ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Be That As It May]

Popping by to leave a short review for this piece. Lovely application of shoegaze. I would like more of your vocals volume wise, less shaker, a bit less cymbal, maybe by a dB or two, a bit more bass. Beyond that, all fits together well

As you chase that fade out, cymbals are sticking out quite a bit, as well as shakers

SpoonMix responds:

Thanks, ADR3-N! You called it shoegaze!! I always look to shoegaze for inspiration but never dare call my work shoegaze. I'd try to knock down an extra dB or two on my high frequencies from now on, my tinnitus masks out those frequencies. I actually did notice the cymbals sticking out at the fade... but only on the waveform. That might be just the kick and snare though... I should just bring the whole drums and percussion down...

[Somewhere I'll Find You]

The high points for me -- great guitar tone and for the most part articulations, mix is approaching fantastic during most portions, phrasing and variety of phrases within same style.

I would like more bass volume, a bit less reverb in portions -- and compression to dial back on your big drop impacts. They actually swallow up the whole mix. Every point at which you have a big sub or WHAM/WOOMPH transition, the mix gets very cluttered and muddy, and it actually takes away from the gravity of the piece.

Also, I personally didn't like the sax. Would have loved anything else. The articulations are very synthy, and the volume level is not quite there for it to be a solo. Any other synth would do just about.

Beyond that, great work!

BeyondOurEyes responds:

Thanks for the love and feedback! I have some bass drops in there that I think are contributing to the overcompressed impacts so I'll revisit those and try to fix for future, and make some other little tweaks for some more bass.

NO SAX??? :( I like how it sounds personally, though I do agree it would be even better with a more realistic saxophone VSTi versus the basic one I used, so i'm looking into that. The real thing would be even better, but I haven't picked up that instrument / skill yet haha - maybe one day!

[0i00 - Votamelon]

I can definitely hear your knowledge of theory. Simple in terms of orchestration but a lot more complex than what I write these days. Keep it up!

zeroizerozero responds:

Thank you!

[walk slow]

I think in terms of mix this could be a lot better -- pump the vocals some more, and perhaps up the dry level before FX (aside from compressor ofc)

The delivery and style of FX though is nice and modern sounding

When the hook hits, the whole beat appears to be distorting, making the vocals hard to make out. Try mixing at a quieter volume and then using compression to reach this level of loudness. It sounds like we are already really loud before hitting the compressor.

Overall though I really like the idgaf vibe of this track

realityreimagined responds:

yea this def not one of my proudest stuff mixing-wise, might do a remix at some point lol i made this track when i didnt have alot of material to work with in my daw and knowledge of mixing but my latest stuff is way better mixing n stuff :) thanks for the review!! <3

[False Hope]

copied from my PM as I realize I neglected to leave a review and I want to make sure you see this

My feedback concurs mostly with NahuPyrope's with a few exceptions -- I think your builds for the most part are just fine as they are, with the exception of gain staging and I think the pause right before the final drop would be better suited to a B side drop AFTER a repeat of an earlier section for a final chorus.

I would like to be able to hear your vocals more clearly, so that I don't need the lyrics to understand them, and I would like more of them incorporated into other sections. Beyond that, I think the track is pretty freaking great. A bit less high end fizz would completely appease me and my tastes.

veryfakeguest responds:

Many thanks for the review! Seems like I have a habit of making my vocals incoherent, oops. I'll be sure to take note of that and watch the high ends. idk what's gain staging, will have to read on that.lol. I appreciate the feedback!

[Dieswyx - Ultimate Crack (Sazzy Boi -TROJAN VIRUS- Remix)]

I'm not familiar with the original track, but I absolutely love that drop <3 first bass section is NUT

bass at 1:17 could have some EQ and compression applied to it so that it seems to take up the same space in the mix as that lovely fizzy (sounds like pulse?) bass. Alternatively, you can do some creative work with other instruments or perc to differentiate this subsection so that it doesn't stick out that the bass is much more subby and lacks high end.

Also, came to 6 bomb

SazzyBoi responds:

Thank you adr3-n!!!! I love reading your feedback and the other that u gave me! i apreciate too much that time to write that <3 :D

[so you haunt me... (NGAUC 2023)]

As far as phrasing, writing, and lively, expressive playing, fantastic! Mix could use some fixing up. Kick and snare need more presence in the mix -- crashes can come down some. See a reference mix of one of your favorites in this genre and do your best to match or approximate the balance of instruments.

I think triple tracking sounds great for big wide sections but you have to keep in mind to duck the guitars as a whole down proportionately to that extra third's worth of volume, as well as make sure to differentiate the tone and space of each individual guitar track so that it doesn't sound like you have 3 walls of exactly the same resonances and EQ ducks :)

Great work, great chords, and we'll call that missing high E a little bit of character haha. I have a guitar that perpetually is without one LOL Might as well shave off that part of the neck at this point and pretend it's a weird banjo.

Yoshiii343 responds:

>make sure to differentiate the tone and space of each individual guitar track

Funny you mention this, because from what I read it's better to keep the tone similar (for whatever reason).

In this case, I used different cabs for the 2 distorted guitars.

[X3ll3n - Somnium (NGUAC 2023 Knockout Round)]

Oh geez "waiting on a certain someone to answer me" calls me out so hard even if it isn't me! My inbox regularly overflows with mod stuff, and I still am learning how to use discord. Email has 10k unreads at least. Texts and facebook has god knows how much. I can't keep track of it mentally. Wasn't ready for this techno world.

This track is a slowburning bop. Great chords. I might ask for a bit of moving back attacks for the strings so that they sound exactly in time with the piano. That's a pet peeve of mine, but they sound great. I might also reduce intensity of sidechain ever so slightly for your final drop.

This reminds me for some reason actually of Goldeneye OST. But obviously a lot more chill. Just classy work :)

X3LL3N responds:

I'm really glad you liked it, this is quite different from what I usually make :)

Lil' fact about the song: "Somnium" is kind of inspired by the Entropy remix in question in terms of sound design (and Entropy itself is inspired by a scrapped/on-hold remix of @Hookington 's and @HypeDragonMusic 's song called Nevermore, if you like Dubstep, you should check both of them out (though you probably already heard something from them)

As for the mod stuff, I can understand that. I help out people who want to post their songs on Newgrounds (when they get banned by the bot) and when they want their songs on GD for example.
I feel bad because it's often stuff that I can't resolve alone as I'm not a mod and I have to ping Lich all the time x)

Also, some explanation for the part about "waiting for someone" : Months ago, I found a song named Entropy by Tiramika on a Discord server. It was simple but and not very well produced, but it had potential, so I offered to remix it from scratch while keeping it faithful to the original.

I did so and the person loved it so much they wanted to make it an official reboot, and I was like "sure, lemme polish it a bit first though"
Since then, I tried contacting them multiple times but they have been ignoring me for some reason, which is why it's gonna be a Newgrounds-exclusive once I upload it.

By the way, thanks for the frontpage, I really didn't expect that so it was a neat surprise :)

[Heaven]

blown away this is fl 5
wow, so nostalgic, sounds a lot like the old techno i listened to ages ago!

I will say there is too much reverb it sounds like happening and hanging around the low mids and sub frequencies. Transition noises are also really loud relative to the rest of the track, as well as subs too -- quite loud and audible over the rest of the track

The track itself is mixed really quiet. Can you turn it up at least in audacity? Recommend mastering compression after cleaning up reverbs, as well as taking down the hihats and crashes some prior to doing so

You've got great writing and phrasing here. The whole song flows naturally. Beyond issues of mix and no doubt some software limitations, perfect trance

X-ManOfficial responds:

I'm not friends with mixing and mastering, it's hard for me and I don't understand much about it.

There are not so many reverberations here, I only put Fruity Reveerb on some channels in the mixer, and Fruity Delay on some. The track is quiet because it is quiet.

I don't have Audacity and my computer can hardly stand it. In the project itself, I set the volume as high as I could, at 120% with Fruity Balance at maximum.

I would really like to be helped with the mixing. And so thanks for the criticism!