Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The No Name Wonder]

meow

Hey, not a bad go sir! After quickly running through your other tracks, I'd like to say that you could learn a lot from the drums in this track. A primary focus of a lot of electronic genres is a good balance in the sound spectrum. Drum kits need to hit all areas of the spectrum. You got the foundations for a great sound. Try this next time you produce a track: layer more drum sounds. Find a snare piece that hits just the lows, find a snare that hits primarily highs, then grab a snare that sits in the middle. You should also grab one that adds character. Then combine them all. This will create a new snare sound out of lets say four or five different ones. It's a rough technique to try to get at first but with a little practice it will come though. You can do that for everything else on your kit too, granted I'd stick to maybe two or three different kicks... which leads me to a little bit on dynamics...

Dynamics is the softness or loudness of a sound or note. All the sounds in this piece sound like they have constant unchanging dynamics which becomes really static sounding. If you layer your drums, you can utilize all of your kicks on lets say the count of one, then come in at a later time with just one of your three kicks and that will automatically create a softer sound and a greater dynamic range overall. You can also program your drums to play at different velocities over time which might be easier to do in a song like this where there really isn't any layering going on. Dunno, try it out if you can figure it. Another way to get better dynamics I've found is to just throw some delay on to the hi hats and have them sync to the tempo. I've gotten kind of wacky with that lately though. Speaking of the hi hats, most contemporary dnb down plays them in favor of the rest of the kit. You might want to turn them down just a tad.

Just a suggestion, but you might be able to slap a bit of reverb on the lead synth melody. I hear it at the beginning but I think the instrument transposes at around 25 seconds. I'm not sure if you know how to automate yet, but if there's actually two instruments there, try slapping reverb on them so they can take up a bit more space.

I don't want to bore you/ make you read more than you already have so let's just call it a day. Overall, great song sir! Keep producing, you got skill here. Just gotta keep on keeping on :)

Speedfalcon responds:

Thanks a Lot. This has been the most detailed, useful review I have recieved on any of my songs. I will review your tips and try to include some of the things you said the next track I do. Thanks for taking the time =).

[Para - Smog Step Sanctuar]

meowstep

Insane work sir. To everyone complaining about the "lack of rhythm," try counting in 4/4 or 8/8. The structure is there. You just fail to hear divisions between measures because the artist chose awkward syncopations. The time signature remains constant through out.

Really sir, this song is crazy.

Koriigahn responds:

Who's Awesome?

You're Awesome.

:)

[Infinity (W.i.P)]

meow :3

I'm not sure what program you're using so I can only give you general advice. It's your choice to take it as helpful or unnecessary but understand I'm just trying to help you out a bit.

You can add some umpf to this track with some harder drums. This technique will take a little while to perfect, but you can get a wider sound by layering your drum kit with more pieces. Take the snare for example. It's all high end. find another snare sound that has some good mid and lo frequencies and layer them under what you currently have. Then you should find some clever sounds that will give character to the snare. You can do the same thing for all your other kit pieces. This technique will allow you to have your drums attacking the entire sound spectrum and not just one area of it. Once you have a few sounds you like, learn to use an equalizer and a compressor to boost/ cut specific sounds. The rhythms themselves sound fine and dandy so great job with that.

Layering can be a tricky bitch when your first trying to get it so I'll leave my review at that. Try it out. It's really fun when you nail a nice powerful "full" sounding drum kit.

MarioMan94 responds:

Thanks. Very helpful. I reuploaded the song and layered that snare. And I did some EQ'ing. I hope i can finish this song because usually they just sit on my PC half done lol.

[SR - Printer Jamz]

meow :3

haha, I always love hearing your work. I don't think I've ever left you a review though. This comps right up your ally. You have a tendency to do pretty creative stuff. You didn't hold back at all for this one. You got my vote kitten face. I've got nothing really to say other than good job. Keep at it sir!

SineRider responds:

I gotta say the same about your music. I always give it a listen but never seem to review. Thanks for the nice comments. I like how this one came out, although for the contest sake, I don't know if I used enough printer samples listening to other entries. But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[Printer Party]

printz

Great song sir! It sounds a lot better now that the volume issues have been fixed up. I felt like the snare could have been a little fatter but with the exception of the crash cymbal it sounded like you tried to stick to just the printers for the drum kit. Definitely a good move to go for. Good luck sir!

alextheDJ responds:

Thanks for the review! Good luck to you too :)

[(NUB)Super Amen Brothers]

kittens!

Now that the results are out for the comp I feel like I'm obligated to leave you a review... cause like... I really liked your song and seeing as how I was a judge, I didn't want my opinions giving you a false sense of hope :P

Turning down the surrounding aesthetics in the track to just a simple 4-bit video game melody was a really intelligent decision in terms of adding emphasis on the rhythm. Also, those awkward genre decisions were masterfully crafted and thrown together. Old school video game? Drum and bass/ IDM? Beat boxing? Who would have thought? Also, those drum rhythms/ melodies were really pleasing and well composed. Oh yeah, all that and the fact that the sound quality was fucking ace landed you as my #1 vote. Honestly, I've never checked out your music before but it sounds like I have a little bit of homework to do :P

Great work nubz!

nubbinownz responds:

Thank you so much man. I had a great time working on it and I've always gotten a kick out of that old school video game sound. Im really glad you enjoyed it man, and thank you a million for the vote. Feel free to check out my music there's a bunch to wade through ahaha not all of it is any good haha

[Sand Glass]

ar...

guh, been a while since I checked out your page. Changed to reason huh? I remember the shift... except I was moving from garage band. Took me forever to figure out how to run the kit through a filter. I'm curious why your not uploading to newgrounds anymore though. Sometimes you can get some really nice feedback that when taken seriously can propel your sound development. Those kinds of reviews are rare, but worth it. With that in mind, let me try being helpful....

Try throwing some delay on the hats. This technique when employed correctly can create instant dynamics. You waste less time playing with note velocities this way. If you're looking to get a rest in there without deleting the notes leading up to the rest, try automating the delay to bypass or try automating a duck in the volume. You can automate practically everything by just right clicking and selecting "edit automation." That will automatically create an automation lane in the sequencer for whatever you choose. Try it on the bpm and you'll see what I mean.

It doesn't sound like your panning at all. Panning helps create space/emulate live acoustics and it gives off the illusion that things are actually louder than they really are so you can turn everything down. Just keep in mind that the bass is usually kept towards the center. Try panning up the mid and hi frequencies to create a little bit of space in there.

The bass lines have a really old school jungle sound to them. Not sure if you've ever tried the more contemporary approach since this is the first track of yours I've heard in years, but you can get some of those really solid darkstep reese sounds by taking a synth, setting up two oscillators with sawtooths waves, then slapping on a scream distortion and playing around with it. You can generally effect the synths lows and highs with the mixer's channel EQs but the scream gives you more control over those anyways. Play with it.

Im not sure how much layering you do, but it doesn't sound like you're doing much... or anything at all. You an get much fuller drum sounds by layering the kits pieces. It takes a while to get the technique down but you can get a much fuller sound through layering. It might make the most sense with the drums. Lets say for the snare, a good way to get a full sound is to get three to four different snare sounds. You'll want a lo, mid, and hi sound so it attacks the entire sound spectrum. Any additional snares are there to give character to the sound. You can layer synths this way too to get some really complex sounds.

It doesn't sound like you clip in here but if you're ever having trouble keeping things under control, slap an m-class mastering suite onto the built in output. The output should be the first thing you see at the very top of the synth stack when you start up a new track. I like to try mixing my track properly though first before playing with that.

I feel like those pads can take up a little more space. Like I said earlier, panning could help, but I think some reverb on that synth that comes in at 00:12 could help too. Not sure. On the subject of reverb, as the remainder of the track gets more complex through layering, you won't want the long decay on the snare. It would probably muddy up the mix unless employed sparingly. Not sure what your using to get that sound, but you can always automate it in/out ;)

If you need clarification on anything or want anymore feedback, just send over a pm or ask. I love being helpful but I've almost ran out of space to type things. Keep in mind, this review isn't meant to be harsh or critical. It's just trying to be helpful :)

Mitrox responds:

Well actually I use FL8 most of the time. I wanted to try out Reason 4, and it's a powerful software. I still haven't learned the full aspects of it though. Eventually I will. Yes, that is true. Some artists on NG do give indepth reviews, such as this one. The reason I will not upload on newgrounds anymore, is because I do not stand out on here, nor do I get a lot of publicity. Which I am not looking for at the moment. Even though the reviews are helpful, i'll find my way and try to keep my ears grounded down to earth as possible, so that I know what sounds good and what doesn't, and clearly none of my work does.

Oh yeah, I know how to do that, but it's a pain in the ass doing that on reason 4, so I admit I do get lazy when it comes to automating. Which i'm going to have to work on. It's definitely a lot easier automating in FL though. However, fixing up this song won't be an option, because I do not have the file no more. So that's cancels that out.

You are right, I didn't pan at all. This was my first dnb song on Reason 4, so i didn't actually take the time to pan anything.

Oh yeah, I know how to do that. I learned that technique a while back. It's just making a reece on Reason is rather weird. It's a lot easier to create in FL.

Nope, I didn't do any layering at all. That's probably one of my difficult areas to master. Yep, the pad is slim and I didn't really put to much effort into this song.

Like I said though, most of my work is just practice, right now I'm far from making anything decent. Eventually I will start producing more sophisticated sounds though.

thank you for the constructive review though. \m/

[Amen Brotha {7x}]

kittens

The classical aesthetics were really strong, but drum and bass tends to put a lot of emphasis on the drum mixing. With that in mind, despite the awesome rhythms, the beat felt like it sat too far in the background. Better mixing would have helped a bit here. Other than that, good work.

EbonHawk7X responds:

thanks for the tips, i'll definatly use them in the future. its nice to get a review that actually has constructive input once in awhile, thanks!