ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Variations on Endless Handbag]

A nice fresh take on one of my favorite songs. It has the feeling of a live lounge recording (while also reminding me of the original menu theme for Dragon's Dogma) -- I think some of that is to do with loads of low end reverb and sub. That chorus is very nicely done, positively angelic, and the composition really shines through here. I would want just a little more compression and some de-essing, but it comes through quite nicely.

I may bring the bass down by about .2 dB, the guitars up by a similar amount, and perhaps the marimbas down ever so slightly.

I understand there are two mics on the drums and that's rough to work with. There has to be some way to bring out the profile of the snare just a bit, or go back in and either record or trigger a VST snare. It's only a very slight distractor. Overall the playing is wonderful and outshines the recording.

I very much love to see how you, Troisnyx are progressing through the years, and the collaboration here is spectacular. Everyone is playing to their strengths. The lead guitar soars without completely owning the track. All other parts of the arrangement are in their proper place, and it flows masterfully.

Great work, everyone! Thanks to @BBank for pointing me here!

BBaNK responds:

You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed it!

[Paradisum]

Spectacular composition. My only complaint is bass is conspicuously absent, to the point of almost inaudible -- let it shine! I can hear that it's well written, but it's WAY buried in the mix, as is to a lesser extent the rhythm and choirs.

And there seems to be a bit much reverb on those to supplement burying them somewhat. That muddies the presentation. Cut that reverb wet down by about a third to a half what it is, and hi-pass to 250 or so, then crank the choirs up .2 dB to .4 and see what happens.

The kick drum also is hiding in the mix, needing more high mid bite and a bit less sub, especially for when it rolls -- remember your velocity settings for when you get into blast beat territory for both it and the snare.

The dulcimer when it is not the lead is about half a dB too high.

Other than that, wonderful to listen. Great job!

DanJohansen responds:

I totally get where you're coming from! Most modern sounds go in all the directions you just mentioned. A lot of the things you want me to change are actually things I went out of my way to make happen, because to me.. that creates an alive cinematic landscape that fits my imagination perfectly. I am not all that interested in a perfectly clinical perfect sound, to me that is usually dry and uninspired. Glad you dug the tune though! Rock on!

[BossAsBeatle - Tooth Toss OST Conner Grail & James Renna]

Well written -- I would say you need some velocity controls on those strings. The machine gun attack really takes away from the otherwise great writing.

Also, they seem to be burying all the other instruments, especially percussion and bass. But a nice theme nonetheless!

Jumbs responds:

Hey thanks ADR3! If I remember right I made this on the last day of a 72 hour video game jam. of course there’s room for improvement, but when the clock is ticking and theres still one more tune to write you just gotta roll with it. Thanks for the review!

[Bring The Funk]

Great idea, well written, provocative and introspective chords. Moved to hiphop modern for the clear influence there.

There are instruments that sound like they're not just distorted but clipping, and a bit too far out in the mix. You could apply compression to them to eliminate some of that. Some others seem too loud in general, particularly distorted basses.

But overall a nice piece, a departure from the usual material I get to listen to on a daily basis. Nice work!

For mixing headphones, I highly recommend Audio Technica ATH-m40x. They're what I use daily. Take some getting used to, but you will be hearing an honest impression of everything. Good mixing sounds good on them. Bad mixing sounds, well, noticeable, shall we say haha

boza44 responds:

thank you so much for the feedback, ok i agree i definitely cranked this up way too loud, let me see what i can do. i'm mixing on crappy headphones

edit: just added the original non-cranked up version. it sounds much better, you're right. I usually never max it out like that but maybe i got too excited about the track

second edit: yeah I actually use these headphones because , well, i don't like to have my ears covered totally, these ones are pretty mellow even though they're like $15 headphones they just don't really in general have much capacity to blow my ears out. I'll definitely look into the audio-technica though, and i gotta order a few more of these cheap ones since i like them so much :P i'm using NADY audio qh-200 i like em

NOTE and at the same time, if they sound like (#$* on your headphones, then that's all bad and I've got to work on my mix for sure. I'll look into yours too :)

[CHEESE WORLD HEYOPC INSTRUMENTALS]

Did you seriously sample Gucci Mane chops? hehehe. Nice to see you popping out full albums.

heyopc responds:

yessir i did

[UNDERDOG]

Idea is spectacular. Some mixing issues, it sounds really heavy on the sub and boxy low mids. I hear that long reverb tail a little bit before 2 minutes. If you want to keep it, I would do some aggressive side chaining on it to your percussion, and also cut everything up to the low mids. It sounds like Nexus piano, which is really bad about leaving all those dirty frequencies unfiltered in its delay and reverb settings.

For your 808, I would apply some distortion and give it a little more high mids, see what that does.

Your hihats could stand to come down in the mix a little, to taste. There's nothing in that space. Believe me, everyone will hear them.

Other than that, great work :)

TekNoTaku responds:

Thanks again my friend. You know what you are talking about because your mentions of VSTs are on spot. I'm really glad to get your advice, since I look at you as a professional and a higher level music creator. I will try to apply your observations, and 4 real...thanks a lot. People like you are really needed to help others like me grow and get better.

[Buisness Remastered]

I imagined it as an accent on the pronunciation of business, to be cheeky. Nice to see somebody else out there not afraid to mix it up with the titles, as I'm a fan myself :)

demon4hire responds:

It actually was a misspelling on my part almost 7 years ago, but I decided to keep it because I thought it added to it.

[Misham Studio - Apollo Justice Remake]

I might take the snaps down a couple dB, but that upright sounds good, the piece moves along like it feels it should. The muted trumpet sounds pretty natural, as does the brush kit. I may take some of the sibilance off of the vocal and remove some boxy mids, but as a whole, everything sounds good.

Azurenite responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I listened back to it and I agree with the things you pointed out. It's something I can definitely improve on next time I try something similar to this.

[Aster - Meowsynth]

I love this synth, and I love what you've done with it. Goes to show it by far isn't useless. I might try to make my own meowsynth song! I already made one with Elsita, with much less surprising results. I don't even care that it's distorting a little bit. If you mix in 32 bit floating point that can be eliminated. Then all one needs is a plugin like Smiley vst or Sausage Fattener to crap out a quick mix

I wonder if you COULD make drums with meowsynth.

What were your settings for the bass?

Aster responds:

meowsynth no release all the way decay and sustain. low filter + ott + chorus to imitate multiple voices

[They're Terrible]

You know, interesting enough, I kind of prefer the quirkiness of the original, with the mixing and clarity of the present iteration. It's a nice little goofy theme, with that galloping feel. A little taming on the reverbs with gates or what have you, some light mastering, and I think there would be nothing more I could ask from it. :)

Fantasyck responds:

Funnily enough, in regards to it sounding less quirky than the original, that effect was intentional on my part to reflect how the characters this theme represents changed after their first appearances. Thank you for the feedback, I'll be sure to keep that in mind for my work going forward!