ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lost Energy]

Interesting effect with the detuning going on here. Feeling good as we bring the intro in. I was expecting a quicker intro, but I'm not complaining by 0:50.

Mix wise, I would bring up your percussion by 2 dB... Or just bring everything else down.

This is a little pleasant sunset driving groove. I really like it.

For your snare, I can't hear if you're using gated reverb or just delay. If you're using just delay, look up gated reverb. It will help the grit of your snare so much. Then you can cut the delay wet signal and feedback down some. I always recommend cutting reverb and delay signals as much as possible due to their tendency to muddy up a track.

I would have skipped that stutter and re-entry into the chorus before 3:13 or so if we were going to fade out and have gradually faded over two choruses or so. Where would that have taken you, maybe 3:30 seconds? That's not bad. So I would either cut the intro and do that, or leave the fade completely off and just let it end on a nice I chord.

Anyway, really enjoyed this little groove. Nice work! Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BrandonTurner responds:

I'll definitely look into gated reverb! Getting the snare to sit right with the delay was a pain and definitely could have been better.

Thanks for the critique, I'll keep all this in mind during future projects! I appreciate it!

[Abendmusic - Wilderborn]

Some muddy chords here, and mix is reverb heavy, but the structure is sound, and writing knows where it's going. Honestly, I would take the reverb tails you have going here and cut them by about 25-40 percent, depending on instrument. It's very low end heavy and washes out the great writing on your percussion.

By 2:12 I'm not hearing a lot of variation of texture. That section, the lead is particularly synthy with ... it sounds like a high portamento on the tonic. I think you could cut most of it out and the piece would stand well.

I don't have a lot of critique beyond that. The piece is solid and a good listen. Great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Abendland responds:

Hi ADR3-N
Thanks a lot for your thorough feedback! Helps me a lot to improve! I appreciate it a lot, thanks for your time!
Cheers, Chris

[MADE WITH FL STUDIO 20]

Drum beat isn't bad. Song itself reminds me of the forest theme in pokemon.

We've got chord changes every two beats. Lot of diminished sounds going on here. That leaves it sounding disjointed almost on purpose, but repetition legitimizes.

It's pretty short.

Now, I actually like the section with the low bass. I'd focus more on that and repeat it more often so that it becomes our chorus. Everything else doesn't really seem to be leading anywhere, especially because of how short the song is in general.

It's important to remember in kinda just tossing out a piece in 5 hours, it's probably not going to be great, unless you've got a full template up with all your instruments and you have in mind EXACTLY what you intend to do with it. During the average song making process you'll probably spend just that amount of time listening, referencing... maybe hear your piece 200 times at minimum, until you go ear dead. For one thing, I'd go onto some song writing channels, see if you can study up on some very basic music theory (it really does help to fill in the gaps when you're just banging away on the piano roll, hating life because you can't get the sounds you want)

Recommend Signals Music Studios, Holistic Songwriting, Ben Levin... The last one is pretty advanced and almost makes me feel like an idiot when I completely zone out on some technical explanations, but he has a lot of great inspiring videos for when you get that awful writers block making music.

In any case, if you really enjoyed making this piece, and trust me, for starting out, this is pretty damn good, it's worth getting a full version of whatever program you feel comfortable with. Some I'd recommend are FL Studio and Mixcraft, though I've heard good reviews for Cubase and Reaper, and Reaper, if you can learn to use it, is borderline free, or, free trial until you can actually afford to pay for it.

Good luck in your music making endeavors! You're off to a great start!

Here from Review Request Club

Samuka31 responds:

Thanks!

[[REMAKE] Re: Reveris]

I dearly want to hear you revisit this piece. Singing. Has been one of the most moving melodies. Absolutely can't get it out of my head.

Also, your production has really improved.

Troisnyx responds:

Yes, at some point I think a remake of the vocal version of Re:Rev is due. O_O I imagine it'd be quite the spine-tingler when it's done.

Thank you so much for the kind words, and for favouriting this piece! <3

[Leave It Be - Mental State (2/4)]

Enjoying your chords.

Your perc feels flat and centered to me, pretty far down in the mix as well. Samples themselves I like. Snare sounds kind of flat. I'd get a transient shaper on that and possibly sidechain it to your more spacy synths. It also could probably use with some different velocities on that roll. That sounds flat.

Overall, I feel like this track would serve well as a backing, but it's lacking something to bring it into the foreground. It's very slow so without some definite melodic movement it tends to lay there. Maybe add some tinkling or swooshing sound effects here and there, some other SFX throughout.

Mix wise there's a ton of low end reverb ring. I would cut the wet send on that below 300 hz, maybe even cut your reverb tails. I'm a fan of using delay more than reverb honestly. And if I do use reverb, I use the delay after the reverb so as not to muddy the crisp delay. Short reverb tails do a lot more than you think. There is a gated reverb technique that was used in the 80's to get the big spacy snare or perc sound without having a muddy 5 second tail, and I think you could benefit from that with your snare in particular. It's not hard to do, don't worry; there are free plugins abounding for it as well.

I would experiment with more panning and different hihat samples to bring variety to this track. Without perc to drive it, it kind of sits there.

That said, your lead writing isn't bad. When we do have it, it's relaxed, spacey, and I sense that's what you're going for.

Bass wise I would apply some compression. As is, the leads and pads are on top of pretty much everything. Mix wise, your percussion should be loudest -- barring maybe crashes. Those sit in a space all their own. Next, bass should sit in a place where it's audible and driving. Lead should soar above but not lay over top of everything. Pads and other instruments can be spaced into separate channels or doubled with doubler plugins to exist in the space without crowding other instruments out.

Beyond the kind of dragging pace and some issues with a mix, this isn't a bad piece at all. I enjoyed it. :)

NoStereo responds:

Thanks a lot for another awesome review, I really appreciate it!

[My Personal Hell - Mental State (1/4)]

I feel like the waves in the beginning are really centered and separate from the beat itself.

Piano chords are nice, a little... also centered. Try some sort of spatializing doubler plugin, maybe.

You've got a nice little groove by 49. I like the atmosphere.

I would actually bring up your stabbing chords a bit. Although I think they're a little chunky and disjointed compared to the rest of the atmosphere.

I would probably also like a more audible bass than a sine for most portions here. I have pretty generous monitors and the 1:55 section, your glassy tinkles are very loud in comparision to both the bass and percussion. Percussion imo, at least kick and snare, have to do a lot to stand out in a mix.

By 2:28 we're really out of balance. The lead is standing out not because it's mixed in very well but because it's just very loud.

Also, not sure what's going on at the outro. It feels very abrupt.

Overall though I did enjoy listening to the piece. Here from review request.

Some recommendations you may enjoy looking at are the Reaper series of plugins which you can use to clean up a lot of the low end on your instruments and make them sit better in the mix. A lot of people don't realize how much the 250 hz and below bleed on their synths is covering up their basses and kicks. That may be part of the problem here in being able to hear that low sine.

NoStereo responds:

Thanks for the detailed review! It seems most of my issues are mix related and I can definitely hear a few things you pointed out. Looks like I am gonna need some monitor headphones though. I have tools but I am constantly trying to improve what I can do with them!

Ending is definitely abrupt, but by design. I'd very much love it if you listened to the rest of the EP if you'd like. No pressure of course, but I really value this type of review.

https://nostereo.newgrounds.com/audio

[OMO Presents - Octorok Talk - Formative Video Games Podcast 1]

Came here to drop a 5. The only thing I can say is at some points when you talk a bit more loudly the mic distorts.

There are plugins like ERA-R that can help you eliminate that reverb noise, and applying a compressor could help you get a cleaner sound without really having to put in a lot of effort. :)

oldmanorange responds:

Glad you dug the fun, and dialing in the audio levels will come in the next episodes. Thanks for the little tips.

[Phoenix Rising]

Your crash cymbals in the left channel are distorting noticably. I would pan them less harshly.

Hats are sizzling kind of endlessly. Like the reverb just hasn't been cut. Try a compressor and turn up the theshold and take the release down a bit.

I would bring the drums up more in the mix, as well as the vocals, and take the synths down a little. The snare especially needs to come up.

Vocals end up being a whisper compared to the rest of the mix.

Writing is wonderful. Beautiful solos. Very rhythmically concise and musically interesting. There's a ton of red line peaking going on and that really distracted me from an otherwise gorgeous piece.

DanJohansen responds:

I disagree with most of that, obviously. But glad you enjoyed the track man! This is an instrumental tune, the vocals are supposed to be low in volume, if the vox were too loud it would create an anticipation and take too much attention which wouldn't be a good choice considering how little of it it is.

[[Quarl] Drum Sample Pack]

This pleases my brain meat. We will see what we can do.

Quarl responds:

Woohoo! Don't forget you can tweak the individual kit parts as you see fit. Symbolcymbal used the samples but I felt awkward telling him the samps were too loud in his mix. I felt so hypocritical I just was like "woohoo, thanks for using my samples!!"

Really, you can do anything you want with these few noises :)