually turn your levels down and have more room to mix. I noticed that some of the panning was moving from side to side. I always love the sound of that but keep in mind that some speakers can't handle that. Some people will loose a good bit of the sound if you pan like that :(

Other than that I liked what I heard. Awesome melodies, cool rhythm. Drums sounded a little iffy but not enough to really bother me. You're on your way for sure. Keep working on your sound, keep making jams and you'll be pro in no time. Practice makes purfect.

superuberinsaneausm responds:

the clipping in the beginning was NOT deliberate or just a side effcet of the filter i put on it but had nothing to to do with the DAW itself messing up.

yea i had alot of fun with pan-omatic plugin in FL10 maybe too much lol

thanks!!

[{RD2011} Mecha Marauder]

lol

illlll stuff right here. that melodic intro followed by filth mania. on a scale of one to ten, I'd say this is about pretty awesome. you got such a clean sound, maybe if i were to do anything different I'd say some more variety might be nice but the songs so clean I almost don't really care that it loops 100 times. <3

alextheDJ responds:

Thanks! Yah the lack of variety is just laziness on my part. I'll look at it this way - at least I know what my weakness is :P

[Death Of A Robot (RD2011)]

dddfdfdfdfdfdff

I liked a lot of the ideas you used in this track but I had a major issue with the mix and choice of drums. I didn't feel too kindly about that snare. There wasn't enough bass-mid in it and that reverb/ long cut off time sounded kind of messy to me. The track was really short and I felt like it could have gone somewhere else. The background sounds are cash. I loved what I heard sitting back there. The melodies were spen-tastic. I thought that maybe the lead synth could use some distortion/ EQ to phatten it up.

All in all, great work mister. G'luck in the comp :)

RedHydrex responds:

Thanks for the review! I'll do my best to fix the drums and stuff up! I wasn't a huge fan of the drums myself :/...

[LO - On Higher Levels]

annnannnanananana

That reminded me of some early Stan-SB. Melodic, bass driven, heavy classic drum loops. A few ideas I might have played with; more variety in those drum rhythms. After a little while that constant beat gets a little tiresome. Same deal with the melody. I would have liked to of heard a new interval after a certain point. Nothing too big either. An added third or fifth would have been perfect.

You could play with affecting those drums some. A filter at a given point could have really had a massive impact. Some pitch bends could've added some awesome colors to the motif.

I ended up listening to this a lot because of how short it is. At one point I completely forgot it was a short loop and just thought it was a really repetitive song. Finish this and make a full song out of it :)

Oakwood responds:

With all the advice you gave, an extension of this song seems only logical. Thanks man!

[[$k]DreamCoRE]

ararnfufuaufadaddadad

haha, fun track you got going here. I liked it, but I got a few ideas to throw at you. Are you familiar with compression? I might recommend compressing and EQing your drum kick a tad. It's a huge kick but it feels really punchy on my end. I might also say that the mix could use some work. Try panning things up a bit. When you pan sounds they give off the illusion that they're louder than they really are so you can turn the levels down on everything and make more room in your mix. You might be panning already. I have a bad right ear but it really sounded like there could have ben some more space.

That bass at 0:34 was really crunchy. I would have turned it down a little or ran it through a filter. Massive saw synth at 1:10. I like :)

It doesn't sound like you know the miracle of layering yet. Have you ever tried stacking your drums to make new sounds? It sounds like your just using some nice samples. Next time around, get three to four different snares and three to four kicks and make new kits by layering old sounds. This will really widen up your sounds and lead to a plethora of new ideas!

If you're telling people to give the song a second listen when you've only put three hours into it is kind of lame. The most work I've put into a track was two months. That was three years ago. Now a days if it takes more than a day to finish it probably never gets done, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite but all the audio regs know that about me anyays. Keep plugging away and making fun stuff!

SteveKaOs responds:

First off, I'd like to say thanks for reviewing!

Um... As far as the bass, I've tested this guy out in my car just to get a feel 'cuz when I'm producing this on my PC the speakers are awful so I can't get a huge feel on where the bass is going (saving up for headphones FTW?). I've been doing the compressing and EQing for quite some time now back when I was doing hardstyle tracks (which is where your layering is mentioned) but that was when I had some decent headphones to utilize. The whole "I can't hear well" is what's disallowing me to pull full potential in the mastering of my tracks.

Thanks a lot for your comments, even though I threw my arguments I'll no doubt take in mind what you've mentioned (when I get them headphones xD). As far as the track-time-to-completion you mentioned I see where you're coming from and I'm very much trying to work on investing more time into my tracks for that quality assurance. Needless to say, my main problem is when I leave a song and come back to it I forget what I want to do with it. Right now, I'm just in my experimenting phase which is why I really appreciate comments like yours and I'll definitely take it into consideration.

Thanks man!

[[Von Ka]Majesty Inc.]

mur

Hate to burst your bubble, but it's still 4/4.

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons

The drum beat is syncopated but the time signature is unrelated to that. Other than that minorness, the songs pretty cool man. I liked the guitar jamming, and the electronic drums were a fun addition. It sounds like you're still progressing musically so I don't want to get on your case about anything. Just keep jamming and having fun! Peace dude :)

TheSandyman responds:

Hehe, you might be right. Well, not might be, you ARE right, I just asked a couple of mates, and they also said 4/4.
Thanks for the review, mate!

[Let Go (No Lyrics)]

mawr

woah, pretty heavy stuff right here. i really want to hear what happens after that "douchebag" mixes this because my only problem with this song at the moment is the mix. let me know where/ if that final version comes through.

LewisandJenkins responds:

INSULT MY MIXING?! RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRR

yeah no ill let u kno

[Obtrusive.0]

sdfmsdfmsdfksdfk

i think it's just a tad too punchy. you should go back and something to the final version to make it a little less bright. maybe drop a filter on the master out or reese. just an idea/ opinion. also, some of that panning was a little too crazy. dunno.

otherwise i think it's pretty interesting. keep up the good work!

Laqur responds:

The file "Obtrusive.0" has a bad format and can not be opened. I want to change stuff but my computer can't find the .rsn file anymore. If you know of a solution could you pm me?

I could probably do something with the wav file but I'm feeling kind of like screaming at my computer right now.

[SpK*) - Shooting at High Speed]

guh...

couple odd notes at 00:30? wow people are fucking stupid. it's called creativity. i didn't notice anything wrong with the melody. if you want, you could listen to pachelbel all day long and you'd still be an asshole to assume that you know more about music is every time someone else introduces a melodic idea away from a triad or a major interval. that kind of nit picking pisses me off to no end. originality is under rated and those few comments highlight what i find to be heavily hypocritical musical opinions. hey chron, evil-dog... have you guys ever heard of a tritone? have you guys ever tried to be unique, original, or creative?

I took off a point due to the fact that chip tune shit is glorified baroque mentality and it has no creativity to it whatsoever. this whole comp was a shit on my chest chron fap fest. puke in my mouth.

Spikrodd responds:

I wouldn't read this review again if I was paid to. YOU'S SCARY CORY

murr