Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Liftoff]

Woof, love that hip hop sound bleeding into this. Brass and guitars, lovely as usual. lol, 1:31 has that jump-up dnb vibe but mad down tempo xD

Filthy good :3

sorohanro responds:

Thanks. When lack of caffeine kicks, everything I make is mad downtempo...

[Inspire]

Great rhythms, snappy snare drums, fun syncopations, beautifully done melodic elements. Perfectly creative <3

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you so much! Great to hear from you, Quarl!

[I'm a Biscuit (feat. Lightning Striker)]

Big drums <3

sorohanro responds:

That coming from you means a lot. Thanks :)

[Overtime]

Absolutely fresh. Slightly minimal but each element is absolutely beautiful. I feel like when I write music it's a ton of elements working together and the lesser shit gets hidden. You mixed this in a way that I can hear everything perfectly, nothing is being hidden, and it's all good. Had to give this a listen on the living room speakers, was worth it for that sub. Classic subby pitch bends, clean arps padding the atmosphere, cute plucked strings, snappy up pitch snares, wonderful vocal samples, orc instruments used sparingly, cute synth voice modulations.

Beautifully written <3

DigitalProdigy responds:

Wow!!!! Thank you so much for that review. I'm used to mixing orchestra and film music which you know have so many stems, so it's natural for some instruments to get lost in the mix, but for me mixing EDM, where there's not to many stems it's easier to showcase all of the instruments and sounds a lot easier. Still, mixing is a whole art in its own and I still have not mastered that as of yet and let's not even talk about mastering OMG!! Lol
You are so appreciated!!

[Wood and Winds]

Since you asked for feedback on the Discord channel I'll totally mention some stuff! The music theory is spot on. Love the melodies, harmonies, rhythms, and ideas. Not trying to insult what you know but the mix quality is amateur. Mix down and fidelity tools can take years to figure out on your own but you can do it without watching tutorials on youtube. I'd recommend watching those videos and tutorials though because figuring it all out by ear while twisting knobs sucks. Even just one tutorial can propel you in good directions for years.

When I mention fidelity tools, I'm talking about devices such as equalizers, compressors, filters, stereo imagers, maximizers... there's a ton of tools but the two most helpful will be the first two I mentioned. I just gave BandLab a look because I forgot what it was. I'm not sure if bandlab includes those types of tools but at the very least you could look for them and see if you got more goodies up your sleeve.

One last thought because I listened to this a few times, that high pitch synth tone at 4:06 is the worst. You can totally juggle tones like that into a mix for big bass dance genres but it feels so out of place in this. The song is generally relaxing and wholesome, then that tone shows up late and ruins everything you had built up in the previous 4 minutes. I love a lot of contrast and spontaneity but I'm not so certain it's working out here. If that tone did one thing right, it made me appreciate everything that came before it so much more.

Sorry if that comes off a little harsh but I do want to compliment the writing you did that was perfect! Great music theory, fun to listen to, nice long composition, bad ending. Keep trucking towards your album, I wish you best with it!

SirSandman0 responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I am going to start researching how to properly mix audio since I've noticed that being a common criticism for most of my songs. Maybe I'll write a better outro to the song once I get it figured out

[I Wrote an Album but I Scrapped It]

"lol, new EP coming out maybe at some point, dunno, lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Material sounds tight af. Word up to the contraceptive your parents didn't use! I really liked the mix on 4:26, super crisp.

lol, 7:24 hitting with that sad/happy energy that can mysteriously sell popular songs. Favorite track, sue me.

YasiinClemens responds:

I feel like I grew up on stuff like semi charmed kinda life by third eye blind so I love writing happy songs with wild lyrics and tones lol

[Heaven Energy]

woof, love that goofy rhodes upstroke chord bop! Reeses are tight, great sounds Dieswyx. I'm angry to be listening to this on a tablet with no bass but I'll get around to it with a better sound system asap. MY WEDDING IS THIS WEEK, BUT I'LL MAKE TIME FOR YOU BECAUSE LOVE.

Dieswyx responds:

🥺🥺🥺

[AIM - Moments In Life]

Beautiful work AceMantra. Inspired melodies and composition. Suits the JRPG style and vibe from the art perfectly well. Every note works together nicely. If I were judging this year I'd have to discriminate all sorts of small ideas but a game designer or animator could honestly just stick this in the background of their project without any problems or interference. I hope you know that your work is really good and that someone out there needs your music for their projects.

AceMantra responds:

Thank you for the kind words, and stopping by for a listen! I really appreciate it. :)

[Racing Tides]

Had my headphones off tbh, was gonna just pop in and give you a five so I can go back to nursing my covid but I could hear those glittering piano arps from where my headphones were and I had to put them on. After giving this a few listens I'm thinking it's a little over compressed, could just be my clogged sinus's. Elements are all great though. Horns are fucking beautiful. Melodies are killing it. Beat is chill, giving attention to all the other elements. Everything is beautiful.

That aux percussive woodblock might be a little too loud? It's bigger than the snare. Beautiful tone though. I think the hi hat might also be a little too loud. Sorry, I'm only nit picking because I said it sounded over compressed and I can't just leave it there without pointing out one or two things that might help? I over fuck my own mixes all the time, I'm a damned hypocrite.

Next time I send my man to vegas I'm gonna make sure he brings home something better than covid.

Casper responds:

Definitely over compressed, it was even worse than this, got carried away with boosting my mids on the bass and making the drums punchy lol, I would have fixed it but the project is buffering like hell and my cpu can't take it sooooo.. I guess I'll keep this in mind for the next track lol. The chords are also way too stacked, some layers are probably not even audible, I mostly experimented with this track since It's my first actual attempt at an 80s synthwave vibe even if I tend to use the same elements in my regular beats. Compared to my other stuff the mix isn't as good as it could be but with 101% raw DAW processing power I think it's good enough lmao

[Débonnaire Inc.]

Sorry I didn't leave a review earlier, I'm a slob when it comes to listening to stuff but damn if this isn't some really slick breaks and licks. Loved the drum filtering! You gave every sound and instrument a home to chill. Brutal Daru <3

Daru925 responds:

Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the review!