ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[deconstructing the human ego]

PEAKS SO FUCKING HARD

ORGANIZED CHAOS

I only want louder, more compressed vocals, more pronounced sidechain so they cut through, and more audible kick.

Jesus Christ, so LOUD, but quite obviously that had to be intentional.

I think some more eq before the clips to determine what we want as noise and what we want as melodic content would help. It is hard to determine where the bass is above low reverb wash and where any percussion is beyond kick. More aggressive tremelo also please, for contrast of loud to quiet. Perhaps less reverb in general for more signal to noise lol.

Otherwise, love the idea, even if my ears hurt now lol. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! Beautiful melodies <3

[Doll Bals]

I want a bit less reverb on your piano in the intro, but it's sounding pretty right with those pizzicatos.

Writing wise, this is pretty standard, in a good way! There is nothing that particularly sticks out to me beyond I think you could adjust the midi timing and velocity of that flute line so it isn't so... fweh fweh with a slight delay on each attack relative to the tight pizz's.

Balance wise I think also that the upper pizzicato needs to come down about a half dB for the flute, and the bass approx .2 to .3 dB. The choir could also be stereo widened or doubled and panned a bit more spaciously. Those are really my only gripes.

Is that NST CHOIR also?!?!

Nevermind -- don't let me get distracted. Keep at it you two! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Vanware responds:

ta bien, aunque decir decibeles con decimales igual es un poco penca de sabiduría

Pd: no es ese choir

[Stell]

Writing wise, nice wistful intro. Very much enjoying that. Don't have a lot of critique, beyond perhaps wanting a bit more modulation or atmosphere there, and a bit more sidechain so the percussion doesn't feel as if it's laying over top the rest of the track.

You have really set a mood here with your writing. It's varied and soulful.

I think I would like a louder snare, your hihats panned left, and perhaps a short reverb tail for your snare.

Otherwise, this piece is a nice long chillout. I wouldn't necessarily call it synthwave, but I'm not sure where to put it aside from that. There is probably someone who knows genres better than me to ask.

Good work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[song for ethan to rampage through the streets and slaughter people]

Not 5 seconds in and NUT hahaha. I'm not so hot on the shreddage I hear going on at 15 seconds or so going on. I think lower chords and a bit more varied intonation would give this piece further edge. I also can't really hear if the guitars are double tracked on rhythm or chorused. Drum writing is good though, and I give you an absolute A for effort, as that is a BOLD choice.

1:30 is a nice unexpected drop. I would actually like more center on your bass, a bit less volume on that bass before pushing it (it is losing a bit of the sub due to clipping that hard past the mixer I believe)

And I have that problem myself all the time btw. You can help avoid it with sidechain, cutting out low mid frequencies in your wet signals such as reverb and delay.

The build at 2:55 is sounding pretty good but could use another guitar in the left channel. The chorus or whatever is going on is not doing your writing justice.

also OMG at the very end I was craving another drop, followed by a simple kick/impact and downlifter/fader fx outro.

Overall, fantastic work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Tankmen's Hotrod]

I see you got the old NG splash sound going on, nice

It sounds like this piece is primarily composed of loops and SFX with some synths and other lines added in. One thing I will say is I like the ideas presented a lot, but the mix is VERY low end heavy and hard to hear as a result of lots of reverb low end.

For mix, try to have your kick and snare as the loudest elements in the mix, clearly audible over everything else, slightly quieter than that, your rhythm guitar and bass, and beyond that mix the leads to taste.

This is a short piece, so I don't have much more critique than that, and I wish I could give a higher score because I love the idea and the overall vibe. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[HTUOY]

Wild little chords there in your intro. Quite interesting. Definitely smooth olskool vibes here.

I think I would like slightly less volume on the sax and jingle shakers. Maybe .5 dB

The chop and screw before 1 min is niiiice.

Whatever atmospheric sample that is there as well I would love to be stereo widened or ping-pong delayed to give this some extra space. A lot of things sound quite centered.

Now, you have done a great job arranging all of this. The piece flows naturally and beautifully. The only issues are a few mix hiccups here and there, a pretty flat stereo field, and it doesn't seem to have been given mastering compression or loudness normalization. That can really affect listening experience if I were to say playlist this and listen in the car.

Otherwise, a real treat! Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

Viraxor responds:

Thank you for the lengthy review! The stereo field was flat because I had mono speakers at the time. I am going to experiment with that in the future, now that I have stereo ones. There's no compression, normalization is applied. I want to keep the mp3 file as close as possible to the original module source.

[behind us (w/ AKS0R)]

Delicious synth bass at 11 sec.

I think a bit less high end on your snare and a bit heavier side chain would help with clarity.

The leads at 40 seconds are nicely written and atmospheric, could probably come down up to 1 dB for clarity. The bass is falling a bit out of focus there.

The slide into shoegaze at 1 min or so is nicely done and helps keep attention.

The harp at around 1:20 is very present. I think a pingpong delay would be a nice addition there.

There is a bit of clipping on your vocal sample somehow. Not sure what happened there.

Beyond that, smooth outro. I wish this were longer!

Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Ritualistic Alchemy]

Nice droning intro -- few things I notice up to 30 sec, the reverb could be taken down a notch. Rain could probably be stereo widened to take up the same amount of space. By 52 we have epic percussion, but I can't make out your samples.

At 1 min, your production comfort zone is shining. Very nice liquidy and industrial vibes here. I love what you've done with clipping. Sidechain at 1:33 is pretty clean. I think the FL slayer type synth there could be swapped out for a grittier, more vibratoed similar sound of your chosing.

Transitions here are jarring AND smooth at the same time with the variation of genres. 2:31 should be a genre of its own. Very artful blend of those female leads with the drop.

At 3 min or so I again would like a bit more clarity and less wet UNTIL 3:20, for more contrast. Panning of the orchestral elements could be expanded upon for even more variety.

Overall, I very much love this piece. NUT.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ESHRR responds:

Thank you very much for the in-depth review! I’ll take the criticisms into account for my future work. What you said about my transitions is funny, because other people have said similar things. The “jarring yet smooth” thing has sorta become a thing with my songs. It’s not intentional, but it’s fun when it works out!

[WAR OF ART]

Ooooooh breaks. My favorite. We're sounding just a bit tinny on those above your bass. I find myself wanting a bit less of the crash and hihat range and more kick/snare. Those are pretty mid range heavy.

The bass is pretty well written but I think side chaining those chords throughout would help give some vibrancy to the piece. Your use of samples is atmospheric and spunky.

The chords throughout could also change in volume and timbre -- oh, you read my mind at 1:54. Keeping them the same volume and dry is taking away from your excellent break chopping.

I would like if the bass had that same deep sub range but also were as gritty and biting as the breaks. It also seems to be very wide in the stereo field. What you can do is have a centered sub bass and a doubled bass on top for texture and easier translation to lower quality speakers (I am using my professional monitor headphones but it would not work well for cellphone speakers for instance)

One thing that sticks with me throughout is that the chord progression is mostly whole notes. This could work if you had more FX to add color to those synths, but as they are so present in the mix, right down the middle it feels like, it makes it hard not to focus on them -- thematically speaking the least interesting part of the song, and I don't think that's what you wanted to present.

Still I think you did a great job keeping breaks very interesting, and that moving bassline kept things interesting. Can't wait to see what you come up with next :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Winkwing responds:

I just picked whatever from my library at the time, since I've got a lot of stuff that's unfinished or just never uploaded due to laziness, lmao.

Glad you enjoyed it.
Also, I signed up to NGUAC with Early Bird?

[Drogarati]

Right off, I appreciate your chord progression. I do think the bass could come down slightly, or have less pronounced upper range tonality. By 00:40 we are sounding nice and balanced. Mix is pretty clean and standard for the genre. I actually really like it. I think some of your SFX could come down slightly, but overall, noice.

2:17 is a nice change of pace. That vocal almost bird call could come down somewhat, as could the mid range glitching, just to not overcrowd the bass. Wherever you have builds, the mix comes back into balance.

Overall, fantastic work! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!