ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Piano]

I'm not sure why this piece loops -- after a fade-out, no less. I'd rate it a 3, but it seems to mostly be the same chords moving around on the piano. Maybe same inversion. If there were more elements I would rate higher. The piano sounds surprisingly good for GarageBand.

[Aloof]

From the waveform, looks a bit over-compressed to me. Listening at 0:30, yeah, I'm really feeling that. It's almost distorting.

I've probably said this way too many times in the past week of judging this competition, but protip, before you apply FX to the master channel, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's ready to be mastered. It's hard to squeeze a track under -6 dB when you're used to mixing everything all the way up, but it's worth it. I would probably also ditch the vinyl popping once things get going.

Beyond that and the bass being mixed a bit too loud and sibilant, this track would be a solid 9.5 for me. Chords are gold, and daaaamn is that post-bed-squeak section fiiiiiiiirrreeeeee. Great work. I'm definitely picking up what you're laying down.

And that wraps up my round of judging. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[[ Thunderstruck ]]

Your first project? :o

I like the blend of various elements here. Could probably do with a fade in for that under-water sounding SFX.

I'm fairly sure that, had you had better material to work with, this track would be a banger. Compositionally, I've got zero complaints.

Mix wise, lot of lo-mid noise on your reverbs. Try turning down the FX wet and hi-passing it. These frequencies tend to gradually build up and muddy your mix. There's also a lot of hi-fizz and sub noise. I can't tell if some parts of the track are clipping.

FL studio's default synths generally are terrible. I recommend some free synths like ABPL bass, AGML guitar, Headroom/Intimate Piano in the free kontakt thread, SQ8L -- I think ABPL can be loaded with your own samples if you wish, as well. Emissary amp and NadIR/kefIR cabs are free as well. Personally, I use (non-free) plugins like RealEight, Kontakt 5 with Metal Factory Drums, Ample Sound AMR2 (same company as the bass and guitar I recommended), and GrindMachine/Dominator amps, which have built in cabs.

This track was quite a journey, even despite technical issues. Liked it a lot. If you get those mix issues under your belt, I see a long path of success ahead of you!

[Sodium]

Didn't expect guitar tracks with this instrumentation.

I would have liked more modulation on your synths in that intro. Not sure what's going on at 0:35 but that lead is not meshing very well with those guitars.

Structure of this song is good -- but that drop, something is missing. Sounds like the sub bass there needs to be sidechained to the 1:11 bass wobbles. As is they're competing for the same sound space and the sub is winning, resulting in a muddy mix.

1:36, had I not looked, I would have thought this was a premature end to the song. Actually, that could have worked. I feel like you really just bring back the same elements we've heard earlier around for round two here aside from the swung perc. 2nd drop could have gone to the 1st or 2nd half of the first drop and made a much more cohesive song.

Also, perc is hiding in the mix. I wouldn't bring them up though. I would bring everything else down until they shine!

Walpang responds:

Good to know 👍

[lchavasse - Lunar Abyss (Ummabeats Remix)]

I don't think I've ever heard the original to this song.

This mix is a bit sibilant, lacking in the low mid range, and your percussion is too loud -- sounds side-chained and too loud at the same time.

Other than that, your transitions are great.

1:05 sample is too loud. Volume levels as a whole feel inconsistent throughout, like those drop wobbles. Interesting approach with the short brass section. I was hoping that would be more developed.

The mix as a whole on your drops feels very empty for some reason, other than that really loud growl. Probably could have used some offbeat or backbeat chord stabs.

Did like the piano outro.

UmmabeatsMusic responds:

Thank you for your detailed review.
I can understand everything and hope that I'll do better stuff in the future.

[Random Trap Track]

Let's see. We've got a 2 chord progression until 0:30. Definitely a laid back trap piece. Sounds almost like trap and one of the bass music genres. At 0:30 there's some muddiness in your transition. Watch out for that.

Mix is not clipping which makes me happy. I have noticed bass is too loud relative to the rest of the track and the drums are buried though. Drums should always be the loudest in the mix. Our brains are not usually paying them any mind, so they sound quieter in a mix than do even the most faintly melodic instruments we can play with.

Your mix is sitting about where it needs to be to be ready for mastering, which reminds me, before you apply FX to the master channel, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. Mastering services recommend this because it allows youto shape mix without sacrificing clarity. If your mix sounds good here, it will sound good at any volume, and most importantly BETTER when properly mastered.

Deffo recommend studying tutorials on the genres you intend to mix in the future, as well as music theory, mixing, and mastering tutorials. Electronic genres are very technically demanding, especially when it comes to mastering, and it's important to tackle these things as early on as you can in order to get on the radar. The more you know, the easier things will become, the more your workflow will come together, and your tracks will start sounding smooth like butter.

Keep at it!

[NeroExpress - 2006 Style]

Like the acid vibe. By 0:26 I notice this is not an intro and is instead a muddy mix. It sounds almost as if it's like 96kbps. My complaint is more so rooted in the fact that this leaves us with buried drums, no discernible highs, and a very quiet track. I actually really like this. The sound quality is just not there, so the track, even though otherwise quality, has been rendered to almost noise. I'm a bit rate snob though, so please don't take this personally.

[Perception]

Wave sample panning around so hard was a bit confusing. I see that you're playing with that to create a soundscape. I recommend some delay on opposite sides to balance the sound out. Rain sample was abrupt.

The chorus on that piano is so hard, it sounds like a flanger. I would probably recommend turning it down, playing with the settings some more... I'm really not liking how it seems like those harmonies you lay over it at 0:55 are just the same interval transposed around. It isn't very exciting. This actually sounds like Mixcraft piano with classic chorus on it. I'm not for sure on that though.

I would probably take this piece back to the drawing board and studying chord inversions, if nothing else, to help you spice up those chords. 3:15 is probably the most varied, exciting bit of your piece. More like that!

Also, watch for clipping. It sounds like parts of this track were mixed too loud. Protip, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's safe to apply master FX like compression, EQ, and limiters. It's hard to squeeze a track under -6 dB when you're used to mixing everything all the way up, but it's worth it.

TheB34R responds:

First off, you are quiet right when it comes to Mixcraft... The rain sample is a stock one from Mixcraft and this was more of a test piece if anything that ended up becoming my assessment piece making it get a little rushed. I'm starting to completely remake this track as now I feel like I can do so much better with this song. With the piece at 3:15 I'm looking around at how that part worked, and just tinking around with this piece. And with mixing I'm still yet to get used to it, mixing is a little hard at times, but that is also the reason why I have so many lost projects just because I could never mix them well. Again, this was being slowly made at a time but then it became my assessment for school meaning I got a small time limit and this got rushed out. I'm kinda glad for this feedback though because it gives me something to work with, and knowledge of things I could do better

[Space Academy]

That's one unique intro. I'm not sure what's going on at 0:17 and beyond. There is a lot of tension but hard to find the releases. There are a lot of different and interesting melodies entering the fray at various points, but I'm not able to understand what melodic statement you're trying to make.

Also, your chords in the lower register are very dense and chunky sounding. I recommend studying some videos on chord and voice leading, as well as inversions and chord voicing. These will help you make the statements you want.

There are some places this piece shines like 2:03, but even these are muddied up with mix clutter, probably too much reverb, etc. Try turning down the FX wet and hi-passing your 'verb sends. These frequencies tend to gradually build up and muddy your mix. It's also beneficial to manage your different instrument reverbs via send tracks. I.e. create send track for appropriate 100% wet reverb, put reverb on the send track, then determine how much of each other track you want sent to it, and manage the volume of the send track collectively. This saves CPU too.

It sounds like there's not really a bassline going on as well. Most of the frequencies I hear could be played on a trombone or something, without an F trigger. A lof of the energy in tracks comes from the bass!

In short, I'm not sure exactly how to critique here, but recommend definitely checking out tutorials for the genres you want to produce, make sure to learn some music theory (it speeds up the writing process exponentially once you know the basics, and it only gets faster and better the more you learn) -- let me stop a sec and appreciate 5:08. Those first two chords are good. They work. Kinda chunky and condensed as mentioned. Third is wonky and I would change it out. 4th is just the right amount of nasty to sound jazzy.

Really, I would have liked to hear more in the vein of this outro. Six minutes was a long time to wait to get around to that -- and really, this part felt more well thought out than the rest of the piece combined. Extra half star for that.

Tetrahedrix responds:

Thanks, due to the situations involving the track prior to something happening and after. The ending melody kind of took a sad turn and was in fact I suppose where all my details and attention went toward since the rest of the track was pretty much done to me at that point. I see your point of unnecessary length leading to that part. I definitely still have some transitional and length issues with my tracks sometimes.