ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[LEAST RESISTANCE]

I'd like to hear just a bit more of that sample in your intro. Also, feeling the.. what was it Interstellar vibes? I forget which one of the "the prophecy is true" space movies the chord progression is referencing in passing.

Sound design at 1:25, so aesthetic.

Also, thanks for using my sample pack. Glad to know these kicks hit outside of trap!

The theme at 2:07 is about as classic trance as you can get. Mixed to perfection. Master could be just a hair louder, but only by a few hairs as you can see from the waveform. This is a minor critique.

The explosion of dynamics here begs the question -- to compress harder earlier on and keep things danceable, or lean into the cinematic IDM side of things and keep the dynamics. Very hard decision to make for trance.

Your transition at 3:44 is well done. Actually reminds me of some of your much older catalog in the way progressions are structured. The vocal sample riff at 4:01 could potentially use a bit more modulation, thinning out in the mid range to make the transition more impactful. More play in the stereo field for all vocal samples would be ideal. There's a few plugins I prefer for this -- WideFire, PanCake, and Action Tremolo. Formerly, I used Brauer Motion.

I found myself missing hats and crashes, but given that transition FX, mixing, and other elements were handled so well, it's far from a dealbreaker.

Overall, excellent work.

KI1 responds:

Gonna respond to this in our usual itemised style of communication B)

Interstellar is a top 5 movie for me, it probably influences a lot of what I do - subconscious or not... it's a vibe.

I'm glad you think so, I've been using Vital a lot more. I thought I'd let the patch I made do the work on its own for this part.

At this point I'm considering changing my name to Last Mistake.wav, considering the amount of work that sample of yours has done for me.

That 'A' is my favourite part of the arp :) It could for sure be louder, you're right. Checking my file now, it looks like I set this master to -11, where it should have been -14 for NG? I dunno, skill issue.

I ask myself this a lot. A lot of my older stuff was 'louder' due to knowing nothing about mixing and just having everything up too high with the FL default limiter stuck on top. In this case I'm not sure, I could have gone for a mix of both? Dynamics in the beginning and compression in the 'chorus'?

Thanks! I was worried about how it sounded, from loud to suddenly quiet. I definitely could have done a lot more work on the vocal samples, I wanted to keep them sounding a little far away and a bit obscured - getting rid of some more mids might have helped that too. Good suggestions, thank you. I'll add those to my wishlist, either that or learn to use the stock FL stereo enhancer better.

Very fair! I did consider a few more percussion elements - a single hi-hat makes a brief appearance. Some of my inspirations were the soundtracks to the highway racing games you see at the arcade. They usually lack a lot of varied percussion - just 4/4 kicks and not a lot else.

Thank you for the amazing and detailed analysis as always!

[Highs before High]

It's nice to hear odd time signature VGM in this style. Gives a very topsy-turvy feel, an injected uncertainty into the beat. The bass gives the feel of older VGM, particularly that of Grant Kirkhope (Goldeneye, Banjo Tooie and so on), while the electronic elements inject some modernity.

I think a bit of processing for the kicks, snares, and so on would have given this piece more life. At lower volumes, they aren't cutting through quite as well. There are two percussion processors and transient designers I prefer for this task -- Cymatics Diablo (paid) and Pancz (free). The latter offers the ability to not only increase and reduce transients but also control the length and power of the note body. Both I think would be very useful here, as I feel a bit of lean into 90s industrial feel.

Percussion not withstanding, your arrangements are good, and your structure is indicative of a clear direction throughout.

I would be a bit bolder with dynamics, modulations, and FX. At present, the bass is quiet relative to the synths, which themselves are leveled about where I would place a lead vocal. Background stabs are present, but they are loud enough that I would have preferred some movement in the stereo field to keep them interesting.

Throughout, sound design is interesting, particularly from 1:50 to 2:33. I would have preferred more emphasis on your basses, and perhaps a sub bass to support the track structure.

Mastering compression could potentially be pushed harder, judging by the peaks I see on the waveform.

Overall, an interesting piece and very suspenseful. I liked it a lot!

Jotrocken responds:

Yes thanks for your feedback - If you only talk about the mix i am already really happy. I Interpret this as I made good music and just need to get the mix and master "right"

[-One Stupid Anniversary- (Project C.A.S.S.Y)]

YES. ABUSE THE HIHATS. They're a little loud, but I'm here for it.

Also, I really like the groove at the end. It reminds me of goldeneye for some reason. Or maybe I just have Goldeneye 007 on the brain. Thanks for using my samples btw. I should probably program them into a proper instrument some time, so they're easier to use.

Anyway, it's nice to see you expanding and experimenting with your compositions. There's a definite sense of progression here that I sense growing as you move along :)

A little study of typical song structures, and you'll see growth like you would not believe. Keep going!

Creeperforce24 responds:

Actually I find using them as drum samples for me is easier lol, I guess the only way I say you could improve your drum pack is by making stock drum sets.
Certain hi hats and snares and kicks for one drumset, certain ones for another drumset, a drumset of percs maybe?

And about typical strong structure… FUCK THAT SHI! I am one who does not follow orders (usually) when it comes to being “typical” or “general”… I am here to create a unique atmosphere. I thank you for your advice, and I might’ve understood it wrong, if I did, then let me know lol.

[EPIC NEW DNB TRACK >:DDDDD]

Very interesting to be able to literally read your project as you go on. My own projects tend to get super thicc and not show up on the screen. This is proof I should try minimalism once in a while!

ZedzyMusic responds:

you don't have to read this whole response lol
thank you! this is mainly because my music in general is simple and I only add stuff that I think would go good with the track or stuff that I like. my tracks do lack detail but I think that makes them really simple and easy to listen to (in my opinion). I'm glad you liked my music, and thanks for the review and follow! it really helps :DD
im gonna listen to your music now bc im curious

[Catela–HEART!(xb32 remix)]

I actually like this better than the original. It's not compressed to almost unintelligibility, and it's both sonically diverse and rhythmically pleasant to listen to.

One thing I would suggest is to control the low end of your reverb a bit more. Low cutting those wets to 250 usually is the trick for me. Sometimes you can get away with a bit less cutting, but with instruments trailing below C3, it can get really ringy.

Are you using a lot of stereo spreading as well? If you're using something more like Infected Mushroom's Wide, I would recommend switching to WideFire. The former can cause phasing issues and a tin-can effect -- where the output sounds farther away from you. I'm hearing a bit of that here on your basses and synths.

I would also take a look at your stereo spectrums on your drops. 1:08 feels more full than the rest of the track and sticks out as such. 1:33 likewise is quite full relative to 1:52. I feel like it should be the other way around.

I hope this is the feedback you're looking for. Tearout and riddim are not my typical expertise. The overall principles of mixing seem to fall along the lines of trap and metal, however, which I do know quite a bit about.

Overall, I would focus on bringing your basses' mid and low mids up a bit. I can clearly hear your sub, but they feel farther away than I'd like. The mid and high mid will help bring them in your face.

xb32Philya responds:

Thanks for your feedback!

[-Roadside Drug-]

I don't think that was ordinary meth...

IT WAS SUPER METH

This sounds less like Nebraska, and more like Ohio. But I'm digging it. It has the vibe of happy, moderately psychotic, and desperately manic at the same time.

It's not entirely phonk. Something newer and brighter has emerged. As such I'm not entirely sure how to critique.

One thing I have noticed, is that it is frantically busy, like many of your other pieces. You may try a technique of building an 8 bar hook (just copy the 4 bar and change the 2nd and last bars somewhat), then copypasting and cutting away layers for other sections.

Creeperforce24 responds:

Thanks for the tip! Now! LETS ENJOY THIS NEW PHONKMETH GENRE

[Andromeda]

Офигеть. That opening chord sounds so nice. Takes me back about 10 years. I can feel a lot of synthwave and trance influence here, which is nice.

I would say there is about .2-.3 dB too much 16khz-24khz. But other than that, you are working wonders with those $3 headphones. Hats off.

Also, lovely instrumentation, rhythms, and of course drops. Your breaks sound great and are used appropriately as fills. Very satisfying. If this was not already FP'ed, I'd FP it myself!

Also, I just thought of something -- you have already checked all your audio settings, yes? I was shocked to find some years ago, there is a sample rate setting in most Windows computers. If you find settings, sound, all sound devices, properties, you will see a setting called "output settings" and "format". Set it to the highest possible, which for me was 24-bit, 48khz. This made a huge difference in sound quality for me and allowed me to hear those crazy high frequencies for the first time.

Anyway, if you already found that setting, awesome. And great work, btw.

G2961 responds:

Thank you so much, ADR3-N! If I had cool headphones, then maybe my songs would be perfect then, but I'll have to somehow keep surviving with my $3 A4Techs, lol.
Really appreciate your feedback!!!

[🎷Daft-Type Jam]

Like DaftPunk indeed. I'm enjoying the bitcrush and filter rate play throughout. Breakdown at 48 seconds is quite interesting as well.

At 1:44 the mix gets a little bit cluttered in the low mids, and I would recommend a bit more hi-hat crash play. Something to give us that fizz. I feel the mix is lacking just a bit off the top. Perhaps you could even adjust it in post.

Now, your sample rate (bitcrusher) modulation rips are pretty sibilant. What I usually do for those is pop an extra lo-fi plugin on top to pretty much immediately tame those highs, while maintaining the resonance/squeal you have at the lower frequencies.

In general, you want to keep that bass in mono, making sure it has a decent presence in sub, and your high mids are saturated. The rest of your mid, you want to stereo spread with something like WideFire, which adds harmonics and leaves your original signal intact -- less phasing issues that way and it's pretty non-destructive.

Your snare, you want that to stick out. It's got to have a bump in the 150-220 range for the transient and the body, and you want a little bit of fizz and mids to have it stick out in a danceable mix like this one. Either a dead 70's snare or a low-tuned dubstep/dnb snare would do for this piece.

You'd probably also want to either layer kicks, bump up your kick volume, or swap out whatever kick you have going on in this song. At 1:38, 1:44, and so on, I'm having a hard time delineating the kick. Basically, the low end and drive are muddied up a bit. Bring those out a bit more and the track will shine.

Same with hats. They don't have to be loud, but you don't want to take too much fizz out of them, excepting for transitions. The less fizzy the hat, the louder it should probably be in the mix.

Overall, steady grooving, and I really enjoyed it. Nice work!

CrimsonKero responds:

That's what happens when you use the drums built-into the sample.

[The Neon Ascent]

Hearing that you're 17 and make EDM bangers much cooler than mine is impressing, demotivating, and awesome at the same time.

I love the modulations you have on your synths, those filter sweeps. It's such a subtle effect, but it carries well throughout the song. I would back off compression VERY slightly on your master, just enough to let the sidechain breathe a bit. I don't know if what I'm saying makes sense, but the reverb and sustains will cause the kick and bass to lose the feeling of sub at dB if you don't.

Check against quieter sections and listen for sub. On the drops, you can hear a subtle difference.

Past 2 min, there is a bit of what appears to be clipping. Check that out.

Still, very well deserved frontpage. If it had not been already, I would have done so myself.

Your output gets better and better with time. Always a pleasure!

PS: bridge and outro was very well executed. Pleasant surprise!

G2961 responds:

Thank you so much for the very good review, ADR3-N! Your comment means a lot to me!

Maybe you're right, there are flaws in this song, but it was difficult for me to fix them on a lagging iPad Mini 2, on which FLM managed to crash more than 10 times, lol. I could make this song on my phone since it doesn't lag, but it was really interesting for me to make it on my iPad when I just downloaded FLM on it.
Mastering and proper mixing in FLM, and even in regular FL Studio, is my weak side, which I can't fix yet, because I have A4Tech headphones that cost me 300 rubles ($3), lol, so I have to survive somehow.