ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[N.L - Dreams VIP]

Mmm, them piano chords are noice

I think your 808 could stand a LOT more presence and clip in the mix. The hihats and clap/snare sound a lot more presence, and I think they could come back to make room. I would also pull down your pads and pianos consequently. Really just want that 808 to melt my face off.

Now, what I do love is your approach to FX. The mix is a bit dirty in this way, but it has that N64 japanese soundtrack energy to it. You've also done a great switchup at 1:44. So in short, bringing the 808 more in your face and giving it some more hi-mid would make this my #1 pick so far in the genre. Lovely work besides.

NGADM score 7.5

NightLover responds:

Thank you for the clear feedback!!!!!

[Tachyon]

I LOVE the cinematic feel of this intro.

hihat I would turn down or lightly EQ until the drop. The mix overall throughout is very sibilant owing to heavy clipping/saturation

I do love the combination of riddim and darksynth/cyberpunk elements

1:27 I dislike that stick click and would change out the sample to something less ... organic

Overall the mix on this is a little dirty, owing to the gritty industrial dystopian vibe of these genres. I would actually turn down the clipping somewhat all around, perhaps 5-10 percent and modulate it gently for effect, so that it doesn't get tiring on the ears over time.

Bitcrushing the outro was a nice choice sound design wise. Overall your transitions are the strongest aspect of this track. Great work!

NGADM score 8.2. NG rating for personal preference 4.5

[Ryzmik - "Digital Obsession"]

With a cleaner mix on that intro, this would bang anywhere! Mind your wet FX and the low frequencies on them (delay, verb and so on)

Where this shines is your sound design and varied composition. Your growls are pleasant ear candy, complementing the sound palette well. I would bring up the bass drop at 1:22 and watch the balance of your growls to the sub and so on. The growls in general are riding roughshod over the kick and snare, which is not ideal. You can safely turn them down somewhat at this level of compression -- they're also covering up some of your auxilliary synth stabs and thus not benefiting from accent there.

The mix at 1:32 is a bit rough -- partly on part of the bass being too.. gentle in timbre. For this style of percussion I'd recommend a bit grittier of bass.

You could also try LESS compression and clean up frequencies of individual synths to get out of the way of your non-growl bass.

Overall, smashing production. Just needs a more careful approach to mix. Blows my EDM work out of the water compositionally -- I'm a simple gal. So I have no complaints there.

I might swap out that portamento-y wineglass sounding pluck lead or soften the attack/portamento on it. It's to the point of cheese because it's so forward in the mix due to pitch and pronounced movement/rhythm. Perhaps even strip it down by removing what notes you can while still maintaining the same overall progression. Hopefully what I'm writing is making sense.

The drums could also use more presence, minus hi-hats. I would remove some reverb. Kick is coming through fine, but snare may benefit from some minor tuning to fit into the harmonics of the song overall, and perhaps side-chain with lead/pad/non-bass-or-rhythm elements. Just for extra pop! Sometimes shortening reverb tail can help this as well, as it helps the snare fit better against the master compression. Don't forget to accent the snare's base harmonic freq as well around 200 hz and find a sweetspot you like!

But beyond that, wonderful work. NGADM score 8.5

[effortless]

UwU we love some offbeat bass and arpeggios.

The mix on this could stand to be cleaned up in order to better stand this level of master compression. I'm talking slightly heavier side-chain, turning down the overall volume of leads and pads slightly, and very carefully managing any FX such as reverbs and delays so that they are both shorter and quieter.

Your lead as I can hear at 1:30 has a LOT of wet signal coming off of it, which could stand to be 50% quieter even and still be very audible.

I would do all this and increase the volume of your main bass synth by up to 20%, being sure to side chain it so that it stays out of the way of the kick. Auxilliary rhythm synths can also come up somewhat.

Essentially, reduce the volume of lead and pad considerably, perhaps back off on compression slightly, increase bass and rhythm volumes, and ensure your wet FX of reverb and delay are tightly controlled (reduce low frequencies of these wet FX considerably), and then see how it sounds!

If it sounds good before compression, it should sound better with compression. A/B the mix and test it at various output volumes always. It should be clean and crisp!

NGADM score: 6.4. NG score for personal preference 4/5

[Valiant]

Love the description.

Intro sounds very desperate. Enjoy the chords chosen

I think you could separate the attacks of the intro piano notes such that they sounded as if they were being struck by a person.

Bit crush in the intro is quite interesting. The guitar samples remind me of N64 Top Gear Rally. Actually, the whole track. If you've never heard of it, I recommend taking a listen; it sounds like you would enjoy it.

What would make these guitar samples stand out is if you had a double track on them -- meaning one instance 100% left, one instance 100% right -- but you would need a separate sample that was slightly different. I do actually like the machine-gun attack on them. It suits this arrangement.

What this could use more of is a punctuated bassline to suit those chuggachugs.

Also, your verse section around 2:56 is about the same as the earlier one. You can do more -- even if you don't change the melody. Just strip down the section to bare bones and add a transitioning swoosh, even!

Loop is not entirely perfect -- I recommend copying the tail end of your final notes as they ring out and pasting them to the beginning of your track for continuity!

Also, the bitcrush transitions into your drops are a bit clumsy. I recommend not reducing sample rate at the end of them but instead hi or lo passing out of them while reducing the volume. They are heavy in the mids.

Now, writing wise, this is very driving and I much enjoyed it. I'll certainly be following you and favoriting this one! I wish it were downloadable!

Mix wise, I would not use nearly as much reverb in the low register, and I would cut the low freqs on all reverbs. Hi-hats can stand to reduce in volume slightly. Snare can come up or be harder sidechained. I also want to hear a bit more snare rattle/high end.

I also appreciate the mix between dubstep/drumstep drums and dnb. This is a juxtaposition I myself like to use!

But I recommend clearing out low end frequencies from most instruments gently in order to make room for the bass range around 200 hz and below, and bringing up that bass. You'll find the power in your track comes from there!

NGADM score: 6.6/10. NG rate for personal preference: 4/5

[Waffles]

Crazy doing this in LMMS. But it is great for a lo-fi aesthetic!

I will say I think you can stand to create a double-track of the guitar synth using a slightly different patch. Part of what makes guitar sound so dynamic is having 2 slightly different instances of a left and right guitar 100% L/R panned, so that you get this wide wall of sound feel.

Compositionally, this is fantastic. Just needs some final touches of the following: approximate or achieve sidechain of the bass to the kick, same with other elements sidechaining to the snare, double tracking guitar synth, lowering volume of hi-hat, gentle panning of instruments left and right for more spacious stereo image -- including FX such as delays. Finer adjustment of volume levels -- some study on mixing for your favorite genre will go a long way!

I would also eliminate the clap sample and change it to another percussion instrument such as a clap stack or china cymbals.

Also, congrats on FP!

NGADM score differs from NG rating because I am rating 4.5 stars for personal preference (I love the doom-ish elements). NGADM score 6.5/10, or 3.5/5, by reason of mix and master being a bit muddy (see 48 seconds) with shoegaze/reverb and spacial treatment of instruments (lacking double-track and/or defined bass in the sub region).

GlaceonDash responds:

My overall takeaway from this is that I really need to start learning how to mix/master tracks, thanks for the review!

And also to probably actually learn what genres exist, since I really am unaware in that field as well

[AIM 2024 - the emo machine with a side of cigarettes]

This feels a bit messy for me, owing to the 1:06 section, where we have some clashing chords, and then 1:16 a loud clean guitar entrance on the left. I hear some clipping and amp noise throughout which could be eliminated.

When we drop at 1:56, it very much sounds like the 2006 punk I used to listen to lol. It does however lack definition on the drums, particularly the kick -- which sounds like a big pillow and could probably benefit from some TLC of revisiting the compression, EQ, and overall level.

The bassline also at points sounds a bit thin underneath the high-tuned guitars, not helped by lack of definition in the kick/snare, loud cymbals, and guitars heavily accented in the 2500hz to 5000hz (sounds like to me at least).

So essentially, the only problems I have are with that little bit of sloppy chordage I mentioned earlier, and the mix. Thematically speaking, totally on point and genre-appropriate (is what you say it is!). Very moody piece. I enjoyed it!

6.8/10

Yoshiii343 responds:

re: 1:06 yeahhhh i kinda hear that dissonant sound now. definitely will not bother me for the foreseeable future! (it will)

now for the drums and bass...personally i blame the fact that LABS kinda sucks for drums and my bass being so neglected that im starting to think that the pickups are dying on me

you'd think after doing music for a while I'd learn how to mix properly. guess not!

[off-track]

Is that CS One bass synth? it sounds so familiar

I think more development between sections of this track would make it more satisfying. It sounds like 2 songs put together rather than a single song with a defined structure. Granted, those two songs do have satisfying and totally adequate melody/direction.

The song is just short, so to be so wildly varied in such a short amount of time was jarring!

It also feels as if your bass is really spread out in the stereo field, as well as your kick, snare, and shakers. This sort of yanks the power out of the rhythm elements of your track. You can try monoizing these elements up to 300 hz or so and see if that gives a bit more punch.

The middle section sounds a bit thin. I'm unsure if this was done on purpose.

Would it be possible to take that intro sample and find another similar sample like it, and pan them opposite to one another? I'm just feeling this thinness in a genre that typically is clear-cut, clean, and in your face.

Some of that is due to the fact this is an unmastered (apparently based on waveform) mp3. Regardless, I still like it!

6.7/10

xetto responds:

thank you for the constructive criticism! much appreciated :) P.S. the bass is from Vital if i recall correctly

[Wave to Eternity]

Ooh, we love that glitchy stop-go feeling. I'm loving hearing your development as time goes on.

I would suggest a bit more presence, chorus, compression to the center of your vocal track and back off on the adlibs/side. The flow of this track reminds me a lot of olskool in all theatres, from composition to rhythm to rhyme and switchup, even instrumentation at parts. I wish the mix were a bit more polished, vocals up front, synths down a bit. It would limit the perception of clutter.

Pardon me for writing like I have the brain of a squirrel btw. I got SO distracted by "I will lie with God in the gutter in bliss" and wondered if you were writing that you were going to fuck God in a ditch or die in one. Half lol half aneurysm.

Flow is creative as always. Just a little more polish and this would be a banger for me. For instance the clipping on the rhode is quite loud in the right channel. I think it would sound better hard clipped than soft-clipped. I also feel like the track is over-representing the low mids, or perhaps that could be the synths and rhythm elements overshadowing the vocal track. Perhaps try pushing them back a bit.

It is pretty tricky to make a hip-hop track with a live bass AND sub elements. On that note the kick and snare could stand to come up as well.

5 for personal reasons. NGADM score: 8.3/10

SkankyMojo responds:

Thanks ADR3-N <3

[array of lights]

Sound design wise, the intro has a good ambience, as @creeperforce24 mentioned, perfect for a music video. I would make the subtle synths at 42 secs quieter as the enter, so that the speech could be more clearly heard.

I can see the waveform of this piece is quiet -- looks unmastered to me based on peaks. If it is in fact mastered, I would use Audacity or something and the amplify feature to get the most out of this piece.

Your drums when they come in are quite loud relative to the melodic elements. There also appears to be no bassline, or said bassline is really hidden deep underneath the layers.

Compositionally, this is sounding good, holding a concrete theme, not unpleasant to listen to despite simplicity.

I would bring up lead guitar when it comes in.

Nice addition of rides and toms at 3:10 or so.

What this is really lacking is rhythm guitars and bass to tie all elements together, or to give us a climax. I feel as if I've been listening to a build for this duration. If you need recommendations for free and authentic sounding guitars, shoot me a PM and I'll try to get back to you!

I would suggest investing in the best software/PC you can afford for this given genre of work, having heard your compositional skills. They're not bad at all! You're just starting to outgrow your toolset is what it sounds like! Very nice job all considered, and a pleasure to hear from you!

6.5/10