ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sugar High]

Nice atmosphere on this piece. It does sound fairly upbeat.

My gripe, the the drums are pretty buried in the mix -- and they kind of sound like stock FL drums. Very thin and tinny. That said, their arrangement is pretty solid. Kind of reminds me of old 70's music in that way. Your drum panning is pretty good, though I personally would have panned hats to the left channel in this piece since you've got your crash rolls on the right.

Thematically, this piece keeps a steady pace, and I like your bass line -- though I'd have loved to hear a bit more of it throughout.

I would pull your leads and pads down a tad and raise the overall volume of the piece. You may even take advantage of side-chain compression on your choruses some and/or compress the piece. Right now, it sounds unmastered.

Overall, enjoyed your work. I'd have liked to hear maybe some mallets (bells or w/e) now that you mention it, but I think the fantasia synths work well enough on their own. Keep it up!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ColinMuir responds:

Hey thanks man. Yeah i can understand what you said on mastering. I'm usually in a weird mix of thinking it needs to be edited, compressed, etc. or just sound how it is with the peaks. I'll hopefully figure out how to do my songs better that way, thank you for the input. :)

[Unraveling the Mask]

Ah, a waltz! I'd like a bit more volume on that mallet synth around 0:05.

High and whiny violin could also do with a slightly gentler accompaniment. At times the accompaniment and the left channel and the waltz backing do overwhelm it.

The mix of this track overall is somewhat tenuously balanced. New elements like bongos seem to lie on top of the arrangement rather than within it.

I did like the combination of harpsichord and mallets. Nice and subtle. I also liked your harp runs in the background, as well as what sounds like some flutes hiding out for swells.

1:34 section sounds good but if that's a rain sample, I could probably do without it. The mix is so thin here that any extra noise sounds almost unwelcome. By 2:04 however, at least the drums feel more in place.

I also wish 2:20 had been a B section and not an outro! That sweet little trilling swell was magic. Even a cheesy finale minor I chord at the end with the piano doubling octaves down low would have given me a bit more closure.

Overall, nice work. I wish I had more to say other than "good composition, lots of nice music theory jazz, but X, Y, and Z were too loud, and I'd like to hear more of Q." It's been great just to hear you growing over the years. Now you've got a structure that works. I'd like to see you start stepping out of the box every so often, expanding on your themes.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Forever Jazz]

This is midi? Man, someone is really pushing the envelope.

My complaints can mostly be reserved to over-reverb and hearing a lot more of the subby thud on the upright bass than the actual notes themselves. 1:41's reverb is a huge example of reverb overhang.

Overall, however, nothing necessarily sounds bad, barring maybe that snappy doot-doot lead trumpet, un-muted.

I would probably recommend a different e-guitar than Halion's admittedly not bad jazz guitar. Ample Sound's AGG2 and others are far superior after having done some demos.

Compositionally, this is a treat. Starts off with some sweet swing -- great ghost notes on that perc. Sax solo through 0:37 is blazin', almost sounds human, which is a testament to your writing. Cannot say the same for jazz guitar. Drum and bass solos are great with the exception of the aforementioned subby frequencies on that bass being out of control.

Around 2:04 I would have gone with a bit more relaxed releases and probably humanized those chords a bit more. Bass writing through that section is wonderful.

I'd have liked a little bit more of a hold on the final note of the outro.

Overall, great piece. Really enjoyed it! Only wish I had more to write, haha.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AzulJazz responds:

Thank you so much ADR3-N, for this really helpful and detailed review!!

[ALESDA! - Wake Up]

Intro really does sound like freshly waking up. Watch for boxy low mids when your piano comes in. I think I hear a hint of overdrive but I don't trust my monitors right now; had to reinstall audio drivers.

I do hear a lot of sub in your mix, cutting off somewhere around 250 hz.

Overall, tasteful use of sidechain and some SFX. I do feel like your leads and pads may just be a bit much for your perc/sfx/bass to sustain. I may back off the sidechain a bit. Your chorus is a bit cluttered.

2:00 section is a nice clean bridge. 2:11 comes in just a bit too hard here. Back off those strings/perc/pads. Maybe even strip it down a little. It already feels just as intense as your chorus, when I can see you were backing off a bit here. I also think I hear a bit of distortion in... Is that ABPL down there? Slap a cab over top if it is and that may help. Something down there is extremely fizzy.

For reference, any time you use an amp sim like, say, Emissary (free), you want to use a cab sim like NadIR (also free) to emulate the traditional setup of amp and microphone rig to capture the amp sound. Some other amps like Dominator/Grind Machine do this for you, but it's not hard to find nice Mesa impulses to load cabs with. Also, don't feel bad -- I've accidentally dropped cabs before an amp and still been frontpaged; quality music transcends its flaws more often than not.

2:45, that perc sample stands out very hard in that particular arrangement. I would recommend shifting away from it or chopping it differently, as it's now gotten a bit stale -- and continues to the more I hear it, especially with brick-wall hard compression.

Outro was gorgeous. I'd like to hear a little more high end on that piano though. Sounds like the frequencies past 5k have been gradually rolled off.

Overall, solid piece, nice melodies -- mix is a bit over-compressed to my ears, and there were some hiccups with your SFX, but you come out the other side pretty solid. Nice work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Dragon Slayer]

Interesting, spacious piece. I'm having a bit of a time judging due to hardware issues on my end.

Mix is a bit reverb heavy for my tastes. That wet has a messy tail on it. Tone it down a bit.

2:21, that hi-hat splashing could probably do with being shut a bit tighter.

Compositionally, I enjoy your lead writing. 3:18 chugging section was a bit abrupt for my taste, and I would like to hear a bit more of your leads. Mix wise, they were occasionally a bit washed out.

Your drums, with the exception of the toms, sound pretty flat. Kick is a bit flabby -- tuip-tuip-y. Snare also leaves room for improvement. I want to hear more of that top head ringing. Never be afraid to apply tape saturation/EQ/etc. to fatten up a snare. A nice 80's-ish snare sample might have even done the job if you blended it with the current sample.

Panning was pretty natural to my ears.

Cymbals were hiding in the mix. I'd take them up just a bit.

I also didn't like how disjointed 4:41 sounded from the rest of the track as a whole. It would have made a better bridge than an outro.

Overall, pretty good power metal, a couple hiccups in structure, tension, and release. Melody is fairly catchy, but it's missing that little something to give it some wow to go with the weird. As is, still jammin' though. Nice work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

350teric responds:

Well, thanks for the review and the high grade of 4. While reading your suggestions and personal preferences in this review I got an impression that I would score something like a 2 or below. Regarding the mix, I'm always aiming for a natural sounding blend, avoiding compression and clipping, which too often is present in 90% of modern music and contributes to the "loudness war" of mixes. (Conventional) Song structure is present, but should be perceived through the prism of progressive metal style. Thanks again! :)

[! MDK - Press Start ( GD cut )]

"You voted 5 on this on July 31st, 2017 at 3:10 AM Eastern."

Stumbled upon this again in my GD search engine trawling.

LexRodent responds:

Almost 13 months later, and the joke it's still alive and kicking :D

[My Way]

Jealous of them chords tho. Also, that atmosphere.

Recall you showing it to us in writer's club a while back. And by a while I probably mean like, forever ago, and possibly not in writer's club. Smooth 808. Could possibly use some overarching melody on occasion so it doesn't feel repetitive. Ofc, that's the nature of the genre, but a girl can dream.

Going to casually download this.

[Shüpphedős a Talay(Dupstep RMX V2)]

I have no idea what's happening. Hurts my ears. A lot, with the screeching. I also have a hard time hearing the percussion over said screeching.

CanCerY responds:

Blabla, make betta noob