ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ji4H3 - Chasing the dream (Original Mix)[Free download]]

Coming in with what sounds like a nice clean, contemporary Alan Walker-esque mix. I'm not sure about the transition at 33 sec. 0:46 makes up for it.

I would lose a little bit of your reverb for the drops and turn down the kick a bit on the sub frequencies. Sidechain is meant to help it cut through, which it is doing. It's just a tad loud. Perhaps a more subtle touch on the release.

As a whole it sounds not unlike a lot of others in its genre, nothing wrong with that. It means you're getting somewhere! However there is something I feel it lacks to stand out, which is variety, especially for being a long 4 minutes. I think the key change was not necessary -- but to each their own!

What I would like to hear is some more varied instrumentation, ethnic percussion accents, more stripped down sections of the drop earlier on to give later drops more depth, etc. You've got a solid structure and nothing in particular is detracting from the piece except that it sounds like I've heard it before, but I know I haven't.

Beyond that, great work, particularly on your mix. Heavy compression didn't blow it out of proportion sonically and that says a lot. I think you know what you're doing, and in time you will surprise us all with where you're going. Great to hear from you.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Zero_Em & Bonfire - Dream In Digital]

Blazing fast pace, dirty bass, nice beats, and great transitions.

My only complaint is it's hard to make out the percussion in the beginning and it sounds a bit mid-range heavy throughout the piece. Everything but the bass at least. Particularly 1:09 could benefit from just a bit less on the synths on the side, slightly less sub bass, and a bit less compression. Or a bit less volume on different elements going into the compressor. Take your pick. Cleaning up frequencies and levels would make this a solid 9.5 for me.

I'm not sure if you meant to leave in the clicks where string samples come in at 2:48 or so. That can be smoothed with a bit of playing with attack.

The whale-like ooooo is a bit too present for me.

Otherwise, fantastic piece, great listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BonfireRMX responds:

oh! Thank you! I was really waiting for this opinion. me and my friend will take into account what you thought, thank you very much, and what you had said at minute 2:48 I think it was not intentional, that part was made by my friend but really thank you very much :D

[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!