ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[NGUAC Final Round - Hopping Over Puddles]

Really enjoy your composition. I think most of my issues with the overall sound would melt away with more sensitive touches to velocity on repeated notes to sound natural, across ALL instruments.

Overall, the piece is very crisp. I think some of that is the hihat and rim snare. Taking some of that high edge off there and with the rides/chimes would pay off I think. Some of your instruments have a vinyl feel to them and I think blending would help.

Now I do love your transitions. They are almost liquid. Great work there.

I think my only complaint could be please lower the treble just a bit haha. At some points the percussion gets a bit over the top with that. Otherwise, really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

LordAndiso responds:

I learned a lot from this. Thank you so much. :)

[Final [NGUAC]]

At 48 I would like to hear more of the low mid on your snare, a bit less rattle. Think a 70s snare sound there.

Compositionally, I'm not sure where we are going, but it all sounds pretty slick. The low guitar before 1:50 could use a lot more velocity modulation or a keyswitch effect for any repeated notes. I caught the same sample it sounds like twice in a row.

I think this song probably sounds milder than you were going for. Maybe the one thing that is missing is more high end instruments, transition fx, crashes, orchestral flourishes, and the like. I still like it a lot. The outro is not cheesy. The theme is not bombastic but brooding and mysterious. Perhaps you could have left some of those vocals in to tantalize us at points, scatted a tenor solo or such, but it is what it is.

My only real complaints with mix would be to turn down the reverbs somewhat, maybe by a fourth to a third of their current value, but it is not overpowering.

Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Jotrocken responds:

Your right i expected it to have more power i really tried to boost the kick and layer but it didn't really help, since it is out of my comfort i didn't really know what else to do.
More transition fx? Well i thought this was enough but ill try more. Crashes threw me off most of the time.
I mean you didn't really know how my vocals were but good placed and produced vocals would help to push the track and i know that (thats why i added them) but i invested lots of time in them and they weren't that good (level of quality).
Thanks for your detailed Feedback @adr3-n

[lost tapes before death]

Wild intro. I'd recommend less reverb on that sample synth in the beginning.

I appreciate the strange choices made here. They work together quite well. Less reverb on everything and that would help sincerely with the intelligibility, maybe 30% less in cases where you have held notes.

I appreciate the djent elements. I hear some double tracking here -- the left channel seems to be quieter than the right. Maybe a different amp or more distortion is in order. The drums sound quite loud here but I think that is relative to the somewhat quiet bass.

I quite like this and want to give it more stars for simply being a genre that I like and being very different in general, so I will state now that the score reflected here will be 1 star higher than my actual score for NGUAC. The mix is really the only detractor for me. I think the glitching guitars were a fantastic choice and would have worked very well if not for the synth in the background sounding louder than they themselves, as well as the lack of a supporting centered bass to give them girth.

I think you could still use to differentiate even machine gunned notes with velocity on your kick and snare. Just destroy them with FX however you like. A varied chaos.

In short, I'd like to hear the most dramatic elements of this piece hit above your background pad. Accomplish that however you care to, sidechain, lowering volume strategically, paring down reverb, etc. Transition FX would also be nice.

But otherwise, really enjoyed the piece. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

FlowerBoyDeMii responds:

thank you so much wanted to try something different thank you for you feedback <3

[Koi Brook]

Nice chunky lo-fi feel in your intro. I think I would have appreciated in the very intro a separate track with your lead similarly crushed.

Wonderful vibes. I think I would like to hear a bit less chorus on your bass and some distortion. Bring it up in the mix and have an FX to center all the bass frequencies below 210 hz or so.

The very fast strumming section is fantastic, as is writing throughout. I would modulate velocity on your high plucking instrument much more so that the attacks sound more varied and use compression to compensate for difference in volume. You could ping-pong delay it instead of using as much reverb.

It's a bit hard to hear your snare and auxiliary percussion through the reverb gaze. You have two choices, up the volume or try transient shaping, subtle side chain, cut down on overall reverb, or a combination of all the above to get a little more clarity. I think with a bit more clarity at points the song would be A1. :)

In any case, love your composition. Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Cresince responds:

I am going to have to study up on side chains and transients, production stuff can tend to go over my head a lot of the time haha.

I honestly didn't even notice the quiet snare until you pointed it out, I think I was more treating the kit in that section as auxiliary percussion so toned it down quite a bit for more of a loose groove (maybe should of used actual auxiliary instruments lol).

As always, you give great pointers, and I think back on your reviews often when mixing, so thank you for your insight! <3

[The Mystical Forest]

This piece is compositionally indistinguishable from anything I'd expect to hear in the masterful works of say, Studio Ghibli back in the day, and such as, I don't have any point of critique to offer in that area. Fantastic work with your modalizations and keychanges.

My only areas of complaint would be a bit much whine on your high violas it sounds like at points. I can hear the synth, so to speak at points. The attacks are quite slow in places where that doesn't suit your piece, which bothers me as a classical musician (where all I heard was not to "twwaah" the attacks unless directed to do so). I suffer from this myself and sympathize. I may actually recommend swapping to a different library or patch in these cases. Albion Tundra and Spitfire Labs, as well as a lot of other kontakt libraries in that vein could be added into places where you need a sharp attack and sustain to match your piano, or you could back up the attacks of the individual notes some to pull them closer into those piano quarter notes.

For reference, I am talking about sections like 1:33. I think the violins may be a bit too high in the mix here relative to the piano, but that is because they are so high more likely than not.

I can't stress enough, wonderful composition. Evocative of exactly the feeling you describe in your title. Great work! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

anthonyragus responds:

Super thanks for your review. My mixing and MIDI sequencing is definitely rushed on this one, and I think I overcompensated my typical string EQ curves, and I most likely forgot to compensate slow notes in violas (EDIT: I did not forget, but a 16th note in advance wasn't enough, haha). EWQLSO viola is the oddest set of patches, the slow expressive patch somehow the best in quality, but perhaps that's what one gets with a library recorded twenty years ago.

For months now, I've had my ears set on a set of libraries; strings are not yet released, but I have no doubt they will be a worthy investment. Thank you for listening.

[Four Roots Above Still Water]

While I'm here I might recommend some drum kits for you. Si sounds good, but something about the snare to me. There is Saudade snare, I think based on the same snare as used by David Silveria of Korn. MT Power Drum kit may also have some use for you. Then there is Cherry Snare, Black Noh Snare, and DarkKick VST. Cymballistic is a great hihat and cymbal library. Also, salamander drum kit. These are all free and relatively easy to work with. I recommend more velocity modulation on your drums. The hihats are machine gunning a bit on the attack.

The section at 2:40 sounds fantastic. Love those chords and that wahwah bass. As well as your warm outro.

I think my only problems with this song lie in its mix. The composition is nicely complex without sounding pretentious, somewhat unpredictable (pleasantly) due to time signatures. What I would like to hear more of is reverb (maybe gated) on your snare, reverb on your crashes or delay, etc. Occasionally I like to pingpong delay my hihats on a hardish left or right.

Your bass could use distortion of some kind. I hear a lot of the frequencies around 250-400 hz but not much sub. This may be because it is so high. You could double an instrument an octave below it for beef. In this case I think actually a low piano would be fitting, given that you have used that already throughout.

Your lead instruments all sound somehow centered but also spread too thin across the channels to me. What you can do to combat this with your guitar lead specifically is have two different patches with different amps and cabs anywhere between 5 percent left and right to 27, add a pingpong reverb to the other channel or a reverb send. This technique will make it sound fuller and is used with live instruments in the studio.

Beyond that, great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Aardvark04 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I'll be sure to check out those drum plugins!

[Pulled into the]

I always appreciate the layers in your composition. I think this one could use a bit more control on the dynamics of different instruments, such as the flute in your intro which is quite loud.

It was a pretty smooth transition into the electronic portion of your song.

There are a lot of daring elements in this song -- is that CS One Bass with those wubs?

It sounds like there is a bit crusher or some sort of fizz on your kick drum. If you wanted the same crispiness, I might try a multi band compressor to de-emphasize the static sound I hear clearly throughout.

2:22 is experimental indeed. Almost avantgarde.

Really enjoy the overall idea of this piece as well as your execution. I think more compression from 0:55 to your close would make the synth portion sound better, as well as a deeper and more gripping bassline -- the one you have is quite high up and does not sound centered in the mix.

All the same, great job. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

314leafcutterant responds:

I added the flute because the piano which plays the same melody got a little bit drowned by the harp. It probably didn't have to be as loud as it is, but I think the heavy vibrato of the sample is almost more annoying. I originally tried to record my ocarina, which I bought a few months ago and never used in a song yet, but I cannot play it nearly well enough to actually record something. I am always completely out of tune.

That wub is selfmade, it uses some fm synthesis and a filter automated by an lfo. There is a bit crusher on the whole drumset. I didn't actually hear the static sound in the mix, only when listening to the drums as solo so I left it there because of that little bit of... something. Didn't think the static would actually be noticeable.

Making the bassline deeper would actually have been a smart thing to do, thanks. To me the synth sounded better when it was an octave deeper but i put it an octave higher anyway so it wouldn't cover up the bass. Making both of them deeper would have solved that issue.

The bass and subbass aren't completely in the center, that is true. One is panned a few percent to the left and the other to the right.

[Pressure Point]

Your drums stick out pretty well here, stick out being the operative word. I would take some volume off of those hihats. They are louder than any other part of the mix and are the only thing really in that mix space.

I enjoy your writing and choice of chords

I would put much less verb on your toms and bring out your snare more.

I think the track would benefit from running through an online mastering service of your choosing -- there are free ones out there.

Bass and pads, along with the melody are hard to hear through the percussion elements of the track. You want to strike a balance in which the percussion is clearly audible but not covering up anything else.

Overall, great melodies and piece holds together nicely. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TechnoDrama responds:

Online mastering service? Never thought to even look.

Well, I didn't make it to the next round and I'm okay with that. Just grateful to have people listening.

I wonder how much of my music's real impact is lost due to bad mixing and mastering? I'm always so eager to just get it out there that I never really thought about the impact the mix has on the end result.

You have given me much to think about. And not making it to the next round has given me reason to focus on what I did wrong, which is not in the creative process, but in the final steps.

Thank you again, and feel free to thank the other judges. I appreciated the opportunity.