ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[War and Peace]

Do I hear.. foley sounds and birds? Hmmm... Suddenly plunged into artsy little plucks, nicely panned. Pensive piano. Everything seems to be in about the right place. I think I hear some tapped drums. Singing is surprisingly organic. Reminds me of Final Fantasy in a way, some of the tracks from FFXIII-2. I really like your presentation and the deceptively simple arrangement. Cello line was fantastic, despite minimalism.

Chorus section is quite beautiful and well-mixed. This is going in my favorites. I don't think I have much critique to offer you.

I especially like your 7th chords. Unsure if I hear a 9th chord. Also, not picking up a Celtic vibe. Am picking up a native American vibe. I admire your subtleties through this track. Keep those close at heart.

[Codename: Tom Selleck (NGADM '17)]

Writing was on par. Progressions standard for the genre. Transitions well done, with the exception that I did not like the sudden cliched glitch for coolsies before the last chorus was nailed home.

Mixing on the other hand is subpar.

Guitars are very flat. Rhythm is buried. Lead meshes in with the rhythm so that it's hard to pick out where your melodies are coming from. There's not much use of melodic space note wise.

No soaring highs, crushing lows, or full use of what the sonic space has to offer. Actually, the lead sounds so much more muted than the rhythm, it made it hard to pick out the pick noises! There's practically no treble to your leads, yet the rhythm is hot on the treble. As a result, the leads sound like they're hiding in a dark room while the rhythm does the hard work of driving the track -- rather than the leads soaring above and LEADING.

I also didn't like the section at 2:00. Really showcased the next area of weak mixing/production I'll be discussing.

Drums are totally buried in the mix, ESPECIALLY cymbals, and all the instruments are flat. Also where are the toms? As slow and ponderous as the drums are here, the lack of them for fills REALLY shows how empty the writing is. Snare sounds flat and lifeless too.

Drums need more compression overall. The only instrument I can really pick out is a poorly tuned snare with a serious ringing overtone that clashes with the key of the song.

Kick is also very tinny and lacking in meat. Compress it. Apply EQ. Kicks shouldn't interfere with your bass frequencies much at all, though.

Speaking of bass, it's almost non-existent here. Remember, the purpose of bass is NOT to be replaced by low-tuned baritone guitars, but to beef up the rest of the track and breathe life into it. I can hardly hear the bass at all. No pick noises, no nothing. Don't hide your bass! It's better to have it too loud and have to turn it down later than missing it almost entirely. I can hear it just on the edge of perception, and that really bugs me. Some of the best metal has a prominent bass line, which it sounds like you've shoved into the corner here.

Think about that. It's the same as if you'd made your drums virtually inaudible. You'd rob one of the essentials of the track!

Finally, this piece as a whole does not excite me, move me in any particular way, or impress me. These are things I already know I can expect from you. The song itself has all the excitement of a backing track for an emo band ballad. This is not to say that it's bad or completely boring, or even without merit. It's just missing something.

JDawg00100 responds:

Thank you for the detailed review

[Mi Pasion]

Johnfn summed it up for me, trumpet samples so terrible, they're currently offending me, and this is after an update. Now, they offend me less than the piano, but still not by much. I don't listen to much salsa/latin stuff, so, I'm not the best judge of writing on this front, but nothing stood out to me as wrong, and the mixing was well done.

One thing I don't like is how tinny and synthy absolutely everything sounds. Doesn't sound very humanized or like the velocity was very varied between individual hits. Will say the bass is the best sounding line you've got going for you. The brasses on the right channel harmonizing sound so … gross, I'd be happier to hear something else completely out of place, as long as the sonic integrity were preserved to some degree. That said, writing is very apt and stylistically appropriate. Objections to sound quality aside, this is something I could easily listen to in a stylistically appropriate game, movie, or perhaps even restaurant.

So, to sum up, I hate the brasses and piano, but it's a good piece, if a little short.

[Last Will]

Synth instruments were very tinny and canned sounding, but that's a common problem. Biggest issue was their volume and raw, unpolished sound overpowering the rest of the track. You also share the same problem as most independent producers writing metal. Guitars sound thin. Bass is hiding in the mix. Snare sounds a little dead. Cymbals are also buried. I do like the kick, however.

Writing is well done, and I haven't gotten bored, although I must say that pad and the chords just ported around in the same perfect fifths, etc., and that's pretty boring when it isn't guitars doing it. Makes it obvious, I suppose, because other instruments lack the distorted quality that guitars have. Intro would have been sweet without that pad – or just with a monophonic triangle wave/low-passed saw wave. Glitzy fantasy noises and sweeps are of course all the rage.

What I really wish is your guitars were brought up to the same standing level as those tinny synths, bass was turned up, grittier, given a bit more high end, and those synths were given a little more shape to their sound. As is, it almost sounds like riding on presets. I'm not even sure I can hear an actual bass guitar, which is sad, because bass guitars are just nice. A baritone guitar or 8 string is no replacement for a bass. The synth bass used had a nice tone to it, but I could barely hear it over the other synths and guitar.

Also, the drum mix is one huge problem. They're flat, dead, sound like a metronome, are not compressed well, panned somewhat too extremely, somewhat too dry, and are utterly buried in the mix. The drums are important! Let them drive your track home!

The cymbal roll to start with is very sensitive dynamically, but it's literally the only cymbal part that sounds good, dynamic, and pretty. The rest sound sonically dead. Those multiple hits in the are machine gunning really badly. Snare and bell hits really take me out of my element. Anything 16th notes and faster on your perc honestly is making me cringe. If you can't make it sound good, write around it and avoid it at all costs. Good writing includes accounting for what you're working with, not just mindblowingly awesome ideas. The bestest, most complex song in the world is worthless if no one can do it justice.

I also sincerely hated that pad. This is not jazz, and if you pay attention, you can hear all sorts of notes outside of the chords we're working in here. In terms of turning me off of a musical moment, it was the worst offender. Didn't like the decay or release times on it either. Needs to be tighter, with less bleed-over into the next chord.

Guitars themselves were fine. Although at times they sounded very muted or very crunchy at points where it was dynamically insensitive for them to be so. No, I'm not talking about that low-pass, hi-pass cheat up at the first half of the song. More specifically, the breakdown at around the 3 minute mark, we get the solo we're yearning for, but it's short lived and sounds like your DI box might have swallowed a potato. Your lead guitar sounds like it's hiding behind a pillow made of rainbows and sunshine, as opposed to very bright synths! I can't really comprehend some of your dynamic choices either. As this is metal, guitar should be prominent (although not overpowering), yet even when the guitar has the lead, the synths are EXTREMELY loud in comparison.

So, in essence, reasonably well-written song marred by shoddy mixing, mastering, and questionable dynamics. I enjoyed the listen, but a lot of problems stand out. Also felt the bells and piano at the end were so quiet and short, they may as well not have been there. The song could have just as well ended with one of the classic metal stingers and I'd be unbothered.

[LHM - ENDLESS HANDBAG ('98 NG)]

Literally the most iconic song on Newgrounds. I cannot critique. I can only love.

[my first beat]

Good idea, but far from complete, and it sort of just abruptly stops. Keep at it!

Gexorter responds:

thank you so much!

[WarTime -Dubstep Kinda]

Percussion spammed to the point of practical ear rape.

[Bomberman 64 - Green Gardens (8bit-wave mix)]

Not bad. Intro takes a really long time to get us going. Track is really long. There are a lot of points where there's just nothing really going on except those nice chords.

Also I'm not really liking whatever that ascending thing in the background is. The track as a whole seems to be lacking direction and be just really empty with those chords. That's about the extent of it. Also sounds like a lot of stuff is overly reverbed because the frequencies are really getting in the way of one another. Also, where is the bass line?

[All the World]

Pretty good. Little quiet, and your drums sound really dry as a rule. Drums dominate the bass until it gets really loud at 45 seconds. Then it sounds like this is about where you wanted it to be. It's kinda hard to hear the hats. You have a lot of muddy frequencies on that reverb. I would recommend cutting the low end off the reverb unless it's an instrument solo. Also the oohs that come in and some of the harmonies are way overbalanced -- too loud in the track. Vocals need a little more presence in regard to them too. Solution would be to bring those overtop harmonies down. It is pretty pleasing to listen to, though. I like the arrangement.

Recommend a little chorus and compression on that vocal. She sounds so naked!

MarkySpark responds:

Thanks for stopping by with your recommendations. I appreciate it.