Quarl's audio Reviews on Newgrounds (2024)

2020-04-27 15:34:55

Short, to the point, clean. I think those drums could have used some tambs or rides to brighten up the track a little but otherwise the song really grooves. Why the fade out though? You could have looped the track a bit and given us something a little more substantial to listen to. I'm of the opinion that most drum and bass track can get everything across at a little over/under 3 minutes. Two minutes just felt awkward because it feels like your pulling out just as the song was getting to it's climax.

There's a reason people mention hating fade outs. It's not always a bad thing but for such a short track it sounded really premature :)

Edit: If this is going to be the only track you upload this year do us a solid and give us another minute in heaven <3

2020-04-27 14:23:07

2020-04-21 08:12:58

It's times like this I wish I still rocked Nintendo. This track is dope. Dandy kick triplets. Happy glitchy square lead. I see that ambient end is no longer just an experiment but a feature. Relaxing.

Seriously Protaganacho, this track is so cute and perfect <3

Edit: thanks for the video too. Seeing other people make music feels enriching. I usually just open my DAW and cry for a few minutes before opening Steam.

2020-04-19 19:09:52

Really warm vibes from this. Sassy happy melodies yo. I spent a few minutes nit picking the drum kit. Something felt off. At first that bass drum was too weak but when it goes to DNB it just pushed everything out of the way. Sidechain like "hi, I'm sidechaing." Do you layer your kick samples at all or is it just one phat sample? Maybe a second kick with more emphasis on mids/highs would make Quarl happy. Same with the snare actually. I know all you kids are into a ton of bass on your snares these days. It's cool, I get it. Punk rock dude. But give us older tone deaf people something to bite onto. I need some more mid/high from a snare because I listened to loud music when I was growing up. Feels.

Dynamics! It took me a few listens to realize those piano notes sound really static. Maybe give some life to that robo-piano with velocity changes. Emulating the velocity of a live piano drives me crazy. I don't know how to record dynamics proper in reason from my digital piano so I have to fiddle with numbers after the fact. IT SUCKS, kill me. I get lazy and automate the levels instead. It's not the same but I pretend it is.

Loved those snaps in the beginning. You're production style is tight. Clean. Pure. Keep doing you Fuzion <3

2020-04-19 18:52:59

2020-04-19 18:34:07

Solid track! Super creative vibes I'm getting from this. Loved all the rhythmic flourishes and bass tricks. I can only nitpick the mix down. Things sound a little over compressed. I need some more dynamics :)

Bass overpowers but it's not so much the sub bass as just... everything. You got bass coming out of your bass. I also feel like I hear that low end heavy snare a lot from other producers. I'm getting a little fatigued from hearing that bassy snare. It might just be the pitch? I used to love hearing the bass snare, dunno what happened. I guess I'm just old and need higher freq noises to compensate for my hearing loss :C

After listening to this loop a few times I think I'm not hearing enough panning. Rig once taught me that panning creates the illusion that sounds are louder than they really are so the more you can pan things the more you can turn them down and create room in your mix. I can hear some panning going on with those hi hats but I feel like those aux instruments, pads, and sound effects could use more pan in a direction. Bass to the center, everything mid/high can get it's own place. Pay attention to which channel on your mixer is doing more work and pan an instrument or two to the opposite channel for that section of the song.

I like to send my lead synth through a splitter so I can dedicate it to two channels on my mixer, then I split it into opposite directions to make room for sub in the middle. My lead is usually a lot of mid/high.

Not sure if any of that made sense but I leave you with this: keep following your dreams! Believe in yourself! Stay in school! Don't do drugs.

2020-03-26 20:06:00

This track is hella relax. Only problem I had was the drum sound. I'm not super familiar with your techniques but if it's all recording I got nothing. I gave up live musics a decade ago. Getting a proper mic set up on a kit requires a little finesse and probably more mics than you ever have on hand.

Guitar ripped, bass was sex.

2020-03-24 16:26:36

2020-01-31 14:04:28

I remember that piano thing xD

Glad someone did something with those drums. That snare drum pitch bend at 2:12 lit made me laugh. It sounded like a cat :3

2020-01-26 15:06:16

Can't believe I forgot to review this. I listened to this when you first put it up and said to myself "I want to take the time to listen to this proper with my HD 650s.

I've always made fun of ambient genres as being a super easy. You can essentially fake it by sitting a brick on top of your keyboard. That's a gross oversimplification for a genre that can be anything you want it to be but I'm a jerk sometimes. From a conceptual standpoint I really love the way you fill out the majority of this track with grainy sweeping pads. The drum and bass is a small tease but I actually love that it's such a small fraction of the track. It's a strong track.

I think I wanted a little more texture from that ambient section though. You could have fit some juicy pads and samples in there to help give that area some character. It's a great pad but give me some running water sounds, a train thundering by, a park filled with children, a lion growing, maybe bring that drum and bass back later... anything. I get bored easily when I listen to ambient genres so it's more my own fault for wanting more from the second half of the song. I need to chill more :p

This is a really powerful track. I'm glad you wrote something so different from everything I've been listening to. Great melodies and pads. This reminds me of the experimental drum and bass I used to hear on newgrounds back in high school. This track has some serious flavor. Just throw some samples in next time to make grandma quarl happier next time, ok? Much love protagonist Nacho.