ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[CDJeremy - Bassy]

Interesting writing here, and switching between two basses. I find the second really points out where the first is lacking. If you like that sound, I'd mix them to the point they had a similar response.

0:58 I'm having PTSD from sound font piano sounds. I would swap to a synth, say from a free instrument like SQ8L.

Actually, I really feel here that available synths to the arranger is where you're suffering the most. You've got good idea, structure is good, mixing is passable.

The biggest issue with mixing I hear is drums not cutting through the mix. They should be the loudest part of your track, point blank. They've got to cut through everything else, because we're not attentively listening to them... until something sounds off. I will say your transition crashes are at a good level though, and this does not mean to turn drums up. It means the opposite, to turn everything else down until you hear them properly. Then you apply your master FX, everything sounds clean, and presto. Feel me?

I also would clean up any reverbs you had and leads/other synths by chopping off 250 hz or so and below to make room not only for your bass but your kick. You're not listening to a lead to hear those frequencies, although when playing off by itself they don't sound bad. When they're in an ensemble, they're constantly getting in the way of the bass frequencies you do care about.

Anyway, enjoyed the track. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

CDJeremy responds:

Wow, that was the longest review I had in life, you analyzed everything, and I love that...

I probably had all those errors due to lack of practice or pluggins, I will try to improve on it

It was a pleasure to participate here since it is my first time doing it xD

[Righteous Evil]

Not many comments on writing here. Tons of nice things to say about your lead writing and driving rhythm parts. Although I would possibly double the guitar in the right channel on a third about 1:33. It's naked there. You could even just delay it in the other channel.

Playing wise, sometimes the rhythm gets a little laggy or rushy, particularly the intro chorus and the section before 2:25. Good intonation on the notes, just not quite sure where to attack at points. It almost sounds like you wrote the drums after you wrote the guitars.

Speaking of, throw those samples in a lake. No offense intended :) Or mix them differently. They are hiding in the mix somehow, even though I can hear them clearly. I can't hear the kick much at all, the toms sound like I'm listening with a cochlear implant. That and they sound like they might be in a totally dead room.

Actually the rigidity of the drums might be what's making your rhythm guitars sound off, if they aren't somehow humanized, etc. Or possibly the straight 8ths bass. Something there is going on with our fills.

The drums are really the only sound I don't particularly like throughout. They're top heavy. The rest of the backing sounds very boxy -- I might cut some 250 hz and below off of your guitars, speaking of. I'd probably turn the bass up a bit and also the kick drum.

On the transitions between sections it sounds like we've just trimmed off a track, like at 47 seconds into 48. More than one section is like that. 1:12 I'd like to hear ring out -- not like we're limited to live performance here, or can't pretend it's a sustain pedal.

Mixing wise, I just find there's not a lot of low end to prop up even the rhythm. By 3:55 the various parts are crowding out the drums. Drop some individual tracks down a notch. It's not like we're going to not hear them -- and again we have another very sudden drop out of solos. 4:38, those thirds on the sides can come down some and probably be sent to a reverb to give the spacious feel you want.

I feel they come in a bit too late as we completely drop out by 4:52 for -- it sounds like just chopping the volume to zero to get rid of any line noise. Leave just a smidge, maybe, so I can hear the full mute and string noise.

I really find myself wanting the section from 3:52 to just bleed straight into a chorus with those thirds coming in right at about 4:15, or immediately as the next section comes. 4:40 is just so, so short!

Anyway, great track. Really enjoyed the listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Cali Crazed - Need A Beat]

This is a good idea, but some things I'm noticing right off the bat -- everything is in the center. Particularly noticeable when you have phasers or chorus/flange on your cymbals. Sometimes I go as far as having hihats panned out different directions for those nice trap hihat sizzles.

Your perc should open up the soundstage just like 1:40's delay synth on the side.

I'm hearing a lot of inspiration coming from the early 00's.

I won't comment on structure too much other than that some of the sections were hard to pick out as "okay, we're hitting the hook now" but instrumentation and samples let me touch on. I'd like to hear you supplementing those claps with a more recognizable 808 snare on different sections rather than just opening up off the flange.

I'm also not sure what section 1:39 is, partly based on that, or is 2:11 our hook? Is it our verse. It sounds more like a verse, so a bridge into a verse. There's just something missing here between these sections that's keeping my brain from processing "Oh, this is the hook."

There's also some kind of quality issue with some of your samples or the way they are mixed, like your beat tag. It's all very low mid heavy and doesn't have a lot of sizzle to it. To stick out against 808 hihats you'll need to fix that. At least bring out the mid.

"We need a beat" has some artefacts that sound like they're distorting. So does your beat tag occasionally when it comes in. This leads me to suspect you might be mixing with FX on the mastering channel and the levels are really high.

I question the choice at 0:49 of putting a bass to that rhythm opposed to a more recognizable 808 rhythm under it, but I recognize that's a build of sorts.

At 01:05 there's a lot of distorting going on in your highs. Sounds like this was mixed very loud and then mastering put on top. There are occasional additional FX you've added, extra hits in the right channel, that are very hard to hear due to the way things are mixed. I would pull every other track down until these were clearly audible, then worry about mastering FX and compression.

I also find myself wanting to hear more of your 808, particularly on 2:52.

All in all, not a bad start. I would work a little more on structure, find some samples you like, and take to YouTube for some mixing and mastering principles. You've got something to say musically, and I'm excited to see what you come up with in the future :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Grass Street]

I would shorten your intro somewhat. By 0:27 I'm wanting textural variation -- some drums, some SFX, anything. The tone on this VST isn't bad. It's just not quite enough to sustain a full track. I would also pick some other bass vst to carry those lower notes -- with distortion, you lose a lot of clarity on poly tones, particularly when you chord them.

There's some percussion at 1:40 it sounds like but I absolutely can't hear it from the volume of lead and harmony on top of each other.

Writing is good, implementation and mixing is what's holding this piece back. I would cut a lot of low mids -- 250 hz and below from your lead and reverb. It's taking what should sound crisp and spacy and making it sound flat.

Anyway, enjoyed the composition. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Bottom Kek- DeFuse]

Interesting little intro we have going on here. I would probably cut down on the size of the intro a bit.

There are also a lot of reverb and low mids that are covering up those tinny leads. On your reverb, I would cut the tails down and chop off 250 hz or so of low end. It does a lot to clean up mix -- since a lot of the wow factor we get is the spacious highs of a sound, not, wow, it sounds like someone dropping a cardboard box down a staircase in a warehouse, you know?

Your bass at 0:59 is really mid heavy. Sounds like it has a lot of FX on it. I might even drop it an octave, or just turn it down about 1 to 2 dB. It's overly present imo and makes everything else, including your drums by 4:33 sound very tinny.

Speaking of, those drums should be the loudest element of your track. By 4:54, that lead is WAY louder than it should be in relation to anything else, even louder than your chorus at 5:08, in terms of perceived loudness. That means turn literally everything else down a little, until they are loud enough to poke through that wall of sound, without master FX on, if you have applied compression to the master.

Composition wise, this isn't bad. The melody is catchy. Not a whole lot of variation, per the genre. Your structure and builds are good, I would say. Final chorus finishes out nicely. Nothing sounds particularly bad. I enjoyed it. My main critiques would sit on mixing and mastering, clarity. That's a good thing. Means you have the basics of good songwriting going smoothly, and the rest should be smooth sailing interspersed with hair pulling, getting your workflow down, etc.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[BoneCreed - Aurora (Original Mix)]

Is that M-Theory or String theory on those koto-like notes? I dig it.

Most of my critique here is going to lie in mixing. Your structure and writing is good, and so is your use of instrumentation :)

Your percussion is hiding in the mix, particularly on bigger sections like 1:15. I would pull the other instruments down, including 808, until that was nice and under control. Even sidechain is not a 100% bandaid for not having enough oomph on your perc.

Other than that, great production. I really enjoyed it. Happy chords, cheerful bassline. Goes hard. All the things a girl could want. And congrats on the front page!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Afterimage]

I feel like with most of our chords here, your leads are only one octave above the tonic note of the chord change. That leaves not a lot of room for groovy progressions.

Now, what you have going for you, your structure forces it to be somewhat moving, even in the chords themselves want to just kind of sit there. So good job on that! That's an accomplishment. Keep with this structure. It works for you.

Now, by 2:14 we get some chords, but that disappears quickly. I would have at the very least repeated that twice.

You might try learning about chords in general. A good channel to watch on YT is Signals Music Studio. There's only so much you can do with one note.

3:50 is a nice change and ambitious compared to the main chord progression. I feel like this should have been your drop, period. Repeat that second section we have for your drop again, and Let 4:36 be the end of your song.

And no matter what happens, never stop writing. The more you do, the better you will get. Every finished song is an accomplishment!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! Excited to hear from you in the future :)

BlueNexus responds:

Thank you for the feedback!

[BlighterProductions - Quasar]

Intro is very subtle. Dig.

I think the perc comes in just a liiiittle too heavy. I'd take down the hihats about half a dB. Maybe more. They're quite loud compared to the rest of the track by the time our bass comes in.

I may also space out what sounds like claps somewhat more and possibly reverb those veeeeery lightly.

The next section to come in is so abrupt sounding due to how quiet the piece is. Might take that arp down by a dB and low pass filter it.

We also have a lot of low frequencies. Make sure any ensemble you have, the instruments aren't in each other's way. I.e cut the low frequencies of higher instruments or non-basses to crisp them up and get them out of the subwoofer's way. 250 hz is usually the magic number. There are tutorials and lots of free plugins for this like ReaPlugs which will let you see the frequencies you are working with as they come in.

I would still take down those hihats more as we get to 3:47 and take the arp down a bit more until we get those wide swells in. I like that btw.

There is some synth that has a lot of tingling ringing in what sounds like the 18k or so range. It's like tingling change in my ear and I don't really like it.

The radio noise also could probably come down -- the tuning SFX. And I would give it a ping pong delay.

You're talented at creating atmosphere for sure.

I think JBL headphones might be coloring your sound some. Commercial headphones tend to add a lot of bass or alter mids and highs to get people to think they're somehow better than others, when really the issue is inferior audio quality. I use Audio Technica ATH-M40x studio monitor headphones. They give a good representation of how a song will sound all around and make for a good reference headphone. I would try to mix songs so that they will sound good on the average sound system, as well as the extraordinary, since not everyone has the luxury of JBL, beats, or any other great setup we might like to have represent our music. :)

Great work, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BlighterProductions responds:

Hey ADR3-N, thanks for your constructive advice. I would like to answer on some of the points you mentioned:

-You shouldn't take the JBL thing literal, it's only since I use JBL headphones to create my music, and I tweaked them to the JBL headset perfectly, which is perhaps why it sounds different on other devices. You couldn't know this, but thanks for letting me know. It's only more helpful to know these things.

-When the second drop comes at 228 seconds, I didn't even realise to the point you notified me about it that there is a little too much of a 'significance' (if I wrote that correctly) between direct attack and swelling attack.

-The tingling is caused by resonance in the so-called ''Droplet''-synth. It's an instrument I frequently used in my newer songs (Natrium Flow, R136A1, Discothéque to name a few) and also with my headphones they're decreased since JBL headphones are automatically equipped with a lower frequency equalizer that causes more bass.

-''You're talented at creating atmosphere for sure.'' Thanks a lot, and I only joined the NGUAC to learn some new stuff in music on NG. And I reasoned that, since this is my most popular, and also one of my best songs, this would make for a good submission (not trying to show off or so).

There are still point in your comment that I can't really agree with, but it's nothing personal, more something from my point of view. But comments like this are always welcome in my comment sections.

-Signed BlighterProductions

[ZUN - A Tiny, Tiny, Clever Commander(BegissoR's Remix)]

Right off the bat, I would cut the reverbs on your organs and intro substantially, chop off everything below 250 hz. It will do loads to clean up your sound. Same with all your sidechained reverbs throughout. It will help so much with your transitions and sidechain sounding clean. Right now despite these blazing fast rhythms and great structure, that sound is making it hard to get into your bass groove, which is what DnB is all about!

Also, compliments to great use of that sample. My heart. <3

But yeah, I'm really enjoying the theme itself, but noise from that verb is distracting me even from your transitions. Before 2:44 is pretty rough. That kick build also seems to be close to distorting a bit. Might dial back just slightly the compression there.

Bass is sounding good before 3:16. Past that I think we are pushing the limits of just how hard the track can be compressed before the bass suffers. Make sure to clean out room in all your FX chains and instruments for the bass to lay into. Eg. cut frequencies on leads, pads, and other synths below 250 hz. Cut reverb aggressively because those boxy sounds just don't add anything to the song unless it's a completely naked sound out there.

Bass wise your squelching growl could use actually some 1000 hz or so I think. And the lead and other synths could come down a bit more so I could hear it in the mix. Cutting those frequencies will help. You may even apply a chorus to it.

I might even cut the attack and release on your sizechain just a little so that it's shorter. There are some places where it gets a little hard to make out bassline and other synths because it's so deep and long. 45 seconds or so and on is an example. I also can't really hear the bass well there because it's a sine wave. You might try a ramp in that section.

I would say the offbeat stabs at 2:40 or so and the lead are also a little too loud. Maybe .5 dB.

Otherwise great, fast, furious remix. Love it. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

begissor responds:

Wow, never expected such a big respond, thanks. I always highpass everything that isn't a bass as you say. Reverb is a problem, yes, will fix in my new works. Also I have problem with sidechaining dnb, variative dubstep drums and etc.

[Garbage]

My only complaint about that bassline we got going on up to 26 seconds so far is it sounds like it's in the left channel. Did you stereo spatialize it or something? The next to come in sounds a little centered.

1:00 sounds GREAT minus what's been going on so far. All your synths except that high lead are VERY loud compared to the bass.

Also I like the panning play here -- it reminds me of playing N64.

But back to what I was saying. Melodically and structurally this is lit. Minus that pause at 1:15. I'd rather that have been a 1 or two beat affair, fade, or a complete rest, and a pickup. As is, it's long enough I thought it was the end until I looked back up.

But anyway, the drums are hiding in the mix up until 3:30, and even then they're still pretty low. Try turning everything else down some. Turn your pc volume really low, low enough your uncomfortable, start playback. Fiddle with the levels until they sound good to you there, then turn it back to normal. Repeat as needed. Cut unneeded low frequencies from reverbs and other instruments that aren't the bass until you have a clean low end for them to sit in. You will be surprised how much just cutting below 250 hz with a multiband compressor or EQ will help your mix fit together better.

You may also use techniques such as gated reverb or transient shaping -- YT is your friend -- to help fix that perc laying there. But otherwise fantastic work. Loved the track.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!