ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[copy and shadow]

Interesting polyrhythms going on here. Some comments on mix and structure.

Reverb here is 100% out of control -- tame that low end by throwing low cut up to 250 hz so the instruments aren't all muddying together. Gated reverb will sound better for your snare, btw, than that long tail. Hell, use it on everything if you want. It's a lot cleaner than just point blank reverb. But if you must use reverb, try to cut it down.

Now, I am a big fan of all your elements -- although they all sound panned left. That could be because your drums are mostly all on the left.

Protip, there are a ton of 808 and 909 sets out there that are free. I think 99sounds has one that I regularly use, for instance on my latest track here on NG, Progressing Degrees of Insanity, if you want to hear what I'm talking about.

Unexpected sections here and there, but this piece is already adventurous enough that I just get used to them.

Your drums I will say, are almost totally buried in reverb and just from not being loud enough in the mix. I would turn everything else down. And probably recommend centering that lowpass bass synth.

I don't know what the noise was at 4:35.

Are you by any chance using Trompette paper trumpet synth? I swear I recognize that flappy noise.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! Really interesting listen :)

lofiskyline15 responds:

thanks a ton for the response!! yeah the storminess kind of started to envelop the mix but I had to pump it out to hit the deadline haha

it'll definitely be hit by a huge remix and all of the constructive criticism about the mix is hugely appreciated! I realized quickly after this that my mixing gear is slightly unbalanced stereo-wise so over time things kinda started to drift which leads to a lot of the leftness (especially in the drums and bass). it's also pretty reassuring that you thought the drums were actually too quiet cause I usually over-boost them and so I probably course-corrected a bit too hard on this one haha

one thing I was/am having a ton of trouble with in this particular track is having a punchy bass drum and it definitely shows in this mix. so I think just across-the-board cutting the low end on a ton of stuff like you said would provide the breathing room necessary for the kick to actually be heard. and I also think that, even though the reverb is pretty dang in your face, clearing the air in the lows-low mids would make the verb a lot less intrusive so i'll definitely jump on that.

what's kind of interesting (and just goes to show that there's a ton of muddiness) is there's almost no reverb on the drums besides a slight slapback delay on the snare so that just ties back in to the overall washy-ness of everything (which I do want to maintain in a shoegaze-y sort of way but not in a sounds-like-hot-garbage one haha)

and the trumpet is surprisingly just from the Spitfire BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover pack! with a ton of reverb (again) and some Izotope Vinyl processing (which definitely enhances the flappiness of it all).

overall, thanks so much and I'd love to be on shortlist for any upcoming music competitions!

[Lil Bear - SGD]

Personally I'm not a huge fan of e-piano chords just sort of moved around. I'm so glad I picked up this was mostly a joke before I almost died trying to tell you how to make the vocals sound better.

Still, compress that shizzle, my guy. Make it the best sounding joke on the internet. As it's mixed, I really struggle to hear your vocals over the percussion :P

Also, why not make trap music about Susie the trap? You could be her trap star. She could be your trap queen <3

But yeah, most of my critique is gonna sit on this could be an epic sounding joke song, if it had more attention poured into aspects of compressing vocals, mixing in a balanced way so that those vocals came to the front, and making sure we know Susie's got a dick, and that's okay <3

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

LilBearMusic responds:

I really appreciate you giving me this criticism. Ill definitely compress the vocals and mix it better. ❤

[Downvote (Single version)]

I can't tell if you're going with a blackmetal aesthetic. But some comments on mix. Drums are buried. Take down those guitars by however many dB it takes for them to become clear, and cut the 250 hz and below on everything that isn't drums or bass. I might even cut up to 28 hz on the bass just in case, to make room for drums to cut through.

Your guitars could use some cleaning with a multiband compressor. I think it's ChernobylStudios, or maybe FakeSmileRevolution that does a great few tutorials on just getting an aggressive guitar tone. Works magic on vst guitars.

Now speaking of your everything, the velocity and expression values are there for a reason! No one wants to hear a double bass roll like Skyrim freezing in the morning. Okay, maybe some crazy people do, but I am not one of them. I for one don't want to hear that. It means I have to go and edit values. I hate editing values.

Anyway Misha Mansoor does a great tutorial on youtube for that. Writing drums.

The velocity on your lead sounded the same throughout. I would change the chord thresh value some, turn on a humanizer. I actually can't tell if that sounds like RealEight or Shreddage II. With Shreddage II you're more likely to have that dead on sound of being locked into the beat just because the way they snap into the DAW, but RealEight is just as bad about sounding shitty if you don't use the keyswitches. Take note, use the keyswitches, set up some funky velocity crap. Figure it out so that it doesn't sound like pitching up and down the same articulation of a different note. Been there, lol.

Otherwise, hardpan your left and right rhythm guitars 100% L and R respectively. Leads I would pan anywhere between 13 and 33 percent L and R, with a pingpong delay between the instances to play into the other channel. Make sure to humanize all of these separately and randomly so that they don't sound the same. Use different amps and cabs for the L and R so they don't sound like you just copied the same track, etc. The lead can be made more compelling by playing with 3rds and 5ths every so often.

Beyond that, not really a whole lot of critique. The song isn't overly long, it's not poorly written. I feel the leads may have been lazy, but maybe you just aren't very familiar with the software like I was when I first started mixing E guitars. Personally, I like to do e guitars and synth leads. But this isn't bad at all. Learn your instruments a little more and see where it takes you! :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

413X1NKP responds:

Thank you! I'll try to be better next time :)

[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!