ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[X3ll3n - Spatium Cursu [NGUAC 2022 Final Round]]

First of all I wanted to say I'm happy to see how far you've come in all these years. Great to see you here, and props for going out of your comfort zone. 5 hours to make? You've gotten fast as hell. Then again all the best music happens in a flurry.

I don't have any critique until 1:10 or so when the reverb on your pads starts to get muddy, and your lead is just a bit too loud relative to the bass. It may not help that other instruments are playing the same melody.

Great work, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC. This piece is shorter than I would have liked, but for what it's worth, I think your piano sounded great here. Very sensitive treatment, taking away just the right amount of frequency and leaving its synth piano character intact. Fantastic job!

X3LL3N responds:

I'm really happy for this comment, especially because it comes from you.

I remember applying for the NGUAC back in 2019/2020 and being absolutely destroyed. Back then you were quite critical of my musics in general, which hurt/annoyed me.

But instead of just complaining, I turned it into a strength, because I wanted to prove you wrong.

I can without a doubt say that it's in part due to your impartiality that I was able to improve this much. I don't consider myself to be gifted or talented, just average, yet even I realise how much I've progressed.

For all of that, I would like to thank you, sincerely.

[Typhon (Unfinished Demo)]

I love Ample guitars! Nice to hear it in the hands of someone who mixes it better than I do. I think the only thing to worry about with this guitar is to make sure your velocity and keyswitches sound natural. Switching between the channels makes it quite noticeable when something isn't totally natural.

Beyond that, your drop at 1:10 is great -- even if I don't particularly like the guitar like lead up high much and think that could come down maybe even a full dB because it is so high up relative to the rest of the track.

The bass at 1:55 is really boxy sounding, almost like it's in a can. Watch those low mid frequencies. I may have put a sub under it for beef.

2:33 sounds great. I may have cut the section at 2:55 and went straight into your build. The section at 3:20 I also may have cut and gone straight into the drop. It was a slight let down for a few seconds.

Watch your high frequencies at 3:40. They are getting fizzy. The tongue clicks also are distracting.

Beyond that, props for going all out and not being afraid to get weird. Really enjoyed this piece.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Venomite responds:

Experimented a lot with increasing low/mid frequencies in the basses to try and get close to how subtronics does his mixes. put a bit crusher on the reverb at 3:50 to fizzle it out to nothing as I liked that effect. Experimented with creating more tension in the 3rd drop by the fakeout as that is a technique I hear in a lot of rave sets. Thanks for the in depth feedback! I know there’s a few tweaks that I can make, but ultimately I did not have time to do everything I was hoping to do with the cutoff.

[Champions]

Absolutely fantastic writing. I would like more loud, and less reverb. Louder snare, maybe some transient shaping to bring it out. It's almost inauduble.

Your writing covers a lot of the finer mix points that are missed.

It sounds like the right channel rhythm guitar is louder than the left.

The drums in particular, and by that I mostly mean crashes, could use softer panning in each ear imo, as well as more modulation of velocity. The crashes are louder than the snare and toms, which I barely hear. Maybe it is on the part of compression. Make sure your composition sounds as good at a quiet volume as it does loud.

All that said, I think you've put together a wonderful piece. I really enjoyed it. It was varied, intense, interesting, had blazing solos. Great work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

EDIT: I wanted to add I'm listening on professional monitor headphones, audio technica ATH m40x, and I've been doing metal for... 10 years? I can't remember.

How you do your mix is up to you, but just passing along the tips and tricks that I learned from others through the years. If it really does sound different to you than for me, might check out the frequency profile of your sound card and headphones. Mine came factory with a Realtek driver that automatically compressed any output that came through it. I had to switch to the default high definition audio driver. I haven't had any problems since. And theres always comparing your master to others you like from the same or comparative genre. Best of luck, and hope it helps. I know how it is trying to work your sound toward the lowest common denominator of speaker and someone comes along leaving you scratching your head about the sound!

Anyway, nothing personal. Let me know your hardware and drivers. If it really does sound different that's something I need to think about balancing my own mix!

TheUnnamedPlayer responds:

honestly, i do believe you must be listening on weird headphones

I make my music for low-quality speakers

i actually don't see the snare and toms bit, i've actually lowered them because they're too loud in the master so perhaps you aren't familiar with metal righting, unfortunately

the crashes as well are barely even audible in comparison to the snare, so i genuinely don't understand that part,and i master my music at a quiet volume first then go loud

oddly enough, literally everything you said is the exact opposite of what i actually need to do, but thanks for trying to give feedback i guess?

[Manentrix]

Wonderful and contemporary sound. Your use of sidechain is perfect. Your choice of percussion works. Mix is at just the right loudness through 1:29

Only complaint is a hipass before 1:37 or so that was just a little too intense. It repeats throughout as well.

Not a whole lot of critique. Just nice job. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Linearity responds:

Sorry about That! This song was made in 3 days. The mixing is not my best, but I tried. I had to rush because of shit with my laptop dying and having to get a new one, it sucked. Anyways, Congrats to everyone who made it here, lets see this year's results!

[Sicra - Wanderers [NGUAC]]

I think you still managed to get dark and mysterious in there ;)

Overall, I love the pacing of this piece and the melodic theme. However be careful with your high mid and treble. At points it is overwhelming (heavier sections, some snares, fizz, and auxiliary samples)

I think you otherwise did a fantastic job, and your experiment has borne fruit. Give me some more volume on that reese bass somewhere before 2:00 though. Please. It is tasty.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

SicraMusic responds:

Wow thanks for the detailed review! The reason for the somewhat noisy mix is that I always had this feeling that the drops weren't powerful enough so I kept trying to make them hit harder and harder until I may have overdone it.

I have learned so much during this event and I'm definitely planning to apply next year, hopefully I'll know more about mixing and composition then!

[NGAC Final Round Submission]

Simple and happy piece. It sounds a bit dry in the beginning with the crowd and claps, although mixing of samples into electronic music is harder to achieve in my opinion.

What stands out to me are the synth guitars and their extraordinary dry, clean sound. Even with your great sounding drums and good composition, I don't think they fit here. I would swap out synths for something like Junk Guitar (free for Kontakt), something by AmpleSounds if you want a self contained plugin, and ditch the current lead and rhythm guitar. The bass sounds okay as is.

You could sub them for cellos if you have a good cello with sensitive velocity and multiple samples per note.

Otherwise, nothing wrong with this piece at all, though I would find a different genre to put it in.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

RocketStart responds:

(◕ω◕✿)

[We Come In Peace]

Love the clean intro. Reverb seems to be used tastefully through 28 seconds. And continuing onward. This does indeed remind me of deadmaus. That's an achievement.

Great mix. I think the kick may be just a hair too loud. With such a clean mix otherwise it's not a huge issue. Sounds like lead kick, haha.

I really enjoy this piece. Beautiful and deceptive simplicity.

Second half of the song is a nice change. I have virtually no complaint whatever. It sounds indistinguishable from what I would hear from a signed producer. Great work, and wonderful transitions on your part.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

rajbeatsofficial responds:

woo! thanks a lot for the feedback. kick was quite a nuanced pain. its actually 2 kicks layered together, do you feel the high part of the kick is bit too loud or the lows? just curious. thanks again

[ODYSSEA - Grief and Ashes]

Wonderfully dramatic piece, I think only hampered by the amount of reverb everywhere, especially on your low strings. Note changes are quite chaotic in the low mids and it's hard to hear the actual tone of your bass instruments.

However, that choir sounds great. At 2:02 I want to be able to hear those chugging cellos. I know they're there!

2:45 sounds wonderful, and I think your outro closes nicely.

Overall, great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Omson responds:

Thanks so much, will definetely update the track after evaluation is done!

[Realm Between Heaven and Earth]

Great intro. Feels like everything was handled with a sensitive hand. I would have liked just a bit less volume on the bells. Chords chosen are unusual for the genre -- appreciated.

1:00 is a pleasant fluttering. Love it.

I think everything sits in its place with the exception of before 2:29 where the synths get a bit too loud relative to percussion, which I can barely hear. The piano before 2:50 is too loud going into that transition.

However, the insanity at 3:15 is wonderful. Would appreciate more sub on that bass and a bit more intelligibility of the tonal aspect.

Before 3:37 the sub becomes almost inaudible, perhaps on part of the compression. Watch levels there.

Your outro is very complex and a welcome addition. Great job there.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

RiSUKU responds:

Thank you so much for the constructive feedback! Some of the balance did went overlooked and probably would've been better had I taken a little longer on the track, however due to the frequent crashing I'd just decided to go with it.

I'm still trying to get the sub bass to sit right! I can't really tell what's causing the sub bass to be drowned out (probably the amount of higher frequencies pushing it down)

Actually, if you don't mind, could you explain a bit more regarding the tonal aspect? I'm still kinda confused on that one, would like to understand it even more (we could use private messaging).

But anyways, thank you again for the feedback! Truly means a lot :D

[Lordant - Tilion]

Nice touch with the overblown flute

I think you could use a different cello patch. Maybe steal something out of LABs or try pocket blakus spic. The swells don't sound bad at all minus perhaps needing a bit faster attack in place. Same with the strings overall, though you handle this fairly well.

At 1:10 or so the glock sounds a bit loud. At 1:37 the flute is loud relative to the ensemble and there are a few places where the brass stabs sound overblown.

2:10 the bassoon is somewhat loud relative to the clarinet coming in.

Overall, through 2:46, good quiet mix. Again we are greeted by the loud glock.

3:26 sounds GREAT. Good treatment. The horn comes in a bit too close to the listener. Maybe gloss over it with some reverb or a mic change if possible.

4:19 again sounds great although I expected a more climactic bass thrumming outro here, as seen in 4:44. I was not expecting such a fast percussion with almost no buildup there. There seems to be a bit much low mid on your toms/bass drums, and they are spread out through the channels, and such feel separate from the ensemble.

The last trombone note also was a bit of a synth fart -- may find another free instrument alternative like Carpenter Trombone or some other LABS instruments for that stab in particular. Compositionally, however, that stinger note was a good choice to get the point across that we are finished.

Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Lordant responds:

The balancing is a bit complicated for me, espesially when it comes to woodwinds. Although I made the piccolo at 1:23 louder intentionally, because the violins spics overlapped it a bit. The brass was mixed in the same space, so I'm not sure if the issue is with reverb, I guess it comes to balancing/dynamics again.

The percussion was added at the very end, actually. I thought the tom rolls and risers will do a good job as a buildup, but I agree that it could be better.

Anyways, thanks for the detailed review!