ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tea Cup Massacre Epsilon: Descent Into Madness]

So far, I'm liking your intro. Somewhat abrupt introduction of elements, but this is what, super laid back future bass mixed with industrial?

Your piece as a whole is both relaxed and thin sounding up until your second drop which I appreciate. I think you may have too much sub on that actually. I might back it off and apply saturation to get the appearance of loudness you want. As is, it's making my left ear -- for some reason, hurt a bit on that low sustain of the tonic.

Throughout, I like your panning and the different movements. Each is quite pleasantly varied while feeling a part of the same whole. I especially love your last section. Although I feel that the piece could do from about a quarter to a half of the reverb that it currently has, being generous. Compressed, all that verb gets in the way of your delicious bass and also prevents you from compressing more consequently. Electronic genres lend themselves to such compression, and clean production itself will help you bring the emotions you want to the fore.

Last bit reminds me a lot of DOOM. There's a lot you bring to the table in this piece. Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Wertw - Universe Travellers]

Interesting take with our bitcrushed intro. It lends a lot to our -- if slightly abruptly transitioned into -- drop, particularly the appreciation of space.

Very much enjoying what's going on here. I think the flute before 1:39 could both come up in the mix and have a lot more done with it to sound less flat. It's both hiding volume wise and doesn't have a lot of modulation.

At 2:34, you could probably apply a saturator to that violin and modulate the lfo of that base so it's not just the same vibrato rate sounds like.

Beyond that, I'm chilling with you vibing right on about to 3:33. I find myself wanting more of your snare, about 0.5 dB. I find I enjoy the transposed key but want the lead in the right channel to be a bit less shrill.

Mix wise everything is very full and low mid heavy sounds like -- might be suffering minorly from reverb-itis. Try turning down the reverb wets particularly on any sustained notes, bass synths, transitions, and cymbals. Rather, I would apply on cymbals a slapback delay at a slightly lower volume and bring the cymbals themselves up in the mix. Cleaner is always better!

Anyway, great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Sentimentality]

I like what you've done with your drum samples. I would have appreciated just a bit less reverb on the kick, possibly everywhere. The mix throughout sounds just a little muffled with all of it.

On the lead, it sounds just a bit flat to me somehow. Maybe vibrato would help and some more modulation

Throughout, your snare tends to hide a bit in the mix -- the lead is clearly audible which is good, but the drums have to do extra work to cut through. It may help you to try applying KSHMR Essentials Kick on your percussion instruments for transients. I fell in love with the free version recently and used it on all of my percussion for my latest track.

Your last snare in particular would really benefit I think from tape saturation and transient shaping. As is it sounds just a little laying there. I would have liked if that drop lasted just a little bit longer.

All in all I love the idea of this song, and I think it's really cool you specifically learned a new technique to create it. Nice work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Desert Fever]

This feels like a mix of Japanese, Chinese, and near east... or... middle east. With some Greek when you hit that vocal solo.

Great film score type stuff.

Any critique I would have -- our section at 3:00 or so, I'm hearing a lot of reverb on our cinematic low percussion, and it isn't sticking out above or sitting alongside the melodic and rhythmic elements. It's behind it. The track as a whole sounds quite tinny here.

The sub hit before 4:20 could probably sound better if tuned to the tonic.

5:01 very much reminds of Indiana Jones Egypt. I like your percussion here. I want more of that tambourine, or less of the hand drums which come in there. Now that said, you've done an absolutely FANTASTIC arrangement here, wonderfully authentic. Wanting just a tad more of those chants and about 0.2 dB more strings, with a more pronounced stacatto and cleanliness between notes. That's hard to manage with synths, of course. I'm very impressed you've made such a journey in so little time!

7:15 we have come through great pain and confusion. I want just a bit more of that odd moaning in the right channel. Now it sounds like we've gone somewhere like Petra. At 8:06 I want a bit more of the lead you have in the right channel. I continue wanting more of it at least up to 8:33, 0.5 dB perhaps, even. Or bring the accompaniment down, if desired. 9:01, I feel it would sound much better if soaring over.

All this said, gorgeous piece. I've thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through despite long length. I have a short attention span. That's a very high compliment. Fantastic work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

VociferousMusic responds:

Thank you very much for the critism and the minor things you suggested for improvement!

I'm very surprised you actually related my soundtrack to the far east (Chinese, Japanese), since I have not any instruments used being typical for these cultures, and at the end, I did not intent to have it sound like that, haha. :P

The vocal solo is meant to be indian and not greek, but you were close about guessing. :)

[Rainwave]

Really like the harmonics over the blink-182 esque muted clean chugs.

I think the vocals could be mixed a lot better, compression in particular. This style would probably sound a lot better with a megaphone-like saturation and distortion on the vocal until the chorus. OneKnob saturator and pressure plugins by waves do a nice job. The section before 1:55 has a nicer sound. Clean these vocals just sound demo-y. Nothing really wrong with that. It could be delivery.

2:27 you sound more confident.

That said, this is quite literally just about my only complaint about this song. I really love it. I think with compression the vocals will come out like you want over top the chorus and shine.

Other aspects of the piece are brilliant.

I'd like just a little more high end on your ... are those tablas or darabukas? Maybe some spatial movement. But this section is very nice.

All in all I really enjoyed this piece. It was a journey. It was soulful and original, while at the same time distinctly nostalgic.

If we could have ended on a i chord rather than a fade out, my day would have been complete.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

verbicidemusic responds:

Thanks so much for the in depth review! I definitely concede that the mix leaves much to be desired. A lot of these things that you pointed out didn't occur to me until I had listened to it on other devices. But by then I had already submitted it for judging lol. Luckily, I'll have you and the other judges critiques and my own personal retrospective to work off of when preparing this to be released officially on my upcoming EP. So needless to say, I appreciate this feedback immensely. Cheers!

[Our Last Day]

Guitar is sweet on that right channel. I'd like a little less low mid and perhaps drive on the left, just keep it a little cleaner. I feel the guitars are a couple dB too loud for the drums and vocal to sustain.

Vocal tone itself is good. I just can't hear it at all in the mix.

I'd apply some saturation to your snare and kick. There is a plugin called KSHMR Essentials Kick available free that has really impressed me with its ability to compress, saturate, and handle transients and width all in one go. I highly recommend trying it on any percussion instrument.

I'm not able to really understand the solo in the middle as anything other than perhaps even being in the wrong key -- but since it's so nicely time locked and sounds nice on its face I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's intentional. It's confident and clean. That's what matters.

So relistening, talking about levels, I'd bring your guitars down by as much as 2 to 3 dB, compress your drums, maybe space out your cymbals further left and right, cut down any reverbs you have going on slightly as its a bit muddy. If by then the bass is sticking out as too loud to your ears, you can move that down in increments of .2 dB or something, pull up the vocals likewise... there's a plugin called spreader that may help you in this regard to get a wide, spacious sound -- I really like your diction btw, at this level, without clear enunciation, I wouldn't hear ANY of your vocals. Speaking from personal experience, this is a problem a lot of metal producers tend to have. We focus so much on the distortion and rocking out that we don't pay attention to the most distinctive instrument of rage we have, our voices, and go ear-dead from knowing our own lyrics well enough to pick them out in a mix, whereas others might not.

So all in all, head bobbing, foot tapping jam. Enjoyed from start to finish. Been a longtime fan of yours as well, and happy to see your improvement over the years. Look forward to seeing more from you :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TSRBand responds:

Thanks for all the tips! Looking forward to trying them out :)

[Stargazer]

Very smooth, clear, almost solitary tones. I like the addition of the string pad without it interfering or overshadowing the lead.

I do feel like some of the progression is a bit cliche writing convention -- but it's a solo instrument track for the most part. What are you gonna do! But it reminded me a lot of The Moments of Happiness section from the Cats musical. One of my favorite songs from a rather... odd production.

I don't have a lot of a critique beyond that. Really enjoyed the subtle piece.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Thomastique responds:

Thank you!
I agree on the cliché writing, I blame it on only having two weeks 😆
Some very original sounding pieces are coming soon though 😉😉😉

[Amazona NGUAC 2020]

I'm not sure why most of the mix is panned to the left. However, it creates a very.. interesting space in the right. I think if you're going to do that, there has to be some way to pan the kick to the right or something, as well as transition noises moving from left the right -- maybe your monitors are louder in the left than the right?

I have no complaints other than that and a bit too much reverb on fuller sections. The amount of reverb is appropriate for naked sections but can be modulated down for drops.

I like the nice sub impacts and moments of calm in the middle. Shows a good knowledge of structure. Although again I would here because there is so much low and low mid appreciate less reverb. Or at least low cutting up to 250 hz on the reverb. It's very, very present throughout.

Here the mix sounds quite balanced to the center by 3:46, but again the bass comes in the left channel and I don't understand. My right ear wants your juicy bass too!

That said, loving your progression, and I'm happy you decided to share your cup of tea with us <3

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TerraNation responds:

hehe i have no i dea why its become like that but stay tuned i will fix it after contest is over its to late change it + im gona upload FULL master version so should expecting better mixing.
+ im gona change the song abit for a final release iknow what i done wrong somewhere to.

[Nebulous - Paranoia (NGUAC 2020 | R3)]

Interesting effecting going on here. I wasn't with the clipping, clicking effect until you applied a little bit of pitch effect so I understood what was happening.

I love your use of FX and that heavily modulated, distorted bass. I find myself wanting the snare to cut through just a bit more. You may be able to apply KSHMR Essentials Kick to it and the kick to get the transients and overall sound more present. On the second drop, it's not an issue.

Overall, your sound design choices and structuring shine. Pleasant dissonance, makes me a happy bean. I still find myself wanting as I mentioned, percussion elements, and particularly some hihat and crash action. Those I feel are buried by your lead.

I still ended up feeling quite relaxed and comfortable despite the attempts at horror. Perhaps it's to do with my love of horror music... for sleeping. Nice work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ShockblastDeluxe responds:

Thanks for having me, and thanks for listening!