ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Finnsfolks - N0VA]

I'm so happy to see how far you've come through the years. You're doing fantastic. Please keep it up!

A couple critiques on mix
Kick prior to the drop could have a bit of 10khz rolled off of it. On sections where snare is not present, it feels a bit top heavy

Otherwise, I think I would like some more sub on your bass

You are doing better and better at showing contrast between drop and builds.

I feel the leads and pads going into 3 minutes have a LOT of hiss on them

Also love the bigroom house snare you snuck in there.

3:40 sounds a bit thin and tinny

Otherwise, really enjoyed it! Fantastic job

Finnsfolks responds:

First off, thank you so so much for your support and feedback, it is incredibly appreciated!

Regarding the kick, yeah, I can see what you mean. Leading up to the drop, I do somewhat feel like it could have been a bit much, I guess I just got used to it, lol.

I'm a little surprised about the sub, I thought I was almost going overboard with it, but I can try and keep this in mind too.

I'm glad you think I'm getting better with contrast, that's something I've definitely been striving to get better at, so your comment on that is appreciated. And I'm glad you liked the snare, I thought it was fitting in that section.

High End is definitely something I feel I'm struggling to balance at the moment, avoiding too much hiss much keeping things sharp. I'm too under the impression, I think, that noise is good for filling the space, especially at the top end, but perhaps that isn't always the case, heh.

Regarding the thin and tinny comment, this is the only thing I'm not entirely sure how to fix. Fullness in mixdowns is the one thing I feel I struggle to find balance in, because when I think the mix needs something, my instinct is to add another layer, which is probably not even necessary, but then removing stuff and instead trying to boost one element just makes it overblown, I feel. Nonetheless, I will continue to practice and hopefully learn over time.

I really appreciate these points of feedback, I'll try and keep them in mind moving forward!

[For The Love Of Tax]

I'm amazed you got miku to sound this good. Holy cow

Production wise, I think the kick could come up a bit, guitar and synths are crowding out miku a bit, and I think her voice could be a bit less dry in the mix. Some chorus, reverb, delays, panning, etc would help contrast the verses and chorus. Harmony is hard to pick out but sounds good as is

Great work!

3xBlast responds:

Cheers! Hope to keep improving this type of sound, so your feedback helps a lot!

[Toy Soldiers]

So many moving parts!

There are at times bits which jump to the fore a bit too loudly, and others when I wish you had a more present bass. But holy cow the variety of this piece is staggering. Also, I love that it isn't reverbed to death, as a lot of layered songs are.

Great work!

[Battle of Mind]

I can hear the utter frustration with one's apathy throughout. As usual, compositionally superb. Great transitions. pleasant djenty noises

giving 5 because heart eyes. NGADM score will differ

Mix-
hihats about .4 db higher than I would put them, and at points 1 dB
snare could potentially use dynamic compression to bring out bottom head, and in general needs to be louder in the low mid
china cymbal, a bit loud, by .2 dB
I think actually cymbals for the most part could be either pitched down in kontakt, as some of them are tinny

Kick sounds pretty high tuned to me, which may not serve this piece. Maybe distort it some??? I like to use multiple kick samples sometimes on different pitches, because who cares if a kick only realistically detunes like that with heat and cold and otherwise takes half and hour to move two semitones LOL, kick go duddit-duddit-DUD.

Guitars, I want more low mid, especially on your fade out. Oh wait, that was a hi pass. Perhaps you can pare down chords somewhat but double track so the notes are still represented, just in different channels. I do this occasionally when I want extra dissonance but also clarity.

3:48 approaches perfect mix for guitars.

Section at middle of song, utterly godly work, and better mix overall (2:38)

3:18 it sounds a bit centered, but I think that is reverbs interacting in the center. Perhaps thinning the low end off the choir and pushing it up might help some. Without the solo, it sounds just fine however. So if you ever re-render and touch that, be sure to back off the cut for the next section.

As usual, fantastic work. Loved it in its totality, and always more than a sum of its parts. If you want me to write something to this some time, let me know.

[Psychadelic Junglegolf]

Insane, love the breaks. However, I'd like less volume on your non-bass synths, as they are covering up your intro breaks.

Those rhodes are yes.

The amen sections sound straight out of a MegaMan game I used to play on gamecube. Excellent work, and love your portamentos. But for mix, this is right up my alley! Great work!

[Into the Sunset - NGADM]

Really tricky getting those flubby trumpet articulations in the intro right -- I think taking some reverb off of it and a bit more low end down will assist, as well as manually modulating volume and pan. There are some articulations which sound a bit mechanical on the intro, sections where this instrument is used, etc. The muted bit at 1:45 is better in this regard but also has some rougher hard attacks that could also be tamed with a bit of manual ducking.

I find the western vibe of this to be quite interesting but think throughout the kick and tambourine are quite dry and upfront for the rest of the track to sound so wet and verbed.. I even think the tambourine could come down a lot and have a more obvious slapback delay in the right channel -- or a swung "_--_/" rhythm, where _ is the kick, and -- is tambourine notes similar to "dah-dit", followed by kick, and / represents a longer "dah." Text is woefully difficult to convey this through, but I hope that makes some sense. The tamb backbeat is so out there, it's obvious if it remains samey. It was easier to make out the articulation on it than it was to hear the guitar in the right channel.

Toms also are not offensive in the least, but I think they would benefit from 80's shoegaze to fit in with the rest of the track.

Compositionally however, quite enjoyed this song. Great work!

Irish-Soul responds:

Wow, thank you for the excellent mixing feedback! I'm going to try to apply your advice in my future tracks, especially your advice about the lack of reverb on the percussion, using slapback delay on perc, and cleaning up the flubby trumpet articulations.

Thanks so much! <3

[While We Still Can]

Fantastic composition and ambitious production!

My complaints are reserved for mix almost in their entirety.

Throughout, the kick and snare are muted in comparison to the strings, anywhere they are present. 15 seconds, 58 seconds, 1 min to 1:30 being prime examples right off the bat. On softer sections, they are closer to norm, but still lacking punch. Toms are difficult to hear. Crashes could come down by .2 dB

2:22 is such an interesting section. I wish panning were handled a bit more wholistically so the rain stick, if that's what it is, matches ambiance with all the other instruments involved. It is difficult to hear here what is going on for the next 30 seconds -- lots of reverb is covering up toms that should be higher in the mix by about .4 dB at least, and there are low rumbles in the left channel I can't tell what they are.

Throughout, you have fantastic power metal vibes which I love, note. Playing is also fantastic.

I wish you would lean more on your metal orchestration for leads than your strings, as the attacks on them are quite slow and falling behind the beat, and they sound thin if not very artfully mixed.

The strings in the intro, particularly low strings, are causing the piece to sound centered -- actually the reverb on virtually all brass and stringed instruments is causing that, I believe. It's got a hum in it, around the 180-300 hz range if I'm not deaf. So even though I'm complaining about volume on the strings, I think if you were to thin the low end off of them, you would get a fuller sound out of your ensemble.

Rain stick at the 3min or so solo section could come down quite a bit as there is nothing in that space.

Snare and kick at 3:35 are safe to come up .3 dB, and cymbals down by .1

But I stress that your writing brought me lots of joy and I really dig this piece. Great work for such a short amount of time!

[Dreamwalker]

Such a nice blend of genres. I'm swept up in your composition from the start.

My complaints are reserved almost entirely for mix.

Snare could either use swapping out, or some more bottom head snap. The shoegaze across the track is kinda drowning it out.

hihats and crashes are about 20% louder than they should be, given the lack of other instruments in that sound space.

Your leads and fantasia sounding instruments sound like they've been boosted up way high in the 8k and up range, given really long reverb tails or delays, etc. I would like to hear a bit more subtle treatment of your pads and any instrument that isn't currently performing a solo. They are somewhat covering up your leads.

1:06, reverb and delay is muddying that solo. Paring it down and taking that solo up would help clarity. Perhaps a chorus to subtly spread it out.

1:14, the sub bass drop or tom hit utterly distorts upon compression so that I cannot tell what it is. This happens again at 1:46, and everywhere you have that as a transition. This appears to be due to low end mud.

I was not a fan of the tongue click noise thrown in there. I think a wine cork pop would have worked better with similar FX. Maybe I just hate clicking noises.

I would like to hear .2 dB more of your guitars, OR .3 less of that pulsating synth line at 2:20, and .2 less of your super verbed synths, and .5 less of the vinyl staticy noise in the outro. Less low mids and sub on your reverb wets all around, and this would perfectly fit my bill.

Other than that, loved it. Please don't read this review and think I'm shitting all over your track aha. It's great!

BeyondOurEyes responds:

Thank you for the love and greatly appreciate the constructive critique! I'll keep this all in mind for future :)

[That One Talks]

Other than some mixing choices which result in this piece having a somewhat off balance feel (loud mids around 2:30 and a few extra chunky notes in the low strings), this piece is great. Develops a bit slowly and could perhaps have a bit more humanization to velocity, perhaps more subtle velocities on softer sections altogether, but ultimately holds together quite nicely throughout, and development was indeed satisfying.

[[MAFFAKA OBO$RALSYA!]]

Я пришла дать 5 звёздочек.
Текст песни невероятно смешной. Мне очень понравился трек, хотя не знаю кто такой наш Маффака (motherfucker lol)

G2961 responds:

Если ты знаешь про игру Geometry Dash, то знай, что это плохой русский модератор в этой игре. Он много ошибок и зашкваров вытворял в русском коммьюнити этой игры.