ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Flight of the Drake]

Mix on the portion at 22 seconds is quite off balance, with the strings far off in the left being much louder than the rest of the ensemble. This is present more or less throughout, but for the intro particularly, I struggle to hear the woodwinds clearly at all, and they should be giving somewhat of a pulse, if I am picking up on what you were intending them to do.

The progression to me sounds familiar to me as a staple for the epic cinematic genres, which may have to do with my having watched tons and tons of historical, LoTR and etc., as well as anime, and less with it not being an actually epic piece or w/e.

My problems mostly sit with lots of reverb throughout and some muddy sections such as 1:12. I definitely feel like articulations of lower brass could have had more attention paid to them, the synth brasses chosen for low brass could certainly be thickened with multiple instances of either synths, or false round robins crafted out of neighboring notes. Even transposing up sections, rendering output, and then pitching down the results would help, panned out to separate space and so on. The descending 8ths at 1:25 stood out to me as very thin and synthy.

Also, flute flourishes are hiding in the mix as well.

I will say tuba at 1:59 sounds as great as I can expect a synth to sound!

Overall I would like more out of your low brass and low string sections, and more of a ratio of them to leads as the song progresses toward climax. I look at the waveform and the loudest portion is your 35 to 51 second section. That should to my mind be more for a mf, not a f. The next section goes on at mf until 1:29, which I think potentially should crescendo to f or perhaps ff at our tidy cliff hanger, 1:36. Contrast is king. Dip down post-haste, return to f or ff, or even fff, as we change keys for the outro.

Beyond that, the more I listen, the more I like this piece. Just some minor issues of this synth here, or that mixing nitpick there. I wanted to stop while I'm here and tell you how proud I am to have watched you progress throughout the years. You are an astonishingly gifted composer with a knack for finding the right tools for the job, with great instrumentations even better phrasing. This and many other things have only improved with time. You almost make it seem effortless. Great work!

CloakedSoup responds:

Thanks for the detailed review! I agree with a lot of the mixing critiques, as that was the most underdeveloped part that I worked on due to the limited amount of time I spent on the track as a whole (as the description notes). I'm definitely happy with how I have progressed over the years as well! :D

[Lets see that Exhaust! (NGADM)]

This is such a cute song! And well written. Only wish it were louder. Mastering compression would do it well! And perhaps to take down the hihats some, and add more layers to backing claps with stereo panning. What I do hear sounds good :)

[Famous ft Hania (NGADM R1) Mastered]

I love the blend of olskool and modern sounds. Hania is an absolute diva, perfect for this track.

I would appreciate a bit less reverb throughout and tamer delay wets. Perhaps rolling off the low end of these wet signals would help improve clarity. Upping snare and kick volume or a bit of sidechain would help. Bit less hihat or rolling off some high from them -- they are quite loud relative to the rest of the track -- could also use some panning play or slapback in the opposite channel.

For the intro, Hania's vocals could be compressed a bit more, or apply some distortion/soft clip. The track as a whole could use a bit of a bump to bass instruments, sub on drops, and perhaps a tinge more compression.

Otherwise, stellar work!

Trackers responds:

Thanks... Only two can enter and our third member usually does the mix and master so we are kind of flying blind here... Will definitely look at fixing up those things before I ship it off to be mastered :D

[Let It Out (ft. Mai)]

I want to hear a bit less of your orchestral and side synths, more of your vocal, snare up in the mix, and more obvious kick. Sub bass is also pretty present. prior to 2 min

Piano low mid and reverb wet signal are a bit up there after.

I can hear the mixing difficulty with the tons of tracks throughout but I want to say don't let that stop you! Take your time, audition sections bit by bit. Make adjustments by hand and in small increments rather than at the mixer track itself. Automations help! It also helps a lot to keep your reverb signals free of low mid and roll off low end where you can to make room for the bass, rather than cranking it at all times.

Some lyrical turns of phrase are awkward, or sound as if written by a non-native speaker, but that's fine as this sounds like an art piece rather than pop. :) Great work, all constraints considered!

NASHqp responds:

Thank you for your review!

I’m glad you enjoyed my song. I agree that the mixing could be improved, and I apologize for any errors that might have affected your listening experience. I faced some challenges while producing the song, such as noise, heat, and language barriers.

I used a software called Synthesizer V Studio Pro for the vocals, which is mainly designed for Japanese. I wanted to sing the vocals myself, but I didn’t have a suitable recording environment. However, these are not excuses, but rather areas that I need to work on and overcome.

I appreciate your honest feedback and I hope to do better next time! :)

- NASHqp

[Hunger]

Throughout, I feel this song is missing mids and low mids. I want to hear more of that delicious bass, more of the harmony you have in the left channel, a bit less lead perhaps, and a little less wetness on your percussion. The hihats, cymbals, leads, and high synths being so far up relative to the bass and harmony is causing the mix to feel empty.

Additionally, toms would benefit from saturation, soft or hard clip, and panning around. Want to hear more of that piano as well, perhaps also with some soft distortion. I am not really able to hear a lot of the electro elements, mostly the lead.

Otherwise, swinging track, and great writing!

[ColBreakz - Summer Days]

Beyond sounding VERY overcompressed and needing some adjustment of levels, I love everything else about this song. It's so loud though that it's causing my ears to think they hurt, despite listening at a low volume. Fix that, and I would bop it all day.

[Krea - Crystal [NGADM 2023]]

I would like a bit less lead and fizz in your intro, a lot more clarity on those intro drums

42 seconds sounds GREAT, might be a slightly off bass note -- can detune bend that a bit into key

1:26, wanting more of that mid range bass

Otherwise, wild track. 2 min is bonkers. I think I want a bit more tonality vs noise there. Any identifiable pitch.

I also would like for the outro, one final luscious 1 chord. Beyond that, amazing :)))

Kreagato responds:

Thank you for the feedback !! I agree with all those suggestions (I think I might have accidentally shifted one of the bass notes up or down a half step and didn't notice ;w; ), and I'm glad you think the drop at 2 mins is cool!! I tried to get a little more tonality in that part but It was my first time doing sound design similar to color bass and was struggling a little bit, so I settled with what I had after working on it for a few hours, but I'll practice more on that in the future

Thank u again for the feedback!! I really hope I end up scoring well overall, being part of a competition like this is rly fun :3

[The Last Warlord]

For the cello articulations, they are quite slow -- back them up so they come in at the same time as the piano and other instruments. Same with the brass where you notice this problem. There is a bit of lack of clarity on the downbeats for what sounds like a death march.

Praise your tasteful mixing of gong

I think the timpanis could have a bit more stereo spread and volume at different points. By the end of the composition, it sounds as you have a better idea what you are doing with articulations and so forth.

2:25 if there is a snare hiding underneath, I would like to hear it brought out, and the jinglies down just a bit. They are coming out of stereo phase with the ensemble.

Choir sounds great, btw, what is it?!?!?!

One last bone of contention, I would like a bit more volume, and if not that, contrast in volume between sections, by making the bigger sections just a bit louder. Great work!

IglicaV responds:

Thanks a lot for the critique, I will definietly keep that in mind next time! For the choir I uesed Oceania by Performance Samples :)

[Take Me Away (NGADM Entry)]

My critique is reserved for mix -- it sounds like the track is too loud prior to hitting the compressor -- and looks so as well. This causes at points treble to be over represented such as at 57 seconds

What I'm hearing is your extreme high end on your pads. I see we really love lfos also :)))

Love the incorporation of bigroom snare on final bars of phrases.

Would like to hear at 2:49 or so those percs more clearly. Perhaps less verb throughout would help some with clarity, and rolling off some of the low end of wet signals.

In terms of composition, fantastic work. I think I would like to hear more stereo wideness of mid and low mid frequencies, but overall, great. Certainly not like I do much of this wizardry myself!

[NOAH!]

Lyrically, vocal performance included, and in terms of ideal, this is FIRE.

Mix wise, it sounds like the whole track has had low pass thrown on it, and that causes some issues of clarity. If you wanted to keep this, I would do it selectively, or not as aggressively.

I would like more of the background shouts, more takes, that is. They're great for effect.

The kick is a bit subby and could use a grittier attack. Snare could come up in the mix. Cymbals also sound rolled into oblivion but I believe if you didn't have the aggressive low pass, they would be too loud. Perhaps take them down and bring back some of the high end there.

I want to hear more of the bass, and less of the low end of the guitar -- more high mid there.

Vocals could be more differentiated in terms of panning where vocalist 1 and 2 come in -- could also be more compressed -- and overall brought up .2 dB. The low pass could remain in place with a notch or two in the mids.

Great work!