ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Isalick34 - ADHD Focus Group]

Despite the lower quality of instruments, the arrangement and writing of this is quite satisfying. I wish as much energy had been spent on the panning and balancing of instruments. The synth cymbals/metal percussion is a bit loud relative to the rest of the composition, and at points it's difficult to make out the bass. Everything sounds relatively dry -- with the exception of the keys at 3:07 -- and without much modulation, to make this piece shine as it should. It really wants to be ethereal and ominous, but sits in the context of early videogame music, which lacked the technological capacity to really get there. Still, really nice excercise in odd meter and modes!

[Hope Is The Thing With Feathers (Smoothie Bootleg Remix)]

I feel like the low chunky chords (very close low intervals) in your arrangement are holding back the energy in this piece. They don't sound bad, but they don't lend to the hopeful, open feel the vocals are leaning to. The mix approaches a good balance, despite having so much energy concentrated in the bass register.

There is some clipping around 2:30. Watch for that and potentially switch to mixing in 32 bit floating point.

Besides that, the structure, transitions, and master level are pretty good. Keep it up!

[Dystopia]

Some really nice sounds in here, obscured by a muddy mix. I want to hear much more of your basses, excluding sub. The latter is well audible. I would cut down on the low-mids of your reverbs, up compression on the master, and bring the low mids of your bass synth up. Additionally, hihats are pretty high up in the mix, and clap could stand to come down a bit.

But the structure, melodies, and instruments chosen here are perfect. Very nice and groovy.

[Cybershock]

Very interesting piece. Feels super retro, like the old Amiga tracker tunes in its writing, with some modern twists. The balance and panning could really use some tweaking. Most everything aside from the pacer arps panning left and right feels like it's in the center channel, even though it in fact is not.

That's fine for kick and snare, but on sections with multiple layers, it can lend to everything feeling one-dimensional. Same deal with lack of modulation. Experiment with double-tracking your textures and riffs. It will pay dividends for this style of production!

[Once It Was Not Just A Memory]

You really nailed the description with this one. Very nice. Wistful, relaxing, and a bit melancholic. Great work!

[Hold On]

Really interesting to think of this piece as dnb filtered through pop and classical. To better suit the classical instruments, I would approach your panning of the drumset closer to that of an actual live performance. The hihat should be a bit to the left or the right -- your pick, and whichever sounds better.

The clean guitar at 1:38 does not fit the instrumentation at all, and seems written as if for piano rather than guitar. I would swap it out for some more obvious acoustic or poppy instruments, or split it into 2 different parts panned left and right.

Strings sound freaking baller though.

Watch for clipping (crackling) also. This can happen when you don't mix in 32 bit floating point.

ExplosivePickaxe responds:

Tysm for the advice! I'll be sure to follow this in my next productions!
It'll be a little harder for me since I use Musescore, a very unusual and unpopular program. I've been so used to it for the last year

[BeepBox-Song 106]

Man, that organ just sounds badass. I want to steal it. Despite this not being my preferred genre, pretty cool!

DoTeRqwe responds:

thank you! :D
this song was made on beepbox so i can send u the link with this song and u can take whatever instrument you'd like :D

[dj-ICY - Starlight]

This deserves far more reviews than I see it getting. It's all of my favorite dnb tropes from 2007-2014 done right.

[Drift]

Yes. Just yes.

NEON-SKIES responds:

Ty!!!

[dekiru - turbulent trails (day)]

Some washier cymbals on those metal drums, and I think this piece would hit home a lot harder. Even so, I really enjoyed the theme! Could be a bit cleaner on the verb to match the dry snare and kick also. That may just be my personal preference. But I'd love to hear more like this.