ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Paradigm Shift (NGADM 2023 Round 1)]

A bit overly reverbed in the intro, but by 38 seconds is coming together nicely. The white noise sweeps are a bit too high up in the mix, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot.

1:06 the over reverb is hurting those tikki tikki digital stabs cutting through properly.

This piece is a lot of intricate moving parts I see. I think at some points this may be hurting intelligibility a bit

Writing wise, great work. Is definitely feeling like Final Fantasy aha.

dnb elements, kick and snare I feel should have some more high end to them and cut through the mix more

Beyond that, really enjoyed the piece. Nice work!

Also speaking of paradigm shift, are we calling back to FF13?!?!

ET16 responds:

YES!!! I can die happy knowing someone caught that!!!! FF13 soundtrack had some of the most hyped battle themes in gaming!!!!

Yeah mixing is def my weakest link and failed to realize how echoey that intro was! So I def agree with your criticisms! Thank you very much for the tips!

["WHEN CALLING"]

20 sec could use a perc on beat 2 to take some attention off the rest of the mix

1:17 the vocal sounds very centered and flat

However this approach is very unique and I quite enjoy what you've done!

Perhaps a different kick at times would serve this piece well. The current one contrasts a lot with the rest of the instrumentation, and I really find myself wanting a snare that sustains -- think an 80s shoegaze snare, an rnb snare, or something in that realm. The current snare could be a backing snare that pans left and right.

Overall, despite some mix issues and inconsistent approach, I love the overall theme, and the idea is very original and alive. Great work!

xxxZigZagxxx responds:

Thank you so much! Appreciate the kind words. It's just nice to have someone speak about your work in general like this, and I'll definitely take your feedback into mind... I'm going to mix this one some more, add some thickness to that line at 1:17, etc., and hopefully release it as part of an EP ^_^

Cheers!

[bad thoughts feel good]

Really interesting beat. I think the kick could come up a bit

The section at 1:08 I think needs some work, that lead up top feels like it's in the wrong key

But overall I really like what you've done with it. Keep it up and don't let anybody stop you no matter what!

Billorusso44 responds:

appreciate it brudda💯

[Finnsfolks - N0VA]

I'm so happy to see how far you've come through the years. You're doing fantastic. Please keep it up!

A couple critiques on mix
Kick prior to the drop could have a bit of 10khz rolled off of it. On sections where snare is not present, it feels a bit top heavy

Otherwise, I think I would like some more sub on your bass

You are doing better and better at showing contrast between drop and builds.

I feel the leads and pads going into 3 minutes have a LOT of hiss on them

Also love the bigroom house snare you snuck in there.

3:40 sounds a bit thin and tinny

Otherwise, really enjoyed it! Fantastic job

Finnsfolks responds:

First off, thank you so so much for your support and feedback, it is incredibly appreciated!

Regarding the kick, yeah, I can see what you mean. Leading up to the drop, I do somewhat feel like it could have been a bit much, I guess I just got used to it, lol.

I'm a little surprised about the sub, I thought I was almost going overboard with it, but I can try and keep this in mind too.

I'm glad you think I'm getting better with contrast, that's something I've definitely been striving to get better at, so your comment on that is appreciated. And I'm glad you liked the snare, I thought it was fitting in that section.

High End is definitely something I feel I'm struggling to balance at the moment, avoiding too much hiss much keeping things sharp. I'm too under the impression, I think, that noise is good for filling the space, especially at the top end, but perhaps that isn't always the case, heh.

Regarding the thin and tinny comment, this is the only thing I'm not entirely sure how to fix. Fullness in mixdowns is the one thing I feel I struggle to find balance in, because when I think the mix needs something, my instinct is to add another layer, which is probably not even necessary, but then removing stuff and instead trying to boost one element just makes it overblown, I feel. Nonetheless, I will continue to practice and hopefully learn over time.

I really appreciate these points of feedback, I'll try and keep them in mind moving forward!

[For The Love Of Tax]

I'm amazed you got miku to sound this good. Holy cow

Production wise, I think the kick could come up a bit, guitar and synths are crowding out miku a bit, and I think her voice could be a bit less dry in the mix. Some chorus, reverb, delays, panning, etc would help contrast the verses and chorus. Harmony is hard to pick out but sounds good as is

Great work!

3xBlast responds:

Cheers! Hope to keep improving this type of sound, so your feedback helps a lot!

[Into the Sunset - NGADM]

Really tricky getting those flubby trumpet articulations in the intro right -- I think taking some reverb off of it and a bit more low end down will assist, as well as manually modulating volume and pan. There are some articulations which sound a bit mechanical on the intro, sections where this instrument is used, etc. The muted bit at 1:45 is better in this regard but also has some rougher hard attacks that could also be tamed with a bit of manual ducking.

I find the western vibe of this to be quite interesting but think throughout the kick and tambourine are quite dry and upfront for the rest of the track to sound so wet and verbed.. I even think the tambourine could come down a lot and have a more obvious slapback delay in the right channel -- or a swung "_--_/" rhythm, where _ is the kick, and -- is tambourine notes similar to "dah-dit", followed by kick, and / represents a longer "dah." Text is woefully difficult to convey this through, but I hope that makes some sense. The tamb backbeat is so out there, it's obvious if it remains samey. It was easier to make out the articulation on it than it was to hear the guitar in the right channel.

Toms also are not offensive in the least, but I think they would benefit from 80's shoegaze to fit in with the rest of the track.

Compositionally however, quite enjoyed this song. Great work!

Irish-Soul responds:

Wow, thank you for the excellent mixing feedback! I'm going to try to apply your advice in my future tracks, especially your advice about the lack of reverb on the percussion, using slapback delay on perc, and cleaning up the flubby trumpet articulations.

Thanks so much! <3

[Dreamwalker]

Such a nice blend of genres. I'm swept up in your composition from the start.

My complaints are reserved almost entirely for mix.

Snare could either use swapping out, or some more bottom head snap. The shoegaze across the track is kinda drowning it out.

hihats and crashes are about 20% louder than they should be, given the lack of other instruments in that sound space.

Your leads and fantasia sounding instruments sound like they've been boosted up way high in the 8k and up range, given really long reverb tails or delays, etc. I would like to hear a bit more subtle treatment of your pads and any instrument that isn't currently performing a solo. They are somewhat covering up your leads.

1:06, reverb and delay is muddying that solo. Paring it down and taking that solo up would help clarity. Perhaps a chorus to subtly spread it out.

1:14, the sub bass drop or tom hit utterly distorts upon compression so that I cannot tell what it is. This happens again at 1:46, and everywhere you have that as a transition. This appears to be due to low end mud.

I was not a fan of the tongue click noise thrown in there. I think a wine cork pop would have worked better with similar FX. Maybe I just hate clicking noises.

I would like to hear .2 dB more of your guitars, OR .3 less of that pulsating synth line at 2:20, and .2 less of your super verbed synths, and .5 less of the vinyl staticy noise in the outro. Less low mids and sub on your reverb wets all around, and this would perfectly fit my bill.

Other than that, loved it. Please don't read this review and think I'm shitting all over your track aha. It's great!

BeyondOurEyes responds:

Thank you for the love and greatly appreciate the constructive critique! I'll keep this all in mind for future :)

[[MAFFAKA OBO$RALSYA!]]

Я пришла дать 5 звёздочек.
Текст песни невероятно смешной. Мне очень понравился трек, хотя не знаю кто такой наш Маффака (motherfucker lol)

G2961 responds:

Если ты знаешь про игру Geometry Dash, то знай, что это плохой русский модератор в этой игре. Он много ошибок и зашкваров вытворял в русском коммьюнити этой игры.

[Vanguard]

Other than the guitars and drums, I feel mix is done quite well. I'm having a hard time picking out bass. It sounds like guitars were not double tracked but a chorus applied. Rhythm guitar has a pretty heavy cab noise/room sound to it which I feel it would sound so much better without. It's a bit muddy. The low mids are rumbly in the wrong way imo.

However, writing is GREAT

Snare is suffering from the same over-reverb sound as the snare. I want to hear more high mid on it

Great work otherwise!

TheUnnamedPlayer responds:

listen to the new song i made (the system is flawed)
i fixed a lot of those mixing issues, was compressing everything too much so i just dialed back the compression and everything became a lot clearer
my guess is that because of the level of compression everything was getting squashed together too much, especially the drums with the high-frequency cymbals and low-frequency bass kick trying to be evened out
similarly with the bass, there was two compressors on it, one before and then after the distortion, just turned off the one before it recently and it gets a lot cleaner and more authentic/human sound (very open, roomy, mid/high-mid heavy)
i will take into account these criticisms even through, however, but the reason i chose this song was simply that this song was done before the newer one (otherwise i would have chosen the newer one because its millions times better)

tldr: listen to newer song, i was compressing everything too much and squashing the sounds together making it all sound same-y and indifferent to each other

[Alright, Alright]

I really enjoy the lyrics, but I feel the vocals can come up quite a bit. Don't hide them under the instrumental! Delivery is getting better in time, and the composition stands on its own

It's odd to hear what sounds like a love song to God and hear slap me down, aha, but the world needs more good christian music. Keep it up!

SoulSecure responds:

Really? The vocals are too quiet? I've worked to get them where they are, I hate obnoxiously loud vox, but I'm really out of my mixing game and I don't have the ear for it I did a few years ago. I know there's couple spots in the first verse I can hear what you're sayin' and in the chorus when the backing vocals aren't present. I'll have to tweak it. Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!