ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[[AIM24] The King of the Sky]

Brutal mecha dogfight 100% sold. Also, sound palette of jet and mechanical noises is very pleasant. I actually think you could afford to push the master harder and watch the relative volume of the snare and kick against other track elements. At times they are too loud, and at other times they could benefit from harder sidechain.

Beyond that, no complaints from me. Great work!

8.6/10

[Felt Like This]

I wish the vocal loop stood out more in the track prior to 52 seconds. It sounds thin against the thicc funk!

In terms of mix balance, things get murky around 1:29 with the bass and rhythm elements being spread across both channels, and the guitars overall about 1 to 2 dB too loud. Part of this sensation is the kick and snare being too far down in the mix, the turntable scratches being too loud, and so on.

Writing and rhythm wise, off the charts funky, no complaints. 100% grooving

Mix wise, could use a touch-up. Particularly at 1:24 you can see it on the waveform, things are starting to soft/hard clip due to volumetric overload.

I would mono the bass, bring it up. Take other elements in the same key-range and bring them down a bit. That and the drums is 90% of the mix issues in one.

Besides that, smashing track. Love it :)

8.4

Joe-Mega responds:

Ah man, I super appreciate the advice.

[What Will You Be When Your Gone?]

Super detuned, interesting sound palette. I wish this were longer, more varied, and developed into a full song so I could A: have more review to write, and B: have a higher score to give for NGADM.

As far as how to improve, I would say learning some basic song structures, as this is one complete idea for a phrase, not necessarily an entire song. Secondly, mixing for space! There's nothing offensive about your mix, but it could be better balanced. These are things that come with time.

Really, I just wish there were more to hear. I enjoyed what little there was a lot :)

5.4/10

[AIM 2024 - The Spirit Fisher]

I'm not going to lie, I hate the shikka-shikka-clap-shikka motif almost universally, but you've got such a clean mix, I don't mind it too much. The transitions here are WILD, unexpected, and once again very clean. Nice varied track. I do wish on your first drop you had a bit more bass!

Also, very sorry to hear about your mom. The pain and frustration this disease causes on both sides, the afflicted and the affected, is unpredictable and at times unbearable <3 Sending hugs

9/10

GameBoyFireworks responds:

Thank you so much for your kind words all around. I appreciate your critique as well. Thank you!! <3

[Narrow Northbound]

Rhythmically 100% on par for your average hard hiphop beat. My problem isn't with any of that, it's the samples used and the structure -- for instance, we have no discernible hihat or drum pattern until 1:26, and virtually no transitions

I would recommend switching out that 808 for a generic Metro-ish sub, actually decreasing the complexity of the drop completely -- at 1:26 the rock drums are too much for the already busy beat to sustain. 1:47 is interesting but I would save this moment and structure it better into the track. Literally saving these elements and copy-pasting some of them into a typical song structure would give a better result than freehanding it.

Also in regards to the elements themselves, bells and leads and so on, they all seem to be in relatively the same key range. Given the high 808/bass, this makes things sound a bit run-together, busy, and muddy. They are also panned really close together and similar in volume, further muddying the waters, especially considering they all typically play together at the same time.

I think this track has a lot of great ideas, just needs better structure and sample selection!

5.5/10

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you're looking for good 808 samples/trap drums, I made a free kit for that which you can find on my userpage (or just ask me), and I also write a monthly magazine of free music production resources if you should need any

AAAAND keep it up! No matter what anyone says, don't take it to heart. You've got a lot of unique, daring ideas. Just a little polish and you'll be kicking ass in no time!

[Carnage]

I find myself wanting more sub overall in your intro and first half of your drop. This might be accomplished by backing off slightly on compression, slightly reducing leads and pads in volume, etc. I may also take down your hi-hats a small amount.

Very interesting sound palette here. Sounds like you're using a bit of bit crushing and hard/soft clip.

Something is off with the mix balance -- sounds quite sibilant at points, and at others very heavy in the range of AM talk radio. It's not too bad, just under the heavy compression detracts from the dynamics of the piece.

Production wise I'm very impressed with the writing and modulation of that synth guitar, showing understanding of how guitar playing actually works. Enjoyed that very much. Also enjoyed the varied writing of the piece in general. Great work!

8.4/10

[Lostforests]

Love the idea and sound selection -- would revisit the mix to correct these few things:

- bass is VERY quiet
- lead could be slightly quieter all around
- side-chain on the kick and snare could be harder -- and I may also shorten their releases
- panning of hihats and crashes could be more varied, with less reverb
- in places it doesn't feel as if the leads/delays are connected in the sound space to elements such as the bass/drums/perc

Transitions are nicely done, and I appreciate the slower tempo final drop :)

6.5/10

Tilldrawn responds:

thx for the advice. ill try to implement these tips into further projects, but a lot of them come down to me having to get used to a new DAW since the one i currently use is, well... (you cant do an awful lot on there) but anyway thanks for taking the time out to review my stuff. stick around ;)

[haste]

I can tell you put a lot of effort into this track from how busy everything sounds. A lot of what holds me back from rating higher can be summed up in a few words, sound selection and mix.

As far as sound selection, some of these synths are just god awful to listen to outside of Videogame genre. Namely the FL-Slayer style guitar, if not dressed up -- it's just an old, tired sound. With good mixing, it can be okay, but I would keep looking if you want an actual guitar sound. (I do post free music resources to my userpage, where you can get some ideas)

Mix wise, a lot is going wrong:
- drums are hard to hear over guitars and other melody/harmony instruments
- bass is almost completely inaudible
- lots of melodic elements are competing in the same space, at around the same key range and volume

This is making the choice of instruments sound even worse -- we are hearing instruments the brain generally associates with lo-fi/low quality in conditions that don't allow them to shine.

A little self-study of mixing/volume leveling on YouTube will help you here, a LOT. And secondarily, I would study a bit of arrangement as well. Picking and choosing what you want to focus on in a given section of track is important, to avoid busy elements running all over each other.

Besides that though, I can hear interesting melodic ideas and a good understanding of rhythm. Keep at it!

5.3/10

[Warp]

There's a LOT of what sounds like CHROMA plugin or a similar colorizing technique on your side pads. I'm not sure I like THAT much backing synths -- they're covering up your other elements. The track itself also seems off balance in terms of meter, leaning more into the avant-garde side of EDM into IDM. I want to stress I love the overall idea and insanity, but perhaps back off on the gating and odd meters to keep the groove going. Save it for transitions ;)

At 3:11 I'd like to hear a sub backing up that reese!

Same at 3:24, a bass drop and sub line would really slam this piece home.

In terms of sound design and unique approach, full points. Mix and production could use revisiting for cleanliness and balance. Particularly the colorized chords on the sides sound a bit centered and boxy in the mids, and the lack of sub elements on the final drop really hurts the listening experience.

Besides that, really interesting track. I enjoyed it!

6.4/10

whymsical responds:

thanks for the feedback!

[Votum]

I swear I've heard this acapella somewhere in Nat James' drops over on Looperman. They're usually ready-made as far as mix, but your treatment of them here is good. Second acapella is a bit unintelligible for me, but also some of that is demanded by the genre.

As far as the beat the balance of sub relative to bass and rhythm elements could be a bit better,, but beyond that, nice smooth compression, nothing jumps out too overly hard. Nice work!

8.5/10

Auphinity responds:

Thanks! Thats really Nat James' acapella. I bought it so ALL RIGHT RESERVED lol