ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[I Am, Are We?]

Very cool this was made with a bass. Makes me want to pick mine up.

Writing wise this is great, very unique sound. Lyrics are poignant. Vocal delivery is not bad.

Mix wise, I find some choices I don't necessarily agree with. For your verses, I would have a right and left vocal about 23-40%. On your choruses, the vocals are very, very clippy sounding. I don't know if they were recorded with red line levels, clipped, distorted, or compressed, or if they clipped on mix down. Sometimes that happens. That would be the first thing I would fix if you were to go back into mixing this track.

Secondly, it doesn't sound like your vocals have a lot of compression on them. I would turn those buddies into sausage casings and maybe use a transient shaper. Multiband compressors are good for this, and you can cut down on the frequencies below 250-300 hz to both save room in the mix and get a little more mileage out of the compression. right now it just sounds like you turned them way up.

I also would apply chorus or delay, to taste. Cutting reverb sends down and making sure the low end on reverb gets cut will usually improve the clarity.

For your choruses, your lead voice would probably do well centered, with those reverbed doubles pushed off to the side about the same amount as you've done your verses. I'm not sure if I'm left ear deaf, or if this song is just very heavy in the right channel with your vocals.

Very cool effects with the whammy btw.

Also, I find it VERY hard to hear your drums. That doesn't mean necessarily turn them up so much as it does turn everything else down. I would mix my tracks at about -6 dB of head room or at 20% or less volume on my PC. You'll find you tend to make better mixing decisions that way.

Anyway, fantastic job with this piece. It's like djent, but alt rock. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

SkankyMojo responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback. 🤓

[DeLoreans]

So punky it hurts. My only critiques are going to be mix related.

I would apply a little more compression and reverb deadening before processing (ERA-R is a good plugin for this) to your vocals. They could also probably come up by about .2 dB but compression might fix that.

Your 2:30 little bridge sounds great. Then that spacious sound dies out when the chorus comes back in. That tells me either you yeeted those synths down, or compression is killing your sound. Make sure your synths come through the chaos by shaving off low end on guitars, vocals, and indeed the synths themselves. The magic number seems to be around 250 hz.

Your kick sounds really boxy, like it has a ton of 60 hz. I might sub it out for an airier kick or turn it down some, and play with the EQ some to get a cleaner sound. As is, it's a little muddy.

Also, I felt robbed we cut out at 2:53. Let that note ring out, dammit! :P

Otherwise, pretty banging track. Can't wait to see what you come up with next! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC

AjSkull responds:

Thanks for the feedback! The ending actually cuts out fast because it leads into another song.

[Abstrack - Together]

Nice soft, subtle intro. I'd have appreciated just a little bit less ghosting on those snares just to let that happen at some point later in the song.

Otherwise I have very few points of critique other than not liking a super deep sidechain so early on in the song -- before we ever hear a drop. Also, your transitions are very sibilant. That's fine on my monitors, but it might be really airy on a pair of commercial headphones, which tend to have a bellcurve sound.

I'm not a huge fan of such long reverb tails on your snare. It's creating a real high washing sound.

I would also turn down your lead and harmony synths down about a dB. They're so much louder than your bass and percussion that I'm having a hard time getting into the groove. 1:50 is an example of just how much louder they are, as well as 2:02. That's really out there compared to your bass and percussion, and it doesn't ever seem to come on.

The tempo of this song could probably stand to be just a little faster. 5 to 10 bpm

The slowing down outro was a nice touch. I would have liked to hear a I chord on the end, just ringing out for a second or so.

Good work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Abstrack responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I might revisit this song later with these issues in mind.

[Green Grape Goes Groovin']

Interesting name. Fade at 50 sec was unexpected.

I know what Massive preset you have past there ;) My favorite personally

I'm not really able to determine what is going on here structurally. You have three or so grooves that don't really seem to interact with one another a whole lot.

I would actually turn down your other synths minus the bass. They're covering up your drums.

Also would have liked an outro, maybe just that Massive slapback synth on the end.

This amused me, and nothing about it is particularly bad at all. In fact, it's got a pretty solid groove. I just found it hard to get excited without an overarching lead or clear structure. That would be where I'd wanna go next. You might check out some nice channels on YT like Holistic Songwriting or Signals Music Studios. And don't worry, the more you write, the more interesting pieces of music will come to you, so keep going!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Tapestoppa responds:

No Problem and thanks!!

[The Power Company]

Interesting soundscape going on here. The super high 15-20khz here is killing me though on those arpeggiating instruments. Watch for that.

Definitely a lot of interesting textures. Gorgeous chords at the 50 sec or so mark. I'd have liked that to continue briefly. But I'm definitely not complaining.

As for speech, it definitely sounds quite human, but I don't know what the hell is going on. If it's not "I'll be back" I am severely disappointed! T_T

Probably the weakest aspect of this piece, if any, is structure. It more ends sounding a noise scape, I mean, no obvious verse, chorus, etc, to keep my reptile brain processing this strange input as super srs music stuff. Drums also had a hard time peeking through the mix. I would turn down a lot of your synths before applying compression so they come to the forefront.

But I enjoyed nonetheless. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Warm Waves]

That third chord you've got, I have mixed feelings about. It resolves nicely into chord 4. I'm not sure about resolving INTO it though. We have 1, 2, 3??, and 4. Repetition legitimizes though. It's becoming more normal as I go on. Actually, it sounds a lot better in the piano. I think I might just be reacting to the instrument choice.

There are a lot of interesting choices going on here musically, some of which I feel are hampered by obviously synthesized real instruments. Uncanny valley.

Now, I really like the subtlety of 2:04 or so.

I'm not completely in love with the chord progression so I'm not really able to get as much into the big groove sections as I'd like, but I will say your lead writing is wonderful.

Any other complaints I have would be reserved for a lot of muddy reverb covering up your drums. I would pare down your reverb wet signals in both volume and tail length/feedback/size. I feel for a 4 to the 4 dance banger, we're lacking a three quarter note, rest, three quarter note, rest bassline slam for your drops. That could give this piece the edge it needs. Without that I feel like the drums might actually be clashing a bit with where the track naturally wants to go with the instrumentation. I.e. drums might be too busy, or bassline might be. I can't decide.

I would take down your accompaniment on the big sections -- the chords, down a dB or two. They're quite loud in comparison to those piano runs you have in the background. That's also distracting me somewhat and covering up the drums.

Beyond that, great work, a nice bold, swagging piece. I enjoyed the listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Cubiks - Neovitalism]

Very nice, interesting chords in your intro. Sounds like everything is super chorused though so there's this really spread out sound, in a thin way.

Now, I really like the bass notes you've chosen. I would take it down about .4 dB

Really interesting rhythms on your percussion. Reverb or something is making them sound really muddy though. I would say everything but your hihats could stand to have more crisp high end from 8khz up to about 18khz.

This is super trippy but repetition legitimizes.

The only chord I don't particularly like is 2:32. Change a note or two around in there subtly and I think it'll do what you want.

Overall I really enjoyed it. Interesting choices, a fairly pleasing sound design. I would recommend cutting a lot of those reverb sends or choruses down to size some. Your synths already have a very spaced out vibe. Chords are naturally already there. Bassline is the cheese to the cake if you feel me. It's like house meets dnb.

I would like to hear a bit more of your drums. You can try multiband compressors or compressors in general on each individual instrument lane. There are also transient shapers which you can look into, some of which I'm sure are even free.

Anyway great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

CubiksPlus responds:

Woah, Thanks for your feedback :D

[Woe]

Appreciating the unusual (for DnB) rhythms.

Just some mixing critique for up to 0:47 -- hihats could probably stand to come down some. I want a little more 8k hz on your snare. Maybe do some gated reverb on the snare to make it gritty. I sense a love of industrial drums in your sample use and mixing. If you want that nasty super reverbed sound without the muddy tail, try gated reverb, and any normal reverb you have I would take the wet signal down and turn the low cut up to about 280 hz. Those sounds get in the way of a strong kick and especially bass.

I actually am having a hard time hearing your bass throughout the song, so it comes out mostly drums and lead to my ears. Are you mixing with effects on the master channel? Try mixing your track with your computer volume down as you go. You will find you make better mixing decisions -- and make sure master FX are off first. This will go a long way toward helping you with that punchy, clean, aggressive DnB sound.

To get frequencies out of the way for your bass, I would recommend cutting everything below 250 hz on all your leads and other synths, as well as reverb sends liberally. You can also lightly sidechain your kick and bass so that they work in tandem to get that nice gritty punch.

Great work on your track. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Suns3t]

Nice, functional intro. I would say by the first half-repetition of chorus, we should get a bassline going, something like a D, B, F#. Not having that bassline makes me feel like I'm not really going anywhere, despite the rest of the song otherwise being quite well written, if minimal.

That said, take this song, experiment with just adding some quarter note basses, and you will have a great synthwave feel. That DMaj chord just sounds juicy with some bass.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

c0mc1ol responds:

I definitely agree that the song is way better with a bassline and yes, I was going for a minimal type song because I didn't really have much experience in fl studio but I am trying to get better. Thanks for sending some feedback and criticism though!