ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Fallen]

Official AIM2018 Review!

Intro is a bit muddy with what sounds like either delay, reverb, or long-tail release. Really like that lead at 00:26 seconds, despite the somewhat gritty, seemingly clipping mix.

Your writing is solid. I find myself wanting a bit more of an overarching melody rather than the theme repeating.

I feel the synth bass at 1:25 is a bit too loud and possibly unnecessary for the track to maintain flow. Perhaps it would be best placed at other sections, as it is at 1:47, where there isn't much going on.

What this track is really suffering from is weak or otherwise occluded transitions. Try risers/reverse crashes.

Entrance of drums around 2:10 was super fizzy and unexpected, not to mention ended abruptly. I'd recommend a stronger snare on that kit, taking down the hats a bit, etc.

There are lots of elements in this track that sound like they were mixed waaaaay too loud, with no headroom before FX was applied. I recommend going through some tutorials on mixing. There's tons of them online. Maybe a few on structuring your songs as well.

Anyway, despite hiccups, track did communicate the distress, hopelessness, and urgency of our falling man in question.

Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

[AIM - Music Identified]

Official AIM Review!

Points for appropriate SFX, tasteful risers, and overall interesting presentation. Those chord stabs provide a sense of alarm, an illusory chaos, and a nice drone for a later major I chord development. Although I /did/ hate your string synth. Something obviously synthy or even low quality may have blended better.

After a while, it did feel suuuuuper repetitive, so despite those sick ass breaks, I did start to wonder what I was listening for. Solution may have been changing up some instruments, maybe tribal drum break, industrial noise, metal chairs... I can't quite nail any critique beyond hoping for a shift of the root somewhere along the line. Maybe some dirty wubs in a section to spice things up. Love my drone music, and I could totally zone out to this though.

Production quality was ace. Levels were where they needed to be. More points for that.

Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

Quarl responds:

Much love Andrea :D

[AIM - Calling]

Official AIM Review!

Nice cinematic style opening, FX play... I find myself wanting a little less white noise at 0:35.

Chord progression is definitely giving me that night sky feel, stars dropping out of the sky.

Mixing at 1:04 is a little weak on those filtered drums. I'd like a fuller impression of that bass drum, a little more room. It sounds like some parts of your mix have been run through a lo-fi FX, saturated a bit much, or may have been mixed with a little less headroom than needed prior to compression.

Synth at 3:47 is a bit too loud in the melody. I don't think the bass and drums can quite sustain it.

Your outro is pretty strong. Vocals are just a bit too loud for accompaniment also.

Compositionally, however, this piece is great. I give a solid 8 out of 10 on that alone. Minor mix issues and some possible clipping aside, I'd give a 8.8.

Always love your tunes. Thanks for turning out to this year's AIM!

[AIM - Signpost Symbole]

Official AIM2018 review!

Liking the intro with the lo-fi drum loop. Wish it were just a bit shorter or had a transition into that bassline. Maybe swooshy reverse cymbals. I love those.

Bassline itself is par for the course with the genre. Not bad. Actually interesting chord progression!

The synths are appropriately off key, representing the sexual depravity of our art subject.

Your snare and bass drum are hiding really badly in the mix. Bring 'em up!

I do like what you've done with those moaning distorted feedback shrieks. They totally overwhelm the track though. Pull those down. They're very pretty, but not so pretty I only want to hear them.

Your weakest point is your transitions. Stops and starts between sections, etc. Make your transitions obvious, say, with risers, filter sweeps, reverse cymbals, and crashes.

Outro is the strongest portion of your song. I really feel like that should have been your choruses. Sounds like 80's basement prog. Still, I see a lot of potential in you just hearing this track.

Check out some tutorials for your genre, particularly mixing, song structure, and finally mastering, and you'll take off in no time. You've got what it takes!

Thanks for turning out for this year's competition!

[AIM - Jeb's Dusty Halo]

Official AIM2018 Review!

Interesting intro with that vibraslap. Sounded just freaking cool.

Rest of the track is pretty avant-garde in a way that is infectiously confusing. Basically, I have no idea what's going on though and thus can't critique beyond... well, it's catchy, but not something I can really listen to for anything other than noise. The melody is written perhaps so badly that it's almost good. It repeats countless times, and I wish that didn't give it legitimacy, since it's both very hard to follow, not set in the home key, if there even is a home key, but thanks to the way both our brains and the Madness series works, it fits.

I will say the guitar sounds terrible. Wishing you would have picked a different synth.

1:22 breakdown is an interesting texture with the clipper SFX. Probably your strongest point. After this section, we resume the really strange guitar synth, and the song rather quickly grinds to a halt.

I like it, just can't give it a great technical score.

Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

[AIM - Mystical Swamp]

Official AIM Review!

Bright piano in the beginning has a good timbre, but the velocity seems very machine gunned -- all 127. Needs humanization as well. Even simply selecting the notes and moving attack/release around 10-20 ms will help this. I'm also not liking that the low chords are so condensed. Try taking some of those notes you want in your chord tones and moving them up an octave. They're very muddy in that low register.

A lot of my critique has already been mentioned by TL. Mix is a bit dirty. Side-chaining seems not to be enhancing the mix any -- and I can't really find the bass all the way up to 1:16.

0:45 we have a fairly good chord progression, but your voicing is killing the victorious mood. Whatever bass line you had in mind, I'd take it out of the brass and move it an octave lower on some other kind of bass. Your brass is really heavy on the reverb too, which is part of the muddy mix issue.

I do like your use of SFX despite an abrupt end to the first movement. Unlike the first intro, the rain is mixed in fairly well.

Essentially, I like the structure of the song, but it comes off as half-finished, missing a bassline, no mastering, not compressed and radio ready.

However, I do see that you have a good sense of melody, and you've been pretty sensitive with your pacing. This is good. Keep doing that. Your outro at 4:05 is probably the strongest point of the song. I'd have liked to hear that on your second build up before a bombastic close.

Overall, despite some flaws, I enjoyed the piece. Focus on clarity of sound, not necessarily big-ness and power, and you'll come out stronger. And remember, the number one thing that makes or breaks a song is your bass. This is the foundation upon which everything else rests. A band with no bass, no matter how technically erudite, is just noise. People will often forgive other mixing mistakes if you just get two things right -- drums and bass. :)

Thanks for turning out for this year's AIM!

FractureClutter responds:

Thanks for leaving review!
Yes, velocity on piano is not done right. It's all standart if honestly. I already have some better updated version, but I'll wait until AIM ends. Reason of some bad sounds is using default FL plugins. Also, I want to say that I hear most of the problems you and TaintedLogic mentioned now, since I have some good quality headphones. And I promise to become better at producing. Promises will become reality someday..

[Trippy do]

Official AIM2018 Review!

This is a pretty short piece. I'm afraid it doesn't meet the 3 minute requirement for the competition, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and give you a fair review! Actually, I'd like to hear this as a finished piece. I can see from the waveform that it appears unmastered and structurally incomplete. So, let's jump in.

0:00 Seriously cool lo-fi reverse-y vocals and instrumentation. I like it. Continues throughout. Like it.

0:06 Weird bass boop that doesn't seem to make much sense in concert with the rest of the track. Kinda throwaway note.

0:22 Interesting SFX transitions. Bass seems panned a bit far left. Vinyl fizz is just a bit too loud. Could seriously benefit from some panning on your drums. Sounds a bit overly reverbed.

0:40 Nice vibraslap, as mentioned by TL.

0:50-ish, this transition is a little weaker and could have benefited from a little less snare and perhaps some additional SFX or cymbals/chimes. Maybe even choking, breathing, coughing or vomiting noises, since the theme is a bulimia piece.

1:00 return to main theme, though slower, is pretty abrupt. However, the percussion is pleasantly varied.

1:21 effectively where all melodic content stops, and we're left with dead silence. Our bulimia trip has evidently ended in death, followed by 10 seconds of silence. This too feels abrupt. I had something else in mind to say, but I've got a five-year-old rushing into my room with a GBA blaring, so I think it's best to leave off here before I get super distracted.

Anyway, what this track needs, other than a little more melodic content, some length, etc., is mastering. At present, it's really interesting, but it's sitting in the demo phase. Anyway, thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

[When Rebels fall]

Official AIM2018 Review.

Lot of clipping seems to be going on, enough that even though I really like the atmosphere you're crafting, it's compressed to death -- and I can't ascertain the finer aspects of your track. Were it not so sausage tubed, actually, this would be a total banger. Minus a star and a half for serious clipping issues.

Structurally, it's very tight. Atmospherically, well-handled. Home drive at 2:24 would be crazy sexy with a good mix. As is, it's so loud, clippy, and over-reverb'ed that I can't really enjoy it. Shame too. Was really hoping the clipping didn't persist throughout. You may try going back, turning down all your outputs, and then applying whatever mastering you did here.

Minus half star for the abrupt end at 3:22.

Anyway, despite problems, this song is still pretty catchy. Looking forward to hearing more from you. Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

[AIM - Grandeur]

Official AIM2018 Review!

Very nice, almost cinematic intro here. I find myself wanting just a bit less reverb on what sounds like a harp synth, a bit more on those pikes. Maybe some panning and delay. Very nice fantasy vibe throughout.

The distortion on some synths is a nice touch.

I keep wanting that hi-passed drum break to come in around 19khz and not somewhere in the 20's before panning down. Overall, just a great sound going on here. Around 1:45, I very quickly missed that break. Maybe a short fill would have been better.

Very smooth production here. Still a bit reverb heavy. Around 2:29 the break is a bit ham handed and in your face for the accompaniment. This is remedied with a hi-pass sweep.

3:07 break sounds almost completely out of character in relation to the rest of the tune. Probably could have done better with a less throaty synth. Transition out of that is a beautiful variation on our main theme. All is forgiven, haha.

This may be the sweetest sounding DnB I've heard in a while. Very nice work! Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

[AIM - Something Evil In The Forest]

Official AIM2018 Review!

Loving the atmospheric sound effects. Tasteful reverb -- occasionally sounds like a bit of clipping in your mix but that may be SFX or unchained sub 20 Hz noise. Do rein some of that in.

I'm definitely feeling the dark forest vibe of the artwork chosen.

Could have probably used a little more low end on your kick and some other hits, but as a whole, this piece really does convey the angst of a terrified mother, fighting against impossible odds to get her son back. You've done a masterful job here maintaining that atmosphere consistently. Very engaging piece.

Use of SFX at the end is perfect. My only complaint would be occasional muddy distorted sound throughout, which may be a thematic statement. Thanks for turning out to this year's competition!

FateModified responds:

Thanks for the review! I noticed what sounded like clipping too during the pad at the beginning that sounds kind of like a low dragon's growl. If that's what you're hearing as clipping, it actually was an effect built into that preset which I used in Absynth. I wasn't sure I liked the 'clipping' effect so much but I really liked the way it sounded like a dragon growling quietly, and I couldn't figure how to get rid of that effect so I just went with it. I think that pad preset might be the source of the "muddy distorted sound" you mentioned. I really need to learn to use these synthesizers better to create my own perfect sounds, but I'm a long way off from that I'm afraid due to the limited amount of time I have available to learn the complex process of synthesis.

I did have a bit of trouble with the kick. I really wanted the "breathing" kick effect which I created with some delayed reverb, but I found that to get the effect right I also had to use a certain kick with a certain sound, and so maybe I sacrificed the sound of the kick itself a bit in order to get the effect just right.

Thank you for saying I've done a "masterful job," and for calling this a "very engaging piece." I put a lot of work into it and so I'm glad it turned out as well as you and others say it has. :)