ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Acque Minerali Remastered]

Ah, love those break samples. My heart.

Some comments. Hihat in the left and right channels is very, very present. And sibilant. Take that baby down some. It isn't supposed to be lead hi-hat!

I also feel the water sample has just been left on there in a way that's somewhat messy. Cut and chop that sample. Do it like a sidechain, do what you do, but don't leave it on there -- it's loud, messy, and making you push the rest of the mix out of balance I feel like. Throw it on by all means at 47 secs.

Did you have someone record these vocals for you?

Beyond that see that you don't have clipping in the mix. I notice some of it here going through the song. Not a huge issue but definitely not professional sounding.

Reminds me of Kmart music meets dnb. Overall, like the aesthetic :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Naotyu responds:

The original song is from 2004, this is just a low effort remaster i was asked to make for use in a game. Sadly my FL Studio stopped working some time ago and i had to work with Audacity and Adobe Audition ( which also stopped working mid way, and i never properly finished the water sounds, thus removed them from the long version of remastered. )

The vocals were reused from the Ultimo Blu remix of the original song. You can find it on youtube by searching Acque Minerali Ultimo Blu

Ive had a lot of issues remastering this and im still working on it but its not going that well.

[NaNo - Grey Sky]

Wow, this is so loud! The lead is way up there. I'd pull it down about .5 to 1 full dB

There's not a ton of critique I have other than some mixing decisions, such as the very, very thick sausage fattened sound. Great for drops, makes it hard to make good mixing decisions. Also not a giant fan of that super boxy transition noise wooshing drop offs from the sidechain. That's a nice touch in its own way, I figure. Hopefully it's a sample and not what the mix sounds like without sidechain on! lol. You can make that sound prettier by playing with low cut up to 200, or even 250 hz. Those frequencies are pretty boxy.

I also found on intros and builds that I was wanting a bit softer of a sidechain since our kick is loud there already. We just end up with a dry sound there that isn't super pretty in the middle of a nice mesh. Might drop the amount to say like a 70-90 percent range rather than complete dead wall sidechain.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Exoverse]

Intro is sounding good.

Coming into 20 seconds, I'm wanting a bit less sub on your kick, and some more space on that backing drone. I might actually bring that up about .5 dB or so.

By 1:29 we have fantastic rhythms. But I want more bass. Give me some of that tasty 8khz to 12khz, so I can hear her character.

It actually sounds like the song as a whole may have been clipped off in that range -- through bass boosting and compression. Bass will stand out on its own without boosting. Make sure you have a sound system that accurately represents sound, without artificially boosting or clipping off any ranges of sound.

Also, nice Russian sample. Enjoyed it. I'd like to hear more of your samples over all. They're very quiet in relation to the track itself. Hard to understand.

Here is what I heard -- don't know if you are Russian speaker... перед мной в любой точке земного шара, определенной заранее с большой точности. Excuse whatever the first syllables after pere are, because I know it's not pered mnoj, but that's about what I heard. I know enough Russian to work in professional capacity and the mix has me really working for it, is what I'm saying. Meaning the sample is not doing its job of getting me hype. If you are Russian speaker, lemme know what that first word is please!

Beyond that, great piece, really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Michamadman responds:

Oh hey thanks for this great review! Fun fact is that I changed this song few times and last one seemed to be best. Who knows maybe in future I will remix this or make something like this but in different genre... For now I dont think Im some great and professional musician. I got some inspiration from other songs and used FL Studio and Audacity to make Exoverse. Also I am not Russian, Im actually Serbian but yeah we are slavs too.

[S1LENT GHO5T - Two (Official Instrumental) [Bi Remastered]]

Never heard the original Bi, but this key sounds like where it wanted to sit all along.

Some comments. The mix as a whole is pretty sub heavy on the kick -- can probably afford to bring it down about .2 to .3 dB and have the rest of the track stand out more from behind it. Sounds like you could also benefit from cutting some reverb and cleaning out the sub 250 hz on any sends, just to keep from sounding bogged down. But this isn't a huge issue.

There are some percussion slapbacks on your final drop that occasionally come to the fore in a very noticeable way, and not necessarily as something the casual listener would intuitively understand as a transition.

Overall the song is good, but I end up feeling something is missing, something like the vocalist you may have mentioned. There's not really a ton of moving lead material to carry us through sections. But overall, good work. The piece is cohesive and flows without having to be forced.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

LJTLegendaryL responds:

To completely transparent, I wasn't able to rerender the new version since I wasn't back in my original set up, so I tried to send the most recent one I had on my phone. In the updated one I did more EQ work to cut out unnecessary frequencies while keeping the mix stable and fixed the issues with the drums so that they don't overpower or collide to keep the synths from delivering their power.

Thanks for the feedback and it was still worth a shot. My vocalist is delivering the vocals soon so once I mix them in, emotions will be felt. The vocalist is also a fantastic artist, we're going to work on making something special with the song altogether.

Lots of concepts and planning. Once it's complete I'll probably post it on here and promote it across as many platforms as possible.

Fun Fact: The original key was 3 semi-tones lower, but I raised it so my vocalist could sing. Though, I think the raise is what perfected the sound.

The song, in the end, will also be a motivator since that's what I felt when I was producing it.

So even if I may not make it through, I still have something I'm really proud of ^^!

Again, thanks for the feedback, have a good day :)!

[copy and shadow]

Interesting polyrhythms going on here. Some comments on mix and structure.

Reverb here is 100% out of control -- tame that low end by throwing low cut up to 250 hz so the instruments aren't all muddying together. Gated reverb will sound better for your snare, btw, than that long tail. Hell, use it on everything if you want. It's a lot cleaner than just point blank reverb. But if you must use reverb, try to cut it down.

Now, I am a big fan of all your elements -- although they all sound panned left. That could be because your drums are mostly all on the left.

Protip, there are a ton of 808 and 909 sets out there that are free. I think 99sounds has one that I regularly use, for instance on my latest track here on NG, Progressing Degrees of Insanity, if you want to hear what I'm talking about.

Unexpected sections here and there, but this piece is already adventurous enough that I just get used to them.

Your drums I will say, are almost totally buried in reverb and just from not being loud enough in the mix. I would turn everything else down. And probably recommend centering that lowpass bass synth.

I don't know what the noise was at 4:35.

Are you by any chance using Trompette paper trumpet synth? I swear I recognize that flappy noise.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! Really interesting listen :)

lofiskyline15 responds:

thanks a ton for the response!! yeah the storminess kind of started to envelop the mix but I had to pump it out to hit the deadline haha

it'll definitely be hit by a huge remix and all of the constructive criticism about the mix is hugely appreciated! I realized quickly after this that my mixing gear is slightly unbalanced stereo-wise so over time things kinda started to drift which leads to a lot of the leftness (especially in the drums and bass). it's also pretty reassuring that you thought the drums were actually too quiet cause I usually over-boost them and so I probably course-corrected a bit too hard on this one haha

one thing I was/am having a ton of trouble with in this particular track is having a punchy bass drum and it definitely shows in this mix. so I think just across-the-board cutting the low end on a ton of stuff like you said would provide the breathing room necessary for the kick to actually be heard. and I also think that, even though the reverb is pretty dang in your face, clearing the air in the lows-low mids would make the verb a lot less intrusive so i'll definitely jump on that.

what's kind of interesting (and just goes to show that there's a ton of muddiness) is there's almost no reverb on the drums besides a slight slapback delay on the snare so that just ties back in to the overall washy-ness of everything (which I do want to maintain in a shoegaze-y sort of way but not in a sounds-like-hot-garbage one haha)

and the trumpet is surprisingly just from the Spitfire BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover pack! with a ton of reverb (again) and some Izotope Vinyl processing (which definitely enhances the flappiness of it all).

overall, thanks so much and I'd love to be on shortlist for any upcoming music competitions!

[Lil Bear - SGD]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of e-piano chords just sort of moved around. I'm so glad I picked up this was mostly a joke before I almost died trying to tell you how to make the vocals sound better.

Still, compress that shizzle, my guy. Make it the best sounding joke on the internet. As it's mixed, I really struggle to hear your vocals over the percussion :P

Also, why not make trap music about Susie the trap? You could be her trap star. She could be your trap queen <3

But yeah, most of my critique is gonna sit on this could be an epic sounding joke song, if it had more attention poured into aspects of compressing vocals, mixing in a balanced way so that those vocals came to the front, and making sure we know Susie's got a dick, and that's okay <3

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

LilBearMusic responds:

I really appreciate you giving me this criticism. Ill definitely compress the vocals and mix it better. ❤

[Downvote (Single version)]

I can't tell if you're going with a blackmetal aesthetic. But some comments on mix. Drums are buried. Take down those guitars by however many dB it takes for them to become clear, and cut the 250 hz and below on everything that isn't drums or bass. I might even cut up to 28 hz on the bass just in case, to make room for drums to cut through.

Your guitars could use some cleaning with a multiband compressor. I think it's ChernobylStudios, or maybe FakeSmileRevolution that does a great few tutorials on just getting an aggressive guitar tone. Works magic on vst guitars.

Now speaking of your everything, the velocity and expression values are there for a reason! No one wants to hear a double bass roll like Skyrim freezing in the morning. Okay, maybe some crazy people do, but I am not one of them. I for one don't want to hear that. It means I have to go and edit values. I hate editing values.

Anyway Misha Mansoor does a great tutorial on youtube for that. Writing drums.

The velocity on your lead sounded the same throughout. I would change the chord thresh value some, turn on a humanizer. I actually can't tell if that sounds like RealEight or Shreddage II. With Shreddage II you're more likely to have that dead on sound of being locked into the beat just because the way they snap into the DAW, but RealEight is just as bad about sounding shitty if you don't use the keyswitches. Take note, use the keyswitches, set up some funky velocity crap. Figure it out so that it doesn't sound like pitching up and down the same articulation of a different note. Been there, lol.

Otherwise, hardpan your left and right rhythm guitars 100% L and R respectively. Leads I would pan anywhere between 13 and 33 percent L and R, with a pingpong delay between the instances to play into the other channel. Make sure to humanize all of these separately and randomly so that they don't sound the same. Use different amps and cabs for the L and R so they don't sound like you just copied the same track, etc. The lead can be made more compelling by playing with 3rds and 5ths every so often.

Beyond that, not really a whole lot of critique. The song isn't overly long, it's not poorly written. I feel the leads may have been lazy, but maybe you just aren't very familiar with the software like I was when I first started mixing E guitars. Personally, I like to do e guitars and synth leads. But this isn't bad at all. Learn your instruments a little more and see where it takes you! :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

413X1NKP responds:

Thank you! I'll try to be better next time :)

[Cataclysm (NGUAC 2020, Outrcy EP)]

Sounds like nice, classically inspired chord progressions here.

Some notes, I know there is a sine bass under what's going on before 38 seconds, but I doubt anyone would be able to hear it. There are a lot of muddy chord intervals -- when you have chords that are down low and the notes spaced closer together, they don't work the same way they do up high. In fact I generally caution against chords where they notes are all spaced together, or using a ton of notes on the same instrument in a chord. For electronic music, it leaves the tendency to copy and paste and throw everything on there.

Also, whatever carillon bell synth you have clanging throughout on the bottom, the reverb on that is completely covering up the melodies you've written. I really feel like by 2:46 we've heard the same melody and chords almost the whole time, and we're going all the way back through for another bout of the same. You've got a chord progression you're in love with, I know, but it sounds like the same 4 chords over and over, for 4 minutes, with almost no melodic development because we move the same melodies into different instruments.

This tells me there is a weakness in structuring songs, not necessarily lead writing. We've just got the 4 chords, and we don't really know where to go with them other than the same big section we built to start off that inspired us to write the song to begin with. So I would recommend some youtube research on structuring music.

Also, throughout there is so much added reverb, more than is necessary -- because really you'll never have enough reverb to convince a human ear that that charang guitar or the piano or the bells are real bells. So cut that reverb down to about half of what you have, and low cut to 250 hz on reverb wet FX sends.

Back to the structure, the way the percussion is laid out tells me we didn't really know where we were going and sort of added it last to hopefully bandaid some naked sections -- I've been there. I still do it sometimes tbh. Finding a song structure you like of say, intro, verse, chorus, verse chorus times two, bridge or solo section, chorus three to four times, fade out or stinger note will help you write more concisely.

You already have in mind what you want to say, just keep in mind as you go along that less is more, and I think that will help you the most. Would love to see what you could do with a nice desktop DAW. I'm amazed you got something like this out of LMMS :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

NolamiAmada responds:

thanks for all the feedback, though the excessive reverb to make it distinctly not real was intentional and since i started making this ive figured out how to actually write a melody, this one suffered from the "this is my 500th attempt at a good melody and it finally sounds nice so lets keep going with it" problem many of my songs have, in the 2 months since i started making this song ive learnt a fair bit on music theory but was too lazy to restart this song, hopefully my round 2 submission will have a better structure to it and thanks a ton for all of the feedback

~Lo7

[Haze]

Listening through the first time, this is well written, takes some adventurous sound choices, keeping things interesting. I find what it's lacking is clarity on sections aside from the drop.

1:40 section could be cut probably in half so that pause isn't so jarring.

Watch around 2:00 there's some clipping.

I feel the next drop is pretty short in length, and the bass isn't very present.

A lot of the clarity issues could be fixed just by cutting reverb send down some and low cutting to 250hz on the wet signals. On your drops, take care to compress and level things in such a way that the volume doesn't fluctuate in terms of loudest peak very much. I definitely noticed that some of your elements hit harder than others.

Other than that, pretty standard track, danceable, not too over the top but just daring enough to strike the right balance between loose and groovy. Good work :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Night [NGUAC Enter](Original Mix)]

The idea for this piece is interesting, but there are a lot of dissonant chords. It usually has to do with your bass completely clashing with another bassline on the bottom of the chord. The section from 0:42, the bassline doesn't go with both the secondary bassline, or ANY of the leads, the clarinet synth loop, the piano, or the chords on the side.

The 2:32 section is also dissonant as well. I'm not sure what chords you want us to hear, other than the clarinet. I think it may be a case of hearing the dissonance enough times that it becomes normal. By 5:32 it certainly isn't pleasant to me, but I've become accustomed to it.

I'm not really able to offer much critique beyond that. You have what sounds like two different songs or an A and B section put together. So the best recommendations I'd have are some music theory and lead writing. Good channels for that are Holistic Songwriting, Signals Music Studios, and Ben Levin.

When it comes to songs, remember to keep things simple. Two basslines is one too many. Keep it simple. The more you can pare down a section or simplify parts and still get across an idea, the better, at least in most cases.

As for mix, I did hear a lot of reverb, and at points the percussion were drowned out, but I'll be honest, I wasn't really able to listen for that very well. As a rule of thumb, turn down reverb sends to about 75% of what you first wanted to do with them, turn the low cut up to 250hz, and make sure the percussion is the loudest part of your track -- meaning turn everything else down until you can hear them clearly without focusing on them. Use a reference track if necessary to get the volume levels where you want them, listening to a song you want to sound like and your own track, back and forth, until it sounds right to you.

Don't worry if your music doesn't come out like you want it to at first, or even most of the time. The more work you put in, the more songs you're putting out, the better you will become. Never give up. :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!