ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[PRGX - Data]

I think your lead in the intro could stand to be quieter to make your first drop sound more dramatic.

I think this track is wonderfully varied and well organized. Great drops. My only complaint would be the final mix is a bit too sub heavy throughout, as opposed to heavier on drops, and the mix itself is low-mid heavy. Cleaning instruments that are not basses of frequencies below 240 hz with an EQ will help this to a degree and make room for the bass.

Great composition. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[ODYSSEA - Grief and Ashes]

Wonderfully dramatic piece, I think only hampered by the amount of reverb everywhere, especially on your low strings. Note changes are quite chaotic in the low mids and it's hard to hear the actual tone of your bass instruments.

However, that choir sounds great. At 2:02 I want to be able to hear those chugging cellos. I know they're there!

2:45 sounds wonderful, and I think your outro closes nicely.

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

Omson responds:

Thanks so much, will definetely update the track after evaluation is done!

[Realm Between Heaven and Earth]

Great intro. Feels like everything was handled with a sensitive hand. I would have liked just a bit less volume on the bells. Chords chosen are unusual for the genre -- appreciated.

1:00 is a pleasant fluttering. Love it.

I think everything sits in its place with the exception of before 2:29 where the synths get a bit too loud relative to percussion, which I can barely hear. The piano before 2:50 is too loud going into that transition.

However, the insanity at 3:15 is wonderful. Would appreciate more sub on that bass and a bit more intelligibility of the tonal aspect.

Before 3:37 the sub becomes almost inaudible, perhaps on part of the compression. Watch levels there.

Your outro is very complex and a welcome addition. Great job there.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

RiSUKU responds:

Thank you so much for the constructive feedback! Some of the balance did went overlooked and probably would've been better had I taken a little longer on the track, however due to the frequent crashing I'd just decided to go with it.

I'm still trying to get the sub bass to sit right! I can't really tell what's causing the sub bass to be drowned out (probably the amount of higher frequencies pushing it down)

Actually, if you don't mind, could you explain a bit more regarding the tonal aspect? I'm still kinda confused on that one, would like to understand it even more (we could use private messaging).

But anyways, thank you again for the feedback! Truly means a lot :D

[Robot Love Story]

Great composition, lyrics, and vibe.

The vocals are a bit pitchy, even considering the stylistic choice of autotune, and sound like they maybe could have been delivered at this volume closer to the mic, with saturation or distortion prior to the rest of the vocal chain. Notice how the guitar sounds nice and thick in the same place in the mix, but the vocals sound thin. Perhaps harder compression may help.

Beyond that, I really enjoyed this piece. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Lordant - Tilion]

Nice touch with the overblown flute

I think you could use a different cello patch. Maybe steal something out of LABs or try pocket blakus spic. The swells don't sound bad at all minus perhaps needing a bit faster attack in place. Same with the strings overall, though you handle this fairly well.

At 1:10 or so the glock sounds a bit loud. At 1:37 the flute is loud relative to the ensemble and there are a few places where the brass stabs sound overblown.

2:10 the bassoon is somewhat loud relative to the clarinet coming in.

Overall, through 2:46, good quiet mix. Again we are greeted by the loud glock.

3:26 sounds GREAT. Good treatment. The horn comes in a bit too close to the listener. Maybe gloss over it with some reverb or a mic change if possible.

4:19 again sounds great although I expected a more climactic bass thrumming outro here, as seen in 4:44. I was not expecting such a fast percussion with almost no buildup there. There seems to be a bit much low mid on your toms/bass drums, and they are spread out through the channels, and such feel separate from the ensemble.

The last trombone note also was a bit of a synth fart -- may find another free instrument alternative like Carpenter Trombone or some other LABS instruments for that stab in particular. Compositionally, however, that stinger note was a good choice to get the point across that we are finished.

Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Lordant responds:

The balancing is a bit complicated for me, espesially when it comes to woodwinds. Although I made the piccolo at 1:23 louder intentionally, because the violins spics overlapped it a bit. The brass was mixed in the same space, so I'm not sure if the issue is with reverb, I guess it comes to balancing/dynamics again.

The percussion was added at the very end, actually. I thought the tom rolls and risers will do a good job as a buildup, but I agree that it could be better.

Anyways, thanks for the detailed review!

[NGUAC Final Round - Hopping Over Puddles]

Really enjoy your composition. I think most of my issues with the overall sound would melt away with more sensitive touches to velocity on repeated notes to sound natural, across ALL instruments.

Overall, the piece is very crisp. I think some of that is the hihat and rim snare. Taking some of that high edge off there and with the rides/chimes would pay off I think. Some of your instruments have a vinyl feel to them and I think blending would help.

Now I do love your transitions. They are almost liquid. Great work there.

I think my only complaint could be please lower the treble just a bit haha. At some points the percussion gets a bit over the top with that. Otherwise, really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

LordAndiso responds:

I learned a lot from this. Thank you so much. :)

[How To Make Friends In The Post Apocalypse]

The slides here have me questioning reality. They sound so natural. At other points, where there are repeated notes, it sounds like velocity needs a bit more stringent retouching.

Overall, your solo writing is fantastic. Not a complaint beyond the occasional machine gunned note.

I would like to hear more of the low mid on your rhythm guitars and just a bit less of your pads. The bass is also quite far down in the mix, and the reverb on said pad is louder than your hihats and rides. Actually, more rhythm guitar in general. If you were to reduce overall compression and adjust the volumes of the tracks so that you were able to clearly hear your leads and harmonies, while also being able to make out bass and louder rhythm guitars relative to background pads, I think I'd be able to put out an extra half star.

Fantastic composition. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Final [NGUAC]]

At 48 I would like to hear more of the low mid on your snare, a bit less rattle. Think a 70s snare sound there.

Compositionally, I'm not sure where we are going, but it all sounds pretty slick. The low guitar before 1:50 could use a lot more velocity modulation or a keyswitch effect for any repeated notes. I caught the same sample it sounds like twice in a row.

I think this song probably sounds milder than you were going for. Maybe the one thing that is missing is more high end instruments, transition fx, crashes, orchestral flourishes, and the like. I still like it a lot. The outro is not cheesy. The theme is not bombastic but brooding and mysterious. Perhaps you could have left some of those vocals in to tantalize us at points, scatted a tenor solo or such, but it is what it is.

My only real complaints with mix would be to turn down the reverbs somewhat, maybe by a fourth to a third of their current value, but it is not overpowering.

Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Jotrocken responds:

Your right i expected it to have more power i really tried to boost the kick and layer but it didn't really help, since it is out of my comfort i didn't really know what else to do.
More transition fx? Well i thought this was enough but ill try more. Crashes threw me off most of the time.
I mean you didn't really know how my vocals were but good placed and produced vocals would help to push the track and i know that (thats why i added them) but i invested lots of time in them and they weren't that good (level of quality).
Thanks for your detailed Feedback @adr3-n

[Tranquilize]

Fantastic mix through 33 seconds. I can only hope for more crisp high mids on your wubs on the side there.

There is a pretty big jump in overall volume at your drop. I would like to hear that subtly increase through your intro. This is cold as hell though. Great work. The only choice I wasn't quite sure about was a hipass into your final drop and such a short drop in general.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC. This one was short and sweet, but cold as HELL :)

[lost tapes before death]

Wild intro. I'd recommend less reverb on that sample synth in the beginning.

I appreciate the strange choices made here. They work together quite well. Less reverb on everything and that would help sincerely with the intelligibility, maybe 30% less in cases where you have held notes.

I appreciate the djent elements. I hear some double tracking here -- the left channel seems to be quieter than the right. Maybe a different amp or more distortion is in order. The drums sound quite loud here but I think that is relative to the somewhat quiet bass.

I quite like this and want to give it more stars for simply being a genre that I like and being very different in general, so I will state now that the score reflected here will be 1 star higher than my actual score for NGUAC. The mix is really the only detractor for me. I think the glitching guitars were a fantastic choice and would have worked very well if not for the synth in the background sounding louder than they themselves, as well as the lack of a supporting centered bass to give them girth.

I think you could still use to differentiate even machine gunned notes with velocity on your kick and snare. Just destroy them with FX however you like. A varied chaos.

In short, I'd like to hear the most dramatic elements of this piece hit above your background pad. Accomplish that however you care to, sidechain, lowering volume strategically, paring down reverb, etc. Transition FX would also be nice.

But otherwise, really enjoyed the piece. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

FlowerBoyDeMii responds:

thank you so much wanted to try something different thank you for you feedback <3