ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pestilence]

Interesting theme but the track is really quiet and quite minimal. The outro is also really unexpected. As in it feels like a bridge and not an outro. I was kind of disappointed there, missed opportunity to amp the track up with a variation on our initial theme.

[Underwater Sex]

Would probably sound a lot more aesthetic were the leads not super loud over the chip percussion and rhythm.

[No Way Out Bitch]

Sounds like you don't have a cab emulator on a possibly digital distortion plugin. I recommend NadIR (free) -- you can find impulse responses free online, notably coveted boogie mesa impluses.

Overall this isn't too bad, some messy chord changes but it mostly sounds like you had an idea of what you were doing -- no oh-crap moments. Guitar is way too loud though. I can't hear the drums at all. Turn it down. It would be nice to hear this guitar line double-tracked. There are tutorials for this.

The riffs around 3:12 aren't bad. Liked 'em a lot. A nice change from straight 8th notes.

I would also like something more than a single track guitar and the same drum loop.

[The Bëker x Jon1000 Split]

Music here is interesting, but I can't really hear the conversations going on. That could be mixed louder probably.

3:21 the FX on the vocals are interesting but probably be side-chained over the rest of the music. At points it would be ear-rapey if it were louder.

Century sounds almost like vaporwave, but faster, haha. Interesting!

9:39 I'd like something other than stock-y piano sounds. This theme kinda middles throughout, not really developing a lot but having a sort of interesting sound to it.

12:04, I'm wondering what you're going to do with that... clarinet synth? It's an interesting theme for sure, sounds super lo-fi, which may or may not be a plus. Over time I find myself wanting to hear less of those quarter notes. They sound all the same velocity. A hard-soft-hard-soft approach might help. Tune itself is pretty sweet, even if it feels like it progresses very slowly.

16:21 is actually pretty cool despite stuttering delivery. I'd sample it.

17:49, cool 80's inspired theme going on here. Wanna hear more of your vocals as opposed to the FX on the bass. Could maybe use a bit less keys. Genuinely interesting song. Vocals would sound great if they weren't so dry, as well.

22:44 Nicely written semi-free verse. I would also sample this. Delivery isn't too bad but needs a bit more attention to diction/intensity. Not bad!

[Mechanical Factory]

I'm not really seeing any overarching melodies, percussion, or anything here aside from your arp. Doesn't necessarily sound offensive, but just not very exciting either.

DrunkGecko responds:

I'll work on it
Thnk u ouo

[sad]

Interesting chord progression -- not to far out of the norm, but the secret sauce is in that 4th chord.

It looks like you've taken special care to monitor your levels at least in your opening. I feel like you could have cut your intro some and maintained more drive throughout. Those tom fills are pretty good, btw, just a bit too loud.

0:32 is where I would have put 0:39, and I probably would not have taken the piano down so much.

The sub in this is entirely too loud for the hats and perc to cover. If you ever want to test how balanced a mix is, just see if it still sounds good with your volume turned down to about 20%. If you can still hear everything clearly and you like it, it's sounding good.

It does sound like this track has a brick wall limiter over it. I can hear this at 1:04 where everything is kind of distorting in that high range. Listen carefully.

Overall, other than the super loud toms, which do sound good, just need to be a bit quieter, this is a pretty good piece -- and this is in July. Not bad. I would definitely start looking into some tutorials for your favorite genres. You're getting there, just need a little push :)

Also, trim that silence in your outro. There's a free program called audacity that can do it for you in a matter of seconds.

[f*ck]

I like the idea here but this sounds pretty unbalanced. Normally the problem with new dubstep makers is the percussion -- not being able to hear it specifically. What this sounds like is the percussion is too loud over the drop, no side-chain, and backing pads too reverbed up.

Turn that reverb send on your pads down, cut the low end on it, and bring them down a little.

Kick and snare are okay until 0:24 where you can see we have some peak distortion. If this is just an idea you're doing some light mixing on, you can clap an emergency limiter on it as a bandaid but I recommend just avoiding it at all costs.

I try to mix everything so that the entire track peaks at no more than -6 dB on the master channel before I even touch it. This approach totally avoids the peaking problem is why, mostly. That and when you do apply compression -- which it sounds like this piece has not had, you also avoid over-compressing, to some degree.

Now to side-chaining, if you haven't had any experience with this, I recommend plugins like fabfilter C2 or sidekick6, but you can do it by hand if absolutely need be. Basically, you have your bass line, and whenever your kick/snare hit, you duck your bass and sometimes other synths so the kick/snare don't have to push THROUGH the low frequency noise to get to your ears. It's so prevalent now that a lot of people use it, even in genres like metal.

I also note the lack of a sub under your wobble synth, and the wobbles themselves aren't compressed. Something to work on.

That said, good dubstep standard composition going on. I'm excited to see you improve in the time to come. :)

TheVillagerPlayer responds:

Thank you very much for your advices :)

Dubstep is a music genre that iI haven't already tried it was my first time.
I made this in one hour because I was bored and I actually wasn't expecting anyone to listen to this. I'm ok on the point that the pads have too much reverb and low end .
I actually have experience with sidechain, I tried to do the compressor method, lfo tool, kickstart and gross beat, I also used automation clips on the volume (not in this) and I didn't think to add it so thank you vor the advice once again. I'm ok with the entire comment, you're right but I had two problems during the making of this music:

- I don't have a good computer and my cpu was dead at like 11 tracks on the playlist

- It was my first time experiencing the serum plugin and I didn't know how to create growls

btw I'm not english so if my response may have grammary problems (I mean It's still a problem) but I don't speak engliah fluently

Thank you very much for giving me good advice :)

[Endless Handbag Loop]

Most iconic sound in all of NG history right here. First discovered in that one NG rpg. My absolute favorite.

[MC fool vs. Peanutman]

omg that 909 kit... and that bass.

This ain't bad. I'm not sure I would call this a rap battle, and I can't understand most of the rapping due to weak mixing, but some of the end rhymes were pretty decent. Ending also was funny. For 2004, pretty alright.

I just finished reviewing your catalog. 6 songs. I wonder where you are now, and if you had stayed here on Newgrounds, how your music would be today. You seem to have a Monty Python-esque sense of humor about you, something I'd like to see more of these days.

[Degradation Of Race - Hit Toe]

Wow, opening sample sounds great. Synth guitar and distorted drums I can't really say. Writing is good though!

Screaming I can't understand at all because it's so distorted.