Qshunt's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[21]

Hell yeah! Nice production. Great harmonics.
The future bass snare is sweet.

The full time Dnb section at 2:45 is excellent.

Really nice work.

Demonicity responds:

thanks! <3

[No Boundaries]

This is beautiful!
The Classical/Jazz piano juxtaposed with the heavily syncopated Drill and Bass drums is off the hook.
Nice work Quarl!
PS. Do you use a Reason preset drum kit, or is this a custom kit?
I really like the sound of those drums.

Quarl responds:

Lol, the drums are a Frankenstein freak show of layering, signal processing, fidelity effects, and automation lanes. The drums are the most important part of any EDM genre, so it makes sense to spend some time on this response. Skip to the bottom, I'm including a RSN file of the drums. You can use the files and samples totes free, I don't care :p

The snare is actually four separate drum samples, two of which are rsn factory and the other two came from a Pendulum sample pack downloaded over ten years ago (it's included in the zip folder at the bottom of the response). The amen break was in that sample pack so technically one layer is just an amen snare. The rsn samples are Sd_Tressor (don't confuse with Sd2_Tressor), and Sd_Brat. The ghost snares are just Sd_Brat but it's signal gets merged with every other snare drum and processed in the same fidelity units. The sequencer lets you pick and choose which drums to solo in MIDI for easy ghost snare rhythms but again, it gets sent through the same fidelity units and is a layered part of the main snare drum too.

To help compartmentalize the project, the drums all get their own 14:2 mixer. Mixers are easily daisy chained so between the main instrument mixers and the drum mixer you can insert a filter. Bypass it or just set the knobs to min/max, you can automate the filter to turn itself on or off for classic jungle drum fills.

Again to clarify, the MIDI sequencer can solo each of the snare drums for texture diversity but the signals all go to the same mastering suite combinator which includes the entire sub folder of MClass fidelity units. That includes an equalizer, a compressor, a stereo imager, and a maximizer. To be honest, some of them are bypassed in this rsn file, I just like having the fidelity units there as an option. If you're not sure what something does, trust your ears.

Before the snare drums go into the fidelity units, the signals all get merged with a Spider merger/splitter. You can then take the merged signal and send it to the other side of the Spider unit which can split the signal to side chain instruments that have a compressor on them. FYI, everything I've said so far is applied to the bass drums as well. Sometimes I only sidechain with the bass drum signal, sometimes I add the snare signal. Depends how I'm feeling that day.

Now the fun stuff, download the RSN file and drum samples here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uwWiQsRN9Xniix8IxS-KnAGPF6VXLB-t/view?usp=sharing

(It's google drive, you might need a microsoft account to download the files. Let me know if you have any problems, I can send the zip via email. Go nuts with the RSN file. It's yours now.)

[tannhauser]

Nice tune! Those quirky melodies and chord progressions are awesome.

wilidacious responds:

thanks!

[Vision]

I think this is my fave track of yours.

Sound design is top notch, mix-down is really nice.

Quarl responds:

Thanks love :)

[Deception]

Nice work!

Excellent production.

Demonicity responds:

thank you!

[Geoplex - Reignite]

Nice work.
Your production is on point.
Has a very Pendulum sort of vibe.
The person who commented about the compression being an issue just doesn't get it.
Your mix-down and subsequent mastering is an admirable effort.
Would love to collaborate on some stuff.

Geoplex responds:

Thanks for the kind words. I think they have some valid points. I tend to enjoy clean mixdowns less these days, but this one is a little messy :)
Unfortunately I have about 4-5 collabs that I've committed to or am currently involved with at the moment so it's hard for me to commit to more. Maybe at some point in the future!

[Inadequate Relief]

Composition is nice. It's well put together.
My main gripe is that the drums are getting lost in the mix.
They should be big and brash and in your face!
If you beef up the drums, I will give you a 5.
If you would like some help with the beefing up of the drums, let me know.

Stargame responds:

I appreciate the review! I'd love some specifics concerning the drums - is it a general gain issue (volume too low)? Is the problem with one specific drum (kick, snare, etc.) or with all of them? Are there sections of the song where they are clear enough, but are muddied up in others? Is that muddiness in certain frequency ranges (3kHz, 300 mHz, etc.)? That helps me know what to watch out for and improve upon.

[Leaneuro]

This is quite a decent effort.
You win extra points for the chopped amen breaks. I love em.
The bass is a good sound, but I don't think it's being modulated enough and it becomes a bit muddy in places.
Drums are clear and sharp. You've used some nice hits there and they're nicely sequenced.
Percussion is good.
I think it's far too slow for Neurofunk though.
This seems to be about 160BPM when I think it should be nearer to 175.
I normally make mine at between 172 and 176BPM.
Finally, I'm not a fan of the vocal at all. It sounds a bit awkward and brings me out of the zone.
You should be proud of this, though! It's a really good effort.
Thanks for publicizing it!

dedsh4d responds:

Thank you for the criticism! I used a vocal sample I grabbed from the friend who I dedicated this song to, hence the name Leaneuro. Anyhow, excuses aside -- I can see how it can be rather distracting.

[Positive Memories]

Nice work!
I have no constructive criticism to offer you!

Quarl responds:

Thanks Mr. Shunt. It's refreshing to hear that every once in a while.

[The Best We Could]

Nice bit of Breakcore!

I like that hard hitting snare.
This has a Cooh or Current Value type of vibe which I dig.
I like that bass synth.
In the mix it sounds like someone playing a bass guitar and suits the track nicely.
The mixdown is excellent. It's nice and clean, maybe a little too clean for my tastes.
Something I often do to give the high end a bit of sizzle, is to add a saturator to my mastering chain.

I have it distorting at around 1kHz in an "Analog Clip" setting. It wants to be a warm fuzz, not a harsh scratch. Then I adjust wet/dry to taste.
This saturation also has the added benefit of allowing you to push your limiter a bit harder and inadvertently get some free loudness in the mix.
Anyway, really nice track!

Quarl responds:

I've never been told my mix was too clean. I suppose I should stop focusing on that.