ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[A.I.M. The Way Home]

I can't hear what RF is saying about hihat. Sounds okay to me, other than sticking out a bit. Maybe it's too loud, or panned too far left. The song does very much sound like going home, but I'm not sure if it reflects the fantasy elements of the art.

Other than the above, the mixing of the song is pretty flawless. Very laid back. I like it. Just the hi-hat threw me off. Mic-ing on them is a little strange -- snare is far away from the hat.

I don't have much to say because I can't find anything wrong with the song. Considering it isn't my kind of staple music listening, that's saying a lot. Good work!

cody104 responds:

Thank you for your awesome review, glad you enjoyed the song. :)

[KerteX - Crystal Cave]

Strange. I kind of like it, but you have a lot of stuff clashing chord wise. Okay ideas, but there really is no progression. Just seems kind of random. I'd like to know what that ticking percussion is. I like that a lot.

Watch your mixer. Got some distortion going on. Maybe clap on a master limiter.

kziki responds:

Thanks for your feedback.
I agree with you ... ill try and watch over that in my upcoming songs :)

[Aim - Predictable]

Aesthetically, I'm really enjoying the repetitive, unapologetic, and chaotic nature of this. Piano solo took a bit away from my attention though. Reverb in some points is too much, bleeding into unpleasant mid range frequencies. No comment on automation. You seem to know what you are doing there. At some points mid frequency basses are sticking out but I think that was intentional.

I'm a huge bass junkie, and I love distorted kicks and dissonant club tracks for some reason, so this is right up my alley. I can see this playing during a speedpaint, and for some reason it keeps making me think of the color blue. I suppose it fits the piece, so nice work! That nasty bass has me head bobbing. This is probably something she'd dance to. It's infectious.

Nue22 responds:

Thanks. I did have a moment where I spaced out and felt all blue-ish in a visual way. Truth Is I don't know what I'm doing ever.

[AIM: ZAZEN]

The panning and wah-wah was nice, but I feel the fuzz is a bit much. It's infecting everything :P

I also can hardly hear the bass for it. 1:06 felt like it should have been a big moment, but it just wasn't. It left me confused and wishing there was something more.

There's a lot of repetition here. It's by no means bad, and it does sort of remind me of a desert on something like Super Nintendo or ... Saturn or something. I can certainly tell you tried with the personal touches all over the synths and the effects. The fuzz just bothered me a bit, and the build up could have been more.. built.

Nice job otherwise!

[AIM - This is War]

Wow, have to say, this surprised me. There are points where it feels flat, or the leads overpower the guitar and drums. But overall, the guitar shines despite that. Lots of variation here. It's really interesting stuff. Sounds like your cymbals are suffering from a lack of high end though. Bass also lags a smidgen behind guitar at some points -- only a little.

Solo was abrupt but it was nice. With a bit more attention to mixing, some more low end, etc., this track would be flawless. Some reverb here and there and a second look at volume levels and compression would fix a lot of the issues here.

Great work!

NahuPyrope responds:

I'm aware of the lag issue, I don't really find what that is, I record in Reaper, and I oftend find, that after recording, I have to move the track like, 7ms, so it's sync'd with the other instruments, Thanks for the review, I'll have in mind what you told me.

Thanks so much!

[AIM - ホーガンのデッド]

I have to say, the synths feel flat to me, and the octaves are killing me. I do like the 7th chords, and it sounds pretty chill, but it just isn't satisfying a lot of the musical needs it brings up. Doesn't feel resolved... Most of this is the octaves of the root and really linear chord resolution. Parallel 5ths are really predictable. Mixing is not bad except for what sounds like distortion in the beginning. Outro isn't bad. I just don't like the overall chord progression, or the way that is written. It feels like being stuck in the same somewhat pleasant rut without ever tasting the carrot dangled in front of you.

[AIM - Unstoppable]

Mixing is pretty spot on until around 1:40, the musical content fits the art, and the vocals are a nice touch. Only think they could have been pumped up a bit or panned different in the mix.

Around 1:40, the melodic content of the synths is creating some serious dissonance with the choral sounds. This may be intentional. I don't know. It resolves pretty quickly. The sound actually made me tune in without wincing. I suppose that's a good thing.

Now that I think about it, the gated bass could probably be turned down a bit, and there's a bit of clipping toward the end. Watch for that.

All things considered, I do really enjoy the piece. It's short and sweet, and it's interesting. Beyond that, not much to say.

TIMETRAVL responds:

Thanks for your review:) will keep it in mind if ill write smth like this again:)

[A.I.M - Entering the Beast]

Your percussion and panning is killing my enjoyment of what would otherwise be a pretty neat track. The drums as a whole sound very cheap, are panned strangely, have points where some hits stick out far more than others, etc. Also, if you're going to pan your drums, pan them to places that make sense. Don't pan your toms all the way to the left channel on a fill when you've got cymbals on both sides! Standard set has the middle toms between the crash and ride and the low tom opposite the snare. Snare is usually to the player's left, therefore the listener's right, although sometimes producers will mirror this as it doesn't make much of a difference.

Make up your mind where you want your sounds! This bugged the ever loving crap out of me. I'd argue you should never pan anything TOTALLY right or left, as this unbalances the mix and just sounds weird, especially on headphones. Also, the kick is weak. Sounds like it's missing a lot of 50-60 hz. No oomph whatsoever.

Arrangement wise, your chords were pretty standard -- heard the exact chord structure more than once across NG, the radio, and my own playing tendency. It's just sort of natural, and it sounds okay. I'm not going to subtract any stars for lack of originality there. There were a lot of noise frequencies in the intro, though -- just idle static creeping in. Melody wasn't too complicated either. Maybe I'm just a music snob, but this is an easy enough key to play in, and eighth notes aren't hard to chug out. It sounds predictable, and not in a good way.

Lead is sticking out a bit too much in places. Note, lead guitar doesn't necessarily mean loudest guitar. Your lead and rhythm are burying the bass and drums completely. Mixing is absurdly muddy on them too.

Long story short, it isn't a bad track, but it isn't great. I did like the sort of trippy feel to it though. Without the panning issues and a little better compression on those drums, I might be inclined to give it a 4, but as is, it's a hard-won 3.

[AIM - Dusk of Eternal Night]

I understand what you're going for, although, it seems you're suffering from software lagging behind the creative ambition. Those MIDIs are killing me, especially the pipe organ in the high register and timpani -- as well as the attacks on the strings. Crashes are also written in a way that would be nearly impossible to perform. 2:52 is not too bad, but you're starting to get distortion in the mix.

There is certainly energy here, but I feel percussion and modulation suffered the most here. In 2006, this would be pretty par for the course, and I realize software for this sort of thing is often expensive even if it is sub-optimal.

Vibraphone wrapping up the end was a nice touch.

In short, you are a talented composer, but your instruments are dragging you down. You would have done better to simply have forgone the orchestral template and try deliberate synths, or added some reverb. Volume is also iffy at points. Lots of stabby high volume accents that stick out for just being suddenly loud, not really accented.

Could have done with a lot more percussion buildup, and I don't recall hearing a single snare or concert bass drum hits, which is a big thing in most cinematic music. Bangs and crashes. Lots of them. Cymbals were written weirdly as I mentioned already.

Could have done seriously with some double bass, cello, tuba, etc. It sounds like you wrote for a whole orchestra and sent the meat of them home. The sound pyramid should be a pyramid, not a lady Newt Gingrich silhouette. ;)

Keep writing, though. You'll get there!

Verdusk responds:

Yes. Unfortunately the MIDI tool seems like the best that I have right now and I also don't know anything about playing drums so I can't really tell whether what I write is actually playable or not.

Thing is I like orchestral music, and not using them also means I might have to find samples that may also not be free to use. I think I'll keep using them, but also figure out how to use them better. (Volume control, work more on bass, etc.)

Thanks for review!

[AIM - Staring Down The Barrels]

This is interesting. Percussion sounds just a tad on the cheesy side when it gets busy, though. Perhaps that's what's giving the impression of cheese, the busy hihats and kick-snare ad nauseam. Tom fill was nice at around 40 seconds.

I feel like there could have been quite a bit more play with your modulation. Some sounds are just siting there volumetrically and tonally. The song doesn't quite reach its peak until 2:44, but that peak only lasts about 10 seconds. You could have built up to a moment like that a lot sooner and kept interest better.

Video-gamey elements are pretty superb throughout, and I have to say, it's a flawless loop, but there were a couple points where it felt a bit forced. It's certainly not a bad piece by any means, but minor improvements would have made all the difference.

Kick in the intro only bugs me on loop. Sounds too heavy in the mid-range at first, and I'm pretty sure this is just because it's low-passed in. I didn't notice it sounded out of place until it looped and it jarred me a bit, despite looping fine. Other than that, your mixing doesn't bug me, but it doesn't utterly blow me away either. There are a few more things you could be doing to maximize the impact of your percussion I think. Such as, I can't tell if you're sidechaining your percussion because some aspects are sticking out and others aren't.

You may also want to experiment with your panning more and find what sounds right for you. There were points when most perc was panned about 15-25 percent left, it sounded like, and that sort of threw off the balance of the song. Might not notice on stereo, but on studio headphones and monitors it was sort of like having my eyeballs bounce back and forth trying to figure out exactly where each sound originated. Panning drumsets isn't rare, but usually there's a little bleeding on each mic, not just one sound coming from here and another from a totally different sound space. It doesn't sound very cohesive.

Overall, good job. You've got some talent going on. Keep it up!