ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Raindrops]

In your intro, that piano probably could use some more velocity in the right channel. The string impact almost becomes a percussion instrument itself.

By 0:54 compression or lack of a limiter is causing a lot of distortion in the low end.

I agree with Mutty99, despite lots of technical issues, the underlying melody and composition itself were an interesting listen, even if fraught with so much reverb. I would take it down probably by more than half the current value, change the decay to a faster rate, and low cut up to 250 hz.

To fix your distortion issue, you can take your master channel, mix in 32 point float, and pull it down until the levels are no longer in the red or orange. I personally prefer yellow to green. Then I master in a third party service or using a different host of plugins. Alternatively, you can mix the entire track so that without touching master volume or fx, your track never hits those nasty red levels.

For your percussion instruments, it sounds like the transients could use shaping. There are two free plugins for that dominion and KSHMR Essentials Kick. I recommend both highly. I use them on literally everything.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Hand In Hand- NGUAC 2020 Final Round Submission]

Really nice clean playing for those acoustics in the opening. Very nice production. I personally would have liked with the vocals as naked sounding as they are, bringing them up in the mix. I have a lot of issue understanding the lyrics and hearing them as the lead instrument. It does have a nice, bar-rock blues meets country feel.

From what I've heard of you, live mixing is probably your best strength. I personally feel on bigger sections, your acoustic chugging rhythms are just a bit too far pushed up in the mix, contributing to the muddiness of the very dynamic vocal.

That said, absolutely love that you've written it for a friend's wedding. That's super cool man.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ConnorHeather responds:

Excellent thanks for the great constructive criticism i will take everything on board it helps a lot, ear fatigue is a real thing and is difficult when you do it all by yourself, having fresh ears and perspectives is a big help thanks! Will most likely go back and take onboard what you said for the final mix.

Thanks for all the work you guys do to make NGUAC happen! It's been a pleasure to participate!

[Ahurac - ID 2 (NGUAC Final Round Entry)]

Starting off, I like your intro and transitional FX. I think you could stand to sidechain them against your synths.

The mix as a whole sounds pretty heavy on reverb and super mid heavy. Almost like there's a vinyl effect across the whole song.

Kick I think could stand to have a bit more bite, maybe saturation. KSHMR Essentials Kick is a good one-stop fixer. You could also tune it to the tonic. Something's going on with the harmonics in the upper low mids and it's not meshing to my ears.

Other than that, compelling melodies. It almost sounds too balanced of a mix for me. There are points -- your 8 bit percussion could stand to come out a LOT and possibly sidechained for where it's present. I can barely hear it under your top snare, but I know it's there because I know the sound -- so it's serving as mix clutter.

Reverb I would say you could stand to either take down by about half its value or more. I feel like it's being used to make synths sound more real, opposed to modulating them by hand. I say that as I'm guilty of having done it myself just to get done with a track. If you're going to do that, I would low cut up to 250 hz on the verb itself. Almost every instrument I'm hearing sounds like it has reverb on it, very boxy low mids.

I might tune your snare so the overtone is either a harmonic of or the tonic itself, to give it some feeling of belonging.

Beyond that, a bit short, but I enjoyed the tune. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ahurac responds:

Woah thank you for all these feedbacks! I'll take them in note for the final version (because yes, this is still an ID, that's why it's a little bit short).

[A Stroll Down St Pancras]

Never cease to amaze me with your compositions. This is freaking epic. To think I wouldn't have found it had I not been checking audio advertisements on the same day as I just released a new piece!

My only complaint is the reverbs could be taken down and low cut to make individual instruments stand out more. The rest is absolute fire. Nicely leveled, your vocals especially have come so far in the years I've been following you. Sounds angelic with those lower alto tones particularly. I might take just a little bit of sibilant D or T in the 5-7k range off of your stabs but other than that, loving what I'm hearing. Even when those are more naked toward the end, they sound better. It could just be level chasing causing the sibilants to stick out more at a lower volume. Additionally I would shorten reverb tails or apply gated reverb -- that end stinger is a little waffled with verb.

Otherwise, nothing to say. Freaking love it.

[Midnight Shuffle]

Something about that first bass note in the chord progression I don't really like. I'm sure I'd get used to it over time listening through.

This is an interesting composition.

Personally I would take down your reverb sends across the board, low cut them up to 250 hz or so if you find you must have this shimmer. You can also apply autogate effects to it to keep things interesting.

By 3:44 the progression itself is sounding really good but the reverb is muddying it up.

Also I feel like there's a but much sub on your kick. Could use some more air to it. I came across the plugin KSHMR Kick for quick, easy mixing on that front. It's a free kick shaper. I'd also recommend following Bedroom Producer's Blog or BPB for more freebies to enhance your sound and get you away from sounding stock-y.

Anyway, nice work. Saw you in Audio Ads, hit the play disc, and here we are :)

ScottJacob responds:

Hey man! You're feedback means a lot! Thanks for taking the time to write this, i appreciate it! I definitely feel i struggle with mixing and want to get better. Thanks again for pointing everything out and suggestions, it all helps!

[Shimmer]

Overall really smooth writing. My critique would go on mix.

We're really heavy in mids -- good mixing of more live-y instruments and samples like the chimes and piano.

At times I feel, such as around 0:42 those fantasia sounding leads high up in predominantly the left channel are much too loud -- about a dB or two. They're such high frequencies, they're just going to be heard by virtue of being there. On drops they don't stick out as much later, but still overpresent.

At 2:19 there is mild clipping.

I would bring out your talking lead more, and possibly put a resonant auto-filter on it to bring it to the front more. A lot of the instrumentation stands out on top of it, leaving it to be heard as the lead only because it's the only instrument in that space moving.

I really like the chord progressions going on here and your writing itself. Thanks for sending me this!

trunotfals responds:

it's funny how you can hear all of these other things but you get really blinded to your own music sometimes I listen to this over and over and I never heard a problem until you point them out and now that you've pointed them out it's blaringly obvious to me. Thanks for this review!

[this is not (the eyerocket dream)]

It's like, nightmarish elevator music.

[Serrated Shadows]

I'm not sure I'm sold on parallel motion of the chords and melodies here in your intro, as well as through the 0:52. Obviously takes talent to play rather than program, but I feel like we're moving the same chord around over and over, which with power chords isn't so obvious. You could change this feeling by not using the bass note to just play the tonic of the chord.

The rest of the piece, reverb is waaaaaay too loud. It sounds louder than the actual attacks of notes themselves. I'd sooner listen dry than with that FX on. It's loud enough the track distorts by 2:41 and I can't tell what's too loudly mixed or not because the reverb is just grabbing resonant sustained notes and holding them out. It's like being in a warehouse. Only the strongest points of your mix stand out, and the finer intricacies are obliterated.

I am able to hear that twah-twah attack on the choir and would recommend switching it out. I'd like to hear you reupload this without that reverb. Underneath it is a good sounding track that could probably use your synths turned down a dB or two. If you simply must have this reverb, don't put it over the whole track. Maybe just the hi-hats, the lead, and the snare.

Chernobyl studios does a great series of tutorials on mixing rock. I recommend checking them out.

Anyway, thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Mechanical-Head responds:

Edit: I probably sound like a jerk with this response. Just so you know i understand all the points you made, and i'm seriously looking forward to improve. Still keeping my whiny comments for preservation :P

Thanks you for this constructive review! Yeah, you may have noticed i'm far from being an expert when it comes to mixing. I just began doing music this year and all i use is the free included plugins in Reaper. And yeah, i used reverb on everything, mostly because i really hate how dry and robotic modern metal sounds. My main goal with my mixing is make the songs sound old school, human (maybe i should've used compressors but i feel uncomfortable using them). Obviously i still need to learn a lot, i'm far from being perfect, and i still need more experience in handling reverb, aside from better equipment and such.

Maybe you should've focused more on the composition rather than the mixing, as the latter just isn't one of my strongest aspects. Maybe you were expecting a more professional sounding song, which is something i just can't deliver right now. Also, i mixed this in less than a week, of course it's going to sound bad.

Hopefully i'm not sounding like a jerk over your review (Edit: i was). I know you are looking forward for how i improve in the future, and that you wish the best. I want to improve, because i know i'm not perfect, and that there's room for lots of improvement. I was not expecting to pass to the next round of NGUAC anyway, i'm just not on the level of these really good and amazing contestants.

Anyway, thanks for the review :)