ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Deamon]

This is smooth as hell. At 0:30 I am only thinking to turn down the chip synth in the intro by 0.2 dB

Your melodies flow like an orange sunset going down over the horizon, smooth, effortless, and a pleasure to observe unfolding. Great writing on your basslines. I supremely enjoy them. I might apply a bit of saturation or distortion, turn them up a bit.

2:17 is a nice suspenseful transition. 2:28 was unexpected, returning to the same groove, but hey! The track itself is varied enough I don't mind.

Spanking nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BAOWZ-Tobass responds:

glad you liked it! love the comparison XD. I'll try slightly more saturated baseline next time 😉

[Mr.Market]

I'm sitting at 00:40, and so far good development of elements but the progression seems slower than it should be into melodic/bass material. You have a lot of cool ideas and interesting composition.

I once was listening to a channel by a guy named Kush, and he said a great idea is to add 2 things and take 2 away for each transition. A man by the name of Adam Neely said "repetition legitimizes." Take what you will from that, but I think some study of song structure will do you really nice. That bass riff at 01:39 slaps, and I was sad to only hear it clearly for like 5 seconds!

I think you are on the cusp of discovering who you are as a song writer, and you will get there. Keep studying. Keep writing. Keep doing what you do, and never let anyone dissuade you from following your passion, whether you intend to keep it as a hobby, or turn it into a job.

Also, the piano at the end was random, lol.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AthosBR64 responds:

i appreciate that you make a whole review about my song.thank you very much for the feedback!

[Dim Dimension]

I love your lead writing throughout and your chord structure.

I don't have much critique beyond those related to software and mixing. Obviously, drum samples could be better, and it could use mastering and compression. I have tons of freebies hiding out in my newsposts if you would be interested to sift through.

I think the track as a whole would benefit from bringing up your kick and snare in the mix, turning down reverb and delay wet signals, and experimenting with panning.

Beyond that, the piece holds together really well and is well structured. Your ideas are clear. At no point am I ever bored. It moves on with a definite idea of what it is and where it's going. Great job in that regard.

The bass is not obtrusive but could be taken down a slight amount.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AnnieHer responds:

Yeah, experimenting with stuff is pretty fun. And as I improve with time I will understand how to properly use every part of my toolkit! Thanks for the feedback

[AniGleb - Inner blast]

Хочу сказать, что давно не писала отзыв на русском, но стараюсь, чтобы вам более или менее понятно то, что думаю о песне.

В общем, она классна, громкость разных инструментов ровно балансирована. Барабаны четко бьют, и прекрасно слышу их характеристики. Сжатие канала мастер также звучит вполне нормально и не мешает. Этим я всегда удивляюсь, слушая от новых исполнителей на нашем сайте. Значит что 2 года с нами не зря потрачены!))

Дроп второй неплохой. Только хотела услышать немножко побольше басовых частот среднего диапазона от 01:21 к 01:46, или, возможно, больше суббасов. Ревущему басу это поможет.

Кроме того что структура и мелодии песни относительно просты, у меня другой критики нет. Спасибо за вдохновляющую работу, и что пришли на NGUAC!

If someone speaking English wants to know what I said, you can copy the text and paste it to Reverso Context or another Russian translator :)

AniGlebGD responds:

Glad to hear that! And thanx you caring about language.)

[Laurie's Interlude]

This piece is pretty quiet, and there is a high pitched ringing in one of my ears over 20khz. It's louder than a lot of the other elements.

HOWEVER the vocal elements are enchanting, and the ride cymbals are nice. I would just bring the metal dings down very slightly.

Beyond the low volume, very hard ringing, I don't have much critique. I think the piano could do with some more gentle velocity, and not be layered in that lower register on the chords. I think that detracts from how ethereal the track as a whole sounds.

But overall, wonderful atmosphere and great work. It was a pleasure to hear and very relaxing!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

anadevar responds:

Thanks a lot! It is nice to hear that.

[Battle Spirit - Quest to Kill God OST]

I don't have much if any critique. A bit less volume on your offbeat stabs and I think the leveling will be as good as can be.

I want to hear just a bit more of your counter melody.

The lowpass transition is a nice touch. Just a bit less volume on the snare coming in during the transition and it will be perfect.

The piece and melodies flow with effortless simplicity. Wonderful work. Takes me back to playing gameboy color, with better sound quality :P

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

amishpimp responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

[The Beach Looks Pretty Today]

This piece sounds like a lot of the same elements looped throughout. I've been there. You run out of ideas so you find a structure and copy and paste what you have that works. What's lacking to tie all of it together is transition sweeps and an overarching melody, like you added at 2:40.

I think for as homogenous as the piece is, you could actually make it shorter and not hurt it much. Your outro isn't bad.

For the drums, they have no problem standing out. I would actually recommend taking down the hihat somewhat. It's a bit loud for me, and probably finding different samples/drum kit.

I have recommendations for samplers and free instruments: Sforzando, musescore instruments (can be ripped out of musescore and used in sforzando, and they are noice), Salamander drum kit, MT power drum kit, Meowsynth, delay lama, KSHMR essentials kick, Diablo lite by cymatics, and a lot of other freebies you can find in my news posts.

There's also a great channel called Signals Music Studios if I remember correctly where you can study music theory, songwriting, and song structure. Highly recommend it. It's for guitar players but the material is E for everyone.

Beyond that, keep it up! You're making great progress.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[AlphezoPlay - Tesseract (Growls & Guitars)]

This is a fantastic idea hampered by lots and lots of reverb. It reminds me a lot of the Dragon's Dogma intro from forever ago.

Great shifts in style and transitions. Your growls are tasty bois. We're starting to get into clipping territory at 1:40 and sound as if we're in a tin can. Watch your overall loudness as you mix.

Chords are also fantastic.

I have a hard time hearing your percussion at all at 2:18. Your percussion and growls should be the loudest part of your track. However, I think there is too much reverb to differentiate much of anything by 2:45 except your guitar and the growls.

The low end fuzz I'm hearing is drowning all of that out -- what I hear at 00:23 seconds, is what it sounds like is creating all that mud, and it's VERY loud. Lots of sub frequencies and 250 hz. I hear it again fading toward 2:52.

I think there's reverb on your kick too that is not gated.

When I turn the volume up higher I hear a bit clearer but I shouldn't have to do that. Try mixing with the volume turned down to about half of what you are used to or even lower. Mix that way, then try again on higher volume.

All of these mix criticisms said, you've done a wonderful job on your composition, and I am particularly wowed by the timbre of your growls. Tasty, tasty, tasty. Rhythms are noice. Even the cheaper sounding synths have their place. It's just the mix that distracts from all these wonderful elements. I recommend saving this piece to revisit at a later date. Great work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Hotline Miami : SHOGANAI - Rolling Punches]

When this started I wondered if I'd have to change the genre from DnB to hiphop. This seems to be a slick fusion of both.

Your breaks are very nice and clean. I would bring up the bite on the snare, as it seems to be hiding in the mix, OR take the cymbals down a bit, reduce the volume of your lead by a small amount, and decrease reverb on all tracks. I hear just a bit of mud.

The kick is hard to hear. May need a little help with soft clipping (can be done in percussion processors like DIABLO or KSHMR Essentials, of which there are free versions) or you can adjust EQ/volume to taste

I'm not a massive fan of the bass. It's very soft and doesn't seem to grow or change a lot, either in rhythm or timbre. You may try if you'd like to keep the same overall sound a switch to MeowSynth bass, run it through a chorus and distortion/amp FX as you like, and LFO modulate various parameters like chorus and noise to make it do weird things. I discovered it by accident myself in my own work LUCY

Your structure is nice and cohesive, easy to follow, and everything fits together nicely, nothing obtrusive or distracting. Great work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Millnnium]

The beginning gives me the feeling of almost listening to it with my headphones off. May be a bit centered -- check that out.

The sub popping at 00:26 threw me off a bit.

Interesting low and hi pass play here. I think just a little less of that and the transitions will be perfect. Less dramatic slow passes.

I would probably not octave double very much on the end of your first drop. Some of the lower frequencies in the doubled melody are clashing a bit with the bass.

At 2:13-2:19 there is a small amount of clipping

I'm having a hard time picking out your kick and snare despite heavy sidechain. Make sure they are audible!

Your progression and arrangements are fun to parse through, and the track is interesting as a whole for it. It never really gets old. I would however check that you don't get too tinny like before 3:00 and around 3:08 for too long.

At 3:20 the sub and low mid range seems to be a bit much. I want to hear the head of that bass. Distortion or saturation can help with that.

At 3:40 I would like to hear less reverb on that string synth and a bit quieter presentation.

Overall with some cleaning of reverbs and low end frequencies, I think this track is great. A good test for clarity is to play your track at a low volume, then a high volume, and see how that affects your mixing judgements.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!