ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Plastic Bits]

Great groove and sound design all around. I think you could pump that bass just a bit more and reduce vinyl noise/wet fx's all around by 10-20% and come out with a cleaner mix. It seems like the mix is heavy in the low-mids and somewhat lacking in the air department, but props for tasteful hi-hat volume.

Great sounding ghost notes also

What I would appreciate is more mono-presence of the bass. As is, it's a bit spaced out and loses some thrust as a consequence. There is such a thing as mono-ing the sub and letting the rest of the bass spread out a bit, so see what you can do in that area!

You could also use two similar instances of your key synths and add more depth to sections such as 2:46 by panning them in opposite directions.

A bit of cleaning out the low mids of your synths and auxiliary rhythm synths would help this sound a bit more crisp

8.4/10

Jatmoz responds:

Thank you so much for the indepth review! Will definitely keep this stuff more in mind.

[The Big Bad Beastlands]

If the mix on this were fixed, it would 100% bang. As is, the hihats and cymbals are quite loud, the kick is hard to hear, and the snare is just barely peeking out. Beyond that, the elements in the mid-mid and low-mid could stand to be pulled out to the sides a bit to differentiate between near-notes. The horns uniformly sound like they're all balanced to the right, particularly.

I'm having a hard time hearing the bass and rhythm chugs.

Besides the mix and the twirly sounding attacks/releases on your horns occasionally trailing over each other unpleasantly, I think the writing of this piece is great.

I would turn up the master and see what could be done to clean it up besides. Good work!

6.6/10

Kman465 responds:

Yeah... I am a very rookie mixer. I’ve been trying to put in some more effort into it but growing pains and all that jazz. I got a long way to go I suppose. Haha

Thanks for the listen! I appreciate the feedback!

[Unstable Showdown]

Good ideas here, which would certainly hit hard if the mix were improved upon. The kick and snare are far down in the mix relative to the lead and other rhythm elements. The low octave bass is difficult to hear over other elements. I would recommend turning down the leads, turning up the kick and snare, and sidechaining.

The master is also pretty quiet. Besides that, the rhythms are good, and the overall theme is grooving. Sounds like a boss theme. I also love your pads :)

6.4/10

[I Slip Into Bed]

Master is very quiet, and guitar amps sound pretty rough on your rhythm guitar. I would switch them out. The lead could in most parts use to sound more as it does at 1:00

Writing is good, if a bit simple-happy-jig-y

I would take down your wood block, bring up kick and snare, and take down cymbals just slightly. If these are your live drums, great job recording them. They're straight on and have good feel.

I'm just really not jiving with that rhythm guitar. It could stand to be double tracked if it is not. Hard to hear.

7.4/10

[Basket of Skittles]

I think the volume of your sub is fine. Sines are hard to hear on almost all sound systems. They need more oomph ;)

Your choice of synths is not really my jig, but the writing is lovely. Breaks are also nice, and so is sampling. You're really going bonkers on that outro :)))))

I would pan your samples around a bit more and trigger 2 similar sounding keys/pads left and right for a feeling of more space in the mix, but other than that, gorgeous work :)

8.2/10

[Chunky's Song]

This somehow manages to have a lot of vibe despite the mix being close to destroyed. I would go back and clean it up, because it would make a smacking album intro or interlude. Extra half-star for personal preference. Sorry I don't have much else to say, just needs a revisit on the mix!

BlazeLOGC responds:

oh for sure, this was thrown together really in one sitting and I was more focused on the composition. 100% agree on the mix and thanks for the kind words!

[Nekomaton]

Mix is dirty as all get out, but your writing and transitions make up for this. You combine several electronic styles flawlessly in this piece. My advice would be to pull down the intensity of all your wet FX on average by 25% (except chorus -- you handled chorus quite well throughout)

What's going on in this mix is that reverb wet signal has too much low freqs in it, is too high up, delays are ringing out a bit too long with similar issues, colorized wet signals are giving their typical tin-can feeling and clouding the mid and lo-mids. You could also pan and spread these freqs more carefully for more spatial movement.

But in terms of composition, you're killing it!

EQ wise, more can be done to make room for your bass and rhythm synths. Sidechain too.

Besides, amazing work. 8/10

CloudNinja responds:

This is actually the best advice I have ever gotten since now I know what the actual problem is when it comes to mixing in some of my songs lol
You might have just solved a big problem.

[Stasis (Chill Edition)]

This track feels so lonely, moody, and sad, legit like someone planning to somehow end themselves.

1:17 reminds me of Tom Sawyer and somehow of 007 Goldeneye at the same time.

I'd like a cleaner mix, particularly on the low end, cutting the wets of reverbs down a bit and low-cutting them to 200 hz. The bass is not centered, so a lot of the thrust of the track is lost in that.

Writing wise I love it, however.

Comp score: 6.9, NG score: 4/5

[y2k Airlines]

That 808 in the beginning is so clean -- doooomph

I would like more volume on the break and a bit less on your pads

Does sound quite reminiscent of beats of the late 90s/early 2000s. I would add some explosions and bass drops to the head of the drops themselves, extend this boi, and call it done.

Wish I could give a higher score because I like what I hear so far

6.2/10

[Aperture]

This song is a pretty crazy journey. In terms of structure, it's got it going on! Taking its sweet time without ever getting old, and that's an accomplishment!

My complaints are few and very specific. I would reduce volume of reverb on hi-hats and make it more subtle. Same with other percs. Kick could come up in volume slightly. Bass could stand to take more presence in the mix, and metallic percs less.

Master could also be louder

At points this sounds like very laid back mid-tempo cyberpunk style music, which I love.

At 10:22 there is one pop that I'm unsure if you wanted there. Sounds like an un-faded zero crossing from a sample clip entrance. That transition there could also use some smoothing.

The following lead I would turn down slightly and ping-pong delay harder into the left channel. It's also panned a bit far right. Not sure about the accidental shift at 11:33 into a new mode and out of the current key. It just doesn't sound right. And by accidental I don't mean unintentional. I mean what appears to be a raised 3rd on top of a 1st inversion chord, if I can remember how to talk about that correctly after 10 years out of school LOL

Sounds like parallel 5ths at 13 minutes, not sure how to react to that either. I feel a bit seasick ahahaha.

But for a 14 minute piece with otherwise clean transitions and writing, all is forgiven. Keeping up a groove that long is a straight up challenge!

8.3/10

BlighterProductions responds:

Hey dude, thanks for all the tips, and for your lengthy review. Also thanks for the 8.3, holy shit, first NGADM submission I’ve ever done and I get a score like that.

I’m a little surprised that I apparently managed to make a 14 minute track interesting without it ever getting stale.

I don’t really understand the term parallel 5th’s, if you could give me some clarification on that, that would be helpful.

Further on, thanks for the awesome comment.