ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Inktober #31 - Credits Roll]

It's so rare to find someone who actually records doubles clean. Olskool asf.

You know, I had an epiphany, you could try some distortion on your vocals and a light chorus. Bring out just a little bit of 5Khz and they would shine nicely.

Also big thank for the shoutout <3

Cyberdevil responds:

Hehe, I know no other way to prove I can truly do these dues, shoot the hoops, tis the school I'm schooled into, where way back feuds would brew, doo ba di dopp shoop-de-do!

You know I actually just tried some basic distortion on my most recent two. :) No choruses of equal caliber there though, that sounds even better, all the more contrast...

And thanks for that amazing instrumental earlier on too! :) Definitely turned into the best year so far; this here's the bar! Hope we can try something next year too!

[Beast - (Cyberdevil & Quarl)]

Cyberdevil always blows my mind with his rhymes. This is something interesting. It's like angry video games creeping me out. I'd like to hear Cd compressed some more, maybe with some stereo widened doubles. But other than that, total klass.

Quarl responds:

Thanks love, I have zero experience mixing vocals. I hope he didn't mind some of my editing. I muted a couple of auxillary recordings that were mad straight edge but he never complained about it. I had mentioned something not long ago to him about having a hang over, heard a "stay sober" adlib and was like "let's not get all political here."

:P

[Inktober #6 - Listerine]

@Quarl, I'm alive!

I just saw this, and I love it. If you send me the acapella I'll shoot you back a mixed version <3

Cyberdevil responds:

Eyy you're back! :D And alive!!! That'd be awesome, PM soon as I get back home...

And glad you enjoyed it!

[NS Virtual Players]

Has a lot of interesting elements, a driving DnB beat, but most of these elements don't really seem to come together. I think if you watched a couple videos on song structure, and wrote out the most complex, heavy 4 to 8 bars of your song you would have a better idea of where you were going with this piece.

My process song-writing is this. I have 4 bars. I write those up until it sounds nice and full with all elements of the song present, bass, drums, lead, pads or w/e on the sides. Then I copy that into 8 bars, keep the ending I had for bar 4 on bar 8, and then rewrite bar 4 so that it flows naturally into bar 5. You may have to loop the playback for this process.

Then I pick a song structure I like and write a transition bar into the "drop" I just made.

The song structure I've been studying is 8 bar intro -- percussion coming in on bar 5. Then straight into drop. Then 16 bars of verse, in which I incorporate little hints at the drop and may drop out percussion or some other elements, bringing them back half in. I may also have a 2 bar break between verse and drop. Really depends.

Then I repeat the drop twice, changing bar 8 of the drop on the first or 2nd repetition. Again depends on the drop and the flow.

Then I have another verse for 16 bars. May include another 2 bar drop out rest and pickup. Then the final chorus.

The main thing with transitions is trying to take away 2 elements, then add or change two others, so that it doesn't sound like you're just having to pile the same thing on over and over again.

All that said though, this is a great start. With just a little bit of study, I think you have the makings to put out some really compelling music, especially with the tools you have.

Also, be sure to follow bedroom producer's blog for some great free VSTs and discounts. You can currently get KSHMR Essentials Kick, which is a great PRO grade percussion all in one processor. Highly recommend it.

Thanks for the PM!

1gryone responds:

Thanks for your advice bro. I am working to become better, better and better. Thanks for you feedback

[Desert Fever]

This feels like a mix of Japanese, Chinese, and near east... or... middle east. With some Greek when you hit that vocal solo.

Great film score type stuff.

Any critique I would have -- our section at 3:00 or so, I'm hearing a lot of reverb on our cinematic low percussion, and it isn't sticking out above or sitting alongside the melodic and rhythmic elements. It's behind it. The track as a whole sounds quite tinny here.

The sub hit before 4:20 could probably sound better if tuned to the tonic.

5:01 very much reminds of Indiana Jones Egypt. I like your percussion here. I want more of that tambourine, or less of the hand drums which come in there. Now that said, you've done an absolutely FANTASTIC arrangement here, wonderfully authentic. Wanting just a tad more of those chants and about 0.2 dB more strings, with a more pronounced stacatto and cleanliness between notes. That's hard to manage with synths, of course. I'm very impressed you've made such a journey in so little time!

7:15 we have come through great pain and confusion. I want just a bit more of that odd moaning in the right channel. Now it sounds like we've gone somewhere like Petra. At 8:06 I want a bit more of the lead you have in the right channel. I continue wanting more of it at least up to 8:33, 0.5 dB perhaps, even. Or bring the accompaniment down, if desired. 9:01, I feel it would sound much better if soaring over.

All this said, gorgeous piece. I've thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through despite long length. I have a short attention span. That's a very high compliment. Fantastic work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

VociferousMusic responds:

Thank you very much for the critism and the minor things you suggested for improvement!

I'm very surprised you actually related my soundtrack to the far east (Chinese, Japanese), since I have not any instruments used being typical for these cultures, and at the end, I did not intent to have it sound like that, haha. :P

The vocal solo is meant to be indian and not greek, but you were close about guessing. :)

[Rainwave]

Really like the harmonics over the blink-182 esque muted clean chugs.

I think the vocals could be mixed a lot better, compression in particular. This style would probably sound a lot better with a megaphone-like saturation and distortion on the vocal until the chorus. OneKnob saturator and pressure plugins by waves do a nice job. The section before 1:55 has a nicer sound. Clean these vocals just sound demo-y. Nothing really wrong with that. It could be delivery.

2:27 you sound more confident.

That said, this is quite literally just about my only complaint about this song. I really love it. I think with compression the vocals will come out like you want over top the chorus and shine.

Other aspects of the piece are brilliant.

I'd like just a little more high end on your ... are those tablas or darabukas? Maybe some spatial movement. But this section is very nice.

All in all I really enjoyed this piece. It was a journey. It was soulful and original, while at the same time distinctly nostalgic.

If we could have ended on a i chord rather than a fade out, my day would have been complete.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

verbicidemusic responds:

Thanks so much for the in depth review! I definitely concede that the mix leaves much to be desired. A lot of these things that you pointed out didn't occur to me until I had listened to it on other devices. But by then I had already submitted it for judging lol. Luckily, I'll have you and the other judges critiques and my own personal retrospective to work off of when preparing this to be released officially on my upcoming EP. So needless to say, I appreciate this feedback immensely. Cheers!

[Our Last Day]

Guitar is sweet on that right channel. I'd like a little less low mid and perhaps drive on the left, just keep it a little cleaner. I feel the guitars are a couple dB too loud for the drums and vocal to sustain.

Vocal tone itself is good. I just can't hear it at all in the mix.

I'd apply some saturation to your snare and kick. There is a plugin called KSHMR Essentials Kick available free that has really impressed me with its ability to compress, saturate, and handle transients and width all in one go. I highly recommend trying it on any percussion instrument.

I'm not able to really understand the solo in the middle as anything other than perhaps even being in the wrong key -- but since it's so nicely time locked and sounds nice on its face I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's intentional. It's confident and clean. That's what matters.

So relistening, talking about levels, I'd bring your guitars down by as much as 2 to 3 dB, compress your drums, maybe space out your cymbals further left and right, cut down any reverbs you have going on slightly as its a bit muddy. If by then the bass is sticking out as too loud to your ears, you can move that down in increments of .2 dB or something, pull up the vocals likewise... there's a plugin called spreader that may help you in this regard to get a wide, spacious sound -- I really like your diction btw, at this level, without clear enunciation, I wouldn't hear ANY of your vocals. Speaking from personal experience, this is a problem a lot of metal producers tend to have. We focus so much on the distortion and rocking out that we don't pay attention to the most distinctive instrument of rage we have, our voices, and go ear-dead from knowing our own lyrics well enough to pick them out in a mix, whereas others might not.

So all in all, head bobbing, foot tapping jam. Enjoyed from start to finish. Been a longtime fan of yours as well, and happy to see your improvement over the years. Look forward to seeing more from you :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TSRBand responds:

Thanks for all the tips! Looking forward to trying them out :)

[Stargazer]

Very smooth, clear, almost solitary tones. I like the addition of the string pad without it interfering or overshadowing the lead.

I do feel like some of the progression is a bit cliche writing convention -- but it's a solo instrument track for the most part. What are you gonna do! But it reminded me a lot of The Moments of Happiness section from the Cats musical. One of my favorite songs from a rather... odd production.

I don't have a lot of a critique beyond that. Really enjoyed the subtle piece.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Thomastique responds:

Thank you!
I agree on the cliché writing, I blame it on only having two weeks 😆
Some very original sounding pieces are coming soon though 😉😉😉

[Amazona NGUAC 2020]

I'm not sure why most of the mix is panned to the left. However, it creates a very.. interesting space in the right. I think if you're going to do that, there has to be some way to pan the kick to the right or something, as well as transition noises moving from left the right -- maybe your monitors are louder in the left than the right?

I have no complaints other than that and a bit too much reverb on fuller sections. The amount of reverb is appropriate for naked sections but can be modulated down for drops.

I like the nice sub impacts and moments of calm in the middle. Shows a good knowledge of structure. Although again I would here because there is so much low and low mid appreciate less reverb. Or at least low cutting up to 250 hz on the reverb. It's very, very present throughout.

Here the mix sounds quite balanced to the center by 3:46, but again the bass comes in the left channel and I don't understand. My right ear wants your juicy bass too!

That said, loving your progression, and I'm happy you decided to share your cup of tea with us <3

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TerraNation responds:

hehe i have no i dea why its become like that but stay tuned i will fix it after contest is over its to late change it + im gona upload FULL master version so should expecting better mixing.
+ im gona change the song abit for a final release iknow what i done wrong somewhere to.

[Nebulous - Paranoia (NGUAC 2020 | R3)]

Interesting effecting going on here. I wasn't with the clipping, clicking effect until you applied a little bit of pitch effect so I understood what was happening.

I love your use of FX and that heavily modulated, distorted bass. I find myself wanting the snare to cut through just a bit more. You may be able to apply KSHMR Essentials Kick to it and the kick to get the transients and overall sound more present. On the second drop, it's not an issue.

Overall, your sound design choices and structuring shine. Pleasant dissonance, makes me a happy bean. I still find myself wanting as I mentioned, percussion elements, and particularly some hihat and crash action. Those I feel are buried by your lead.

I still ended up feeling quite relaxed and comfortable despite the attempts at horror. Perhaps it's to do with my love of horror music... for sleeping. Nice work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ShockblastDeluxe responds:

Thanks for having me, and thanks for listening!