ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Knife Blade]

This is super quiet. Compression will help this.

Ends really abruptly.

Also sounds like a collection of loops. The rest of my review could be summed up in exactly what Manx has already said, compression, side-chaining, automation, etc.

[Desert Rider]

Like the sweeping intro. Feels like this track as a whole is practically a chord and harmony study. Good structure. I feel like that bass could be taken down and octave and sound better.

1:26 break is nice, but I was expecting it to go on longer. Sad that it didn't because that was a nice chord. I was happy when you brought it back toward the end. Feels unresolved, though.

Drums are hiding a bit in this mix. Probably has something to do with the overly middy bass being so high and loud.

Not bad.

Congrats on the FP!

sergy147 responds:

Thanks for the constructive criticism, it's my first attempt at making this kind of music so it's all very helpful :)

[Erased From Existence]

Writing is actually really good. What's killing it is mixing, volume levels, and to some extent, instrumentation. Piano is too loud. Velocities in some places are very samey.

Can't hear a bass, even on the choruses. Vocals are very quiet in the mix, and it sounds like you need a pop filter. Don't worry if so; you can make them for less than 3 bucks with an embroidery hoop and whatever kind of cloth you can stretch over the thing, plus some kind of mount.

Otherwise, melodically, this is very well written. I can't understand the vocals, however, mostly because I just can't hear them that well. There are also some places where they could use a little more gusto and syncing. Simple grid-snap off, cut, click, and drag however many ms would fix many small imperfections.

Drums also are very dry sounding and are not giving that dark feel you want. Don't be shy. Distortion, reverb, etc., are all your friends!

Nice to hear you're doing well on Spotify too :)

Keep it up!

maxxpump responds:

This song was made at the beginning of last year and was made on a Tascam DP-02 recorder so unfortunately will not be able to remake this with you suggestions, but I will keep them in mind when I get around to doing a similar song in the future. I did actually use the pop shield which was included with my Rode NT1-A. But I will try to get back from the recording source when I do this in future.

Drums were very dry s you said and I will add a bit of reverb in the future, I guess this was a element which slipped through my net. Thanks anyway for you constructive comment, these type of comments are very few and far between, so I greatly appreciate it!

I went to college to train doing the art of mixing and some times it can be very hit and miss, but I am trying to take a lot of time now so I can get the mixes more perfect. The last example of this is my newer song "Time Goes On" Instrumental and complete versions. Those you can find in my back catalogue in the beginning of this year.
I spent a good week with a friend on and off mixing it and it took about three days while mixing it on four different sound systems and getting slightly different mixes each time, we then settled on a mix which sounded good on all four systems, and used this as our main master. The other three tracks I spent a lot of time mixing was the following: "Do You Love Me" https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/701109 which took a good day, "My Downfall"https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/702265 which took seven days to mix and it is probably one of my best mixes to date, not to mention my best composition and finally, "Like a Dream" https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/704104 which took a week.

I think this track took maybe half an hour so you can really tell the difference.

Spotify is going fairly well and I am just happy to have my music featured on there, but I had to release my music via Freshtunes which have rinsed me through their open contract basis and they have effectively taken quite a lot of money from me (as I got to a certain limit of a minimum of how much I could take out of my Freshtunes account and as I got to the limit they raised the bar. They have effectively taken every penny from over seven and a half thousand album sales. I am now actually signed to Diamond records which are owned by Parlophone, so am getting a fair amount back through my new contract, but my songs via them are not featured through Spotify.

[Test Demo]

Track sounds overcompressed, with kicks too loud. Recommend taking everything down until you've got about 6 dB headroom before mixing down (and by that I mean before any mastering compression is applied), and mixing the tracks the way you want them without any FX on the master bus. The master bus is not the shit-in-good-out joint.

Guitars are laying down in the mix. Can't hear the bass. Of course, this is mostly because the drums are covering them up, and it seems like the track has either been compressed hard, or just mixed down with output in the red. On analog systems, this might be okay, but digital isn't going to distort like analog -- it'll just clip and crackle.

That said, great melodies, great writing. Did get my foot tapping. :)

[Game Grinder]

Just dropping a note that I appreciate this track, as well as, oddly, the lo-fi guitars. Never realized I actually liked that sound before.

DESHIEL responds:

guitars are done with good old FL slayer

[GamerHead]

Former Shreddage II user -- at least while it worked on my PC lol. You seem to have gotten the gist of writing with it, but the velocities are machine-gunning on virtually every note. Mix also sounds really narrow and centered, excepting the lead. I also can't tell if you've got the rhythm guitar double tracked and panned 100% L and R respectively.

You may be interested in a particular all in one guitar FX pedal to take care of all your metal guitar needs: Grind Machine by Audio Assault. It's especially for djent but works well for other genres. Complete with distortion pedal, pre-amp, and cab. Gives a lot more edge than the native Kontakt FX.

Also, your guitar tracks seem really, really quiet in this mix; whereas I felt you were writing them for face-melting, slammin' shreddage. Pun intended. If they're not double tracked, double track them. Hashtag willitdjent?

Be sure and check out any humanization features, chord thresh, etc. in that fancy part of the instrument with all the settings. They do make the difference.

Also, pitch bends and modulation are your friend. It's the difference between dry piano-y guitar and... well, realism. I also recommend listening to, Iunno, maybe some Misha Mansoor and doing a little theory to help break into the instrument. It's a helluva thang, and a helluva lot easier to use than what I currently have, RealEight, but it's also keyed sort of weirdly, and the velocity controls are different from any other instrument I've ever used. You'll find it pretty well suited to chugging power chords and doing all those wacky pitch bends and pinches though.

Oh, and those drums -- also velocity machine-gunning. May just be the samples though.

Suggest humanizing everything a bit if you haven't already. Hits triggering all at the same time with any metal instrumentation can get a little grating. No stars subtracted as that may be a genre-specific choice.

I'm not sure what to say about the arrangement, as it's one of your first with the instrumentation, and I realize they're pretty hard to use. Basically a piece I'd love to see you revisit down the road when you've got a good handle on what you're working with.

Nice work. :)

DESHIEL responds:

Wow thanks so much for this. Your sense is spot on on the mix, While I did some mastering tweaks to the volume and the frequencies of individual channels, I did leave everything centered by default. I might take some look on the aditional gear you proposed, but I'm a slow learner. I do not know what double tracking means tho, shreddage 2 itself is so confusing for now. I almost deleted the whole thing when I somehow activated keyswap and my brutalised guitars were gone. I can only imagine that it has to do something with overlaying two patters at once to give it more presence or something? As for now I do not aim to atain some level of realism for the guitar, because as of now my dream state seems to be more electronic than real.
Pitch and modulation? I mess with it from time to time, but its not something I'm fully fluent in doing yet.
I guess I will have to ask my friend about certain terms and meaning of some of your criticism, but thanks for spedning your time on aiding me. ;)