ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[Imo Ringtone (Bandstep Remix)]

Interesting. So you're using Musescore. Are you including accents? Any good piece has accents. This would be the equivalent of velocity in other DAWs. It still sounds really rudimentary, and I urge you to think outside the box. Adding octaves is not really adding depth to your piece. The parallel motions sound lazy!

theweathermanYT responds:

I wrote this song for a percussion quartet, which might explain the emptiness. I, again, was rushed into this song. And there are accents, but MuseScore sometimes doesn't pick up on them. Thank you for commenting!

[Unraveling [Bandstep Remix]]

This doesn't sound as naked as your other piece, but I know partly that's because it's a remix. You're really suffering from percussion not giving this aaaaany kind of boost. The perc is so hidden in the mix, the lowly flute covers it up. Compress your drums! Also modulate your velocities or every note will sound the same. Now if I heard a band playing this, dynamic issues fixed, I would be quite a lot less bored, I suppose. It just lacks substance on its own and is pretty boring and monophonic at points. Also, what the hell with that trumpet part coming in at the end. That was very abrupt.

theweathermanYT responds:

I understand what you are saying. I tend to focus more on harmony and making sure each note is either matching or harmonizing with the other ones playing at that time. I do need to focus more on dynamics and structure, as you mentioned. And the abrupt loud ending is a glitch in Musescore. I put a crescendo there and it did not read that I put one there. Thank you for commenting!

[Saxostep]

This song really doesn't feel like it goes anywhere. The build up is miles long, and then it's still really naked. Percussion is really rudimentary.

The tempo change and key change are fine, but this piece lacks almost all of the gravity you wanted to convey not only because of the emptiness, but because the percussion instruments you chose don't lend to it. This sounds like a song someone would perform in beginner band. Also, where are cymbals? What are transitions and structure? You should really ask yourself this. Also, one of your progressions is a scale toward the end. We start and end in the same key, so this isn't a biggie, but I was mostly just bored.

theweathermanYT responds:

I can assume the reason that it doesn't go anywhere is the way I wrote the piece. I focused on each individual "block" (every 2 measures) of the song, which might have led to the lack of structure and transitions (and the fact it doesn't go anywhere). It is empty because the instruments I used were 4 types of saxes and percussion. Yes, I understand it sounds like a beginner band song, I tend to do that in all of the works I scrap, but I finished this one. As for cymbals, I was going to use them (and I should have kept them), but in the end, I scrapped them because of a MuseScore glitch which totally messed up the cymbals. The way music is around my neck of the woods, this song is very nice. Lol I'm a band nerd. Thank you for commenting!

[Waterbird (re-imagined)]

Not too bad. Mastering needs a lot of work, and you have a lot of muddy frequencies blending into each other on the low end. I recommend looking up johnfn's mixing/mastering tutorials, which you can probably find in the NGUAC thread.

The progression here is about the same as Pachelbel Canon. Melodies sound pretty canned to me and aren't really .... melodying. They're just sort of porting around in the chords. Melody usually goes stepwise.

Also, be mindful your bass drum can actually be heard in that muddle of low frequencies. Compress your percussion. Snare and hats also seem overly dry and stick out because of that.

My computer crashed while I was writing this review so I forgot a lot of what I was going to write. Bottom line, good idea, not so good mixing. Also try to incorporate more stepwise and fluid melody. Jumping around is for harmony -- otherwise you end up with a song that sounds kinda neither here nor there

ColinMuir responds:

Thank you, that means a lot. Ill take everything you said into consideration :)