ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Call for Thunder]

Like the marimba rhythms -- bass was unexpected but is welcome. I would actually take some of the reverb or chorus FX down on that, or add some white noise to it. I'm wanting a crispier bass.

By 1:20 the snare line has been a bit samey for me, good time to drop it out, but I would personally write more changeups in that line. Just a more unpredictable line. When it comes back in at 2:08 it's not bad. For some of your auxiliary percussion I would not pan them so hard left and right. I think one is around 80% or 90%. Or if I were to do that, I'd take them down a bit in volume there and alternate them in the left and right channels just to give that balance.

3:21 is very interesting chord wise. I wanted a breakdown with those chords. The octaved bass synth has the high end that I wanted on your first bass, but I feel it's a lot too loud, and it wasn't what I was looking to hear.

Percussion wise, I actually like your snare, and I think the kick is fine. It probably could come up a bit in the mix. Maybe side-chain. The sustains in the mix all felt comparatively flat. You could still layer a kick on top of this one and have it function as a sub pillow.

I did find the claps a little uncomfortable. You could probably cut them shorter and bitcrush them?

Overall, the mix is creepy and cool, which I enjoy. Really wanted more chords from this piece, but it is what it is, and I enjoyed the listen.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Dark Rarity]

We're pretty low mid heavy in our intro, with lots of reverb throughout the whole track, which sort of gives the feeling of having the whole top of the EQ lopped off the track. However, I do like your writing, and your transitions are solid.

One area I wish I heard more of, your drums, overall they're much quieter than the rest of the mix, especially the snare. I would turn everything else down until they're clearly heard. Believe me, those chords aren't going to go missing -- they're the only instrument in the space :)

Musically you've written quite a journey, with lots of interesting twists to follow. Sometimes I am not a fan of the chords in the low mids chunked together. Other times I think they work. Maybe some theoretical study on inversions and chord voicing will be helpful to you, but that's not hurting your presentation so much as just not being able to hear what's going on.

Overall I enjoyed the piece. My biggest recommendation would be just to study mixing, particularly as we try to get this big spacious vibe. There are great shows to watch such as Kush After Hours where mixers talk shop. I would start there, maybe try some of the tricks you learn on an old project you like. My main gripes in mixing is making sure to low cut reverbs up to 250 hz, and turning down the reverb lower than you think it should be, for the sake of cleanliness. Reverb is nasty and muddy if you let it be, and takes away from the clarity of a track.

But anyway, interesting piece. It was fun to listen to. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TheSentiment responds:

Thank you for your insight! I'll definitely make the drums more prominent. I also put a book of advanced theory topics on my wishlist, so I hope to learn more very soon.

[Every Little Issue]

I'm not sure if that's vinyl distortion, or digital I'm hearing on the sides in your acoustic. I'm going to guess intentional from the distorted vocal. There's a bit of 0-250 hz screaming on the bottom of that, sounds like. I'd cut it.

Voice wise, great style. I would take off some resonant freqs in the mids with a multiband compressor, and compress them a lot more overall. Bring them up in the mix on the non-distorted parts.

Overall really cool idea and presentation, somewhat hampered by vocals not cutting through until you distort them. Without that, they sound a little muffled.

Drums, I would also compress a lot more and cut down on the reverb some, unless you want to apply gated reverb to the snare. Could also use a stereo component to that shaker type percussion in the right channel. The reverb touches the other channel, sounds like, but you could just put a ride or something occasionally to give the left balance.

Overall, cool little jig. I enjoyed listening to it, although I did have to turn it down at points with the aforementioned peaky distorted vocal. At a more comfortable volume, it was a nice little trip into outer space :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TheRealFool responds:

The distortion on the guitar is digital, and actually mostly the result of cutting off the highs and lows (plus a slight flanger to give it a bit of a spacy quality, but that's also present in the second part). I certainly could've done some more to try and make the distortion sound less resonant at times though, this was the first time I tried doing something like this so I'll just chalk it up to a lack of experience in making things sound purposefully bad in a good way. I'm also usually pretty hesitant with compression, but I'll be sure to take your tips into consideration for future work.

Thanks for the review and happy to hear you enjoyed it!

[Majesty]

Pretty great for stock FL only. Wow how the DAW has improved over the years.

I would say the bass has a bit too much mids. Like truenotfals mentioned, it's filling up my ears and I'm wanting to hear at least a break in it from sidechain. Maybe sidechain heavier. As we go on, the bass gets seemingly louder and louder -- but clearer as the instruments on the sides back off. Remember, your percussion, namely kick and snare, should be the loudest instrument in your track, even if sidechain is used, they should still be able to cut through without it. I would turn your bass down by up to a dB but not over that.

Otherwise, my comments would run close to trunotfals, with the exception of liking your piano lick and wanting to hear more of it. I also am enjoying your structure. Final gripe would be -- let me hear a nice long sustained i chord at the end! :P

Anyway, nice work. Enjoyed the listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ArramEggleston responds:

Thank you for the review! Yeah, looking back on the track the bass is a bit loud. I'll remember that for the future.

[SoFtBOILeD-Try Again]

Really interesting choice of sounds in your intro.

I would personally take down your reverb sends and low cut up to 250 hz or so on any instrument that does have verb applied.

1:50 I was really expecting that section to go full speed into a drop, not a drum solo. The chording synth after that seems to distort. Unless that's vinyl fx.

Overall I like the song but it seems to do a lot of the same thing without really going anywhere -- aforementioned drum solo. The second time this repeats it doesn't bother me because I know it's coming.

Then we have an outro.

Enjoyed the listen though. Wish I had more critique to offer aside from maybe some structuring gripes

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Fading Memories]

The chord progression of this reminds me of Wayfarer by Nightwish in the beginning (I'm sure it's just me -- no other reasonable person may hear it -- but it's certainly nostalgic)

I really find myself wanting maybe a different or more varied synth for that piano. Maybe even just modding velocity will help it some.

Nice work with the transitions here. I'm not sure I like the stuttering glitches on that guitar synth. It could just be that I have a low tolerance for synthy guitars.

You could definitely replace that choir with any low passed synth -- I hear Nexus. I know it has a lot of them!

Solid progression. I find myself wanting the percussion to cut through a little more and having a hard time hearing the sine bass at times. That could be my headphones. I prefer to write with squares or saws for that reason.

All instances of strings I feel could be done better with just synths, especially the orchestral stabs.

But don't despair. I can hear your frustration in the track, but it really isn't as bad as you think. Don't be so hard on yourself! I enjoyed the piece :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Dead planet]

You know, you're right, I don't hear a lot of dubstep these days. Or what I hear is so samey as to be bland.

I'm liking our intro so far. Maybe it's that I love bells in general. My only complaint by 0:50 is it sounds like your track may have been mixed very loudly and with a lot of reverb, so without a heavy sidechain, that boom sample gets a little crunchy in the low mids -- a little distortion sounds like.

1:30 is a nice little refrain. I think I've heard that transition somewhere before. Please tell me what's the name of the sample if any lol.

I'm not sure I would necessarily call this dubstep actually, coming through. Maybe euro style. It's something else. Between synthwave and dubstep maybe. I dunno. But it's good, and that's what matters.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Divulge]

Interesting choice panning out your percussion elements in the intro left and right.

This piece has a catchy little hook. My complaints would be largely reserved for mix. Your snare and kick are buried in the mix. I would turn down any saws on the sides and cut down on your reverbs. Beyond that, the piece itself holds together nice and solid. Key change works well. We keep a lot of the same elements and nexus keys, etc, but they're not offensive at all.

By cut the reverb, I mean cut the wet signal down and try low cutting up to say 250 hz. You can also take reverb down on the larger, louder sections. When compressed these signals will cloud up your mix and make it hard to make out percussion and other instruments.

Overall, good piece. Enjoyed the listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Release]

I'm quite literally without any meaningful critique, maybe beyond preferring a little less reverb, no thanks to absolutely flawless libraries. I had to look that one up.

I do find myself wanting a more spacious string sound. They're pretty thin throughout.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

potato-stick responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I wanted the brass to be the main element of this song, which is why I didn't end up using a full string section. That might have brought out the more spacious feel you were looking for, so thank you for the feedback in that regard! Reverb and mixing is something I've been working on striking the proper balance in and I agree that I used a bit too much in this mix, so thanks for pointing that out as well :)