ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Beginning]

First of all let me say I really like the idea and structure of this track as a whole, as well as bothering to go through hard work to bring resampling and gross beat applications to the table. What's killing it is inattention to the mix. I sense we have a limiter on because there's no hard clipping, but levels are so high, there is distortion throughout the whole track, and volume fluctuation is particularly noticeable when the entire track becomes sub heavy as the bass goes up in the register, then tinny and distorted when it drops down in the 50 hz range and below.

Everything is just too loud. Turn it down until you're mixing at -6 dB before we hit the master. With it this loud, every effect you've got will sound like absolute bunk, and the more sausage fatten you do to get back that punch, the more of the same will happen. Brick wall is no substitute for good mixing. Trust me. My early tracks are a testament to that.

Take to some mixing and mastering tutorials on YT for a while, keep making music, see if you can reopen and apply these tricks to older tracks of yours even. But don't take it to heart. Making good music, particularly EDM, is hard. You are working entirely in a virtual environment, changing one parameter at a time, hearing the same thing over and over, going ear deaf to when things are missing or just not knowing how to put the spice back after making a megaton of changes, or even what would get you in the doorway of cinching those last couple knobs sometimes. I've been there. Just keep making music. It's only up from here. :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[omnicide]

Rhythmically, I like where this piece is going -- chord progression on the intro could use some work. Maybe study briefly chord progressions or song structure. There are plenty of great youtube channels online for that but Signals Music Studios is probably the best for this. You'll probably want phrygian mode or something like that.

Now, beyond that, my critique is probably going to sit on mix. We've got a very nice, but also very loud bassline that's covering up our percussion and even our lead. I would bring it down .5 or so dB although.... I see it might be a compression issue. When we get to the section at 2:42, the harmony is pushing lead and bass out of balance. In that case I would also take your individual instruments that aren't bass or drums, scoop out a low cut up to 250 hz or so to make room in those spaces, and do the same with reverb wet signals. You can also turn down reverb somewhat to remove a little of that reverb wash. Then, reajust levels as sounds good to you.

A technique you can try on your snare to get that extra grit is an oldie but goodie, gated reverb. All you need is high ass reverb and a compressor. Check it out and try it -- it'll go nice with this synthwave, dnb fusion you have working for you.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

rat9352 responds:

awesome review, will def. experiment w what you suggested. cheers! :)

[Piel - Redondel Eléctrico [Argentinian Rock]]

Is that a freaking kazoo, or a guitar? We'll never know. I gotta say, I dunno what the hell is going on with that thing. It do what it do.

It's super hard to pick out your vocals as someone marginally familiar with Spanish, until the chorus. Sounds like you're on a dynamic mic, the vocals aren't compressed much if at all, and the high end has been sucked out from 8khz to 14khz to de-ess it. You can try instead a multiband compressor or de-esser to accomplish the same effect. The transition noises going up on your outro show really clearly how much high end is missing on your mix. I find it from your vocals to guitar.

Speaking of, your guitars, all of them, are quite out of tune, sound super sharp.

But other than that, great idea, good playing, singing is passable, and the piece as a whole still holds together. I enjoyed the listen.

thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[AWAY - Sleepwalker (QWAZDYN Remix)]

There's a lot of artefacts sounds on that acapella -- might be the vocoded line in the back, that sounds granulated. When we get to 1:00, I understanding we're moving into a build, but the sound is pretty tinny, to the point of sounding obnoxious. When we get to the drop, it's super distorted and really sub heavy.

What sound driver are you using? I noticed the same kind of sound when I was mixing on Realtek High Definition audio. It heavily compresses output so you can't really tell what you're doing.

I have to say I'm not a fan of the super distorted double of the melody or the gradually increasing speed for transitions. 3:38 just sort of feels like pitching around the track. I don't know if this is a trend in modern edm.

The glitching on the outro isn't bad though.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

QWAZDYN responds:

thank you for the feedback! i really appreciate it :) I've been using DirectX drivers

[Another World (Humans)]

Lots of interesting elements here, super clean, icy percussion, and smooth chord progression.

My only comments are going to be mix related. There's a boxy low wash in your chords, particularly evident by 2:05. You can probably take care of that by low cutting up to 250 hz, or touching on it with a multiband compressor. I feel you've compensated for the wash with making your percussion somewhat tinny, but I would personally probably have taken the opposite approach.

Other than that, great work. Really enjoyed the listen. :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

PromisesMusic responds:

Thank you very much for the comment! I hope and be in the next round and I really tried to put all my effort into this song and the ones on my album to bring it my best.

[Stalker]

Interesting slapbacks on that percussion in both channels. The overall mix sounds pretty muddy though, like reverb and delay has been used to make space on a pretty dry mix, or dry instruments. What that creates is a lot of muddy attacks on sustained instruments -- which granted, I absolutely abhor synth strings that aren't hyper realistic. I'd prefer to use 80's pads or something.

Now, I do like what you've done with the human percussion. That's probably the nicest touch on your track.

Riff wise, this is a solid piece. I think you just need to find some instruments that work for you, study mixing a little, and you'll be in a good place as a producer.

If you have Kontakt, Spitfire LABS is a nice, professionally sampled free library. There are plenty of percussion instruments like mini Naal, tincan percussion, Egyptian Darabuka, Clingfilm frame drums, the E string weird string bowing library, Egyptian Ney flute. Lots and lots of free instruments and libraries. Native Instruments also released a huge starter pack of their flagships and some libraries to work with them for free. Then there are some free vsts such as Ample Sound's taylor nylon guitar and ABPL bass synth, which work pretty well for more real-instrumenty applications.

Then there's synths like Psymon (just simon says sounds, but it sounds good to me), some commodore 64 emulators, SQ8L, Dexed, tons of others. If you want a list of those I can see if I can look through what I got.

Mix wise, clarity is your biggest issue. On those instances of reverb and delay you have, I would move the low cut to 250. Getting a big low wash. And if that doesn't clean it up more, I would drop the signal down. Also sounds like there's not a lot of high end on anything, beyond your ah chants.

Beyond that, enjoyed the listen. Reminds me of oldschool mortal kombat levels.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

PandaThePanda responds:

Thank you for all recommendations! I will take a look at all of them as soon as possible. Mixing/mastering has always been something I stuggled with but slowly gotten better at, but I guess I should take a week to do some extensive studying to really get it down for my next track.

Thank you again for your in depth analysis! All love to ya <3

[I Love You]

A nice, subtle piece. Could probably use a piano more responsive to your playing, in all honesty, or sample library if you've played this into a DAW.

I don't have much critique beyond that. Your arrangement is simple and beautiful. Although watch out for chunkier thirds when you get into lower notes in the 2:10-2:30.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Ironface]

Sounds like silence of the lambs, yo! And love that it was made on GarageBand. People shit on GB a lot.

Composition wise, this is great, nice structure, cohesive sections and chord changes that don't sound forced.

Mix wise, good 80's aesthetic. Could probably use more bass, some chorus on that bladey quarter stab that comes mid-range in the right channel. Something to give it some silk.

If you haven't learned gated reverb, that would sound good on your snare, just for a little extra grit.

Really enjoyed the piece. Not a lot of other comments. Sounds great.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[-Stoopid-]

The idea for this is pretty cool, oldschool even.

Some notes. I like the sample you've chosen, and the ... sounds like either a tight delay or ringmod, but I can't quite understand it. Might compress it so that the consonants are more out there.

Your drop suffers from a thin, airy quality, though I like the idea of the tone overall. I would throw a bass under it.

Mix wise, percussion at times is buried. Make sure at all times, your percussion is the loudest element -- proportionally so, so it isn't obnoxious -- in your mix. The human ear doesn't listen to it first, so it has to work twice as hard as say, even one random piano note strung somewhere in the song. We'll hear that, but we might not notice the snare unless it's an offbeat, backbeat, or funky rhythm.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Hzrdous responds:

Thank you so much for the honest review! I love when people give me comments like these! My mixing does need a major overhaul so as of now I am practicing a lot more in the mixing scene. But I will make sure to take what you said into consideration! Thanks for the review! And no problem! I'm glad I got the chance to join!

[Where did it all go EDM]

Interesting touch with the overtone strings. I would probably pull down the reverb some, just to keep things clean for that bass coming in. Probably low cut to 250 hz on the sends so that through 55 seconds sounded cleaner.

As is, the combination of elements is sounding good so far up to 1:11. By 1:48 I'm expecting the drop you give us at 1:59.

Some mixing critique, sidechain isn't doing a lot to make your percussion stand out. The instruments themselves are muted, particularly hihat and snare. Before applying sidechain, I'd make sure the instruments themselves, hihat and snare, could compete with those big chords in the space. So you can either take the leads down -- I would recommend that to .7 dB or so. A lot of the lack of contour between sidechain and instrumental is that volume difference. Then I would compress and possibly gated reverb your snare, and bring up the hats about .3 to .6 dB.

Other than that, I really feel we could have used another drop, but the composition otherwise is a great listen.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!