ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Heartbeat [Melodic Dubstep]]

Low pass intro is interesting, but I'm not sure if it's my speakers, or your mix is distorting badly. Okay, so it's very static-y. Just checked. Also, check the chord resolutions you have. They sound sort of bland and very repetitive. Recommend some basic music theory. The only thing that breathed life into them was the riser! This tells me the chords are not resolving in ways they typically would or should to satisfy the ear.

Everything is just too loud, too reverbed and too over-compressed. Frequencies are muddy as hell. Transitions are not making much sense at all. I can't really tell much else about the quality from the volume levels just red-lining to hell.

Your drums aren't hiding, which is good, but the treble is flat out destroying the bass.

Focus on volume leveling before you do ANYTHING on the master. Compression will kill any mixing decisions you make.

Also, avoid perfect fifths in your chords as they move. It just doesn't sound good when you're trying to do something happy.

Overall, the distortion makes it almost impossible to listen to this track. Go back to it, lower that volume across the board on every track with all your compression and whatever off, and THEN you can think about applying it, once the rest is taken care of. It just destroyed the musicality of your track.

[Become Like Them]

Interesting start, and this one picks up very quickly. Drums are still buried in the mix, and the track sounds a little muted. Again, the harmony is a bit too loud and buries everything. Vocals stick out reasonably well, but it sounds a bit like listening to a YT video in 240 or 360p. This can be caused by over compression, or it simply can be a combination of EQ issues piling on top of one another.

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I think it's mainly EQ mixing + the compression I'm using. Usually, when I listen to it directly in FL Studio, it sounds better, but the output version always sounds a tad different. I created this song a couple years ago, so hopefully, my mixing got better!

[Efficient Bird]

Not bad, fairly empty sounding spatially and a little repetitive. This definitely wouldn't suffer from having some percussion to give those arpeggios weight earlier on. Also, what perc you do have could be louder. Again, buried by the melody and harmony majorly. Compress those drums hard.

Doesn't sound bad, but it takes a while to get where it's going, and mixing decisions make it hard to get into.

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I do think the percs could be a lot more noticeable, huh?
Hopefully, I can improve on mixing more. Drums and "spacious" sounds are especially hard for me.

[Reflect Upon]

Sounds quite empty before it gets going, but I think this may be what you're going for. However, it stops holding my interest somewhat due to lack of dynamic contrast and very slow, somewhat uninteresting progression. The chords ported around with doubled octaves are a little predictable, and it sounds very much like something we've all heard before. However, this doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Release on your piano notes needs to be a little longer, or perhaps there should be more reverb. Cutoffs are very short and abrupt in what feels should be a spacious piece.

Your mixing is extremely muddy! Percussion sounds like it's a mile away, hiding under the piano, and FX is drowning it. Too much reverb, too long of a release, not enough highs and mids. Perc should almost always cut through, even in quiet pieces such as this, to give a little drive. Remember not to do any sort of compression or FX on the master until you've got ALL of your volume leveling down pat. It can make it impossible to make good mixing decisions.

2:15 feels less like an ending and more where the track should have been at its height. I would have shortened your intro by about half and built to that a little more quickly, held it for most of the duration of the track, then fell off into a diminuendo and stinger on the end. If you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to some similar pieces in the genre. I'm getting sadness and determination from this piece, but it delivers none of the determination until the very end, when it's too late to enjoy!

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the awesome suggestions! I agree with what you noticed. I'll try to improve mixing a bit more.

Originally, this song was going to be for an animation, so I timed the ending scene with the ending melody. However, I realized that as a piece alone, it does move too slow as it does not have anything interesting in the beginning.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out mixing/EQ. I recently just got into the realm of actually messing with it. I'll take what you said for future stuff.

[drowning (AIM)]

I don't know how I missed this. Thought I got every damn AIM entry. Guess not. :P

Let's see, again really not liking the highpass play intro. Hi-pass play on the drums was interesting -- UNTIL naked drums came over top of the track, and then it felt superfluous. As a rule, hi-pass when you've got something under it. Low pass when it's naked. Remember the sound pyramid shouldn't look like lady Newt Gingrich.

Progression is holding my interest. Good for lounging, relaxing, reflecting. Overall, pretty sexy ambiance. Not sure if that's intended or not. Also, you're going to have to kill a hostage, because this isn't synthwave! It's closer to jazz. Listen to those solos! Now, does that fit in a genre of music that sounds straight out of the 80's?

Mixing is where this one suffers most. Nothing is particularly clashing, but that bass is very dry and is sticking out because of it. It's also a little too loud. Everything else sounds very syrupy, then along comes this bass and... I think I might hear a piano under it, but can't tell if it's that or just a really low-passed piano to begin with. I think I hear synthy pick noises. Maybe not. Everything else is all pretty sounding, but this bass sounds like it's just there chilling, waiting for the song to be over.

Also, your injection of percussion is probably not as dynamic as you want. Watch your volume leveling. Pay attention to cymbals. This one could have used cymbal rolls for its transitions specifically. There are points where some sections sound like they were just pasted on the tail of another, like at 2:00 where we get what sounds like a lightly brushed hat, but the section is so naked, it sounds abrupt! Maybe tap on a ride to get a little ring out of it first. Warm up the ears!

Good song overall. Enjoyed the listen. Did not enjoy the uncomfortable thoughts and anxiety that came with the premise, haha.

johnfn responds:

ty for the very freaking long review EDM! tytyty

[The Afterlust]

Great piece. Only problem was the slightly muddy low end. You could probably eliminate that by hi-passing the guitar to get some of those gnarly low frequencies out of the way of the drums and bass. There's never really a point where it's naked, so you don't need those frequencies in the 0-220 or even 300 Hz range to beef it up as much.

FinnMK responds:

Good tip. I did hi-pass them, believe it or not, but clearly not by enough!...I think I only did it up to 100-125 Hz. Getting good, meaty, but clean guitar is my main mixing challenge right now.

[duality]

Can definitely tell it was made in 2 hours, but beyond that, pretty solid. The panning moving around on that arp disoriented me a bit. Would have preferred something stereo-widened or two complimentary arps, one in each ear. Probably would have also appreciated somewhat more aggressively EQ'ed percussion because on my speakers, the rest of the song is totally crushing them into the ground. Little more high end, maybe? Then again my headphones utterly destroy from about 14k and on up dynamically. They still sound so sad and small compared to the rest of the track. Compress them harder?

johnfn responds:

you had to review my WORST TRACK IN THE LAST 2 YEARS????? i mean if yer gonna review something review charge or drowning that one track by goodraccoon. Or my forthcoming NGADM tra........... oh wait huh nevermind

i mean your critique has merit but i just wish i could apply it! none of my current stuff sounds like this =p