ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

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Watch out for those machine gun attacks on your snare rolls. I'm also not sure why the march is swung, and those rimshots could probably go as far as I'm concerned. The track is missing some... je ne sais quoi.

Writing wise, this is not a bad piece. It's got a definite theme -- could probably use a little overarching melody. I'm not sure how to critique really, as my only other critique would center on your midi instruments. I recommend Black Noh Snare for a more natural synth snare. Probably synful orchestra for natural, low CPU strings and winds.

That's really all I can say.

Novent-Music responds:

Thank you for your review and critique.

I looked back at the song and the snare does sound choppy, so I have taken that into consideration for the future.

Also thank you for the recommendations ill be sure to try them out.

[Lost]

Nice lead writing here, but your low mids and bass are heavy, muddy, and cluttered (chord wise)

I will say I REALLY don't like your guitar synth but that's just because it's machine-gun attacking. I would recommend something like RealEight, Ample Sound AGG, Shreddage... Or if you need a free library, Ample Sound AGML. The attacks on all of those instruments will not disappoint you.

This out of the way, 1:38, that lead has been waaaaay too loud for a bit and actually distracting me from what I was typing. It's a consistent problem throughout. It's glaring enough I think it could actually be your headphones not presenting to you in that frequency range. If you really can't hear it on any of your gear, I recommend Audio Technica M40x, used, if you can afford them. They are indispensable to me in identifying problem parts in the mix. Failing that, you can always look at a spectrum analyzer and/or sweep your track for frequencies that are sticking out in the mix with ReaEQ. If interested, PM me and I'll find the tutorial where I learned to do that.

You've structured your song well. However it does sound like it's been mixed way too loud before mastering FX were applied. 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. Mixing loud will not make everything sound better unless it already sounds good.

4:01 I can tell this track is compressed way too hard with how loud that lead is. Headache territory.

I definitely recommend some tutorials on mixing, mastering, voice leading, and writing melody/chords. For the first two, you'll want to try to stay genre specific, but the last two, Ben Levin does some great instructionals on YT. As someone who's been reading music and studying theory for years, it helped get me out of a box.

I do see potential in you to be great. Can't wait to see how you grow over the years. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! :)

NoobGameYT responds:

Thank you so much for the advise, this is really helpful :) I will definitely check out some tutorials on YouTube to make sure I get my mixing better. Again, thanks for the advise and for seeing potential in me :D

[Say my name]

I agree with Kwing here. I was really enjoying your instrumentation until the chip portion came around. The chip synth at 0:52 that vanishes as abruptly as it appeared was a bit loud. It's not so bad at the loud section at 1:39 -- until 1:45, and that lead is also super loud -- but I find myself missing something...

Traditional percussion probably.

That said, your chord progression does not get old over the course of 3 minutes or so, which is an accomplishment. Ritard was a nice touch, and your piano stinger at the very end was tasteful. Wish ritard were slower. Didn't feel like we'd ground to a complete halt yet.

Mixing on this piece could use a touchup, especially on that piano. It feels like the piano samples were recorded with three socks and a towel over the mic, if you catch my drift. Let it sing out, all breathy and sibilant like. Your chippy synths are super gritty by contrast, which makes their sudden entry a little more jarring than it ordinarily would be.

[Adventure]

The attacks on that piano are kind of jarring for me.

Also, synth panned hard left sounds good but I'm not sure why you would pan it so hard.

When we get to our drop, I can tell things were mixed too loudly. You've got some soft clipping going on.

That said, track does sound good regardless. I would recommend you revisit the mix after the competition, strip down, re-do all your volume leveling. That's literally the only thing killing this track, other than some machine gun key attacks.

Protip, make sure your track peaks no higher than -6 dB, then apply mastering FX -- not sure if there even are any on this track, but mastering services almost universally recommend this because it allows you the freedom to shape the end result as you please without clipping. If your mix sounds good here, it will sound good at any volume, and most importantly BETTER when properly mastered.

Definitely recommend looking at mixing and mastering tutorials. You have a good sense for melody and harmony. The mix is your weak spot here. Fix that and this would be a solid 4/5 to 4.5/5 for me, depending on how good the mix is.

[To Battle]

Orchestral elements here /do/ sound nice. It's the guitar that's lacking. Doesn't sound like they're double-tracked. Kind of hiding in the mix. I'd probably recommend RealEight in place of whatever you've got here. I can tell 2:05 is not a synth. If you didn't commission someone else to record that or play it yourself, I'm not sure why you would chose to synth your rhythm guitars there. Not a serious detractor but does take off a good half star just for guitar mixing/synth. You could probably have gotten away with slapping an amp on a dry cello with a pick sample midi vst the keep the attack clear.

That said, wonderful writing. I found the only thing this piece really lacked aside from what I've already mentioned is some compression to give it the power I know you want to convey.

[New Loop Thing]

This reminds me of the typical 4 chords progression -- the one we find in Pachelbel Canon, only without the 4th chord.

Overall, not a bad piece, but there's very little variety. I'm not really hearing any melody, just the chords sort of added and subtracted to.

2:01 we get a bass arp and a slight switch up, and then the bass turns into a riser.

For a song with so few statements, I don't really think it needed to be 4 minutes long. I'm not sure what to comment otherwise besides ... hmm. Now that I pay closer attention, this file sounds over-compressed. That could be side-chaining or something. Recommend maybe checking some mixing and mastering tutorials for your DAW.

[Sea Drift]

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. I hear it especially on the big boomy FX. You'd be surprised how little reverb you really need to accomplish the sounds you're going for.

Boom FX is too loud in the mix. I think I hear clipping at points.

Other than that, chill piece. I'm vibing with it. Synth bass could probably use some humanization.

2:56 is clipping pretty bad. I don't think a limiter would be a big enough bandaid for it. Protip, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's ready for FX and compression in the master channel. 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.

KnockVoltage responds:

Cool, thanks for the tips! The clipping near the end gets me every time I hear it. I'll have to work more on master channel FX and compression so I can mix lower.

[The Visions in 140]

Just a bit hard to hear that sine bass once things get going. Then by 0:39 between the throbbing bass and that one TSSS perc, I'm feeling just a little bit of a headache coming on. It kind of sounds like a limiter was tossed on top of the track without concern that some elements may have been mixed too loudly.

You have some cool elements going on, but I'm not really able to tell what direction we're headed in melodically. It's not quite noise music but certainly some atonal elements going on here until about 3:09. As such, I'm not sure how to comment other than perhaps recommending some mixing and mastering tutorial study to make things a little more palatable/clean up muddy mix.

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. Even if you just render your track before popping it over to one of those auto-mastering services, it really does make the magic happen.

[Preheat]

Interesting intro. I think that string synth probably could have benefited from more volume.

0:30 is a fairly new presentation style. I feel like we were really lacking the usual dubstep snare pattern there, and that would have beefed up the composition a bit. Also, section after was a very abrupt return to our intro.

The following build leads to a chorus that isn't bad but sounds like it belongs more in hiphop. Also, this track feels like it's totally lacking a bassline other than the drops. Drops additionally could probably benefit from coming down an octave. That's reeeeally high for a dubstep bass. I could play it on a trombone, without an F trigger.

I think everything roughly fits together. It's just there's no bass to give this track punch. Interesting writing, though!

[Ecliption]

Sounds like clip-clopping digital horses. Do like the organic feel and what you've done with just your voice, but I really think you're doing yourself a disservice not using a traditional DAW like say, Reaper.