ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I heard you like the 2010s ; )]

This actually reminds me of late 90s VGM

[Papercut]

This is SICK. Love that Doom is still being played today. What a time to be alive

[909 CORE (güitar löl)]

This is actually kinda fire

[1e9a1 -- Submerged - Remix]

I can definitely hear the melodic influences from the earlier piece now that you mention you've approximated the chord progression, as well as some nods to the tom fills in the original.

However without mentioning it, I would not have guessed these two tracks were based on the same idea.

It sounds as if you submerged an electric cello for a week, then tried to play it, while still under water. Very interesting.

As this is quite avant-garde for the typical DnB I hear on a daily basis, I don't have a whole lot of critique. I wish a few more melodic elements were included, just to hint at the source a bit more, but the more I listen, I can indeed hear those influences. They're just VERY distorted.

Outside of the competition, I'd like to hear more like this from you :)

[DUEL REMIX]

Nice fusion of hard bass and dnb, and an interesting interpretation of the original.

At 50 seconds, the mix starts to suffer a bit from pads and leads being pumped too loud relative to the bass and other instruments prior to mastering compression/OTT.

I actually think backing off on clipping/compression would do this piece some favors. By 1:50, the track is blowing out a bit like an 808.

But still, nice work! It's like a brighter, bouncier version of its predecessor.

[cinematic jumble vmonsanto64]

Very interesting interpretation. This reminds me of olskool videogame menu screens. Very chill.

Also, where is that glockenspiel from? It sounds fantastic.

I don't have a whole lot of critique here since the track is relatively simple in its construction.

It's pretty otherworldly with the 808 hanging out on a tonic that only seems tertiarily related to the key at hand. But it's not grating -- just feels like, "huh, I'm just kinda hanging out here, twiddling my thumbs, not really sure of what I should do, but not really bothered by it either."

That's a pretty bold decision!

There are some pops and clicks it sounds like when different samples come in and out. If you're using a MPC styled sampler, adjusting the attack and releases to just SLIGHTLY past 0 will eliminate this click without affecting the perceived attack or release of the sample.

Definitely a wild take. Nice work!

[garlic vChordProd]

Love that this was primarily created using soundfonts. With that in mind, most of my critique is limited to mix balance and master (compression).

It's a bit hard to hear the kick and snare relative to other instruments in the mix. They, along with the bass, should be the loudest elements present for maximum intelligibility of the beat.

Bass may sound better with a generous helping of compression, perhaps clipping, and maybe even dropping down an octave. If you like basses that stand out, Goldeneye 64 and Waverace 64 have some slamming slap basses. Though I just discovered the WaveRace sf2 is 30 cents flat and 6 semitones transposed. LOL.

You did an excellent job of writing melodies throughout and despite the limitations of software and instrumentation, I was jamming. Great work!

ChordProduction responds:

Thanks for the evaluation. Glad you liked it. Will try to make some improvements in the future.
[Just checked "Goldeneye 64" soundfont bass. It sounds great. Thanks for the suggestion.]

[Anthony Ragus - Supercell (mamzr Remix)]

This is gonna be such a hard choice, I can already hear from your intro.

Lots of excellent sound design to be heard here, and as AR mentioned, great use of low-pass and flanger.

There are some instances of crispy static, such as at 54 seconds, that I feel could be toned down by a few dB.

I also feel the hihats could come down by about 1-2 dB and still serve their purpose. Panning them alternately left and right would also lend to the trippy cyclone effect you were going for. Sometimes I'll used timed ping-pong delays and auto-tremolos for this.

The same can be applied to any arpeggiated riff outside the bass.

But besides these minor critiques, VERY cool interpretation of the original track. I particularly enjoy your bass sound design and use of reverb.

Still could use an extra nudge on the master volume in post, using the Audacity method I mentioned; I'm not sure why logic is showing you that it's maxxed out, and the compression looks great, but the waveform is crunched 1.673 dB under max according to Audacity's amplify plug (which is how I check my max peak).

Freaking great work though!

IreadysuckS responds:

Thanks :) I agree with all of your comments, and I'll admit that I was too lazy to mix this beyond a listenable level so there's a lot of bits that could be improved. Tbh I'm a 'panning on hats' skeptic and tremolo on drum and other in your face elements lowk makes me nauseous lol, although I agree that it would be nice on the arps.

At least now I know that if I can just present the side effects of slamming a track through a clipper as 'intentional crispy static totally added for artistic reasons that was 100% a sample that I added and not at all by mistake'.

Maybe the volume issue is from logic's wav to mp3 converter?

[IreadysuckS - House in Chicago (Cover)]

You absolutely killed this. Sounds ready for a movie score, to be real.

At 1:19, I feel the trumpet is just a bit too loud relative to the accompaniment.

But hands down, probably the most tastefully done orchestral ballad I've ever heard.

Excellent ride cymbal at 2:27.

Did you perform that trumpet, or is it a fantastic solo trumpet lib? It's so lyrical, I struggle to distinguish.

Either way, amazing work!

anthonyragus responds:

I greatly appreciate your comments! From a traditional song perspective, I would justify the level due to the section being the first chorus, and the level of piano support.

Most instruments in sample libraries and sample modelings aren't truly realistic yet. This is some fresh homegrown trumpet, performed by yours truly!

Thank you for listening and feedback!

[NEON-SKIES - Fall (G2961 Remix)]

Amazing style here, seriously cooking.

The only thing I would recommend -- look up guitar double tracking; this sounds so much better than applying chorus to a single guitar source.

What it is, is panning 1 track 100% left, and a slightly different version (perhaps with a different guitar -- VST or otherwise) 100% right.

It's a technique that would take this track to the absolute next level, nice, big, wide, and in your face. Many guitar VSTs and libraries (such as Shreddage) offer 2 different guitar options, so that you can load the same midi and still get a proper doubletrack. This is what I use, then slightly alter velocity or articulation via keyswitches.

Still, amazing work. I would actually love to collaborate in this style some time.

But back to the remix, great glitching, adventurous production style, and surprisingly nice synth guitar lead. The only way it could get any better, is slight changes in gain staging and micro adjustments of compression/volume for drops, and the double tracking method I mentioned. Superb!

NEON-SKIES responds:

Yeah I'm cooked XD