ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Aqua[cult]ure (Kallamar’s Theme)]

Going to leave a 5 here because I hate zero bombers. My NGUAC score will differ. Much love to you and sorry you're dealing with dumb GD players not knowing how this site works, not to mention that they do not have rights to use any song they want in GD. I say that as someone who enables all my songs for use. Not everyone wants that, and that's okay.

As a composition this flows flawlessly, no complaints there.

Mix wise I have some gripes, few
mix is sub heavy at sections such as 3:18, and snare is hiding in the mix. I want to hear more of the high mids on your basses

It actually sounds like the song was mixed loud and compressed down, as the issues of clarity improve drastically on thinner sections which do not have your sub bass throbbing.

at 1:14, clarity is an issue -- the reverb of the pads and sub is washing out your build under that tight compression.

Hiccup at 1:33. I think your synth had a minor midi stroke

In general I would prefer less reverb, less volume before hitting the compressor, heavier use of sidechain

2:15 you have toms that I can't hear over the reverb, which I would love pushed to the front! Occasional fills of those would be nice, with some sidechain or some such to help them cut.

Hihats and cymbals sound like they are pushed high to compensate for lack of clarity. I think pushing them down and snare up would help.

Otherwise, really enjoyed it. Great composition and smooth writing all the way through!

GlowBoyMusic responds:

Wow! This is such a wonderful and comprehensive review! Thank you so much for this!

I currently have a limited amount of music tech due to practically living off of commissions, so soon things might sound better just by that alone, but overall, I value this highly!

Thank you ever so much for this review, and have a great day!

-- Glow

[Stasis]

Ahahaha this description is story of my life xD I had to change my buffer rate for mine

Appreciating the sort of ambient foray we're going into here. Like ambient lofi hiphop.

Those sweeping pads could actually use a bit less air/volume relative to your 808. 808 needs to come up by quite a bit. Lead could also use a bit more width, chorus, and perhaps delay to fit into the wide sonic space of those pads and pull the track together.

Overall the melodic element to the piece is quite short relative to the ambient. I think I would have liked a longer piece with more developed phrases. HOWEVER I will say as I haven't heard anything like this from you before I really enjoy the experimental journey you're going on and aside from mix aspects this would have been a solid 8.5/10 for me!

GlaceonDash responds:

Thank you! It's apart of just trying to find my musical identity.

[Timeless Ibis]

Could benefit from a master -- the mix is quiet!
But writing is fantastic. There are a few bones I have to pick with mix, such as kick and snare not always being upfront and clear, but overall is clean and easy to hear all important elements

Great work!

death2go responds:

Thanks! I definitely can understand needing to try to make the mix louder and polish up on a mastering, though, Though, it feels odd that it renders out quieter than what the DAW is that, i found out recently that my Master mixer Volume Exceeds what a lot of people would consider normal mixing volume, so I've been adjusting that and trying to experiment on trying to increase the volume so it matches closer to other songs. I don't like the idea of someone having to turn their volume up to listen to this, then going to another song and getting blasted because they forgot to adjust their volume. maybe whenever I understand it a bit more later down the line, I'll go through the songs that have this issue and update them! Thanks for the review! It means alot!!

[Evidence Of A Creator]

Could benefit from mastering for volume level (the mix is FANTASTIC), but otherwise, this is a stellar piece, with great modulations and lead writing. Sounds like something straight out of Final Fantasy 13-2. Like discovering time travel. Nice!

DarkGod666 responds:

Appreciate the comparison! I love the more experimental vibe of that ost. I suppose I could have clipped the transients more and pushed up the volume a bit, yeah.

[TOXICITY]

Came here to drop 5 because I like phonk
I think I would prefer less compression but overall, once the vocal comes in, I'm impressed by how nearly understandable it is. Noice

Shark-Pool responds:

Thanks for the support! Will take it into consideration for future tracks :)

[Casporb - 100 MPH]

Arrangement wise, perfect.

I think I would like a little less compression, .1 dB more hihat on drops, some panning play on hihats for builds, perhaps a bit less reverb, like say 10% less, and a little more sub. It's not easy to hear it.

But otherwise great!

Casporb responds:

Thanks for the advice! I'm glad you enjoyed.

[Online Musician - Rock Instrumental (Demo)]

It sounds like you have multiple melodies on the same shreddage instance -- there's some low string getting triggered occasionally that shouldn't be there

I love shreddage so much. so common sense. sounds good what you have, but I wish there was more!

Some things I recommend
less reverb on your rhythm guitar, and double track them
more volume on kick and snare
more volume on counter melody, chorus FX????
experiment with panning and try to maintain a bit cleaner sound
experiment with FX on drums such as gentle verb on snare

carbonlad responds:

Thanks.

[Livewire]

Wow, that reverb or whatever the hell you got in your intro is WILD. I think your synth is a bit loud in the intro to 42 sec though

The track sounds a bit empty at 50 sec, but the things you're doing here are more complex than they sound. I think I'd like a few percs or other melodic elements to distract from that empty space there.

Very cool ideas here and I really enjoy your play with FX

The piece is a bit short but I think you pushed it as far as you could without it becoming stale. Great work -- a few more ideas and I feel it would be complete

BigTWONeli responds:

Thank you for the criticism, Nobody ever gives me any so I 100% appreciate it

[B!aku - Love u no More]

There's some grammar errors in english that don't make sense to me because the correct grammar would sound just as good -- taked instead of took -- but I'm going to completely ignore that because it doesn't matter

This song would BANG fantastically if the mix was better. It sounds like each instrument, including the vocal is mixed too loudly or distorting somehow, and the mix is crowded. The low-mid and bass range is especially crowded it sounds. I notice this most around 1:09 on the backing vocal.

However at this time I'll say that I LOVE your writing. I would just prefer less distortion.

I would also like the acoustic guitar to be mixed to sound more thin and perhaps pick a side to pan to.

I would remove a lot of reverb from the keys and other instruments for bigger sections, as acoustic guitar is getting lost in that.

Otherwise, I listened twice! Nice work!

Biakuu responds:

Thank u so much for your observations!! i really apreciate them a lot.
sorry for the grammar, english is not my native lenguage as you can tell, but i try to learn along the way.

I know i could have mixed better, If I had given myself the time to, maybe it was the hype to upload the song, it's a pretty experimental piece as well, so i'll be working on that point the next one!!

im so glad u liked my lyrics, it's a little tedious to capture the feelings i want to project, and being so, I am very encouraged by the fact that they seems to hit the bullseye!!

again, thank u so much for giving yourself the time to analyze my work, i promise i will keep it in mind for my next songs, witch i would love that you hear, see u next time, hope you're having great day!!