ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Famous ft Hania (NGADM R1) Mastered]

I love the blend of olskool and modern sounds. Hania is an absolute diva, perfect for this track.

I would appreciate a bit less reverb throughout and tamer delay wets. Perhaps rolling off the low end of these wet signals would help improve clarity. Upping snare and kick volume or a bit of sidechain would help. Bit less hihat or rolling off some high from them -- they are quite loud relative to the rest of the track -- could also use some panning play or slapback in the opposite channel.

For the intro, Hania's vocals could be compressed a bit more, or apply some distortion/soft clip. The track as a whole could use a bit of a bump to bass instruments, sub on drops, and perhaps a tinge more compression.

Otherwise, stellar work!

Trackers responds:

Thanks... Only two can enter and our third member usually does the mix and master so we are kind of flying blind here... Will definitely look at fixing up those things before I ship it off to be mastered :D

[Let It Out (ft. Mai)]

I want to hear a bit less of your orchestral and side synths, more of your vocal, snare up in the mix, and more obvious kick. Sub bass is also pretty present. prior to 2 min

Piano low mid and reverb wet signal are a bit up there after.

I can hear the mixing difficulty with the tons of tracks throughout but I want to say don't let that stop you! Take your time, audition sections bit by bit. Make adjustments by hand and in small increments rather than at the mixer track itself. Automations help! It also helps a lot to keep your reverb signals free of low mid and roll off low end where you can to make room for the bass, rather than cranking it at all times.

Some lyrical turns of phrase are awkward, or sound as if written by a non-native speaker, but that's fine as this sounds like an art piece rather than pop. :) Great work, all constraints considered!

NASHqp responds:

Thank you for your review!

I’m glad you enjoyed my song. I agree that the mixing could be improved, and I apologize for any errors that might have affected your listening experience. I faced some challenges while producing the song, such as noise, heat, and language barriers.

I used a software called Synthesizer V Studio Pro for the vocals, which is mainly designed for Japanese. I wanted to sing the vocals myself, but I didn’t have a suitable recording environment. However, these are not excuses, but rather areas that I need to work on and overcome.

I appreciate your honest feedback and I hope to do better next time! :)

- NASHqp

[Krea - Crystal [NGADM 2023]]

I would like a bit less lead and fizz in your intro, a lot more clarity on those intro drums

42 seconds sounds GREAT, might be a slightly off bass note -- can detune bend that a bit into key

1:26, wanting more of that mid range bass

Otherwise, wild track. 2 min is bonkers. I think I want a bit more tonality vs noise there. Any identifiable pitch.

I also would like for the outro, one final luscious 1 chord. Beyond that, amazing :)))

Kreagato responds:

Thank you for the feedback !! I agree with all those suggestions (I think I might have accidentally shifted one of the bass notes up or down a half step and didn't notice ;w; ), and I'm glad you think the drop at 2 mins is cool!! I tried to get a little more tonality in that part but It was my first time doing sound design similar to color bass and was struggling a little bit, so I settled with what I had after working on it for a few hours, but I'll practice more on that in the future

Thank u again for the feedback!! I really hope I end up scoring well overall, being part of a competition like this is rly fun :3

[The Last Warlord]

For the cello articulations, they are quite slow -- back them up so they come in at the same time as the piano and other instruments. Same with the brass where you notice this problem. There is a bit of lack of clarity on the downbeats for what sounds like a death march.

Praise your tasteful mixing of gong

I think the timpanis could have a bit more stereo spread and volume at different points. By the end of the composition, it sounds as you have a better idea what you are doing with articulations and so forth.

2:25 if there is a snare hiding underneath, I would like to hear it brought out, and the jinglies down just a bit. They are coming out of stereo phase with the ensemble.

Choir sounds great, btw, what is it?!?!?!

One last bone of contention, I would like a bit more volume, and if not that, contrast in volume between sections, by making the bigger sections just a bit louder. Great work!

IglicaV responds:

Thanks a lot for the critique, I will definietly keep that in mind next time! For the choir I uesed Oceania by Performance Samples :)

[Trauma]

Lovely experiment and sounds like a lot of fun! I definitely feel your electronic roots in the production. So there are some things I would note if you intend to continue in this direction down the road.

Guitars for heavy metal are typically double tracked, meaning rather than using a chorus on the rhythm guitar to achieve stereo width, 2 different performances of the same guitar line are panned 100% left and 100% right. To achieve this digitally, edit the midi velocities and occasionally articulations and pinches, hand position if applicable, and attack and release times. I will usually use humanize function on only one track.

It sounds like this was not done for your 7 string, and that detracts from the mix for me.

Regarding your approach to drums, I think your drum writing is great. That jingle bell in the right channel I would pull down some volume wise and move a bit more to the left than where it currently sits. More orchestral cymbals would be appreciated. At subtle volumes they add a lot of space.

I think I would put this somewhere in industrial, as it feels very electronic and not so much metal, but definitely a fusion genre (and I am not rating genre anyway)

For your snare, I think I would actually hard or soft clip it and compress it dynamically, as well as add a subtle slapback delay or other FX noise below it with a longer tail. It sits a bit flatly and could use grit -- have you ever heard the bottom of a snare?

Your hihats could probably sit a bit further in the left channel. Sometimes I like to add a subtle delay to them that ping pongs to the right channel.

Some variation to guitar articulations would be appreciated, like diminished chords and dissonance, chuggs, etc.

Otherwise, wonderful piece. Great work!

ESHRR responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Definitely a new style for me so I appreciate it. About the doubling, I had it on in the quarter-time parts since those parts were where the rhythm guitar was the main focus. And yeah, listening back to it I see what you mean about the hats and snare. I’ll work more on that in future projects! I do also agree that to the song could use more variety. I made the song thinking about how a metal song with vocals would be made, but obviously this is instrumental so some parts ended up a bit lacking. Again, thanks so much for the feedback!

[The Threat in the Corner of Your Eye]

I think I actually would like a bit of high end rolled off of your cymbals for this track. They are quite bright for such a dark and brooding dirge.

Some issues with mix early on, lots of wet verb and delay crowding out the finer points of your mix and muddying the dry signals. Bass playing is taking center stage, and it sounds great, but I also want to hear your kick, snare, rhythm guitar, and lead. 2:30 is a point of contention in that regard. 2:48 suffers less so as it is intended to be a big open section without extreme lyricism.

Overall, I find that the verbs could be taken down and or tails shortened as not to take away from your fantastic structure and melodic ideas.

3:44 sounds best. Bass playing is lovely and lyrical. It almost becomes a lead instrument of its own.

Panning on the hihats could stand to be pushed to the left channel and taken down a bit. Snare may benefit from a 3 to 5 percent right panning and the room panned 2% to 4% left.

Love 5:29. This is much cleaner and a great balance.

Synths could use low end rolled off of their wet signals and low mids. The lead guitar chugging in high mids could be pushed up .3 dB and high end rolled off. Ping-pong delay, chorus, or auto panning 15% left and right would help bring that element above the shoegaze subtly enough to be heard.

Mastering compression to be applied after these and other small fixes would do much good! Compositionally I would rate 5/5. In terms of mix, there is just a bit holding it back. Fantastic playing and mood is on point. Great work!

Mischa-head responds:

Thanks for listening and the really detailed feedback!

[Summer Skies]

Vibes intensify

Excellent incorporation of vocal

glissando/portamento working well for those chords

polyrhythms ensue by 1:48

... was that a gun cock sample? moderate discomfort aha

outro works really well

Mauxus responds:

Hahaha no, no gun cock samples were used no :)
Thank you for listening and leaving feedback, I really appreciate it!

[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💯