ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cs - 'Ambistep']

Those bells are really harsh in the higher octave at the beginning. They are however a nice foundation melodically for your intro. Your drum loop is absolutely killing my attention span, and that pad is far too loud, however. Your drums should cut through your piece just slightly -- enough to drive it rather than stand on top of it. To accomplish this, make sure you compress them well and get a solid sound that doesn't bleed everywhere when you apply FX to it. Believe me, you will want to use FX.

Volume leveling and compression is your biggest issue here. It makes an already so-so track sound very imbalanced and slightly boring. Bring that pad into balance with the rest of your track. As open spaced as the arrangement is, we WILL hear it! ;)

Overall, this would be a much more interesting and satisfying piece if mixed better with an overarching melody rather than just harmony and arps. It ends up sounding more like a backing track and less like a competition piece!

Csucskos responds:

Thank you for your opinions. And I have to say this was my whole target when I entered the contest. Getting opinions of other people.
I believe that in music: Familiar=Friendly=Safe=Good and Unknown=Strange=Scary=Bad. Because I have been listening to this track for quite a long time, it has been familiar to me. So I thought it is a quite nice piece and good for the competition. I had some doubts about the track so I entered to the Death Match with this piece to get further advices how to improve it. (And I didn't count on winning.)
All in all thank you for the tips. I am now working on this piece to improve it. EQed a little, but not too familiar with compression so that needs more researching. Lowered the overall volume and hopefully balanced the pads, the drums and everything. The pads and the bells were the main "melody" resources so this is the reason they were harsh. So added a new quite strange melody line. Maybe it will fix most issues. Not too sure about adding a chorus because of the slow pace of the song, but would love to hear your opinion.

[The old World]

The analog sounding synth in the beginning is fine to my ears. Reminds me of some older pieces I used to listen to. This percussion is just not working for you though. It's practically without rhythmic center, and does not help the relative melodic center of the piece progress. Rather than supporting the structure of the track, it divides it.

However, I do like your use of FX. Without it, this track would be relatively unlistenable for me. As an experiment, it's interesting, but melodically, compositionally, and sonically, it's just not doing it for me. That being said, if you ever need a constructive/critical review, hit me up.

SlaughterClub responds:

i AM NOTSAYING its the best track in the world but ...( rhythmic center, ) relative melodic center your use of FX. sonically theses are probley the reason you do like it LOL

[Lunatic]

This piece is extremely in your face right from the beginning. Comes in hot. If this came on my mp3 player right off the bat, I'd be adjusting the volume right away. Also seems like you've upped the volume, not applied mastering compression, and all the other little things that need to be done like EQ shaping, etc. It is WAY too loud, to the point the track is completely distorted throughout.

Your structure is relatively alright, as are your melodic ideas and chordage, but everything is pancaked on top of something else, to the point the melodies are almost unintelligible. Also, that lead overtop for your chorus is just repeating the same line over and over. Switch it up for a fill every 4 to 8 bars! Transitions are not the only thing that make a song interesting, and a chorus doesn't have to be the same thing over and over!

Also, would have preferred this piece faded out. The abrupt ending and abrupt start are jarring!

Anyway, don't take the low score to heart. This is a decent piece. It's just marred by the mastering, all the little things piling up, like finding a worm in your apple, and suddenly you don't want to eat it anymore. At your stage, learn mixing and mastering a little better (and might I add, appropriate to EDM genres), and you'll find your sound suddenly and dramatically improves!

[Sun Beats Down]

A lot of dissonance and lack of cohesion/melodic direction in this track. It does have a very jazzy feel to it, in that regard, sort of avant garde at points, but I really don't like all the stopping and starting, at least not with a really raw drum break like that. Needs some FX. Otherwise the track as a whole sounds relatively unmastered and piled on top of itself. When sampling, at least touch up some frequencies with the EQ and try to mesh the sound a little bit more. Warm and natural is the way to go!

[Poison (wip v3)]

The piece overall is distorting to the point of not being enjoyable at the louder points. Also seems you added reverb before distortion on that initial synth. The exception is around 1:09, where only the drums are lightly crunched. I'm not sure where this piece melodically centers, or what you're trying to convey, but the louder it becomes, the more unintelligible it seems. Keep that in mind when mixing heavily distorted genres. The more sounds you add, the more confusion you make.

[Depredadores]

I can't offer any critique outside of what TaintedLogic has already mentioned, barring -- it sounds like you're recording a keyboard. My advice is not to record electronic keyboards in open air. If you can get a DI box and route this into your PC to refine the sound more, it will yield FAR superior results.

Overall, I enjoyed the writing of this piece, but the muddy mixing and extreme reverb turned me off. It left some parts of the melody and harmony unintelligible.

Also, ignore what Tainted said about kicks regarding this piece specifically. I realize you were using timpanis. You may want to add in an orchestral bass drum at some points in your other compositions, though. At that point his critique will apply.

[Rex: Origins Rap]

Your verses are perfect, and the mix sounds great on speakers, but it falls flat on headphones, which is weird. Usually that's the other way around. Your flow is standing out above the instrumental, which is good, but that mix is very raw and flat. Needs a lot of doctoring with EQ, compression, etc., in order to sound good.

What you've proved with this piece is that you don't need fancy VSTs to make entertaining pieces though, so full stars for effort, minus half for upload quality and mastering. Really was torn on giving you a higher score, but for the reasons mention in TaintedLogic's review, quality dragged it down.

That said, if you can make this your gig, master it better, and take yourself seriously enough to do it well, I see a bright future.

Kwing responds:

Thanks! I allowed my rapping ability to go way beyond my knowledge of audio mastering so I guess it's no surprise I got a critique like this.

[Don't Really Wanna Know]

Verses remind me of Snoop and are well written. Instrumental sounds a bit olskool. Could use a bit of a facelift on those midi instruments, but writing is on point. Whole song in general is relatable, and the "never wanna die" I'm sure resonates with everyone.

At some points, the singing sounds a bit dispassionate, but I think that may be attributed to falsetto. Vocalist could do well to come out of his shell, so to speak. Not bad, especially for independent music.

I would love if this had some more verses. 2 minutes is not a long time to get to know your flow, and that chorus is nice and fluid.

[The Pink Panther -- (REMIX) --]

Pretty sweet, swingy, laid back -- BUT, the audio is distorting at points and sounds really low quality. Drums are hiding, etc. Could use a cleaner approach to mastering.

[TIGER M - TigerMvintage - The Basco Dance (World Color Mix)]

This is some pretty crazy writing! Sounds like really old 80's music. I appreciate the time and effort you must have put into programming/recording this on old equipment and preserving it over the years. A home studio used to be virtually unheard of. What I don't like is the sudden stop or the artist tag at the end. It feels a bit excessive and I don't know anyone else who uses these except when selling beats online.