ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kentucky (Finale)]

Nice! I see a lot of names I recognize on that thank you list :) I love the community here.

I'm appreciating what you're doing with distortion in your intro, nice and cinematic. I think when the lead comes in at around 30 sec it could be panned around or pingpong delayed for effect. It and the distortion are quite bright tonally and stand out from your bass in a way that's not quite what I would expect.

The sidechain makes up for it some, but overall I think your side chain elements, lead, and bass, are too loud for your snare to cut through. Overall good chords through here and varied instrumentation.

At 2:07 that sax sounds a bit clumsy, the bari. It's very verbed out through here, we lose sight of the bass, and I can really hear how loud these are when we have them alone with the house bass/kick/hat. That bigroom kick should take up a lot more space!

I would take down reverb here by a LOT. But I praise the vision and the cross genre work, as well as your consistent theme.

This track shines in its variety and sticking to a theme. The reverb is really hurting it by a lot as the low end shoegaze wash is muddying any limiting, compression, covering up finer areas of mix.

Really though, I find your writing to be a treat. The kick at 4:39 could be tuned to follow the bass line so it doesn't clash with the bass. On the minor i chord it does fine but otherwise the sub clashes with the ... I forget what to call that chord oh well.

Otherwise, really enjoyed the track. Outro section was a pleasant departure there. Watch for clipping at 6:29.

My advice, mix at a quieter volume and keep things clean on your eq. Watch for frequencies below 250 hz on non bass instruments. They will get in the way of bass. Sidechain is your friend but will not fix all mix woes. Snare and kick should be loudest parts of mix, followed by lead and bass. The rest is to your personal taste as long as hi-hat and crash are not sticking out. Beyond that, reverb wash can be turned up on a long cut off or transition and back down for the rest of the track. It can even be sidechained on big sections, mind you. There is so much one can do for clarity.

Best of luck in all your future endeavors. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

50Steaks responds:

I went through, copied the file and implemented most of the stuff you mentioned here to hear how it sounds. I agree that the snare and kick do fall into the background at times but part of my goal with this track was to mix louder than I usually do for the purposes of filling the whole waveform at the guitar solo. Fine tuning the kick is actually a really good idea and helps make that part sound a little better. Given that I use the mobile version, I can’t really tell what hz is where on the little param eq they give you, but then I noticed that I actually boosted the bass frequencies on the sax which was just a bad idea.

Removing the reverb entirely from some instruments at the end makes that part sound cleaner, but at other points bringing the reverb back in for transitions and the guitar part doesn’t really feel right to me.

But your suggestion on sidechaining reverb gives me the best of both worlds. I get to have a cleaner kick while keeping the vibe and atmosphere of the song as it is. I just have to do it manually through an automation track on the mix. I will definitely be doing that in future tracks, that’s for sure.

I’m intrigued by your lack of feedback on the guitar solo, I guess that means I did a good job there.

Thanks for your detailed feedback. You gave me an extra half star as compared to my score from last year so that’s a plus at least. I still have yet to make it to the next round but I guess that’ll have to wait till 24.

[D.E.A.F]

I'm going to 5 this for the sheer coolness of you being partially deaf. I would love to hear your story and how you produce music differently as a result of your hearing

music69012 responds:

Of course! I would love to answer your questions at any time. How shall we start.

[Scourge of the Seven Seas]

Oh how far you have come. My critiques would sit on mix, particularly those stubborn trumpets and some verbs, but I think you know what to do with those. Great work!

CloakedSoup responds:

Thanks! I originally had done like 60% of the work on the mix before uploading this originally, but I never got around to finishing/cleaning it up before moving onto other projects (story of my life haha).

[Clashing Palletes]

I don't have a lot of time to write a good review for this, but I'm going to rate higher than my NGADM judge score because I don't want to hurt your score on NG in the hopes you get exposure. <3

Writing wise this is a good piece, with blazing solos. However mix is hurting pretty badly. There is a lot of reverb masking the clarity of your mix, I can't really hear your kick and snare on big sections (yes I know this is characteristic of chip most times), and the balance between elements is pretty off across the board. If you have time, look up mixing tutorials for chip style and try to implement those in your work, as that would be a massive improvement.

I can tell you put a lot of hard work in this piece. Please keep sharing with your friends, family, and of course here on NG. The only way to get better is hope they tell you what they like and don't like. No matter what, never let the fear of not being good enough stop you. It's through conquering that fear, you will become great!

Much love. Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

ButterBees responds:

Thank you so SO very much for this feedback! I must agree that mixing has been a bit of an issue when making songs on the platform I use, but whenever I find the time to find those tutorials you've mentioned, I'll be sure to add what I've learned to the mix.

I greatly appreciate the support and I hope to improve a lot more in the future! Thanks again!

[RobTop - Random Song 06 (Rombit Remix)]

06 sec and YES. the 808 comes correct.

However I'm not sure how to feel about your snare. I think I would clip it harder. Perhaps save your kick sample for the drop at 41 sec, and use another until then. It's a bit long for the previous section.

For your second drop, those sidechained synths on the sides, I want more of the 500 to 2400 hz range to be heard on those.

I want just a bit more volume of your sub before 1 minute

Also, by the end of the song I finally realize what you remixed. Excellent job there. Love it.

Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

SoTshu responds:

Hey there!
Thank you very much for the feedback!
I noticed the sub problem way earlier but the song was already uploaded so i left it as it is.
Same goes for the synths on the second drop.
Again thank you for checking out my song!
Much love!

[Bathing while Boiling in Blood]

Solid structure, calm atmosphere. This is pretty olskool. Would blow down the house in the days of the Doors.

That drum loop is so familiar. I can't remember where I've first heard it.

I would say the area this song struggles is in lead writing, as well as from the first time the ... bandneon or whichever instrument for your solo is used comes in, it is virtually present through the rest of the song. I think a small flourish or two at the end of your solos' melodic lines would help push things along and really solidify repetitions.

Some experimentation with FX, transition sweeps, cymbal lines and hats and such would do well to keep things interesting. I found the lead on occasion to be a bit dry for the rest of the song but overall I think it fits. Something may be missing here, either in mixing or panning, I'm not sure.

The overall volume is quiet. Applying mastering compression or at the least gain in audacity would help quite a bit (do not allow clipping)

Otherwise, kudos for going out on a limb with this one. Keep doing what you do, and don't let anyone stop you. If you're interested in free instruments and FX, you can dig through my news posts. I post them when I get the chance.

Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

ScottJacob responds:

Thank you for taking the time to give feedback! I will keep these tips in mind with my music in the future

[Mijn en ambacht]

Writing 10/10, particularly drum writing and the section of 47 sec.

Mix and quality of virtual instruments could use revisiting. For instance hihats and rides could come down by 2 dB or so and still be perfectly well audible. Variety of crash cymbals could also use fluffing up.

If you are short on drum kits, I recommend checking out Salamander Drum Kit, MT Power Drum Kit, or for a heavier set of kicks, snares, and toms, Saudade Drums Remastered (an old kit that I cleaned in post after realizing all original sources were dead and the makers gone from the face of the internet! dw, it was free)

Options for crashes include Cymballistic, X-Crash, and I believe there is even a free set of orchestral cymbals floating around the internet.

For virtually any orchestral instrument you'd want, there is spitfire LABS, but I personally think you could get by with 80s synths and this would sound even more atmospheric.

Your synth guitar could use double tracking. You may be interested in Junk Guitar (free for sforzando vst), Ample Sounds' free taylor guitar and Bass instruments (and I think there's an electric too), and of course the host of free guitar amps and cabs you can find on the internet (though I recommend emissary amp and NadIR cab). There is a learning curve to these but I believe they will be of use to you.

MIX
The bass is hardly audible in your intro, and only is audible at 43 sec because it is doubled by a synth -- that synth could also use to be doubled, chorused, or panned around. The synths at 1:09 on lead are pretty loud relative to the rest of the piece.

Xylo solo after that is appropriate volume.

Strings at 1:38 are hiding in the mix and are bathed in reverb on the low end. I recommend hipassing/low cutting/eqing out reverb wet at 250 hz. Reverb wash is noticable at 2:29

MASTER
If you notice, your track is very quiet. You can use audacity to increase gain (do not allow clipping) to max value, if you want a quick fix. Alternatively, sausage fattener (your mileage may vary on how this will affect final mix -- I hope it is clean of any stray reverb or resonances). The proper way of loudenizing this would be to apply mastering compression. If you're strapped for time, you can try a free online mastering service. Otherwise, learning how to do it yourself is an invaluable skill!

Other than that, very nice writing, and I enjoyed the piece despite its limitations. Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

SirSandman0 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I'm not sure why this piece ended up so quiet. The actual audio file is much louder than it is on here. I'll try and find a way to fix that. I also appreciate your critiques on the mixing and I'll try and fix those issues.

Fun fact: The drum section you mentioned at 0:47 was actually ripped from a different track I made. I got lazy

[Seeking Light In The Darkness]

Nice detuned piano here. Or is that just tuning? I'm retarded in terms of that side of music theory at this point.

at 49 I can't quite hear what's going on in that bass and so it's a bit distracting as occasionally I hear rumble and other times I don't.

Castanets (is that what they are) could come down, as could your tubular bells, vinyl noise, and other accents. The main melody or counter melody is in your piano and drives the piece. It's a bit covered up with those accents. For the castanet specifically, or whatever instrument that is, an option with more varied velocities and attacks would be your best option.

Otherwise, fantastic piece. Wish there was a bit less abrupt ending.

Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

SomeGuyMusic responds:

Thank you!

[FACUNDO GARDIOL - Airborne ( Future Bounce )]

Drop at 1:56 is where I feel this piece really shines. Feels much more opened up and less centered. Beyond that I don't have too much critique. Kick could potentially come down just a little, .1 to .3 dB, and snare could come up around the same amount.

The vocal sits in a good spot in terms of volume but I would like more subtle volume on the lower octave double. Your samples also could be louder. Perhaps more compression or even clipping on the vocal would help it sit better in the mix, and some stereo widening/delays. I can hear some subtle FX. Actually, I think I'd like to hear that vocal pushed a dB or two harder and see the difference. It gets buried a bit. Maybe up the high shelf on an EQ and see if it sounds crispier?

I also have NO IDEA what the vocals mean, but they rhyme. I'm guessing we're going skydiving? Haha. Cheers.

Thanks for coming out to NGADM!

SPIRALi responds:

Thanks! I love your constructive criticism! really thank you!

also, im in?