ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[124 MPH]

I'm definitely appreciating the overall style and mood of this composition, as well as its structure. My only advice is to seek out mixing and mastering guidance to better polish the whole, as well as some references in the genre you love to compare against. That's all it really lacks. Otherwise, it's totally serviceable. :)

[A Fun Ride]

I feel like the drums and synths being so wet really takes away from the punch of the track. That and the leads are much too high in the mix, and a bit thin. Multiple layers of the same lead line as a chorus effect, panned out slightly differently will help with balance, fullness, and power. And additionally, pingpong delay is far more effective at creating a feeling of space than reverb for this reason.

Basically, it feels like your upper register is in balance with itself for the most part, but it completely overshadows the bass and drums, meaning it must come down. The china cymbals are about right, relative to the leads, but the kick, snare, and bass are buried. I would also pan your china to the right opposite that hihat, or swap the hihat to the left. Usually the former is more forgiving.

Alternating the pan of the china between hits slightly may also help -- usually you'll want to double the patch for that for consistency -- just duplicate and cut out every other hit

I say all this because using acoustic drums in this context lends itself to all the problems of mixing metal drums. As in the genre. And I fight them OFTEN. It's such a different approach, and lending power to them via is totally different than working with synth drums.

Anyway, saying all that, I really enjoyed your sound design and composition in general. Great work there!

[-Treasure Quest-]

Starting at 46 seconds in, I love the gradual buildup here but those tinkling percs are pretty loud. Like, feels like the loudest part of the song. They really should be a lot lower in the mix, since they're the only thing in that frequency range. You want your kick, snare and bass to be the loudest thing in the mix, supported by the rest. Additionally, the master compression is too hard for the dynamic nature of this track. Back it off in ratio, or back off the level going into it. Experiment and see what gives you the best definition, while still remaining nice and loud.

But excellent choice of samples, good structure, and pleasant sounds overall. I eventually got used to the really loud jangling percs, but it did tire my ears out pretty fast.

Love to see more like this in the future. Relaxing, thoughtful, chillout beats. In that aspect, great mood!

[♡︎LAKMEST♡︎ - Alone in the forest]

Some attention to EQ, mix balance, and variation of stereo spacing rather than relying heavily on long tailed reverb would lend very much to the pensive, trepidation laced feel of this piece. I very much like the writing and chord progression. Just feel a bit of spring cleaning would make it shimmer! The nature and structure lends itself to dreamily walking along the forest path, light filtering through the leaves and branches -- and I thought that before I read the title. You were spot on :)

[Toby Fox - Black Knife [KRM Cover]]

This is a fun track, hampered really only by mix balance. At no point should the leads be that much louder than the kick. Particularly the lead mentioned at 53 seconds. Still, I love the sound of that instrument in particular, and your modulation is beautiful and musical. Great use of the choir patch as well.

I would really love to know what soundfonts, instruments, and samples you used here. I want to steal them. The lead at 53 sounds like something off of the Waverace 64 soundfont I just made, and I'd like to know its proper name -- all the samples imported as gibberish for me and I had to rename them xD

But enough about my crap. Returning to the matter at hand, great composition, great pacing, good master level it would seem in light of the mix balance issues at hand. This piece definitely outshines its shortcomings, and I'd love to hear more like it in the future!

[Yellow Clouds - kipi91212]

I think you may have reached the point where you have outgrown the capabilities of Musescore -- a quick scoring program, not necessarily designed for professional music. Have you considered making the bare bones of your track in Musecore, and then bouncing each individual track to something simple like Audacity, which would allow you to mix down and then master the track?

Love to see also that you have eschewed the default muse soundfonts for greener pastures. I've actually done the other way around for their gorgeous marching percussion soundfonts, and it's a lot of fun :D

[Contemporary fly of the bumblebee]

This is a fantastic idea, with some great grooves. Balance and levels however suffer a bit. I would like to hear more of your kick, a bit more sub, and less of your bumblebee synths and keys, volume-wise. The main punch of a house track is going to come from the interaction of kick, sub, snare, and synth riffs in that order.

You may also think of looking into pacer sequences and more transitional FX.

But I love your approach to sound design and what you've done with the piece otherwise. Great work!

[Generations]

Really nice grooves and structure. Where this track suffers is the amount of reverb mud and quiet master level. I also see quite a lot of wide dynamic range, which is not your friend in this particular genre. You want your song to stand out against others in its genre, rather than have the listener manually turn the stereo up and down. But the theme is great, and your approach to FX likewise. From here on out, focus on mixing and mastering. You'll get it before very long. Keep it up!

[Machinations]

Really nice to hear live playing, but the mics on those cymbals are really, really hot. Recommend backing them up or turning them down. Keep experimenting with recording techniques though. This is a vibe :)

[Remember (Feat. Liliia Kysil)]

Just some very minor points of mixing and panning stopping me from giving this a full 5. The lead vocals at 0:41 feel just a bit too present, with the backing a bit too airy. At 1:16, a more proper vocal balance is approached, but the mids could be accented a bit more to account for the lo-pass.

1:56 approaches a better balance until the vocals come back in. Try backing them off by a few tenths of dB.

The bass on the drops throughout feels just a tad flat, not in pitch but as if it's been spread too much in the stereo field to accomplish depth. A plugin like Widefire may allow you to accomplish this without messing with the phase of the mids and low mids. You could also experiment with EQ, saturation, and layering.

Beyond that, I would reduce the volume of hihats slightly. I think you may be balancing them subconsciously against those vocals that are just a bit too high in the mix, however. Same can be said for the chromatizing of the hihat and snare (colorbass techniques), which I feel also could be spread into two instances panned left and right and emphasizing different frequencies. This is a sound that likes to be wet and splashy, but it again feels just a little flat.

The structure, lyrics, and samples are otherwise very nice to hear, and your execution is very, very good.

Nice to see you again!