ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mr.Must3rd; ID 3 (NGAUC)]

Says it's over for him. Hooks me from the first chord.

While there are some gripes I know I'm going to have here, like a low master level, I'm excited to hear what you bring to the table as I write.

Things are getting a little sibilant by 50 seconds. I would watch that you don't get too sucked into the "everything must be crispy" bait as you mix. Often without realizing it, we can go ear dead and not realize we are adding too much high end to compensate for levels being off elsewhere. For instance, the sub throughout is quite low imo; I'm not hearing much of it in the center channel, but rather bass synths spread out left and right, which are over balancing it (I know you're there, sub line, because I can hear you at 3:01!)

The kick, bass, and snare should be very present in the mix, in that order. Hi-hats as virtually the only thing in their frequency range can afford to be much quieter than we think. Here, they are louder than the leads and bass at times. This is where having professional references in your genre can really help. Take one and pull it down to the same volume as your finished track. Strive to emulate the balance you hear in every way possible.

Beyond that, this is a great, driving track. I'd put it on a cyberpunk/midtempo playlist in a heartbeat. Keep doing EVERYTHING you are doing in that arena, composition and sound design. You are absolutely on point there. And don't get me twisted. This is a bop!

MrMusterd responds:

heck yeah!!! thank you a lot man! ill keep the sub thing in mind as I mix with VERY bass heavy cans.... though I should have used more reference tracks to compensate. thanks for the advice, as I've said this stuffs gold to me! always good to have another ear! :>

[Breathing Glitch]

Interesting choice of synths and arrangement, though it is a slowburner in terms of development!

I think your cymbals could afford to come down just slightly. As the only thing in that space, they are taking my focus away from other elements of the track. The bass consequently can afford to come up. The levels in the sparse arrangement at 1:31 are slightly mid heavy.

Your overall production is alien and ethereal, owing to that distorted theremin line. I would have appreciated a bit more wetness and splash here. It sounds comparatively dry and empty, despite the clear use of distortion, saturation, and delays elsewhere.

Certainly very interesting sound design and bold choices all around though. Nice work!

mjattie responds:

Thanks, I was going for a weird vibe. Agree with your feedback, appreciate it!

[A Marriage Of Convenience]

Great FX on that opening guitar, and nice spread. Wide without feeling inorganic. Synth choice is also great.

I have a little bit of gripes on hihat and cymbal eq/FX. The cymbals jump in and out, particularly in the right channel. I would apply more compression or otherwise manually control for slightly less dynamic range on the cymbals. The big crashes are too loud on the right, and the rest are about appropriate. You could also roll off a small amount of highs or alternatively, bring them up BUT turn the cymbal volume down.

I would also prefer a bit of stereo slapback on the hat and a bit more of a far-off feel. In general, the drums are quite up front, while the composition, synths, and vocal performance lend themselves to a bit of bombastic, epic, far off percussion. You might take a reference of something like Opeth, Nightwish, etc. -- particularly Nightwish, and see if you can experiment with emulating that balance.

I'd also like a louder and less dynamic master. The peaks of the waveform make for a lot of dynamic jumping around, particularly on heavy percussion sections with a lot of drive. The kick stands out well, perhaps a bit too well, as it sounds to be the lead instrument at 1:20 or so. The bass could stand to come up on larger sections and give some more fullness here. If you were to manage the kick and cymbals, you could probably afford to push the master harder.

Overall, you are improving by leaps and bounds each time I hear you. Wonderful vocal delivery, strong songwriting, and playing that is tight and controlled. Great work!

Mischa-head responds:

Thank you for the really helpful feedback! I was definitely trying to channel a bit of Nightwish with this one.

[Last Chance]

You don't use NG often -- but you should! Because if not, I'm going to come to your house and demand more instrumentals.

There are some issues of clip distortion going on either before or after the master here, particularly in the right channel on louder sections. I recommend checking that out. It also sounds like there is a lot of low end reverb wet that is getting in the way of the bass.

I recommend carving out sonic space for each individual instrument. You can do this with hi-pass or EQ.

Solo each instrument and listen to them in isolation, examining the lower ranges in particular. At what point does the sound profile of the low or low-mid range become unintelligible? Where does it overlap the body of the bass and kick without conveying meaningful sound?

Take this region and gently shave away the mud until you think the soloed track sounds just slightly too thin, then back off very slightly. Compare the result via bypassing the FX.

Do this for each instrument that isn't bass or kick, particularly leads, and also apply it to your delays and reverbs, which ideally have a low and hi-pass setting for this purpose. You will be surprised just how much more forgiving mastering compression becomes when you do. Everything will be clean, allowing you to pump the bass just that much more!

It will also keep other frequencies from clashing or "beating" against the bass, or even phase cancelling it out!

Hope this helps with future productions. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the composition. It's right up my alley aesthetically, and I'd love to hear more like it in the future! Best of luck!

[Estrella]

An 8 bar loop stretched out into a song is still a song, mister! And this one ain't half bad.

That sample at 44 sec is a little ear piercing

I appreciate your useage of multiple snare drums, pitching, and splashy fx. I might not use quite so much widening as it creates phase issues lower down. However for the most part I feel you've used it to good effect, much like your colorization.

The delays at 1:49 slap back so noice. I may have layered them with a soft sub kick in the center and a sustained tiss like the cymbal sample at 2:31.

You are entirely too critical of yourself. Throughout I've heard several interesting developments of the same idea, great break cuts, and an interesting approach to FX. The only thing I would really consider reworking are overall levels (I feel the colorization has been blown a bit out of balance, and the sub could use more presence throughout), center channel vs side balance, and kick-support.

There is really not much else wrong with this piece, and a lot going right. Keep experimenting like this. If you ever feel like you're boxed in by an idea also, there are things you can do like modulating to a different key, slowing down or speeding up into a transition, or even chord substitutions. As long as you maintain the groove and the connection of the rhythm section, the track will drive us home. Don't sweat it!

[Kuebiko, Pt.1 [NGUAC '24 FINALS]]

28 seconds in that downlifter or static sample is a bit high in the mix for me, but once you hit the drop, everything sits really nice in its place. I still might take it down a little but this tells me that it's got to be the master compression doing levels a little dirty. Under time constraints I definitely understand a little rough around the edges.

Great bass design. I probably would not stereo spread out your basses so low in the register. Generally 120 hz is where I cut off due to phasing issues that chorus and widening causes.

The switch at 2:17 is beautifully executed and that sound design is quite interesting.

How many basses did you layer on the drop?

Kz-N responds:

on both drops there are 6 unique basses, although it honestly mostly sounds like 3 or 4 because most of the time theyre stacked, also im not sure if maybe its an mp3 encoding issue but i everything <=115hz should be mono, but anyway thank you very much for your feedback, i really appreciate it!

[the city we dreamt]

I really enjoy the arrangement, choice of FX, and lyrical composition of this piece.

Something is off on the vocal mix. It has some very harsh T and S sounds, which, while tamed for the most part, still stick out against the instrumental. Also, there are some boomy plosives not tamed -- a manual hi-pass on those syllables of p, b, and so on will help rid the vocal of these; they are causing it not to sit as well as it could. In general, I think balancing away from the low end of the vocal, pushing it back a bit and actually giving more to the wet signal on it (sidechaining ofc to the vox) will help enmesh them.

In short, I would further de-ess the vocal, and to compensate also thin it out on the EQ. Performing at a quieter volume at this intimate mic distance, aiming for airy, scratchy, vocal fry may also assist.

The swallow and mouth noises also took me out of my element pre-drop.

I was disappointed that the song only lasted 3 minutes. I would have liked to hear that final drop repeat. However I would pull the key synths down slightly, as well as the organ/sustained pads, and again add a bit more air on the vocal. Some tonal separation on those EQs would do much good.

Otherwise I enjoyed it. Good work!

kiiri responds:

will keep working on my vocals! thanks for the detailed review :D

[VS. The Procrastination Demon]

I agree with ethereal winds. It feels as if there is some phase cancellation going on due to the wideness of this track. Like, the drum kit, the bass, and all rhythm elements are widened out. As such it's a little disorienting! I definitely recommend not doing that, so much so that I'm shocked the mix sounds as balanced as it does in this state!

Writing is great, by the way.

[The Descent Of A Champion (NGUAC Finals Rank 23)]

The section at 1:31 gave me chills. Or that was my fever. I don't rightly know which.

I appreciate the nostalgia of this soundfont, the creative arrangement, and the approach to panning, which reminded me of the N64 days, ironically.

Where I think you could improve -- volume of bass, and some tweaks to percussion EQ for better readability in the wider composition; this will lend to perceived fullness. The Emerald soundfont was never known for having very defined drums, due to limitations of its native sound system.

Interloping responds:

I think it may have been a combination of your fever and my subtle tones :P

In this piece there wasnt much of a bassline to be honest, more so just a tuba to fill in the low frequency while the french horns and trumpets dominated their roles, but I know what you mean. I often hesitate to bring up the volume of both the drums and the bass lines because Im worried that they will add too much gain, or simply overpower something else in the mix. Peer review has definitely taught me this is not the case, and maybe on my next piece I will take this into consideration.

I have tried using "Real" drumkits before but honestly, on FL Studio soundfonts, they tend to sound really fake, and noticeably so. Im still seeking out drums that can replace my current ones that maybe have their own cymbals instead of me having to make a separate track for the crashes all the time :P

Thank you for your input once again, I enjoy seeing familiar faces coming back to watch me grow as a composer <3

[Tortuga]

Great sound choices and driving arrangement. I think it's a bit short, this would make a great sample library demo or cutscene music. The latter half feels like a loading screen where I'm waiting to spawn into battle, or after action, when the battle has concluded post-cutscene.

I think the master could be much louder and more compression applied, given that this is a bombastic piece, but for what it is, great work!