ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cataclysm (NGUAC 2020, Outrcy EP)]

Sounds like nice, classically inspired chord progressions here.

Some notes, I know there is a sine bass under what's going on before 38 seconds, but I doubt anyone would be able to hear it. There are a lot of muddy chord intervals -- when you have chords that are down low and the notes spaced closer together, they don't work the same way they do up high. In fact I generally caution against chords where they notes are all spaced together, or using a ton of notes on the same instrument in a chord. For electronic music, it leaves the tendency to copy and paste and throw everything on there.

Also, whatever carillon bell synth you have clanging throughout on the bottom, the reverb on that is completely covering up the melodies you've written. I really feel like by 2:46 we've heard the same melody and chords almost the whole time, and we're going all the way back through for another bout of the same. You've got a chord progression you're in love with, I know, but it sounds like the same 4 chords over and over, for 4 minutes, with almost no melodic development because we move the same melodies into different instruments.

This tells me there is a weakness in structuring songs, not necessarily lead writing. We've just got the 4 chords, and we don't really know where to go with them other than the same big section we built to start off that inspired us to write the song to begin with. So I would recommend some youtube research on structuring music.

Also, throughout there is so much added reverb, more than is necessary -- because really you'll never have enough reverb to convince a human ear that that charang guitar or the piano or the bells are real bells. So cut that reverb down to about half of what you have, and low cut to 250 hz on reverb wet FX sends.

Back to the structure, the way the percussion is laid out tells me we didn't really know where we were going and sort of added it last to hopefully bandaid some naked sections -- I've been there. I still do it sometimes tbh. Finding a song structure you like of say, intro, verse, chorus, verse chorus times two, bridge or solo section, chorus three to four times, fade out or stinger note will help you write more concisely.

You already have in mind what you want to say, just keep in mind as you go along that less is more, and I think that will help you the most. Would love to see what you could do with a nice desktop DAW. I'm amazed you got something like this out of LMMS :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

NolamiAmada responds:

thanks for all the feedback, though the excessive reverb to make it distinctly not real was intentional and since i started making this ive figured out how to actually write a melody, this one suffered from the "this is my 500th attempt at a good melody and it finally sounds nice so lets keep going with it" problem many of my songs have, in the 2 months since i started making this song ive learnt a fair bit on music theory but was too lazy to restart this song, hopefully my round 2 submission will have a better structure to it and thanks a ton for all of the feedback

~Lo7

[[DJKB] Into The Depths of The Lair]

Doesn't sound bad. Develops slowly at times and uses some more synthy real instruments. I would shy away from that actually. If you have Kontakt, Spitfire Labs has some nice alternatives to these, but I would honestly use a patch from something like SQ8L or dexed. Particularly on your choir and strings.

Mixing wise, watch out for burying your drums. It's hard to pick them out in places. I would turn everything else down until they are the loudest in the mix, then go from there. Naturally, that is what they should be, since the human brain isn't attuned to listen directly to percussion, as opposed to move with it.

Six minutes is pretty long for a track, but considering this is DnB, and you're usually writing to pitch up to a DJ, longer length makes sense.

Other than that, I would spend some time looking for some free VST libraries and samples. Spitfire LABS has a lot of stuff out for Kontakt, Native Instruments has a whole starter pack out of free and it seems mostly fully functional instruments, Ample Sounds has some good guitars and a cloud drum out for free, there's plenty of good stuff out there. Also Cymatics has some great percussion packs for free.

Try some of those and see what you come up with!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AlmightyDJKB responds:

Thanks for the advice, and yeah I still have problems with mixing and equalizing all aspects of the audio so that it comes out perfectly nice.

Otherwise, I just use FL Studio mobile to make these songs, but thank you for the pointers in these new samples, because I could really use them. Especially since making my own can be really hard. So I am very grateful for that.

I hope to advance further in NGUAC

[raw!]

Wooooow that lead is loud! I had to turn down really quick. How hard is your compression? I would recommend turning it way down. There's all kinds of distortion by 1:02.

I really like your drops. Mixing is just hard to appreciate the great phrasing and sample usage you had with Gordon Ramsay. I actually can barely hear him.

I would recommend going back through this song, taking off the compression on your master, turning your PC volume to 20, and adjusting the level of every instrument. There's so much distortion, even on quieter sections like before 3:00 that that is distorting. It's so much I really can't comment on anything else.

A good rule of thumb before applying mastering FX is to have -6 dB of headroom on your master channel to work with. So start by turning every instrument down until you're there, mix until you like the way it sounds there -- then apply mastering FX.

And don't worry, you're not alone. The human brain tends to think louder is gooder. And consequently sausage fatten the shit out of everything. Raw. For this track it's absolutely not a hard fix. Just turn it down, THEN fatten, lol.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC, Котик!

K0TiC responds:

yeahh i kinda went overkill in ozone lol, ill take it into account in my future songs, thanks

[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.