ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stasis]

Ahahaha this description is story of my life xD I had to change my buffer rate for mine

Appreciating the sort of ambient foray we're going into here. Like ambient lofi hiphop.

Those sweeping pads could actually use a bit less air/volume relative to your 808. 808 needs to come up by quite a bit. Lead could also use a bit more width, chorus, and perhaps delay to fit into the wide sonic space of those pads and pull the track together.

Overall the melodic element to the piece is quite short relative to the ambient. I think I would have liked a longer piece with more developed phrases. HOWEVER I will say as I haven't heard anything like this from you before I really enjoy the experimental journey you're going on and aside from mix aspects this would have been a solid 8.5/10 for me!

GlaceonDash responds:

Thank you! It's apart of just trying to find my musical identity.

[the world would become a better place without me so i'm staying]

Meme is perfect and totally sets the mood

I think I would exchange your mute guitar synth for either a live instrument OR a synth alternative with a similar sound. Also, probably put a wider chorus on it, or double track it. As is, it's a little thin.

1:27 I yearn for a different treatment to the bass, such as heavy saturation, clipping for drops, or an alternative bassline for the drops. It sounds a bit same throughout. I have this problem all the time tbh. Good practice is to write 4 bars, copy paste, change bar 8, copy paste section, add a flourish or change a note in the 3rd set of four bars, and change bar 16. Works great for drops. I then take the first 2nd 8 bars as a short hook/drop, and keep 16 bar verses. It's just a matter of building to the hook at that point and the song should come natural.

That's really my only complaints about this piece, as it builds a bit slowly, and doesn't have a lot of variation beyond the flutes coming in for the final hook. Add and take away some elements as you develop.

I will praise that reverb is pretty well tamed minus a bit on those strings. They also would do well to have another instrument on the opposite side on the same line

I think turning down some of your plucks, turning down the pads/chords, and bumping bass, kick, and snare, would help drive this song forward more.

Otherwise, I love your chord progression and your arpeggios are pretty af. Great work using minimal instrumentation and simple beats. :)

[OST EP Vol.3 - desert (SF videogame)]

I think the fade before drop at 1:00 was a bit long and strong -- and did not enjoy the repeat at 1:13 of the same effect, though it was more subtle. I think some other transition could have been done here, as the mix is not very thick to warrant it.

The lead at 1:42 is a hair loud

I praise your chord structures and driving bassline.

2:03 that lead could probably use a pingpong delay and a slightly quieter volume.

I feel like we are moving into house at 2:27. Chip house? VG house? Sounds cool. I want more volume out of kick and snare throughout. The low pass crush is making it hard to cut through. I think a crispier treatment would do the snare well.

Overall, good piece. I think I would like to hear a bit more expressive modulation on your flute lines, bring them out a bit more, and a little less low-pass feeling to the track overall. Not bad at all though! The concept is really cool, and so is the cover

[APSM (NGADM)]

Have to say my critique would go along the lines of TL for composition. As far as mix, it's a bit top heavy on your intro glitches, as well as breaks. I'm talking the 6k and especially around 10k and up

Wishing there were more volume on your bass and less contrast between loud and soft sections, by a few dB perhaps.

Your watery noises at 2:20 or so are out of stereo field it sounds like with your synths. I think panning, widening, delays, or some other effects to achieve the wideness of your harmonic instruments could help there. The biggest issue is mesh between textures. I can't describe why some feel flat and wide, others centered, like the contrast between watching a spectrogram in one hand and a wall of noodles perpendicular to it is what my brain tried to conjure up as an analogy for how the sound is behaving.

It may sound better on open air monitors, but it sounds a bit thin. I think multiband compression tinkering could help fatten individual instruments and FX up, and a subtle treatment to soften high treble (hi-hat range) would do well on the master. That's the only weak point of this piece, stereo mix and the outro being quite abrupt. Otherwise I sincerely enjoyed it.

[Timeless Ibis]

Could benefit from a master -- the mix is quiet!
But writing is fantastic. There are a few bones I have to pick with mix, such as kick and snare not always being upfront and clear, but overall is clean and easy to hear all important elements

Great work!

death2go responds:

Thanks! I definitely can understand needing to try to make the mix louder and polish up on a mastering, though, Though, it feels odd that it renders out quieter than what the DAW is that, i found out recently that my Master mixer Volume Exceeds what a lot of people would consider normal mixing volume, so I've been adjusting that and trying to experiment on trying to increase the volume so it matches closer to other songs. I don't like the idea of someone having to turn their volume up to listen to this, then going to another song and getting blasted because they forgot to adjust their volume. maybe whenever I understand it a bit more later down the line, I'll go through the songs that have this issue and update them! Thanks for the review! It means alot!!

[Evidence Of A Creator]

Could benefit from mastering for volume level (the mix is FANTASTIC), but otherwise, this is a stellar piece, with great modulations and lead writing. Sounds like something straight out of Final Fantasy 13-2. Like discovering time travel. Nice!

DarkGod666 responds:

Appreciate the comparison! I love the more experimental vibe of that ost. I suppose I could have clipped the transients more and pushed up the volume a bit, yeah.

[Scream of Anguish [No Mercy EP]]

Fantastic work. My only complaints are mix. Hihats could come down when not on drops. A bit less reverb would do you favors for clarity, and I want to hear more of your kick and snare volume wise.

[TOXICITY]

Came here to drop 5 because I like phonk
I think I would prefer less compression but overall, once the vocal comes in, I'm impressed by how nearly understandable it is. Noice

Shark-Pool responds:

Thanks for the support! Will take it into consideration for future tracks :)

[MENACE]

As a composition, solid

Mix is sounding a bit flat
recommend bumping up cymbals slightly
a bit less reverb
more distortion on 808 and volume. perhaps hard sidechain for when kick comes in, do enjoy the writing there

samples sound niiiiiice

snare is laying flat. perhaps excite it and have a wet tremolo pan behind it. I think cymbals on 2 channels, one left, one right, alternating, would sound good

Otherwise nice work!

[Casporb - 100 MPH]

Arrangement wise, perfect.

I think I would like a little less compression, .1 dB more hihat on drops, some panning play on hihats for builds, perhaps a bit less reverb, like say 10% less, and a little more sub. It's not easy to hear it.

But otherwise great!

Casporb responds:

Thanks for the advice! I'm glad you enjoyed.