ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Nocturne]

I also think the shaker could probably come down a little bit, or edit the velocity some. It's interesting the play with the sfx in both ears.

I really think the chord progression could use more than just octaves up to 1:00. Like 1:50. That's not bad. Maybe study some music theory, lead writing, etc. There are some channels that I stand by, Signals Music Studio, Holistic Songwriting, Ben Levin, in order of least difficult to most complicated.

By 4:00 I feel like we should be reaching our outro, fade out, or something. We've heard the same bassline and chord progression. I don't feel like there's a need to drag it out an entire minute past that point. By 4:52 it's just octaves. That said, the stopping point at 5:06 on your one chord... or... note, would have been the decision I made, wherever I stopped it, given the progression repeats so many times.

I just wasn't able to get into this song. The progression is very simple which is not necessarily a bad thing. Nothing sounds glaringly bad. You've even taken some pretty good steps with your percussion toward being innovative -- although those breaking noises I would take down by about .5 dB because they're louder than your snare at points. I really just feel that everything settles on the tonic of each chord, and that makes for a listen that isn't bad, so much as it's kinda meh. Absolutely no offense intended. If you listen to my old catalog, I've really been there. I've been through it.

No matter what, keep making music. The more you do, the better you get. The better your workflow will become. Take whatever composition you think is aesthetically your best, has all your favorite synths to use and samples -- delete all the midi notes and just keep one of every sample you want to use in a muted track. Save that track as a template. Then pick a song structure you like, and make markers on that template accordingly. Save it again. Work from this template as you go, adding and subtracting as necessary. It will help save you a lot of pain with guesswork and keep your focus where it matters, improving gradually until the day you can look back and be proud of how far you've come :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Vanhelyx responds:

Thanks for the review, I know I need to improve and that's why from now on I will try to do the best I can; I really appreciate your comment.

[Hidden Forest]

Really nice writing on this piece, and good atmosphere, even making those synth strings work.

Couple notes. On your reverb, that long tail, high wet signal is okay for single instruments, but if you intend to use it in an ensemble I would low cut it to 250 hz or so. It's getting pretty boxy sounding in the mix by 1:20. Textures here are sounding pretty good. I would back off a little bit on your droning bass at 1:40 and emphasize the highs on that pulsing bass in the right channel panning around.

Even though the piece mostly stays in the same vein, and I was expecting something much longer given this development, you're quite talented at atmosphere.

I do have issue with the fade out. With the ongoing nature of the piece, it makes it feel like a preview more than a theme. I would just have made a second intro with that synth and ended on a high i chord.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Electronox responds:

Thank you for the review! To be honest I have changed this slightly more recently as I have uploaded this track, along with 4 others, to spotify. I do agree with you that it sounds more like a preview and tbh I really should have gone somewhere more with it. But I'm glad you like the atmosphere!

[This is not Even Something]

Really cool that you recorded this in your own studio.

Vocalist is good, could probably use some improvement on diction with words like between.

The mix itself is pretty muffled sounding, sounds like it was done with live dynamic mics almost. So past about 8khz there seems to be a big rolloff on every instrument, including vocals. That's where it's particularly noticeable. There's no saturation there really to hide that rolloff as distortion.

Cymbals and snare are another spot where I see that high rolloff. This makes it sound like I'm listening in lower kbps almost. Drums all around could be louder, with the exception of that hard right panned crash.

I would probably compress the vocals harder and bring them up by a bit if that didn't improve where they sat in the mix. And there's always room for a nice heavy chorus.

Anyway, great song. Really enjoyed it. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

dude2312 responds:

Definitely not a single rolloff on 8k anywhere that I can recall. It was more of a "stoner" rock what we were going for. I really wanted to get that muffle on it because rock isn't pretty or as nice recorded as Electronic Music.
Thank you for your review. I appreciate it! Nice having you back as a judge!

[Importance]

It sounds like your bass for most of the piece is completely out of tune, either flat -- I actually just usually recommend against using a sine bass. It's hard to hear most of the time, it doesn't really have a lot of character, it gets louder and softer based on its pitch so you have to constantly keep an eye on your volume level. And that's just the beginning of problems.

The mixing on this isn't too bad, but even if it were, that is the least of our problems. Aside from the percussion not cutting through, it's fine. I would just turn everything else down until it sounds more balanced. Percussion should be the loudest part of your mix.

I can't really pick out a definite melody with this piece, or countermelody. And by that I mean I have no idea where they are going, or where we will land. I would study lead writing. And music theory. Just knowing scales and chords in one mode will help you make decisions on the fly as opposed to noodling around and hoping it sounds good, which is what it sounds like you're fighting with here.

The good news is, keep writing, and you will naturally start to get better at it, find what sounds good, and move up. If you study hard, you can skip years of going through compositions like this, where you don't really know what you're doing, but you keep trying.

If you have the funds and you think you might keep at music making, why not invest in a midi keyboard?

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

DjGrahnstetto responds:

Thanks for the response, I do have one question tho.
Do you think the melody / chord writing was too 'messy'?
From what I'm reading here, it seems like its my writing skill
that is the thing I need to work on.

Otherwise, the bass (A F DX10) does work but the velocity needs to
be set to each frequencey / note.

Again, thanks for the response and I'll try to work on that.

[Two Thousand And Twenty Dreams]

Lead writing isn't bad on your intro, but I think for your backing chords, you could definitely write something other than the same chord down one semitone, then three, etc. I feel that sucks the vitality and the cheery mood right out of the song itself.

Hihat open at 1:33 could use some velocity controls on it, like a hard, soft, hard, soft pattern so it doesn't sound like the same thing.

Throughout, the song isn't badly structured, but that drop at 2:41 is hard to enjoy just for the way the harmonies are written to begin with. It also sounds like the lead is mostly in the right channel -- unless I've gone deaf overnight -- I leave that as a possibility considering I just woke up. I would probably take your lead down by .5 dB. It's pretty out there.

The soft outro is a nice choice.

Really what we're lacking here is that extra cherry on top, harmony. Individual sections aren't bad, and I really want to get into it, but I can't. You might look up some channels like Signals Music Studio for lead writing and harmony on YT. Maybe Holistic Songwriting. Also something I notice is common in the house genre, buzzing the lead line on high saws an octave up or down from the lead itself, or just plain doubling it on other instruments. Throughout I was struck by how naked your lead sounded to me.

Anyway, I still didn't not enjoy the piece, and nothing was particularly offensive to my ears. Don't worry. The more you make music, the better you'll become. It's only natural when you start out to take a long stroll through the dark forest of not really knowing what you're doing at first before you start finding your groove, and it sounds like you're just now starting to peek through the leaves. Good work, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

DJ-DG responds:

Thanks for the detailed review!
This piece, I was more focused on the production and sound design of things... I usually make my melodies and musical composition a lot more complex than this, but I wanted to focus more on the technical aspect of producing which I feel I am really lacking in...
I will take whatever you've said into consideration, and keep improving my craft :D

-DJ-DG

[We'll Meet Again]

This does indeed remind me of the 80's synth. Nice, upbeat. I don't really have the same complaint about development of the bassline -- it seems pretty standard. There does seem to be a bit heavier of a sidechain or LFO than I'm used to.

One thing I would recommend is gated reverb for your snare to get that nice DSSSH. If you're already doing that, I'd shorten the reverb tail and up the wet send a little, pop on a compressor and maybe a transient shaper.

I also personally am not a fan of the overly reverbed sound, at least without cleaning with a low cut to 250 hz on the wet signal.

The mix as a whole is a little treble heavy. Feels like the bass and mid were sucked out at 2:05 of so. I would say the snare needs to come way up in the mix. Kick is sticking out just fine, maybe even louder than it should be, but not by much. At 4:02, the synth coming in on the right channel is just a little louder than it should be.

Also, I see that chopped off kick fade. Render that boi, or just chop off at the last little key note! :P

Otherwise, great piece. Really enjoyed the listen. Probably could benefit from some harder compression on the master, just to get that more modern oomph and stand up to other pieces in the genre, but the structure was great, so was the arrangement. You seem to have a real understanding for the style. Dig it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ditchy responds:

Amazing feedback - will take it on board! :D

[Star Buster (King of Synths)]

Piece has a nice mix between synthwave feel and oldschool electronica for me. My only real complaints are mix related, as phrasing is good, builds are nicely placed, samples aren't crap. There's just the issue of lots of distortion in the mix at various points and clipping.

At 0:08 particularly noticeable but also through 0:28. I could probably name more points of reference but it just sounds like your track was mixed at a volume that was already quite loud before mastering FX, if any, were applied. The rest of the track suffers from similar issues of loudness and mix clutter. I would additionally recommend cleaning up your reverbs with low cut to 250 hz, as well as any synths that are not your bass. These frequencies make up a ton of extra loudness without adding anything to the actual music itself.

Other than that, great piece. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

DawMii responds:

Thanks for pointing those out. I couldn't figure out how I will fix the distortions. I really need to work out my mixing

[You And What Army (40 Days of Struggle: Day 35)]

Takes me back to the days of Megaman X command mission. Nice soaring chord progression, solid bass, 4 on the floor groove.

I feel it was a bit early for a naked 0:50 groove panned out like that, but the lead that comes in at 1:23 takes my attention again. Nice, slow, deliberate writing there.

I think the weakest point here is arrangement of sections. I would have probably inserted one more 0:29 before our sections at 1:50. Those are very clearly bridges. Then I may have cut each of those following bridges to 1 a piece, then I would have gone from those bridges directly to 2:28, then to 2:14, and then to the last sections you wrote up to 2:57, where I would have faded out with 0:28 for 2 repetitions, and a third for a fade-out.

Mix wise there seems to be some distortion here and there, like it was mixed too loud and compressed anyway. In places, I can't really hear your bass, and the percussion is hidden in places where we have leads. Try turning your computer volume down as low as you can stand to mix at, turn off the master FX, and mix until you feel you can hear everything clearly. The drums should be the loudest part of your track, followed by lead and bass, then any aux or FX you want to stick out. Be aware that not having a strong low cut on reverb sends going up to 250 hz, having a high reverb send, or not cleaning up those frequencies in your leads and other synths can lead to a boxy low wash that will crowd out your bassline and kick, especially high bass like you have here.

But overall great job. I really enjoyed your writing, and it's great to see there are people out here pushing themselves and pushing the art form. Keep at it, and don't let anything stop you. Quantity will become quality, if you let it!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

DaveSlayer responds:

Thanks for such a comprehensive review! I'll try to keep all this in mind when making stuff in the future. Glad you liked it!

[Virtual Menace]

Nice intro groove. Would prefer a lot less reverb all around, a low cut on it to 250 hz so those frequencies weren't so muddy.

The rest of the mix is pretty sibilant, with hihats very much in your face compared to the rest of the song. I would turn down the synth we're hearing at 1:26 by a couple dB.

You've got some kind of sub hum absolutely out of control on your drop, and it's clashing with your other bass frequencies. Either tune it to the tonic note, or I would say just do away with it. It doesn't sound attached to your kick.

By our B side of the song at 3:01 I'm a little bored with that pattern. I feel we could have entirely skipped that section and the song been just as good.

3:47, I feel like we definitely could have used a different synth for the drop. This one is very familiar already. By 4:09, that sounds good, but not so much as a drop but just a rhythmic portion. Like 4:24 for instance. You probably could have done more with something like say CS One bass vst, which has a nice LFO feature for growls.

Overall not bad. Has some mixing problems and some weak points, but the piece holds out, and I appreciate what you've done rhythmically with the bass. Keep on writing and producing, and I have no doubt you'll only continue to improve. :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

DanTheCoolGuy responds:

Wow! Thank you so much for that review, i'll definitly try and improve from that! That was very helpful!