Bleak-Creep's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Drum Machine Is Possesed]

The piano survived into the final mix, hooray! This feels like a real departure from most of your stuff, but it's still got a lot of your same signature sounds too. But maybe it's really just that the drums land a little heavier than usual. Either way, nice job!

Quarl responds:

Lol, everytime you drop a review I feel a little awkward that I'm writing experimental noise. I could be writing normal music but I want to make the unloved hardcore kids happy, but I also want to make the soft people happy, but I also want to make myself happy, and in the end... this noise.

[Born For You]

I think it still retains its original quality even with the drum and bass additions to the second half; still got that light and dreamy, night sky sort of atmosphere, even if it's got a few shooting stars here and there. It's nice.

Quarl responds:

Lol, I've been trying to lean into calm stuff knowing full well I have followers that want it, I want it, but that one friend from my early 20s that literally never talks to me said "make this dnb" and for some odd reason I said "yes." My inner demon wants break beats ( ⊙_⊙ )

[Y ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Huzzah for a studio space! That sounds like a major upgrade. I like how "full" (This is probably not at all the right word) the sound on this track is, like you really get this sense of all these little sounds whizzing back and forth, circling around you. It's pretty nifty.

Quarl responds:

It's not something I'd expect people would want to listen to but I'm glad you weren't overwhelmed. There exists a tendency to over-complicate things when just having fun. I kind of go overboard on panning automation when having fun too, which helps create those swirling environments. Think of the stereo-field in your headphones like a physical stage, with musicians on the left and on the right. The next time you here an instrument go from left to right or vice versa, pretend a musician is literally running across the stage with their instrument.

Panning can emulate movement and location so your choice of words were phenomenally accurate <3

[She Totally Gave Up [JAMUARY DAY 31]]

You made it! Congrats on pushing through every day of this thing. Gotta be a monumental task for anyone that participated. I still say Day 25 turned out as my favorite one (aside from the score for Us obviously, because <3) but you had quite a few bangers throughout the course of the month there. Wonderful work.

Quarl responds:

I've always felt like music is something you can hit or miss and that quantity always ups the odds of a hit. You can spend a month to a year on one song, or you can write a song a day for 30 days. The second thing is always going to work out better.

[Please Just Give Up [JAMUARY DAY 25]]

I have fallen behind on listening to these, but I wanted to say that this is definitely my favorite one and you should try to extend it out a bit more later on. It sounds like a spoonful of sugar, and the title suits it perfectly, haha.

Quarl responds:

I'll consider extending any of my Jamuary stuff, but I'll let you know if this one finds itself at the front of that list :D

[They Were Under A Hat [Pixel Day/JAMUARY DAY 23]]

This turned out real nice. I feel like you should dive back into this sort of sound another time. You still retain your signature sound, but that crunchy retro instrumentation really adds a new sort of element to it too. I think it's pretty neat.

Quarl responds:

I love chiptune, maybe next month instead of writing a song a day I'll focus on learning Fami-Tracker or whatever workstation Snaresworks ends up teaching on their Winterfest panel. It couldn't have been coincidence that the person my panel follows is doing an introduction to Chiptune music...

[We Still Have Your Family, This Isn't Over [JAMUARY DAY 15]]

I really like this one. I have a real thing for all the highest notes on the piano though. Whenever I mess around with one (note I have no idea what I'm doing) I'll just hold down a pedal and play lots of long, sustained high notes in simple repetitive melodies. It brings me great joy. And so did this. There's just a spooky mystery in those notes that always draws me in.

Quarl responds:

Those high notes are actually a patch for a "toy piano" but I got what you're saying, high pitch notes with sustain pedal. You just described a relative experience my sonic arts professor once detailed. Sound doesn't need to be musical for it to take on an attractive quality. He described falling in love with the sound leaves would make as he climbed up trees as a kid. Some people love wind chimes, a completely non musical sound of pipes rattling in the wind. Sounds don't need to be musical to be attractive, they just need an ear that finds it special :3

[Us - Chapter 3 Piano OST [JAMUARY DAY 14]]

This turned out so well. It makes my heart ache exactly the way I'd hoped it would, and I promise this is sad as these will need to get. You have my word you'll get to write some happier, more hopeful melodies for Chapter 4.

Thank you again for everything you do and everything you've already done for this series. It wouldn't look quite the same without you. <3

Quarl responds:

If you need things to get sadder next time I could include the sound of an onion cutting itself. Thank you Bleak-Creep <3

[Everyday Is Over [JAMUARY DAY 3]]

Ay, this is nice! A song a day sounds like a big undertaking, but these are still sounding pretty polished so far.

Quarl responds:

Thank you Bleak-Creep :D

Songs don't have to be complex to sound decent. Familiarity is a key concept of song writing. 15 years of it will breed habits, patterns, and resources. To save time I open up my old RSN files and delete MIDI data (computer sheet music). If I know a song had good instrument patches in it, I can reuse them. Older music files are flexible resources, there's no need to reinvent the wheel everytime : )

Spontaneity and improvisation are also important skill sets for song writing but these are learned through practice. Every melody can be informed by thousands of hours of fumbling for notes. Instrument people find patterns and shapes that make them happy, you can tell when instrumentalists enjoy specific intervals and melodies because you'll hear them from song to song <3

Regardless of all that, a literal neophyte can still write good music. A good song can be improvised and written in a minute but the more experience you have, the more informed that minute can be.

Sorry to gush ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Sounds Nothing Alike]

This has some serious Metroid vibes to it. Metroid at a rave. VIBES.

Quarl responds:

Metroid II for the original Gameboy was one of the first games I ever beat. When they announced Prime for GameCube I forced all my friends to buy it. Haven't played a Metroid Game since Fusion but that franchise will always be special to me. Thank you for stopping by Garden :D