ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Downpour]

Composition is nicely written, atmosphere well established. I would pull that whistling wind synth down some, also the high string swells, until the piano gets more established like at 1:30. I still feel it's quite loud there. As subtle as this piece is, it's very noticeable if anything is even slightly out of balance.

I may also clean up that reverb some. The low mids 250 hz and below are ringing out and resonating when you have low strings or other synths and not contributing to the space so much as making a little extra noticeable fuzz.

Otherwise, really enjoyed the piece. Great work.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

JesseTikka responds:

Thanks so much!

[My brother in a 2003 Ford Focus]

Nice heavy riffage here, but it's really hard to hear what's going on. I don't know if you're going for a lo-fi blackmetal aesthetic.

You've got a lot of frequencies sticking out on your guitars like sore thumbs, mostly just the distortion fuzz. I would recommend going through with something like ReaEQ and pinpointing them to bring down.

I can't hear if you have any reverb on anything, but if you do, bringing down the wet send and 250hz and below is a good move. I would actually cut your rhythm guitars off at 250 hz. The bass will take up this room nicely and it will sound better.

The drums here are struggling to cut through. Try turning everything else down until you can hear them clearly. That will help your aesthetic by miles, even excepting any guitar mixing issues.

But other than that, really enjoyed it. Super br00tal <3

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

jebuscrust9 responds:

I appreciate your feedback. I was absolutely going for a black/death metal type sound, so that may have influenced my decision making which in turn may have made things muddy.

I'll definitely try out some of the tips you gave, hopefully I'll have figured some of this stuff out by my next song. Glad you enjoyed it :)

[Psychedelic Dream - Lo-Fi Beat]

Love the reversed piano here. Think the sub could be a little less pronounced at 0:10 or so through 0:20.

I actually think the kick and snare may be about .2 to .5 dB too loud, and 808 about the same.

Otherwise, good structure, good use of samples. I think the sax is a little out of tune, and not in like, the pleasant way. But beyond that, song sounds great.

Yeah was totally unexpected also

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

IXentimenTI responds:

Hey. Thank you for you input.

Your criticisms of mixing are accurate, and reason for mentioned flaws is fact that this was actually mixed around vocals which were turned off. Recording quality of those vocals was not great so I had to compensate with beat itself when mixing.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about saxophone being out of tune, but again, my pitch is far from great so I guess that covers that.

I'm glad you enjoyed the song though, and I'm also glad NGUAC is still going strong.

[Singularity]

Nice writing going on everywhere here. I have some issues with particularly moving points the bassist chose not to follow you here but that's neither here nor there. Mostly just fills.

Whatever that wah instrument is, it gets really muddy throughout. I'd say it probably needs some low cut, usually I cut up to 250 hz. I'd also take it down some.

I can barely hear the bass and drums throughout.

How are you tracking these guitars? It sounds like the lead is only in the right channel, so it's covering up what sounds like Right Rhythm, and making Left Rhythm sound out of balance.

It sounds like there is reverb everywhere, all over your lead, all over the rhythm, maybe on the master, a lot of boxy low mid sound coming off of it covering up your bass, drums, and washing over the rhythm. Cut that and see how it sounds to you. I actually would cut 250 hz off of every instrument that's not a drum or bass. We like to think power comes from rhythm low end. It actually comes from bass and rhythm locking up together. We don't need that stuff on lead.

Drums should be the loudest part of your track. I hear what sounds like distortion in some places, or I should say clipping. Try turning everything else down until you comfortably hear the drums cutting through.

Otherwise great listen. Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Introverse responds:

Hello. Thank you for great feedback !

I always find handling low fqs the hardest part of every mix. It's either too much or too little...I also tried experimenting with panning guitar mics on my amp simulation, could be that I overdid it...anyway, thanks for great feedback ! I wish I could get more of it theese days...Cheers!

[Dirt Dog (NGUAC Submission)]

Nice intro here. I definitely feel the biggest critique is going to be mixing. Intro is very reverb heavy -- I'd low cut that wet up to 250 hz, take down the send some.

Drop 1 is nicely done. 1:39 continues with interesting noises to enjoy. Like flying through a field of buzz saws and electric drills.

Yeah, really, mix is all I feel is necessary to comment on. Everything else is if not passable, then good. Your sub in sections like 2:53 I would bring up, maybe even compress those sections a bit more. The percussion is a bit too loud in those very naked sections, especially with a sidechain.

By 3:36 it sounds like the whole song is destructing at points. I have no way of seeing what you were envisioning writing it as it speeds up rapidly and is over quickly. Maybe append one last drop there.

By 4:06 I'm wanting to end with a nice minor i piano chunk chord.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

IAmDeadOnTheInside responds:

Bruh, thanks for actually providing opportunities like that! And I don't think I've ever gotten a review that thorough before on a track.

[Giraf- Calm Rupture]

Interesting piece, percussion heavy. Sounds like a mix between trap and dubstep.

Mix here to me is super reverb heavy -- I'd cut those wet sends down and low cut to 250 or so hz, considering we have an 808 to make room for. You could probably sidechain the kick or any really plosive FX to the bass for good measure. Where the reverb really steals my attention from your composition is in those long-tails like at 2:11 and 2:25. It's really boxy sounding there.

I would say 808 and those growls could stand to come down a dB or two. The way it is now, it pushes the percussion out of balance. Perc should be the loudest part of your mix, especially with bass music. And I would bring out more of your 12khz to 18khz there. You may have speakers that are overly representing sibilant sounds in the mix and be mixing them down to compensate, thus crunching them off on other sound systems. I'm listening on monitoring headphones and it's giving a degraded audio quality type sound.

The outro section is out of the key of your bass. I would just port that down until I could play my bassline over it and it sounded good. Once done, drop the bassline out. Presto, non-clashing outro.

Throughout there seems to be not clipping but a lot of harmonic distortion from being compressed. Dunno if you mixed this with FX on the master, but if you did, I would avoid that. Especially with trap or dubstep instrumentation, these instruments are very sensitive to work with when mixing. I would cut off your master channel, turn the computer volume down to 20%, and then mix until it sounds good to you at even that volume. It's more of a challenge, given the natural way the brain perceives loudness to be goodness, and will force you to make good decisions.

Interested to see what you come up with next. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

girafj responds:

Hey ADR3-N! I really like long, detailed replies like these because its nice to know that someone took the time to help me get better at music as a whole. Your feedback was extremely helpful in understanding more about fixing the muddiness of my mix, and I appreciate the rating.

That being said, I understand what you're saying about the reverb heavy sounds. In the sections you mentioned, there is a loud downsweep of white noise that I added to fill the high end, but didn't EQ, so the tail just sat there filling up the section a little too much.

Regarding the 808/growls, both had sidechain, but the transient still came through for some reason I couldn't figure out before I started the final master. The dilemma I had with the percs being too quiet was because they were out of tune with the higher frequencies so I had to cut quite a bit of them.

One tip I do get quite often is to listen to my song on other monitors, headphones, etc. I'm working on getting new speakers and I will take this into account.

Lastly, this song wasn't mastered because I was getting it out too quickly, I believe you're getting the "harmonic distortion" feel because the a couple sounds in the same frequency are slightly crushed, with didn't turn out well in the final mix. Thanks so much for this feedback, I will be sure to take it all into consideration in my next track. NGUAC was awesome, and it was great to see all the other amazing, better tracks that others created. Thanks!

[GearWax- Transient (Heroes Part 2)]

Some comments.

By 37, the chord progression isn't offensive or anything, writing isn't bad. I would actually change the bass note for the 4th chord instead of just -1 semitone down for the bridges, to the one you use during your chorus. There is one point I can't hear the bass for the lead in that section.

I will say by our drop, the percussion is almost totally overwhelmed by the instrumental. I would turn it all down until percussion could be heard clearly. It should be the loudest part of your track, about like in before 3:30.

I'm most impressed by how much I've watched your composition improve. This song has both and A and B, and both parts are cohesive. You've also used detuned instruments in a way that doesn't bother my ears.

I think the drop and sections through 5:10 are your strongest. Great solos.

My remaining critiques would be for mix. Reverb is insanely and distractingly heavy on your percussion. I can hear that slapback panning in a circle, which, while technically cool, when done 50+ times over, is a little maddening. Remember to go through and low cut those wet signals to 250 hz or so, turn down the wet signal a bit. Maybe shorten the tail somewhat in the case of the snare. I eventually got distracted entirely by the seasick wooshing like, am I really hearing that? I would compress the dry snare and hats/kick some more, and if that didn't bring them forward enough in the mix, maybe grab a transient shaper, and then turn them up somewhat.

Stock electric piano sounds I tend to loathe, and I would still avoid them here just because they don't contribute very well to the texture.

Pleasure hearing from you again. Really enjoyed this piece.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Iosun responds:

Thanks for comments! This is abt a year old by this point and I love when I get feedback like this, really helps (percussion has been the thing i’ve been trying to get right for years now, and comments focusing on it in particular give a good sense of what needs to be fixed.

[Samouraï psy]

I like the inspiration behind this piece and the interesting directions being taken. I think what's keeping me from fully enjoying it is not knowing really what's happening structurally, not really conforming to any of the genres mentioned, and lack of super strong transitions.

As tends to be with hiphop there's not really a presence of a strong lead line, but there's not really a droning 808 bass line on those sweet offbeats to sort of suspend the listener's disbelief and convince them not to care. The lead we do have is pretty repetitive and also at times not sure where it's going, like on your big sections. Or mixed muddy, with a lot of reverb.

So before I would really think about talking mix, I would study some lead writing, do some YT research. Your ideas aren't bad. Just need to clean them up, differentiate them from the accompaniment.

But mix wise, I hear a lot of reverb bleeding. This means the wet signal is high and the low cut is below 250 hz usually. That's fine on say someone walking down a hallway but when you get lots of instances on multiple instruments, it tends to get screwy and covers up other sound in the mix, especially bass. I heard a lot of that here.

If you want to try traditional melodies, look up Japanese temple music. That shit gets wild.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

GALICROSS responds:

Thanks for th return.

[FLSM - Transitious]

Great idea. The execution is pretty rough. 1:07 we have two clashing keys against each other. It resolves by 1:30. I feel most of the sections here are very busy with melodies running against each other either too fast to really understand or without any build up to get why they're doing that.

2:16 is really messily mixed, with the very long reverb tails and sustained chords.

It's better at 2:47. I feel like if you want to use those guitars there, you should be proud of them. Bring them out, or they sound muddy. 2:47 and 3:22 are probably the best part of the song so far. The elements from there are introduced gradually, like they should have been from the beginning. But this is our outro.

I feel like a lot of the issues in the track you undoubtedly had to get used to over the course of the month. Working on something, you hear it so many times, it's hard to hear what isn't right with it just because of the way the brain works. Exposure to even something horrible sounding, like the firing mah lazer meme, will eventually become pleasure.

That's what I think happened with your intro.

So, it took you a very long time to make this -- first I would recommend studying song structures. There are good channels for that like Signals Music Studios and Holistic Songwriting. Then I would recommend taking a look at music theory and lead writing. You're at the point in songwriting where you have an idea of what you want to say, and you understand layering. You're ready for the next step :)

And no matter what, keep producing music. As you go on, you'll get better, you'll figure out what you're doing, and not only will the process get faster and easier, but you'll start producing music you and your fans like. Might even turn it into a career some day.

Best of luck, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

FL-DMD responds:

Hey, thanks for doing me a solid today. I’ve always been debating whether or not I should use forgeries or this track for the NGUAC, after reading every word of this beautiful, inspirational in depth review, I can see why I was stumbling between which one I should submit. (Regretting I used this one) but this is still the beginning of my journey as I began literally last year. I’m moved now to push foreword the longest I can




Thank you very much ^_^

[Convolve]

Really interesting approach to an intro here with that low pass. Now, I actually am not really liking your choice of notes for your chords so much as some of them seem to just port completely around with the same ratio between them -- I'm looking at the piano in the right channel on 30 seconds with 5ths. That interval is just dissonant to me.

Technical aspects of instruments in this piece are pretty good. I'd have liked if you stuck to one or two styles though. I feel the various elements don't entirely mesh, we're left with so much variation in structure that it doesn't feel cohesive, like at 0:33 which is very mid heavy, and there are so many things you're watching for in producing each genre, you end up cutting corners with all of them.

0:45, I can tell this is a build, but the introduction of that stinger on the head of the bar is more confusing than anything. It leads the listener to think, did I just listen to a drop or a verse? Then we go into another section with the same progression as the one before it -- honestly the section before 0:45 I would have skipped or rewritten. It sounds muddy and congested in the chunky low mid chords. I would open the spacing of those notes. It doesn't flow into the next section well.

The fill before the 1:00 drop here doesn't sound bad, but I would want some more high end on those tops to just know we've smacked the shit out of them rather than them being random bass notes. Here the fill works. Later, it's not having such a great time.

The mixing on individual instruments sounds a little messy. At 1:30 and 1:34 we have clipping. It sounds like everything has a lot of reverb and delay on it, and those need cleaning with low cut to 250 hz, shortening tails -- almost every nexus instrument has a metric crap ton on it because it sounds good solo, forgetting we have to fit this into a track. Turn down your wet signals.

The section at 1:45 is nicely written and flows logically from the drop, minus that heavy sidechain sounding really out of place. This is nowhere near loud enough a section, nor are there high swells that would sound good sidechained, so it ends with the kick just taking away from the sweet atmosphere you've built.

Now at 2:49 there's this chunky section that doesn't make sense in the context of your song. I think those synths just sound nasty tbh.

At 2:25, that kick has a crackle on it that makes it sound like the track is distorting. The sidechain at 2:10 or so isn't doing a lot for the track other than letting me know how much reverb you've got on everything -- and exposing that crackle. The mix is pretty muddy

The transition at 3:15 is particularly messy to the point of being an acquired taste -- I had to listen three times before I became accustomed to it -- into basses that I can't really pick out what note they're on due to the massive paper crinkling 12khz and up scratch. The struggle of getting over the hill with this transition tells me it may not even be this section itself that's messy but the ones leading up to it. So something is going on with the structure, in signalling the listener, hey, we're going somewhere unexpected.

At 4:20 we have distortion on the lowpassed portions of the outro. Leads me to suspect the whole track was mixed at peaking volumes and mastering fx were put on top to bandaid things.

Now that said, you've got some great ideas here and the technical aspects of writing nice growls always gets respect from me. You have a ton of potential to do great things. Keep on trucking. Keep writing music. Keep grooving. There more you do, the more you learn, and the better you'll become :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

entropicvoxels responds:

thanks for the review! i really do need to work on my mixing and mastering, for some reason when creating this song i thought that it would be a good idea to put on a mastering chain in the middle of creating it, so that's probably why literally everything clips. and that caused me to really not put a compressor on anything, and then everything clips.

once again, thanks for the review! i'm definitely going to continue making music!

P.S. is there any way to reply to replies on songs? that's something i've been wondering for a while.