ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hand In Hand- NGUAC 2020 Final Round Submission]

Really nice clean playing for those acoustics in the opening. Very nice production. I personally would have liked with the vocals as naked sounding as they are, bringing them up in the mix. I have a lot of issue understanding the lyrics and hearing them as the lead instrument. It does have a nice, bar-rock blues meets country feel.

From what I've heard of you, live mixing is probably your best strength. I personally feel on bigger sections, your acoustic chugging rhythms are just a bit too far pushed up in the mix, contributing to the muddiness of the very dynamic vocal.

That said, absolutely love that you've written it for a friend's wedding. That's super cool man.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ConnorHeather responds:

Excellent thanks for the great constructive criticism i will take everything on board it helps a lot, ear fatigue is a real thing and is difficult when you do it all by yourself, having fresh ears and perspectives is a big help thanks! Will most likely go back and take onboard what you said for the final mix.

Thanks for all the work you guys do to make NGUAC happen! It's been a pleasure to participate!

[Ahurac - ID 2 (NGUAC Final Round Entry)]

Starting off, I like your intro and transitional FX. I think you could stand to sidechain them against your synths.

The mix as a whole sounds pretty heavy on reverb and super mid heavy. Almost like there's a vinyl effect across the whole song.

Kick I think could stand to have a bit more bite, maybe saturation. KSHMR Essentials Kick is a good one-stop fixer. You could also tune it to the tonic. Something's going on with the harmonics in the upper low mids and it's not meshing to my ears.

Other than that, compelling melodies. It almost sounds too balanced of a mix for me. There are points -- your 8 bit percussion could stand to come out a LOT and possibly sidechained for where it's present. I can barely hear it under your top snare, but I know it's there because I know the sound -- so it's serving as mix clutter.

Reverb I would say you could stand to either take down by about half its value or more. I feel like it's being used to make synths sound more real, opposed to modulating them by hand. I say that as I'm guilty of having done it myself just to get done with a track. If you're going to do that, I would low cut up to 250 hz on the verb itself. Almost every instrument I'm hearing sounds like it has reverb on it, very boxy low mids.

I might tune your snare so the overtone is either a harmonic of or the tonic itself, to give it some feeling of belonging.

Beyond that, a bit short, but I enjoyed the tune. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ahurac responds:

Woah thank you for all these feedbacks! I'll take them in note for the final version (because yes, this is still an ID, that's why it's a little bit short).

[Midnight Shuffle]

Something about that first bass note in the chord progression I don't really like. I'm sure I'd get used to it over time listening through.

This is an interesting composition.

Personally I would take down your reverb sends across the board, low cut them up to 250 hz or so if you find you must have this shimmer. You can also apply autogate effects to it to keep things interesting.

By 3:44 the progression itself is sounding really good but the reverb is muddying it up.

Also I feel like there's a but much sub on your kick. Could use some more air to it. I came across the plugin KSHMR Kick for quick, easy mixing on that front. It's a free kick shaper. I'd also recommend following Bedroom Producer's Blog or BPB for more freebies to enhance your sound and get you away from sounding stock-y.

Anyway, nice work. Saw you in Audio Ads, hit the play disc, and here we are :)

ScottJacob responds:

Hey man! You're feedback means a lot! Thanks for taking the time to write this, i appreciate it! I definitely feel i struggle with mixing and want to get better. Thanks again for pointing everything out and suggestions, it all helps!

[Shimmer]

Overall really smooth writing. My critique would go on mix.

We're really heavy in mids -- good mixing of more live-y instruments and samples like the chimes and piano.

At times I feel, such as around 0:42 those fantasia sounding leads high up in predominantly the left channel are much too loud -- about a dB or two. They're such high frequencies, they're just going to be heard by virtue of being there. On drops they don't stick out as much later, but still overpresent.

At 2:19 there is mild clipping.

I would bring out your talking lead more, and possibly put a resonant auto-filter on it to bring it to the front more. A lot of the instrumentation stands out on top of it, leaving it to be heard as the lead only because it's the only instrument in that space moving.

I really like the chord progressions going on here and your writing itself. Thanks for sending me this!

trunotfals responds:

it's funny how you can hear all of these other things but you get really blinded to your own music sometimes I listen to this over and over and I never heard a problem until you point them out and now that you've pointed them out it's blaringly obvious to me. Thanks for this review!

[Serrated Shadows]

I'm not sure I'm sold on parallel motion of the chords and melodies here in your intro, as well as through the 0:52. Obviously takes talent to play rather than program, but I feel like we're moving the same chord around over and over, which with power chords isn't so obvious. You could change this feeling by not using the bass note to just play the tonic of the chord.

The rest of the piece, reverb is waaaaaay too loud. It sounds louder than the actual attacks of notes themselves. I'd sooner listen dry than with that FX on. It's loud enough the track distorts by 2:41 and I can't tell what's too loudly mixed or not because the reverb is just grabbing resonant sustained notes and holding them out. It's like being in a warehouse. Only the strongest points of your mix stand out, and the finer intricacies are obliterated.

I am able to hear that twah-twah attack on the choir and would recommend switching it out. I'd like to hear you reupload this without that reverb. Underneath it is a good sounding track that could probably use your synths turned down a dB or two. If you simply must have this reverb, don't put it over the whole track. Maybe just the hi-hats, the lead, and the snare.

Chernobyl studios does a great series of tutorials on mixing rock. I recommend checking them out.

Anyway, thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Mechanical-Head responds:

Edit: I probably sound like a jerk with this response. Just so you know i understand all the points you made, and i'm seriously looking forward to improve. Still keeping my whiny comments for preservation :P

Thanks you for this constructive review! Yeah, you may have noticed i'm far from being an expert when it comes to mixing. I just began doing music this year and all i use is the free included plugins in Reaper. And yeah, i used reverb on everything, mostly because i really hate how dry and robotic modern metal sounds. My main goal with my mixing is make the songs sound old school, human (maybe i should've used compressors but i feel uncomfortable using them). Obviously i still need to learn a lot, i'm far from being perfect, and i still need more experience in handling reverb, aside from better equipment and such.

Maybe you should've focused more on the composition rather than the mixing, as the latter just isn't one of my strongest aspects. Maybe you were expecting a more professional sounding song, which is something i just can't deliver right now. Also, i mixed this in less than a week, of course it's going to sound bad.

Hopefully i'm not sounding like a jerk over your review (Edit: i was). I know you are looking forward for how i improve in the future, and that you wish the best. I want to improve, because i know i'm not perfect, and that there's room for lots of improvement. I was not expecting to pass to the next round of NGUAC anyway, i'm just not on the level of these really good and amazing contestants.

Anyway, thanks for the review :)

[Legacy Part 2]

I think you could do without having that kick and clap in the first several bars of your track -- leave room for transitioning. Speaking of transitions, that's probably the biggest issue I have listening here. Sometimes they're handled well. Other times, they feel like they lead to nowhere. You might like a video on the subject by Kush After Hours, the rule of pairs. He explains a basic rule of transitions that a lot of hit producers use. Add or change two elements for each transition, and take two away :)

Overall I was kind of underwhelmed with this piece. We have a lot of interesting melodic content and a structure that isn't too bad, but I don't really hear a bass. I hear some chords really low down that I don't know if you mean to be the bass. It's very low and I don't really hear it at all. Your mixing rig may be bass boosting or something, if that's not what you mean.

The high transitions are really sibilant and are the only things that sit in that space through the whole song. I would turn them down some. We're not going to not hear them just because they're a little lower.

Really I feel this song could benefit most from just having a clear bassline that I can hear. Your chords aren't bad at all. Your leads could probably benefit from not being sustained so much, just a personal preference, but all the drama is sucked out of the track just by not being able to hear a bass.

Anyway, don't take it to heart. There are plenty of resources online to help you get out into producing. You're halfway there. I think you should revisit this sometime :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Xrus responds:

I made this song in an hour. It was just to test out some things.

[Adipogenesis]

Arrangement is nice here. My critique could probably be reduced to mostly mix.

That hihat in the right on the intro, I would probably take it back over to 40% right. The sax could also come up a half dB. Snare could also stand to come up in the mix. It sounds like we may be having some clipping on 0:22 seconds when the kick hits.

I think those leads on the sides are too loud relative to percussion. It seems to be throughout the piece as a whole as I'm listening, with sidechain used to bring it back through. I find myself wanting a crunchier kick.

That said, your rhythms are blazing and the melodic content is tasty.

I would take down the lead piano before 1:40 by about a quarter dB to a whole dB, apply more compression.

Percussion throughout really is so quiet in the mix and sounds tinny by 2:26. Overall, the track tends to be tinny whenever those trappy stabs come in.

I really like the WHAT THE F- sample. Very tonal and has a lot of character to it.

Writing of your growls is good. I found myself wanting the droning bass under it to be an octave lower and maybe grittier on drops -- like a trap 808, distorted.

It sounds like you have a lot of reverb on your sustained synths and stabs. I would cut that down by quite a bit and make sure to lop off 0-250 hz on the wets to leave room for your bass. I feel that contributed somewhat, especially with such heavy compression, to the lack of oomph from the sub.

Overall, without your wonderful writing, I'd have a lot less nice things to say, but this is a solid and cohesive piece. I can really see where you put a lot of your effort, and it does shine through. The rest of my critique would fall in line somewhere around trunotfals, maybe a little less compression, and it would sound cleaner and less high-end heavy. Make sure you're mixing with your master FX off, or a lot of these issues become more or less impossible to fix, especially tinny-ness. Speaking from experience.

But anyway great piece. Will be stuck in my head a while yet. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Walpang responds:

Thanks for such a thorough review!
Mixing/mastering is still a relatively new process for me, so I'm not surprised that it's lacking a little in that department. I'm glad you enjoyed everything else, though.

[Wolves (Ft. Andy Chamberlain)]

This is a really cool concept!

I'd like a different synth at 0:45. Personal preference is that to me it's a little cheesy.

Very interesting speech to text rap. How long did that take to get out?

1:30 section sounds like it may be overcompressed and mixed too loud. I would take down those leads some and let your percussion shine. It's hard to pay attention to them in the mix with those synths up so far. I'm also not a huge fan of the overall tones I'm hearing. The rhythm is good.

Personally 2:17 isn't my cup of tea when that lead comes in. The foley in the background is giving me a weird lump in my throat feeling, until it just suddenly isn't there.

The solo is nice but I would apply more compression to it. The lead pumps up and down a lot volume wise. On higher frequencies it's a bit ear piercing. Well written there.

Next section has a lot of intricate work on the panning and stereolizing. I'd like less of a flange-chorus type effect on that, less reverb overall, and more saturated high mids. Make it crunchy.

Other than that, with some issues with your presentation, I really enjoyed the piece. Probably one of the more interesting I've seen.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

uvimusic responds:

Thx for the great review! I'm glad you noticed my attempt at trying to be creative :) Mixing is definitely my weakest point so thx for the suggestions there too! The tts rap actually wasn't too hard to figure out, all I had to basically do was put the lyrics through the tts to mp3 website and change up the timings a bit to fit the rhythm of the song.

[Dark Rarity]

We're pretty low mid heavy in our intro, with lots of reverb throughout the whole track, which sort of gives the feeling of having the whole top of the EQ lopped off the track. However, I do like your writing, and your transitions are solid.

One area I wish I heard more of, your drums, overall they're much quieter than the rest of the mix, especially the snare. I would turn everything else down until they're clearly heard. Believe me, those chords aren't going to go missing -- they're the only instrument in the space :)

Musically you've written quite a journey, with lots of interesting twists to follow. Sometimes I am not a fan of the chords in the low mids chunked together. Other times I think they work. Maybe some theoretical study on inversions and chord voicing will be helpful to you, but that's not hurting your presentation so much as just not being able to hear what's going on.

Overall I enjoyed the piece. My biggest recommendation would be just to study mixing, particularly as we try to get this big spacious vibe. There are great shows to watch such as Kush After Hours where mixers talk shop. I would start there, maybe try some of the tricks you learn on an old project you like. My main gripes in mixing is making sure to low cut reverbs up to 250 hz, and turning down the reverb lower than you think it should be, for the sake of cleanliness. Reverb is nasty and muddy if you let it be, and takes away from the clarity of a track.

But anyway, interesting piece. It was fun to listen to. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TheSentiment responds:

Thank you for your insight! I'll definitely make the drums more prominent. I also put a book of advanced theory topics on my wishlist, so I hope to learn more very soon.