ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Bell of Death - NGUAC]

Very interesting sounds going on here. It reminds me of the old days of listening to techno on Newgrounds.

One thing throughout, I enjoy your writing, but I think you could stand to shorten or drop the volume on your reverb wet signal. On big sections, it gets pretty muddy, in contrast to the overly crisp highs of your percussion.

I would like: more volume on the kick, less on the hihats and anything that sounds like tsssss, a bassline more clearly audible under your bass arps -- could even be on offbeats to contrast against the kick. This would make a huge difference in the DRAMA for drops.

As a whole, the piece holds together well and I really enjoyed it. Great work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

amishpimp responds:

thanks for the feedback, i really appreciate it! drops have been very difficult for me in general so i will take this into account going forward.

[AlphezoPlay - Overcharged (Dubstep)]

Nice intro. I hear something going on in the intro on your bass. It sounds like clipping. I think a lot of the mix problems I hear early on could be solved with MUCH less reverb on all instruments, and where you MUST have it, a low cut on the wet to 250 hz. The whole track seems to suffer from this.

That said, I love your arranging and writing all the way to 1:20. Your drop is positively chaotic, in a good way, excepting the issues of mix, the growls being too loud, and a bit less bass than I prefer. Literally just taking the reverb down will fix the majority of these issues.

The choir at 2:40 sounds really familiar, and although it is very clearly a synth I think works pretty well. Very daring choices.

Wonderful guitar solo at 3:26. This is like dubstep meets videogame, blues, and jazz at the same time.

Transition at 4:26 is good, again excepting the reverb issue throughout.

4:44 the drop is really tinny at the top. I think part of this is trying to ensure that it is heard above the MASSIVE reverb on the percussion and your pads.

Very interesting outro at 5:40. Total change of mood.

Again, thanks for coming out to NGUAC! What a journey!

AlphezGD responds:

So i just have to lower the reverb right? noted 👍

And also thanks to you!!

[Grim Ego]

Nice blending of old and new in this piece.

One thing I'm noticing overall, the reverb on that brass is covering up some of your bass. I would want more volume on the 808, more extreme distortion/saturation on it. I'm lazy, so I use Diablo by cymatics for that.

It's a bit hard to hear your snares throughout the drops.

The piece is pretty simple and straightforward otherwise, with a bit less variety than I'd like. I would personally slap an 8 to 16 bar bridge/verse before your final drop and play more with distortion. Maybe get some unusual metallic auxiliary percussion in there for drama's sake -- some more reverse crashes and etc to liven up the head of each section. Again, I'm lazy, and I use these cliches in my own music frequently.

Bold choice to use essentially two chords for the track as a whole, and I think it works for you. Clean up the reverbs, do some minor leveling, and pump up a bit more nastiness on the bass, and I think you have a banger on your hands. Also, might use two different brasses, one in each channel, for a bit more drama. As is, I really only hear the brass in the right, and I assume you're going for massive and spacy.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[What Time Is It?]

I'm not sure what genre I'd call this -- a mix between those synthwave drums and chip.

It's a little tinny on the mix but I think that's owed to the hi-hat being high up in the mix and highs not rolled off on the synths.

1:53 sounds nice. I want a bit more volume on the noises at the beginning of that outro.

Quick drum fill earlier was nice.

Overall, pretty short, uncomplicated piece, with infectious happy little melodies. Liked it a lot.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Four Sprouts Under Empty Sky]

Nice intro. I might suggest a lot less reverb on your piano and a bit less velocity on the chord stabs -- individual notes of it.

Nice intricate drum writing. I think I would like a bit less verb on the kick, more panning on the toms across left and right for fills. The snare if you can put it on another channel could use saturation and compression.

I feel the weakest element of your piece is DSK Guitars. If you can find Junk Guitar for sforzando (you will know from the Japanese site if you do) I think that'd be a better, more velocity sensitive guitar. DSK is sitting in the uncanny valley for me, almost guitar, but not.

Mix wise on that guitar, it sounds pretty dry. I would take it down in volume, do something with pingpong delay, space it out, reverb, etc.

Your vocals fit very nicely and I have no complaints. Arrangement wise, very nice pensive piece.

Overall, I enjoyed the listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[From the Past to the Future(bass)]

Interesting piece, with a lot of space and verb. I have no complaints about writing, instrumentation, or pacing. Transitions are very nicely done.

My sole gripe is how little center channel I hear. Most everything sounds as if it's been spreadilated, and the 20k and above in the mix is quite up there for each instrument, but especially your hats. Nothing melodic ever reaches those heights, so it's a little jarring to hear a hihat and reverb tails almost as loud as the melody.

There's a bit of boxiness to the overall sound. I recommend cutting 250 hz and below on all of your reverbs (to taste of course) and centering your bass at these frequencies. There are plugins to make this happen. I just forget their names.

The sine bass is somehow a bit loud and also nearly inaudible at the same time. I think that's just characteristic sine waves. I recommend pulse, saw, square, and ramp over sine -- sine waves take up a lot of room in the mix to be heard and are best as a sub bass underneath another bass, imo.

Other than that, really enjoyed the piece and think you did a wonderful job arranging. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! (again)

[Dolph Infinity]

2 seconds in and I already know this is going to be a wild ass, tripping experience

Very interesting ideas throughout and feeling as if I'm trapped in a factory. That's also underwater.

I'd like to hear more of your kick and snare throughout -- less hi-hat volume. The detuned piano is ... detuned. I'm not sure what is happening, what is a drop, what is a verse. There is clipping or perceived clipping on louder sections. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, just that it gives me anxiety in a kind of good way.

Some more differentiation between verses and drops in their density of instruments would help this track a lot. I also think you could stand do turn down reverb and delay wet signals. That would greatly help the clarity of the cacophony.

If it is indeed clipping I'm hearing, I recommend mixing at a quieter volume before anything hits the master channel and only then applying compression.

Nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

dogsinmrimachines responds:

Hi ADR3-N, thanks for the detailed critique! I have a few minor follow-up points to it:

* Mixing at a quieter volume and then applying compression and gain definitely makes sense, my issue with this in the past is that it either doesn't prevent volume spikes or it does but then the whole thing is entirely too quiet. Maybe some kind of targeted compression would work here?

* Turning down the reverb and delay wet signals is highly tricky because of the way the instruments are built. There's always been a balance between getting the sound I want and making that sound crisp. Adding the noisier effects to the effect chain (or even the master) doesn't work because the effects are actually working with the feedback directly to give a richer sound. Is there a way of reducing reverb on an already-reverbed track? I mean I guess that would depend on the DAW but do you know any of the theory behind it if it's a real thing?

Your other comments are on point and are things I've worked on with newer releases. Overall though, a very helpful review!

[BASCUTI - PSYCHO]

The bit crush in the beginning is a bit extreme for me -- the high frequencies aren't painful but stick out very noticeably.

Writing in the intro is nice

I feel like we've gone from an intro into an intro by 46 seconds

and again at 57. I think wecould have gone straight into the drop at 1:10

Your bass sounds very nice. It reminds me of cyberpunks battle theme

However the entire track is mixed too loudly for me to enjoy. Whatever happened to the master, the levels were too loud going into it, so the track is at clipping values throughout the entire drop. This makes all elements of the track hard to differentiate from each other. The quality suffers as a result.

Beyond that, not bad at all! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Haunted Harpsichord]

Hmm. I think this would sound a lot better with more variety of instruments and quality of instruments, specifically if you are going to emulate real instruments, it's better to find libraries like Spitfire Labs

The writing is not bad, and neither is the phrasing.

I would appreciate in addition to the kick, snares, hihats, crash cymbals, and transition noises.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[SPURME - 5th Dimension FlowerBoyDeMii Remix]

The high frequencies in the beginning are pretty loud. I would also turn down your reverb on your pad.

Drop is SICK though. Think hihat could also come down

Reverb on everything could come down by 1/4 to 1/2 and the track would sound better under all that compression. It's getting wall of noise level compressed by 1:40. Notice 1:58 is the same loudness profile as the drop and that's not a good sign. You want at least a little break.

2:18 is nice barring the very high frequency. Turn that down somewhat. The rest is NOICE

2:38 sounds muddy but GREAT ideas.

Throughout the rest of the sections, much of my previous critique would be repeated so I'll leave it here. Watch so that you don't have screaming highs, as those are painful to listen to. Hihats, leads, anything screechy.

Beyond that, awesome work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!