ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 :)

[Quiting Music]

This is stressful, relaxing, disconcerting, and somehow dizzily cheerful at the same time. I don't understand, but that weird portamento shit going on with the piano is making my ears wiggle.

As always, your creative approach to sound design makes me feel like a wee babe. I feel your pain with the writer's block.

The only thing I don't like is that LFO around 2:00. And the final section, whiile immensely groovy, feels a bit unfinished. The drums miight be clipping. I can't tell. I'd like some wonky FX on the hats, maybe some stereo play. But now I'm just nit-picking.

Great work! :)

Quarl responds:

Thanks for the review Adr, you the best <3

[Evening Road (v2)]

Dude, you are making absolute fucking magic. No words. Genesis music with nice modern sounding compression applied. Leads could probably come down .1 dB but other than that, perfect.

[Aura (NGRMC 2018)]

Nice slow intro, filter sweeps, etc. Beautiful fill bringing us in, totally unexpected! I had to hear it again.

Now, your "snare" sounds like a clap. Needs some bottom head sound. You can try blending a snare sample, etc., but as is, super thin.

I can also really hear that stereo expander effect. I would advise against using it on an entire track, at least to this wideness. It can start to sound like a cheaply applied verb. I notice it expecially on your chorus. Sounds washed out, like standing a football field away from the main melody, crammed into a gymnasium on PA speakers.

That said, I don't have the same criticisms of your phrasing. I found the change warranted -- I would have gotten bored after hearing the same melody for like, a week tbh -- and you've done some magical things with it.

Great work! Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

ClockbeatAdelony87 responds:

Thanks a lot! <3

[Zophar's Domain (NGRMC Remix)]

Very nice video game. Initially I was thrown off by the entrance of the bass at 0:11. I'm disappointed to find we keep hanging out on that note as it's really dissonant most of the time. Even just moving it between 0:11 and 0:13 would have been better.

It does sound like an old SNES game, which I appreciate. I don't have any real useful critique that you couldn't have guessed on your own. I'd like to hear this piece expanded and developed a bit more. As is, it feels like we're repeating the same idea over and sort of just hanging out there. It's also really short, which I understand to be part of a busy schedule -- I barely had any time for music when I was in college, and I didn't go to an ivy league school if you catch my drift.

Still, definitely revisit this later.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

GFThePlayer responds:

Thank you for your critique, and yeah, this isn't my best work admittedly, as I could've put much more effort into the making.
Thanks again!