ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[At The Speed Of Light (Deathmix) Rough version]

Wow, apologies for how long this took to get out -- this is my second try getting a review out to you. Computer issues.

Now, to the track, it sounds eerily familiar to a track I've heard before -- oh, now I get it, Dimrain. It took me a second to recognize. I can see you've really gone the extra mile to try and switch things up.

Arrangement wise, there's nothing really wrong here, although I do find myself wanting more drum fills every 4th/8th bar just to keep things fresh. You might also try something outside of the usual Kick Snare Kick Snare pattern.

I'm finding it hard to hear your bass, not so much volume wise -- the texture. A square wave would have worked better. Sines are best in the sub, layered with another bass. With such open spacing between your bass and very little tenor/baritone presence, I feel like I'm constantly waiting for a chorus to hit. Texture feels very tinny.

Those opening crashes were used nicely, also quite dynamic with the softer crashes. Definitely found myself longing for more of that throughout. I would have liked some cymbal rolls as well to complement those sweep transitions.

The more I listen, the better the song sounds to my ears, and I hear some nice things you're doing with your percussion here and there.

I would definitely recommend changing out your choir and string synths for something better, with better attack/release. The ones you have are very muddy. If I'm not crazy, pocket blakus and many others are still available for free -- check the free kontakt library thread in the audio forum. Another option, which I highly recommend, is Synful Orchestra, which can emulate all kinds of instruments, like clarinet and french horn, sometimes these ears can only tell the difference when I've written the parts myself, lol. It's also much more light on RAM than any other instrument I've used.

I would also recommend not writing your strings all in one midi envelope and instead writing each different part, SATB style, separate. Many instruments do have great legato settings, but we destroy them by writing block chords. Writing them separately will also help with realism if you also humanize them separately -- makes a huge difference. With kontakt instruments, you can load up multiple instances of the same instrument, slightly detune them, pan them around, etc.

Your percussion are hiding in the mix. Remember, percussion are the loudest instruments in any song, but we don't tend to hear them that way -- because our brains are focused on the music, not the rhythmic pulse. You've got to bring up those drums. Also, sounds like you have some flat samples as well. You may want to try tape saturating, distorting, or compressing them individually.

I can see from the wave form that this piece is probably unmastered. I definitely recommend some tutorials on mixing and mastering. They will take your craft to the next level. :)

Let me know if there's something here I haven't addressed. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

death2go responds:

Thanks for the review man! You gave me a lot of stuff to look at, which I will surely do whenever I have time!

[Twilight Techno]

Just going to casually note this song was my wakeup alarm for like 9 years. Respek. <3

[Zelda: The Windwaker Intro]

Saw this song in the number one spot in genre on the wayback machine from ages ago. Not bad, but there is soooooo much reverb. Still, pretty well handled for the time period. I remember getting good synths used to be hell. I'm happy this piece is still here.

Minus half a star for some clipping.

[[a.] Endless Sky]

Wow, no machine-gun articulations! Could do with a shorter reverb tail on your piano in your intro though.

Was recommended this track by Quarl. I can see why. Break is strong. Just a bit sibilant overall though with a little clutter from that delay and 'verb. I'd like to hear a cleaner sound throughout.

HOWEVER, this piece was very well written, breaks never got stale, and it felt a lot shorter than 3:26. Nice work!

[Crossroads]

Here from Discord. Ooh, nice vocal line in your intro. I'd like to hear a finished take on this, perhaps with a little bit more volume on that line. The strings that come in at 0:48 or so almost drown ya girl out.

I'm sensing a bit of repetition in this piece, maybe for dramatic effect. Minus a star for abrupt cutoff though, and that's pretty much it.

AceMantra responds:

Hey! Thanks for the input! ;)
Out of all of the old songs I sifted through, I might actually pick this one up again and continue to work on it.
I agree with what you mentioned at 0:48. I initially used a full choir, but decided to stick with a soloist to hopefully project loneliness.
Thanks again for dropping by. :)

[À cause de l'ombre]

I'm not sure what's happening with those videogame stabs, and this is quite out of the norm for your usual production -- caught me off guard, in a good way when things came together!

Your vocals are delivered well. My only complaint is slight low-mid overhang in your reverb. The release is good. I would apply a multiband compressor, take down the 200-500 Hz range somewhat, bring up 13 khz to 18 khz, a little bit more rasp. Can also try applying light tape saturation.

You really have done a great job with the vocals here. Best yet imo. Very expressive. Using the full potential of the vocals in the sound space. At times the reverb does present problems with muddy mix or certain frequencies building up in the sound-space, but this is outweighed by far in your judicious pacing. I could listen to that outro for a week straight.

Phrasing wise, this piece is great. There are some instances where videogame instrumentation distracts me like 1:50 or so before our first chorus, later through it, BUT this is mostly because they're more sibilant than the vocals, which are subtle. Lo-pass filter fun maybe? You've used them to great effect in crafting a soundspace, which I appreciate.

Also, extra points for French language because I grew up listening to Alizee and I don't think that love will ever leave me, haha. I'm a sucker for vocals that are both French and female, aha. That I can occasionally understand a few phrases as I listen is telling -- and looking at those lyrics and English -- quite profound.

Like ChronoNomad, I think you did a great job keeping the rhythmic center of this piece together with your synths. I was waiting for a bombastic finale with some old fashioned percussion though. It's not even an issue though. Loved this piece to bits. Wish I could smash a download button!

[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 👍