ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[dontwannagohome]

I agree with Kwing. Love a good beatbox, but the mix quality and hardware is a little... not great. Cool idea that I would like to see revisited with better equipment/mix.

[Charmer's Concoction (Bass Remix)]

Oh, so very 90's... Kinda reminds me of Megaman X : Command Mission. I'm feeling it.

About 2 minutes in, my complaint is largely that the track sounds like it was mixed too loud. Leads are hanging out over the bass a little unsupported. Bass is hiding in the mix, and so is the Amen Break. I can finally hear it at 3:00.

Protip, before you finalize your mix, 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'm noticing consistently the overly loud mixing on your synths by 4:00, which gets louder and louder by 4:30. I can hear an almost saturation style distortion by 5:00. Despite how much I like the DJ set vibe, this kind of consistent problem is really hurting your mix.

Definitely look up some mixing and mastering tutorials. By 6:00 we're distorting pretty consistently. At 6:32 at least I'm able to hear your perc more clearly, but at 6:39 the leads resume being too loud relative to them. Your perc should be the loudest element of your mix so as to still sound present throughout. Our brains don't pay much attention to them, so they sound quieter to us than they really are.

7:20, that drum loop is nice. I appreciate the return to the main theme at 8:00 or so. 8:56, things are significantly distorting again, and it continues getting worse as more elements are added.

9:30 sounds cleaner, despite still distorting, and there is our long-awaited outro.

All due respect, this didn't feel as long as it really was, so props for that. Normally I would be bored out of my mind by now. I'd love to see this song revisited with some proper attention to volume levels and mastered.

[The Seven Heavens - HalfEvil333.com]

Layering those two drum beats gives the sound a kind of cluttered sound, which is compounded more as we get into 0:57.

Overall, fairly simple track. Manages to make the orchestral and techno elements work together. Transitions are a little weak though, and I'm not sure what's going on structurally since we seem to almost be hanging onto the same chord for a majority of the song. I can't tell if you're just letting that held bass arp define the key for us or what.

2:30's are where the most adventurous part of our tune begins.

3:25 elements over top, I'm not sure where this came from and occurs without any obvious transition, twice. Not even like, wikki-wikki record scratches.

Also, random boom at somewhere around 2:40. Not liking that.

In short, I'm not really able to understand the piece. There were no fills or transitions to make me feel like it was anything beyond some moderately appropriate orchestral samples beat-matched to our drums, key-matched to our other samples. The arping bass also didn't do much for me. I would have rated higher for an olskool sounding bassline somewhere in there and some chop-sampled drums rather than loops.

HalfEvil333DB responds:

Thank you for the feedback. It really helps as I make new tracks. The idea for the song is to create 7 different heavens using similar sounds. Which is why all the sudden changes but similar beats. I will work on better segways in the future. The boom at the end was a thunder sound with rain to go into the next track. I am working on a song called when the Heavens meet the Earth where it will be a thunder storm with metal and beat elements. It's a tough one.

Again thank you your insite helps a lot. I want this new album to sound much better.

[00FF 63]

I'm not sure what's going on here in your intro. Not really liking that glitchy synth with the slow attack. Intro also takes a long way to get anywhere. I could have dealt with a slow low-pass play into the main drive at about 1:00 in.

There's a lot of noise in the way of your bass, keeping me from hearing the attacks and releases cleanly. It could even be reverb. Try cleaning up the EQ of your other elements to get them out of the way in terms of frequency range. You would be surprised that even leads can sometimes get some sub frequencies going, and the more elements your track has, or the more notes are going on, especially with effects like reverb, the more they pile up, resulting in a muddy mix.

Track seems like multiple elements have been mixed too loud and/or compressed. I can't tell really due to the distortion on multiple instruments. 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'm just not really able to enjoy this track, partly due to, as Kwing mentioned, there doesn't seem to have been much variation or risk taking going on except those really weird key stabs we hear in the beginning. I don't know how to stress how much I didn't like them, and every time they came up I was distracted from the good elements of your track, which I could harmonically understand, versus those stabs, which I could not.

No offense, just not my style. There were some points of the track I did very much like, just not where you involved material from your intro.

geonb responds:

hi ADR3-N thank you for the tips. I have no good mastering tools right now. Just low budget. I also thank you for the advice to mix the track to -6 dB. Do you think tracks should be completely uncompressed or little compressed? I also heard the opposite of that. Next time I will post my tracks completely unmastered just put them in like they are. I belive others can master them much better. If you are interested to listen to the track unmastered tell me and I'll post it as 00FF 63b best geonb
but meanwhile eat this https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/816260 (It's a song that is more likethe issues you responded isn't it ;)

[Fortuna]

Interesting intro with the piano. The sub frequencies on reverb from the key attack is starting to build up in the background and give me that head-swimmy feeling though. Recommend hi-passing your reverbs to somewhere around 400 Hz

0:36, that sidechained piano is distorting, a sure sign of being mixed too loud.

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 is ready to be mastered. It's hard to squeeze a track under this when you're used to mixing everything all the way up, but it's worth it.

1:56, I really like this section despite being really low mid heavy and a bit of soft clipping in your bass.

Points for dynamic contrast as well, although I am noticing some of the issues Kwing pointed out. I don't quite know where we are going occasionally. I think the section at 3:12 could have been cut. Still noticing clipping, on that timp. 3:48 synth shines though, and we're back to the groove. I'd have kept that drop going for another repeat or 3, then let 4:18 be our outro for a good 8-16 bars.

Piano outro does bring an interesting texture though. 4:52 would have been the perfect, inquisitive little note to end on. When you kept that phrase going, I was soooo disappointed.

I'd have given a 9/10 if not for some questionable structural decisions in this track overall, not to mention clipping. Arrangement and chord voicing is what's keeping me from rating lower than 8. Overall though, I do see a lot of potential right here. Some tutorials on song structure, mixing, and mastering, and you'll be well on your way to being a successful trance artist!

Fynzyme responds:

Thank you for being so in-depth and for the protip! I understand exactly what you're saying and I really appreciate the advice.

[Pixel Planet]

Like Kwing mentioned, this is a nice, quiet videogame tune. I actually really like it but for some mix issues.

Minus half a star for some occasional clipping like at 0:18. It sounds like some things are mixed too loudly and your reverb on your keys is way too loud up in the send -- or has too much low mid, contributing to a very muddy sound. I notice this throughout where you use reverb.

That said, your lead writing is good. By 1:14 it sounds like a limiter has been clapped on without concern to mixing the track itself properly, as I still hear clipping occasionally, especially when your lead gets to doing its thang.

I notice throughout your lead is far too up in the mix, drowning out even the drums.

Protip, before you apply any FX to the master channel, make sure the entirety of your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. Mastering services almost universally recommend this as it allows you the freedom to shape the mix as you desire without sacrificing clarity. If your mix sounds good there, it will sound good at any volume, and most importantly BETTER when properly mastered.

Great work otherwise. Thanks for turning out to NGUAC!

[Relax - JasLand]

The low mids on those keys are kind of headache inducing, but your voice leading (in the key lead) isn't bad. I recommend doing some research into chord inversions, as they will vastly improve your tonality.

Your drop is really short. The song as a whole kind of is, actually.

I think the track is suffering from over-compression. You'll probably want to look up mixing and mastering tutorials for your chosen genre.

Because the song is only about 1:30, I can't give a great score. Wishing there was more I knew to say, and more to hear!

[Home]

Like your chords here but this mix is obscenely lo-mid heavy. It's better once the drums come in, but you're still lacking a lot of the breathy sibilance that gives a track life. Johnfn wrote a tutorial on how to avoid this in electronic genres with a hi-pass/lo-pass/EQ technique. You might PM him for details since it's probably buried in his newsposts. I really need to write a shortcut so I can recommend it to more people.

Also, I'm going to move this to synthwave once this review is posted because that is the genre. :)

I disagree with Kwing that the track is too samey. That's actually genre appropriate. I still recommend some mixing and mastering tutorials due to some inconsistent elements in the track, namely 2:35 or so where we inexplicably have static.

I would also recommend mixing all your tracks so that you're sitting at -6 dB headroom before applying master compression or limiters. If your mix sounds good at this range, it's ready for mastering. If not, try to find out what's going on there; making things louder is not a universal path to making it better.

Minus a half star for abrupt cutoff on your outro.

That said, I see tremendous potential in you as a future synthwave producer. Can't wait to see how you grow in the years to come!