ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Endless Innocence]

Great playing. Any critique I'm going to have is probably going to sit on mix or recording. I would probably compress your guitar and cut out some reverb. That low end is really boxy sounding, particularly when the bottom E is resonating. I also catch the occasional contact with the body of the guitar.

But sounds absolutely great.

I would back off here and there with the twittering of the birds. It doesn't feel like it's in the same space as the guitar -- feels like a very dry, possibly not even stereophonic foley. So it clashes somewhat with your playing.

But fantastic work. I have a lot of respect for lyrical acoustic :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Thomastique responds:

Thank you for the review!
I'm still learning a lot about mixing so I agree with you on that.
But I couldn't do anything about the birds because I recorded it in the forest so all of those sounds got caught in my microphone 😅

[The Zatesee- The Other Record]

I think that piano might be out of tune -- until, wait, what happened to it? Velocity?! Was velocity not being edited that whole time?

Interesting touch with the acoustic guitar. I would edit that velocity and humanize just a little more. Sounds really surgical here.

Elements coming in and going here have been either super smooth or REALLY jarring. I question the choice of that fantasia like instrument we hear through 2:27.

Also, quite a feat to get someone to listen this long without a drop. I would caution against it most of the time. The clap build is really dragging on. I would have no more than 8 bars, then get to the point. We've gone through so many sections by now, we can have that nice spacy warble on a bridge or something :)

Bass here on that drop is noice. Smooth, happy boi noises. Mixing is a little dirty. I might compress it harder, maybe sidechain somewhat to make way for the little clappy. I do feel the drop drags on about twice as long as is time efficient for the piece. Maybe three.

Nice use of the sample, and guitar section. Writing isn't even that bad actually, for it, needs probably some actual mute noises -- or a palm muted eighth note between those chucks. That ringing sounds awful as a guitar player ngl.

But compositionally, piece aint bad at all. Nice work :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ohmterra responds:

Thanks for your review. I could have done a lot better with this, but I kid you not, I pushed garage band to its limit with this one. I lost track of time when making this which is why its so long. And the guitars are actually built into garage band somehow. Again, thanks for the review.

Zatesee

[Empty]

I don't say this often, but I think your snare might be too loud when it's first introduced

Also, not really liking your hi-hat sample that much. I would use a soft 808 for a subtle composition like this.

Probably the biggest thing here is levels. You're getting some distortion and clipping when those strings come in at about 2:10, which are much too loud.

This track is super long, also. I feel there are sections which could be cut, such as that first one with the strings. But I'm at 3:33 atm, so I'm not sure what else you're going to do with it so far.

The piece overall is quite relaxed, with a lot of sections like 4:50 and the surrounding 30 seconds that are just almost dead air. 5:17 I would have completely faded out. By 6:46 you have a nice cool little section that would have gone well. I would have gone into that, skipping over our big empty sections since there are not a lot of moving elements here. By 8:50 we've gradually been getting more and more naked. I probably would have completely faded out again maybe even a minute earlier. 8 minutes is still a real whopper of demanding attention from a listener.

Cool that you can do stuff like this on mobile though! :)

For improvements, I think the best thing you can do is find a song structure you like or composition you like, and create a template with markers, then work with that for a while until you feel where pieces will naturally want to move and breathe. Maybe some lead writing. I like the elements as you brought them together here, but building up to them felt like a long slog of fade in and fade out, and I ultimately just lost attention. I had to refocus more than once. At one point I wondered had you accidentally rendered a kick line from that naked section I mentioned to close. Thankfully no, haha.

But anyway, thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

TheSMMusic responds:

Wow, I can see you know a lot about music production. I don't know very much about producing. Actually, I just put instruments together until I like the result. I also don't pay much attention to the details. But I'll try to follow your suggestions in my next songs :D

[AIM2020 - Lord of Naxxramas]

Wow, I remember when EastWest used to be the holy grail.

Composition wise, this is really great. I feel the composition itself would be best served if it were written in FL, all the pains that would be to do. For some reason, every instrument I take into something like printmusic doesn't really alter velocity between instances of the same note, or intonate properly. I'm hearing a lot of that here with floppy attack on the organ, not any real humanization going on. If it were at all possible I would put ensembles or trios on those staccatos so they don't sound like a lone cellist, if that makes sense.

As for EastWest falling out of style somewhat, I would see if I couldn't get my hands on Kontakt and Spitfire's free LABS libraries, Native Instruments' starter pack, etc. There are a ton of free Kontakt libraries that will blow your mind out there. It's a sin not to take advantage imo.

Beyond that, enjoyed the listen.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

NativeNiles responds:

Thx for the review, I'll look into those libraries you mention.

[Silver Lining]

Wow, was not expecting that big open up into 45 seconds or so. Nice, driving chords. Great transitions.

My only critiques will probably sit on mix. The mix as a whole is really sibilant in the 16khz and up range, mostly on that intro is where I notice. I think this might be compensating for the way compression will round off highs. Be careful of that. There's also a huge jump up in volume for some of your sections. I ended up having to turn the track down when the drop came in. Take care also with your reverb that you don't get a low mid wash from 250 hz neglecting to apply low cut to individual instances.

If you still want that spacy sound, gated reverb is a great option.

Other than that, great, smooth listen.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Solize responds:

Damn that's really constructive feedback, thanks!

[Sicarius771 - Supercharged]

By 40 seconds, I think that quarter stab chord could come down in the mix. It's giving the impression of no breathing room.

Some comments on mix. The percussion is pretty muted sounding. Like I'm wearing ear protection, in comparison to those spacy highs. The longer the mix goes, by 1:33, we have lots and lots of reverb that doesn't let up. It also sounds like we have a piano synth that's doubling the bass, which I would cut. That's the overtones I was hearing on the reverb.

So, I would cut 250 hz and below on instances that aren't bass or percussion to clean up and make room for it to sit, shorten reverb tails, low cut to 250 on those reverb sends as well, and drop the send some.

Your percussion, particularly that gong, is either buried, in the case of kick and snare, or broom falling down a staircase in a warehouse scary loud. I think this is trying to compensate for when other instruments, like pads and leads on the sides, are also way too loud. Go back and see if you can get a handle on this mix, and make sure two things are good -- can hear the percussion well, can hear the bass, and can clearly make out the lead. Drop those instruments on the side down much, much lower. They're making the song sound like a high wash.

I love the composition, the mix is the only thing holding back my 5. Or at least like a 4.5. You've got a great mind for dnb writing. This would be a total banger with the mix fixed up on so there weren't these big discrepancies in loudness. Keep making music!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Sicarius771 responds:

Awesome, thank you for the feedback :)
I’ll keep all this in mind and do better next time.
Also good job with the judging and dedication, I saw that there was a whole lot more compared to last year but you all kept going, you guys deserved that extension :)

[Runa - Black Hole]

Intro reminds me a lot of Mass Effect. What was the name of the mallet sounding synths you used for arps in your intro?

My only real critiques are going to sit on the mix. On your orchestral and synth orchestra, as well as other instruments, there is a ton of unneeded reverb. I would not only cut the send down some, but also low cut up to 250 hz or so. Having all those frequencies with compression going on will push the mix out of balance and force you to mix top heavy. I'm hearing that here. The mix is very sibilant in the 15-20khz range. Even the high fizzle reverb is out of balance.

I find myself actually wanting a lot more low mid, talking range frequency out of your bass throughout. That's the range where it's crowded out. Percussion also has a hard time sticking through the mix. You can try to push it through that wall with sidechain, or you can just drop levels of other instruments until they push through well. By 4:47, they are drowned, and there is some not quite clipping -- sounds like a limiter is on, and we're getting distortion trying to keep levels down. Compress those drums. For a spacy feel you can probably apply gated reverb to the snare. Sidechain if you need to, but all those other levels are just too loud for them to compensate for.

Other than that, beautiful piece. I really enjoyed your rhythms. Thinking outside the box in a time signature always makes my day. Great work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Runanova responds:

Thank you very much.
I went through a lot of difficulties with the mastering because of the number of elements and i now understand the problems.
About the synth, it accidentally made a "water" pluck and decided to split the high and low frequencies into different parts.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[omnicide]

Rhythmically, I like where this piece is going -- chord progression on the intro could use some work. Maybe study briefly chord progressions or song structure. There are plenty of great youtube channels online for that but Signals Music Studios is probably the best for this. You'll probably want phrygian mode or something like that.

Now, beyond that, my critique is probably going to sit on mix. We've got a very nice, but also very loud bassline that's covering up our percussion and even our lead. I would bring it down .5 or so dB although.... I see it might be a compression issue. When we get to the section at 2:42, the harmony is pushing lead and bass out of balance. In that case I would also take your individual instruments that aren't bass or drums, scoop out a low cut up to 250 hz or so to make room in those spaces, and do the same with reverb wet signals. You can also turn down reverb somewhat to remove a little of that reverb wash. Then, reajust levels as sounds good to you.

A technique you can try on your snare to get that extra grit is an oldie but goodie, gated reverb. All you need is high ass reverb and a compressor. Check it out and try it -- it'll go nice with this synthwave, dnb fusion you have working for you.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

rat9352 responds:

awesome review, will def. experiment w what you suggested. cheers! :)