ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[new day]

I have some nitpicking for the vocal processing. The FX is quite interesting to listen to, and melodies catchy. What distracts me is the sibilant consonants of T, S, poppy P, fricative F, and your breath noises. You will achieve better results cutting off breaths by hand, manually ducking t, s, p, f, and others.

Lyrics are very relaxing.

Vocal mix at times is MUCH louder than accompaniment and at parts rides roughshod over it. I think this can be corrected to some extent by bringing up bass, snares, hihats just veeeeery slightly by 0.2 dB or less, decreasing reverb on accompanying instruments and other wet FX. The pads are suffering quite badly from inaudibility of the lower register.

2:07 is the worst example.

At 2:36, the levels are starting to come into balance!

At 2:58 the vocals are about 0.2 to 0.5 dB too loud. I think a more judicious compression or hand leveling may help.

Your solo at 3:33 is very nicely played but could benefit from snare and accompanying vocals coming up somewhat.

Your vocoded vocals at the end are gorgeous. Much enjoyed.

I actually think after hearing your outro that a lot of the mud and unintelligibility of the track is due to compression picking up reverb and other wet effects and giving the impression of a wall of sound. Check out 2:02 with those pads getting lost in a wall of reverb.

Your vocals sound like they're spread out almost completely evenly in both channels, leading it to sound as if there's a weak center. This works for your vocoded vocals but makes the entire track sound very flat for your lead. Recommend a bit less chorus and perhaps a very light pingpong delay.

Instrumental wise, beyond the leveling, I'm very fond of your arrangement and have nothing bad to say. Transitions are done well. The only thing I would harp on even a little is just making sure if you must use a ton of reverb, you shorten those tails, take care to mind that reverb tails from previous chords don't clash with the next chords, or simply use them for effect with a big cut off like your end. Modulation, modulation, modulation, or you'll get mud.

Beyond that, great piece. I'm suffering from depression myself, so I'm here with you. Keep doing what you do!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

cad-mium responds:

thank you so much for the detailed feedback! this was my first real go at vocal mixing so i'll take a lot of this into consideration in the future

[An Amazing Adventure]

Pretty simple structure to the song. Nothing offensive in the sound design. Everything is clearly audible. I would recommend some changes to leveling.

Kick and snare should be proportionally the loudest things in your song. Whether this is accomplished through PERCEIVED loudness, opposed to actual loudness, is up to your taste -- i.e. sidechaining versus raising the levels, or adding distortion or saturation and transient shaping to your percussion to help them stand out. Your snare for your drop is a little hard to hear relative to the rest of the elements because it doesn't have a very pronounced mid to high frequency profile. Otherwise the leveling.

Your structure is good, but your transitions leave some to be desired. I think what you're lacking are crashes, transition FX - risers and downers, percussion fills, melodic fills and solos to tie everything together.

As a whole, the piece does not clash internally with its arrangement, melody, and progression. It's very easy to follow, and no part sounds BAD. This is great -- you're making songs that are coherent and easy to listen to. I think it just lacks some special sauce to make it truly unique. You will pick this up in no time, I'm sure!

As far as your leads, I would take them down by .2 dB to 1 dB, and your bass I might pull down an octave for drops, or write some more interesting rhythms, even if it's just 8th notes going back and forth between low and high octave of the same note -- a technique you often see in techno.

Other than that, nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

burningmagma responds:

You're welcome! I will do my best in the competition.

[Zero_Em & Bonfire - Dream In Digital]

Blazing fast pace, dirty bass, nice beats, and great transitions.

My only complaint is it's hard to make out the percussion in the beginning and it sounds a bit mid-range heavy throughout the piece. Everything but the bass at least. Particularly 1:09 could benefit from just a bit less on the synths on the side, slightly less sub bass, and a bit less compression. Or a bit less volume on different elements going into the compressor. Take your pick. Cleaning up frequencies and levels would make this a solid 9.5 for me.

I'm not sure if you meant to leave in the clicks where string samples come in at 2:48 or so. That can be smoothed with a bit of playing with attack.

The whale-like ooooo is a bit too present for me.

Otherwise, fantastic piece, great listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BonfireRMX responds:

oh! Thank you! I was really waiting for this opinion. me and my friend will take into account what you thought, thank you very much, and what you had said at minute 2:48 I think it was not intentional, that part was made by my friend but really thank you very much :D

[The Deamon]

This is smooth as hell. At 0:30 I am only thinking to turn down the chip synth in the intro by 0.2 dB

Your melodies flow like an orange sunset going down over the horizon, smooth, effortless, and a pleasure to observe unfolding. Great writing on your basslines. I supremely enjoy them. I might apply a bit of saturation or distortion, turn them up a bit.

2:17 is a nice suspenseful transition. 2:28 was unexpected, returning to the same groove, but hey! The track itself is varied enough I don't mind.

Spanking nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BAOWZ-Tobass responds:

glad you liked it! love the comparison XD. I'll try slightly more saturated baseline next time 😉

[Mr.Market]

I'm sitting at 00:40, and so far good development of elements but the progression seems slower than it should be into melodic/bass material. You have a lot of cool ideas and interesting composition.

I once was listening to a channel by a guy named Kush, and he said a great idea is to add 2 things and take 2 away for each transition. A man by the name of Adam Neely said "repetition legitimizes." Take what you will from that, but I think some study of song structure will do you really nice. That bass riff at 01:39 slaps, and I was sad to only hear it clearly for like 5 seconds!

I think you are on the cusp of discovering who you are as a song writer, and you will get there. Keep studying. Keep writing. Keep doing what you do, and never let anyone dissuade you from following your passion, whether you intend to keep it as a hobby, or turn it into a job.

Also, the piano at the end was random, lol.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AthosBR64 responds:

i appreciate that you make a whole review about my song.thank you very much for the feedback!

[Dim Dimension]

I love your lead writing throughout and your chord structure.

I don't have much critique beyond those related to software and mixing. Obviously, drum samples could be better, and it could use mastering and compression. I have tons of freebies hiding out in my newsposts if you would be interested to sift through.

I think the track as a whole would benefit from bringing up your kick and snare in the mix, turning down reverb and delay wet signals, and experimenting with panning.

Beyond that, the piece holds together really well and is well structured. Your ideas are clear. At no point am I ever bored. It moves on with a definite idea of what it is and where it's going. Great job in that regard.

The bass is not obtrusive but could be taken down a slight amount.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AnnieHer responds:

Yeah, experimenting with stuff is pretty fun. And as I improve with time I will understand how to properly use every part of my toolkit! Thanks for the feedback

[AniGleb - Inner blast]

Хочу сказать, что давно не писала отзыв на русском, но стараюсь, чтобы вам более или менее понятно то, что думаю о песне.

В общем, она классна, громкость разных инструментов ровно балансирована. Барабаны четко бьют, и прекрасно слышу их характеристики. Сжатие канала мастер также звучит вполне нормально и не мешает. Этим я всегда удивляюсь, слушая от новых исполнителей на нашем сайте. Значит что 2 года с нами не зря потрачены!))

Дроп второй неплохой. Только хотела услышать немножко побольше басовых частот среднего диапазона от 01:21 к 01:46, или, возможно, больше суббасов. Ревущему басу это поможет.

Кроме того что структура и мелодии песни относительно просты, у меня другой критики нет. Спасибо за вдохновляющую работу, и что пришли на NGUAC!

If someone speaking English wants to know what I said, you can copy the text and paste it to Reverso Context or another Russian translator :)

AniGlebGD responds:

Glad to hear that! And thanx you caring about language.)

[Laurie's Interlude]

This piece is pretty quiet, and there is a high pitched ringing in one of my ears over 20khz. It's louder than a lot of the other elements.

HOWEVER the vocal elements are enchanting, and the ride cymbals are nice. I would just bring the metal dings down very slightly.

Beyond the low volume, very hard ringing, I don't have much critique. I think the piano could do with some more gentle velocity, and not be layered in that lower register on the chords. I think that detracts from how ethereal the track as a whole sounds.

But overall, wonderful atmosphere and great work. It was a pleasure to hear and very relaxing!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

anadevar responds:

Thanks a lot! It is nice to hear that.

[Battle Spirit - Quest to Kill God OST]

I don't have much if any critique. A bit less volume on your offbeat stabs and I think the leveling will be as good as can be.

I want to hear just a bit more of your counter melody.

The lowpass transition is a nice touch. Just a bit less volume on the snare coming in during the transition and it will be perfect.

The piece and melodies flow with effortless simplicity. Wonderful work. Takes me back to playing gameboy color, with better sound quality :P

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

amishpimp responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

[Tempest]

Great rain sample in the beginning and transition out of that.

Your composition is fantastic. I recommend doubletracking that guitar-like synth to the left and right; you may use two different instruments and slightly different amps to achieve a wider feel.

Your 808 is a bit loud in the sub range. Recommend turning down the sub so as not to drown out other elements of the track. In fact I might sub it out for a saturated saw instrument entirely. If you are partial to the sine, up the volume somewhat and turn down the very low frequencies manually with EQ. The rest of the track is simply not loud enough to support it.

The section at 2:20 is beautiful. Turn down rain very slightly. Possibly pan it around or add in other whooshy FX to taste. I trust your judgement.

We resume for a chorus at 3:12 with the same aforementioned issues, until 3:27 when we get into a nice synth line. UwU

I have a hard time picking out your kick drum. May process it with something like KSHMR Essentials Kick.

The next section through 4:20 blew my mind for a hit second, even with such minimal arrangement. I would not use the sub bass so high up and may switch to a more subtle instrument, or bring it down one octave.

The drum kit here is very slightly getting on my nerves, as it doesn't do your writing justice. For one, I would turn it up a notch. For two, the velocities on the hi-hats stand out as either not very sensitive or almost all the same. Shop for some free drum kits or samples and see what happens.

You may also benefit for writing each and every part of the drum kit to a different track and apply various FX and processing to them, again to your taste.

Solo at 5:30 is SLAPPING. Could use some delay, reverb, panning, chorus, etc to your tastes. It just sounds like it's laying on top of the track in the center. Particularly obvious when it's soloed. Beyond that though, it is so well played that I don't care too much. Just a little sensitive atmospheric touch would bring it from noice to epic.

The track itself is quiet and would benefit from a free internet master or your own hand at compression on the master channel -- OR just using the amplify effect in Audacity.

All in all, very nice cohesive piece, limited seemingly only what your software and mixing can at present do. Save this and other works of the same quality for a rainy day, when you can revisit them and bring your vision to life. It's fabulous.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Aardvark04 responds:

Hey thank you so much for the review! I fully agree with all of your feedback and greatly appreciate how constructive it is.