ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Take the Day]

Not bad. My only real gripes with the piece are a lot of repetition with not much build-up, and the variation in individual hits of the sticked instruments could be a lot more obvious. I really would have appreciated were this not a loop and you had gone into a full out chorus with this theme. It's not a bad piece of writing at all. Makes me interested in LABs actually.

Beyond that, I feel the frequencies of each individual instrument could be cleaned up with an EQ or multiband compressor. Especially with naked sections, its common to get a boxy 250 hz and below sound from all the other instruments that gets in the way of your double basses. And those themselves can get gnarly hums in 30 hz and below... we all know they don't play in that range ofc.

Do not be afraid to layer other string libraries or instruments also. I know there are plenty for Kontakt such as wonderharp, egyptian ney (a wonderful flute), Pocket blakus cello, mini Naal, egyptian darabuka, clingfilm frame drums, and many more. You can also use a trick of pitching down an instrument with the kontakt pitch wheel, and transposing a second instance of kontakt with it -- or moving the samples on the keyboard. Go nuts.

And don't forget, raked cymbals are your friend!

Great hearing from you. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Heart of the Game]

Finely crafted. Absolutely nothing bad to say about your writing. Just some mix critique. I would take the reverb down quite a bit and shorten the length of the tail; if you want that snappy slapback for your snare, I would recommend looking up gated reverb for snares. It gives a nice gritty, very sonic-esque snare sound.

I would take your lead sounds down about a dB and cut the 250 and below hz range in the EQ (or with a multiband compressor) on all but the bass and percussion. These frequencies get in the way of your bass, and especially with VG bass that is very soft like this one, that can be a problem.

Beyond that, great sound. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Nonet]

Not gonna lie, I was tripping out when only the left channel came in at first, but I'm liking the induced chaos. I think the initial orchestral sections could have done without as many repetitions. I'd give it two. The bassoon part I could do without there, or perhaps just shorten the section, as it doesn't seem to develop a whole lot from there.

The decrescendos feel forced just because of how the instruments are soundfonts and don't really want to respond to velocity.

The piano clips when we hit those dissonant bang chords. But 3 minutes in had some nice ones. I expected more development at 3:36. I really feel the strings are too loud for the chaotic dissonant -- what sounds like melody. Ah, by 4:01 we hear they are bassoons.

Chunk chord at 4:11 is pleasing to my ears. Would be nicer without clipping in the piano, still.

I really feel a lot of these real instruments, you could get away with replacing longer sustains with some retro 80's synths, at least until you are able to get more realistic instruments.

By 5:51 I'm liking the development, particularly 5:57. The dissonant chords are pushing and pulling against one another pleasantly.

The piece boy 6:44 feels like an unpleasant bout of stepping through tar and trying not to leave a trail for someone to follow me, then having an anxiety attack about trying to get all of it off, but it never comes off. The chunking piano has now become pleasant and rhythmic. Like percussion. I was not aware piano could even be used as a percussion instrument.

I would split the chords at 8:06 between low and high some more, panning wise, bringing perhaps bass notes to center. It feels very unbalanced without. Or some string tension.

How did you make your chord decisions from 8:20? It sounds like planned chaos. I'm not sure what is happening, but it is stressful. Here there is plentiful clipping throughout. I appreciate so much that you did not apply a lot if any reverb. It would have been unpleasantly muddy.

My ear is starting to hurt at 9:40. I'm not sure why. This is again back to pleasant dissonance.

I would have appreciated a smoother... or more disjunct transition into our outro strings.

10:48 texture wise is how I would like to hear most sounds in this piece. Once all the strings are in. That slippery string feeling of something about to go horribly wrong.

I wish avant-garde were a genre.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Ice Sheets]

This is a very simple, natural piece. Not a lot I can really say other than I appreciate how subtle it is. My only complaint is the abrupt outro. I can hear what sounds like a clip at 2:18, and it just doesn't sound natural to not let those notes ring out. Other than that, great work. It takes a lot to do so much with so little instrumentation. Keep it up!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[ALGO - ALANE (Remix)]

My only complaint with this mix is it sounds like I have earplugs in and am listening in my car, and the sidechain is SO hard. Enough it distracts me from the melody. Maybe pull it off of the melody by just a little.

The earplug feeling keeps up until we get our hats at 2:02. Those feel pretty loud in comparison to lead.

Put a little more sibilance back in the mix, 8k to 16k feels almost nonexistent to me until we get the hats back in, which is really noticeable and makes it hard to enjoy the fullness of those gorgeous vocal chops. And also makes transitions sound harsh.

You've done a great job structurally in keeping the piece varied yet centered in the groove. Great work with that. And gorgeous bass. Issa head bobber :)

Beyond that I would just bring the vocals up in general about a dB or 1.5

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Abendmusic - Wilderborn]

Some muddy chords here, and mix is reverb heavy, but the structure is sound, and writing knows where it's going. Honestly, I would take the reverb tails you have going here and cut them by about 25-40 percent, depending on instrument. It's very low end heavy and washes out the great writing on your percussion.

By 2:12 I'm not hearing a lot of variation of texture. That section, the lead is particularly synthy with ... it sounds like a high portamento on the tonic. I think you could cut most of it out and the piece would stand well.

I don't have a lot of critique beyond that. The piece is solid and a good listen. Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Abendland responds:

Hi ADR3-N
Thanks a lot for your thorough feedback! Helps me a lot to improve! I appreciate it a lot, thanks for your time!
Cheers, Chris

[4nZwar3 - Rebirth]

Check your levels -- there's a lot of peaking going on here, even with what sounds like master limiting compression.

Also, 6 minutes is pretty ambitious for a dubstep piece. You could probably stand to cut or move around some sections. Like at 3 minutes, I swore we were going into a drop -- but this is a build/breakdown. Put that section before a final drop. The one before it is a good build. Looking at your waveform alone I would have expected 3:00 at like 4:33.

Mix wise, that low portamento synth I would say is a little too loud. Take it down maybe a dB or so.

If you're mixing with the mastering channel FX on, don't do that. It's basically impossible to mix well like that. Turn your mix volume down to like -6 dB, and then mix all the tracks as sounds good to you there. You'll find you make better mixing decisions when the loudness factor isn't there to make things sound cool. I'm really prone to this myself so I understand. When you're done, turn it back up! If you have a mastering service you use, mix the track down at say -6 dB and then send it to wherever you plan to have it mastered.

The phrasing you have with Dubstep bass for 3 bars, then 4th bar of instrumental after being repeated 4 times per section gets kind of old. Try some variation of rhythm even.

I do like the thrumming bass at 3:36, but I feel like it doesn't really get enough presence in the mix. When mixing, also, resist turning every part up when you want to hear it. Instead, bring down whatever you think is in the way. It goes a long way and makes the end compression sound better.

Buildup at 4:21 was really unexpected. I feel like that spot without the percussion could have been dropped -- or the OH WOW could have been a quick two shot like you have in your crazy outro. Really there are so many buildups here without a lot of change to the drop or opportunity to get going. I would space them out a lot more. As is it makes the song sound like it doesn't know where it's going.

A typical dubstep structure will help you here. There are plenty of templates online. Take one you like, mark the drops, builds, and intros or outros, starts of the risers, and then delete the rest of the template. Work on that structure as your base, until you get a natural feel for song structure. It will help you a lot.

Mix wise the biggest thing I noticed was clipping/peaking and a lot of clutter with reverb or instruments with sustains kind of just being put to the side chain without thinking about how sound bleed works.

Reverb, always remember less is more, and make sure there is a ton of low cut on your reverb, at least up to 250 hz. These frequencies make an instrument sound boxy. Try to keep a low wet signal with a fast release. If you really want that big slap back or long tail sound, try a delay, also with low cut and quick release time. Ping-pong makes all the difference. I will even admit to abusing it.

EQ wise on each instrument that is not your bass I would cut the frequencies below 250 hz. You may think they sound tinny solo, but in an ensemble, these frequencies get very loud and stand in the way of your bass, kick, and snare. Too much of them even and you can just end up with a headache. It will sound like a swath of pink noise in your track. I hear a lot of that here, mostly reverb but still.

Also, I would not compress your track as hard as you are now. It makes it feel like it doesn't really have a pulse or depth, even with sidechain there to give the impression of oomphing kick and DSH snare -- speaking of, gated reverb is a sound to look into for your snare to get a little more mileage out of it. Look that up. It's a great concept that can be used on any instrument.

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

[The Last Petal]

Not bad. I see you're going through the age old struggle of soundfont strings and trying to get a more lively sound while fighting reverb.

I would cut your wet signal on your reverb down by about half of an hour on the clock and shorten the tail somewhat. I would also modify the velocity on your hihats so that it doesn't sound like the same note over and over. Emphasize the head of the measure and lower the other beats so that we get a sense of pulsing.

At some point I might also change the lead from piano to something else like harp. It's not hard to make a harp sound natural because it doesn't have a huge change in tone depending on velocity.

There seem to be more than one layer of piano. I would pick and choose which instances of those I wanted to keep piano, so the piece didn't sound so samey.

At 1:37 I was expecting a full stop to the piece, or a change in texture. The parts up to 2:12 lead up to a final chorus that doesn't feel as intense as we did just a bit ago before 1:37. It feels like a very long outro. I would change where those moments are in the piece, perhaps. By 2:52 the outro feels a little tired.

As for those high strings by 3:00, you can get away with some synthwave brass usually and still have a very pleasant Toto - Africa intro sound, without being very obtrusive. Those high strings as sound fonts just don't do your writing, which is good, any favors.

Anyway you've got some great ideas on the table here. A little reworking of structure and some thinking about instrumentation, and you'll be moving along really nicely. Great work, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[God's Winter]

We've got a nice pensive intro. Nothing is offensive to the ear. I think the only part this piece neglects is production elements. The wow factor. But not to worry, that's not that it sounds bad at all. :)

I really like the way you've written your chords, and the structure is nice and comprehensible. There's not an overabundance of elements that aren't adding to the track. Everything has its place. This is good. I would however pare down slightly the reverb tail on any instruments with sustains and percussion.

I'm not really liking the strings -- they have that key string slow attack. You can drag them ahead of the beat a bit to get that gross feeling of almost a full sixteenth beat waiting for them to come in to go away. Experiment with that.

Your low harp, I would edit the velocity of these notes. You may even make two instances of the harp and to get that traveling effect, pan some ranges of the harp to the left or right as you see fit. Panning of various instruments I would experiment with more, more than anything, as your chord writing is pretty good.

Your percussion writing is good. I would bring it up in the mix a couple dB. Also, experiment with different panning. It sounds very centered here. The ending of the perc is the only part that particularly left me wanting more. You could try throwing in a raked cymbal stinger on the end at 2:14 to tie things off. I would humanize the velocities of your cymbal hits here as well.

I feel like we're locked into the same BPM here in a piece that wants to move and flow. Maybe experimenting with the BPM per bar can give you an edge here.

Volume wise, I feel the strings especially by 2:00 are a little too loud in the mid range for the melody and the drums should be pushing through more.

But otherwise you've got a solid piece. Writing wise I'm very excited to see what else you have to bring to the table, and I applaud you for making MuseScore sound good in any case. Great work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!