ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[Exultant 2]

Like the olskool synths in the beginning. I think maybe you could apply some LFO modulations to them to sound a bit more lively. The melodies are nice and dour, everything seems to flow well into your build.

One thing, your drums sound like FL stock or something, and they struggle to peek through the shoegaze reverb. I would cut below 250 hz on your reverb wet signal if you absolutely must keep it, maybe even employ something like a side chain with the degree of bleeding.

To do that, I'm not sure what program you have. I have mixcraft. I apply a simple EQ over top of whatever tracks I want to side chain, and then use an audio controller to duck the volume. It takes less CPU than using some of my compressors, I've found, and achieves the same result I'd get from manually ducking. I'd use the snare and kick respectively as signals there.

Your writing and arpeggios really shines, despite the boxy low reverb bleeding. You're quite talented as a composer.

For drums, there are lots of free online drum kits and samples. If you'd like a few, I can go digging through my library for recommendations. Saudade snare and a sampler that supports multiple files works nicely. Dark Kick is a staple of mine. I occasionally use crash VSTi, although it has no round robins. Cymballistic is a nicer, if hard to understand cymbal vst, with many options. I haven't got a favorite for toms. You could probably rip them from MuseScore and use a sfz player like Plogue's sforzando. Somewhere I have a tutorial I made for that in my news posts, where I did it with Muse Score drumline.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, KSHMR Essentials Kick is a free all in one processor I recommend using on your percussion. You can apply saturation, stereo widening, and transient shaping so your sounds cut through, all in one, as well as add mid or sub to your liking. It allows you to see the waveform right there in box. There's a paid version that has more options, but the free version is fun to use on just about any single instrument.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the piece. It's well written and progressed, with clear themes. I think some more force could be derived if there were a clear bassline, rather than the low saw that sort of sat there in the mix. I think you're onto something though. It's only up from here. PM me if you'd like recommendations for synths, collab, etc :)

HowtoAvenge101 responds:

I used garageband to make this, and i also didn't know what the fuck i was doing mixing-wise back then. i really REALLY appreciate the essay though, thank you very much. i appreciate the recommendations, i'll install those now.

[The Bandolero]

Nice to see a piece with a latin feel. Seems like it might be mixed a bit too loud, some clipping, but the piece itself feels very nostalgic, right up until we get downright cyberpunky. Congrats on the front page!

TekNoTaku responds:

Thank you for your honest review. I am still on my baby steps, but this is the type of advice I need to sharpen my skills. Your work is awesome, and when I get advice from good artists it makes me feel better because I understand that you do it to help. Thank's again my friend and I will try to improve as I keep practicing and learning.

[Untitled Beats II]

Not bad for a start. There's a definite sense of rhythm and it varies. I'm not sure what comment to make other than at the same time, all the instruments seem to come in relatively all at once and leave one by one. If you were interested in writing music like this, I would recommend studying how cadences are made for drumline and applying some of that skill to your original beats.

Also, never, ever ask to be scouted, especially for GD. You will likely be banned just on the suspicion that you are stealing music or trying to abuse the site.

BrandonMusic responds:

yeah, i probably should ask to be scouted. robtop doesnt allow new creators anymore anyway so probs mot gonna get in

[Nightfall]

DnB was definitely unexpected. Got some nice lines, all flowing together and structured pretty well. I think if you're going to use what sounds like stock instruments for your drums, I would do some wild ass processing with them -- for instance I really like playing with distortion, pitch shift, ring mods or bit rate changes.

There are lots of free synths out there like 99sounds drum machine and aggressive drums which would also help out here.

The square bass is a nice sound but also doesn't offer a lot in the way of changing tonality, which is what dnb is ... now known for. Try some fx and modulate different parameters of them to say, the kick or snare, so that the audio output of those moves some knobby knobs. I'm not sure what DAW you use or what those would be called in it, but you get the idea.

Good work :)

b1n4ry1 responds:

Thanks, by the way, i use FL Studio