ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[La Mort D'Internet]

A well deserved frontpage -- and brilliant idea to have yourself get to doing a diary. I'm envious of your ability to speak off the cuff!

If this wasn't already frontpaged, I'd have done it myself!

As you go along, I notice your mix improving -- this one seems to have a bit much of high end rolled off for my taste, but the arrangement's variety and crisp progression makes up for a LOT in terms of mix. The vocal mix is crisper than the rest of the mix, making for contrast, but I actually think you could afford to de-ess manually and/or with a plugin to lessen such contrast -- as it actually heightens the sense of high-end rolloff for me. I would afterwards pump the vocals a bit more.

Spacing and texture in the mix is great, also makes up for the EQ profile quite a bit.

The addition of a sludgy oldschool guitar breakdown also took this to the next level for me. I'm not sure what genre I'd put it in -- experimental is a mixed bag. This might even be considered poppy, by today's terms. But I do feel the cohesive blend of breakbeat, hip-hop, and classic rock/metal in full force. Blending the three is a feat of magical proportions.

The master is also of suitable volume. Could potentially be pushed just a hair more.

Lyrical content is 100% on point. Lots of pop culture references, general brilliancy.

5/5 for friendship. 8.8/10 for competition

SkankyMojo responds:

Thanks ADR3-N, that's amazing feedback, the detail is very much appreciated. <3

[Autumn Girl]

I hate to say this, but the bass is really, really out of tune. Like wrong notes out of tune. Other wise I would have rated much, much higher! I would also look into some tutorials for mixing anime opening rock, because you have the composition nailed down to a T, but the mix feels a bit centered and tin-canny.

Besides that, great lead playing, great writing overall, and master looks perfectly compressed for the genre. Fix the bass, and you have solid gold!

itskosama responds:

yea, I got carried away with other parts I drowned out bass and it slipped me by.

But in the spirit of turning something in, I worried I might not have the opportunity to fix it and re-turn it in time when I noticed it in my car (it has better bass to standout). It's like they say, don't only mix with headphones.

Either way, I'm extremely grateful to participate because it pushed me to make something, anything. The time constraint, community event, and seeing all the cool creations is what I needed to fuel me to make more music!

Thank you! :)

[Keep Them Coming! (NGUAC Knockout Round)]

Having played a LOT of pokemon games on the Game Boy SP in my time, words can not express how much I enjoy the whiny strings and brass hahahah. Think that was emulating a french horn.

Your composition is striking, and your phrasing is fantastic. What could be improved upon is the mix on the bass, the transients of the gameboy drums to cut through, and bringing out the bass of the bassline in the mix, as well as overall mastering volume. A little googling along these lines goes such a long way, especially when it's the only thing getting in your way. Keep at it!

Voting 5 on NG for personal preference.

Interloping responds:

I definitely agree about the bass, Ive considered raising it a few times now because it really doesnt get a lot of chances to shine the way I want it to, especially since its constantly going hard as hell. Thank you for the tips, I need all the help I can get!

[Deep Down]

This is great! Only real improvement I can see to be made is the volume of the master to be more competitive with other songs of the same genre.

Farmobus responds:

ik but d't think it's a big problem 🤔. of course, i've tried to normalise it, but it d't leads to a good result hmm.

anyway, thx for your remark!

[~cC~ Hands Up, Alien Overlords!]

I really think that sax lead could be swapped out for another more obvious synth instrument and seriously improve this piece. Your key solos in particular were great. Any sort of synth would do, even a stock sine or saw lead, because it isn't your writing that holds this piece back -- it's the dadgum articulations on that sax! I just can't get past it. I 100% think that a different choice of synth would take this to the next level!

CelestialChaos responds:

I really appreciate the review! I agree that the sax was a little rough, unfortunately I kinda forced myself to include that instrument and use the best sound font for it I could find. I was happy with the way the solos came out so thank you for the kind words!

[desolation]

Вау, интересно звучит -- а вокал атмосферный. Жанр колеблется между хип-хопом и … не знаю, может быть ло-фай. Вот ощущение печали просто кайф. Я бы проверила эквалайзер на мастере, чтобы исправить немножко плоский АЧХ, но в основном, трек хорош.

cantbemyself responds:

Спасибо! Да, у меня со сведением и мастерингом проблемы, мягко говоря))

[Forest of Eternity]

Crazy that you made this with the JV-1080. One of my favorite synths -- as it was used for many of my favorite soundtracks coincidentally. It definitely has its limitations though, when it comes to realistic instruments in particular. The extra hard attacks of the double bass no matter what, the attacks of the strings and brass -- for an orchestral score, I would almost never use something like it.

Where it shines ofc, is perc and synth sounds as we see in your outro. I wish I would have heard more of that (and I would love if I could reach out to you for samples sometime, but that's besides the point!)

As a composer, you're fantastic. This song took me on a walk, a run, and a flip on the trampoline. Great voice leading, walking bass lines, and resolutions. I think if you had better sample banks at your disposal with more articulation/realism, this would smack!

BigBlueBazooka responds:

Thanks for your insight. I actually like the sound of the sampled real instruments, it reminds me of the many video games which used this machine and, other like it, immensely.

[Belong (NGUAC 2024 Version)]

Really interesting choice to bit crush all the accompaniment. If more was done to make up for the spatial and clarity issues that bitcrushing causes, especially to double/spread/pan instances of the ukelele, I would score higher.

I particularly feel that as the song develops, more stringed instruments such as guitar could be brought into the fold on the sides. The side presence is really where I feel the song is suffering.

Vocal performance is good. Just need to get things meshing a bit more. Modulating the amount of reverb is an idea you can try, as well as experimenting with gentle panning.

AveragePhoe responds:

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I agree with pretty much all of it. I'm working on a single version that sounds much better already. It's hard to focus on mixing when you've got a deadline, really.

[Mr.Must3rd; Meowtronica]

That is the most insane transition into midtempo I've ever heard in my entire life.

What stops me from rating 5 is that master is quiet, especially for midtempo and adjacent genres, and the track lacks a strong center channel, particularly for the bass which sounds very spread out. These two factors suck out the power from your drops. A little study of mix/master and some references to test against and it won't be a problem for you for very long.

Great work, seriously :)

MrMusterd responds:

this is actually something I just recently learned to do without COMPLEATLY destroying the mix. this one is Mastered to -14 LUFS, which isn't optimal but I didn't trust myself to push it further because I started noticing some distortion. As a broke 16 year old jit in my bedroom, I don't have any mastering plugins which would be cool, but the Kilohertz limiter is decent enough to use and catches most intrasample peaking, but its not perfect. I was able to push my last song to -13 LUFS which is an improvement, and I'm glad I was able to pull that off! if you have any advice or criticisms, please that stuff is like gold to me! :3