ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tree of Life]

I can find very few things separating this piece from contemporary filmscore of the last few decades, beyond perhaps a little bit of mix balancing here or there, a bit of panning or stereo-staging. It is suitably ambient without boring the listener, makes great use of various orchestral lead patches and their articulations such that they are almost indistinguishable from live playing, and is emotionally varied with fantastic transitions. Very satisfying listen.

HollandAlbright responds:

Thank you so much! I really appreciate that

[5. Moonflowers Grow From My Skin]

I'm rating 5, because your story made this grown ass woman cry like a little girl. I was teased relentlessly in school too, for being fat, for being ugly. None of these things was actually true. I look back at my photos, and I looked like a normal kid, even a good looking one. I just never wore makeup and was AVERAGE weight, not heroin chic. >.>

My mom unfortunately kind of played into this by telling me whenever my hair was even slightly sweaty, when I had a pimple or three, or if my clothes didn't fit right because, well, I was still growing. She didn't mean to, but she did. And the elderly lady my mom sat with couldn't see too great, so she said, "my, what a handsome young man you've raised," when I went to visit. The teasing at school about whether I was a boy or girl was ridiculous.

But my grandma always told me I was pretty like my mother, and so did my dad. I wish it stuck!

One thing that did stick was this, a verse from the Bible if I'm not mistaken: God is no respecter of persons. Meaning, it doesn't matter how much money you have, how hot you are, or what you can do. God looks at us all as equal.

GlowBoyMusic responds:

My heart is with you. I am glad to see you around here once again, ADR3-N.
Everything you have practically said from your experience, I can charcoal a tick next to in similarity of my own experience. Body image issues start at the most tender root of someones life, and the longer it festers, the worse the resulting damage. And when parents ignore or otherwise escalate the agony, you feel as if you could dissolve into nothing.

Truly, you are not alone. Trauma can be cruel, unrelenting, and unforgiving. but when it comes to putting it into a piece of art, it can be a key to relieving some of that burden from yourself.

This whole album, is an example of me relieving myself from my trauma, forgiving my past regardless of its severity, and sharing with the world a ‘canvas’ made from sound. Colour, texture, tuning, length, and emotional direction will drastically change, and perhaps sound ‘unaudioable’ or even ‘corrupt’ in some songs, and some will sound polished, defined, and almost radio ready-like. All of this is suppose to represent my mind and heart as I grow, each track number is my age, and each description is like the caption of a fine art piece, telling the story about this point of my life in as much detail as my memory can allow.

Just remember, whether someone is spiritual or atheistic matters not, spiritual health means more than just your faith — it means rediscovering yourself through the aftermath, and learning how to walk again, and find peace with yourself inside; and out.

Mad love, and thank you for coming by!
Glow.

[Dj Halit - Basil]

That sidechain is actually a bit distractingly sharp and aggressive. Part of that is the kick and snare being a bit too loud at points. I recommend studying some reference tracks of your choice for house and see how to emulate the things you like about them in your own work.

Overall pleasant chord progression and good melodic writing!

DJ-Halit responds:

I'm glad I got some feedback on the sidechain specifically. I'll take your advice on board. Thank you for reviewing my song! :)

[black hole]

This perfectly suits my taste, with the exception that I think the bass could have more impact in the stereo space, had it more presence in mono below 130 hz and were it turned up quite a bit more. My headphones tend to overemphasize bass, so if it sounds a bit underplayed to me, it probably sounds more so on other systems. Double check that and let me know if you feel the same!

cad-mium responds:

yep I did this before I had gotten my hands on a subwoofer for my speakers, and my hd560s doesn't have the best bass response so I used to have a hard time properly mixing the bass. but I can hear what you're talking about now

[BASCUTI - SLEEP PARALYSIS]

Is that Ample Bass I hear, or is it Shreddage II?

BASCUTI responds:

Ample Bass!

[Too far gone]

With a little more compression on the master, some more clip on your drums, a revisit of overall eq of the tracks to de-emphasize some of the freqs around 200 hz and bring up your sub, this would 100% bang for me. You've got great groove, a solid theme, good atmosphere and transitions, and interesting sound design. Great work!

Another note, my monitors consistently overestimate bass frequencies. Given that, I would suggest turning down your kick very slightly, and bringing your bass up considerably. Your sidechain is hard enough that it's safe to do so. That may fix 80% of what I was complaining about.

Aistis responds:

Listening again on my monitor headphones, the most annoying part for me is the low frequencies of the kick drum. I've also compressed the bass a bit and made it ever so slightly louder. Although the rest of the mix also needs to be revisited, I don't think I have the skills to properly EQ everything. I'll upload the edited mix once the judging period of the underdog contest ends.

Thanks for reviewing :)

[3manon - Irish Adventures]

Overall the composition, effort, and ensemble I hear in this piece aren't bad at all. I'm just having trouble with the clarity. The amount of reverb is occasionally masking the finer aspects of your mix, particularly on larger sections where the kick comes in. I recommend taking this value down a bit, but more than that I recommend surgically cleaning out the low freq noise via low cut on your reverb. Hopefully it has that function.

Great to see this kind of experimentation going on in the AP. I actually love bagpipes!

3manonMusic responds:

Ah, Thank you so much for the feedback! Bagpipes are hella underrated indeed, just like the throat singing from last year XD
And yea, when I submitted this piece to my mixing class I got the same feedback about the reverb. Overall I think the composition kind of balanced it out tho?? That's why I submitted this one from this year, because I think it is my best composition. That being said, thank you for the feedback, and if there's something else you want to talk about don't be afraid to hit me up in pms :)

[Souichirou Tinder Match]

Some kinder attention to mix, side-chain, and panning would have made this an easy 9.5 for me. Your transitions are good, breaks are crazy interesting, and melodic themes are easy on the ears.

For some reason the bass doesn't feel very driving despite being present in the mix. It feels like it's been stereo spread or chorused in some way perhaps even clipped beyond its limits to keep a good sub balance. Kick is also not sticking out above it but rather sitting under it. Snare and kick in particular need more volume.

Leads and pads also don't sound super clean to my ears. They are sticking out above the snare which typically is a no-go for DnB.

That said, great atmosphere and composition. I really enjoyed it!

2keg responds:

Totally agree, the mix was really hard to "mix", I just threw in the towel towards the end

Anywho thanks for review Mr.ADR3-N

[||TRANZQUILIZER]

This makes me want to make music. Rhythmically, a bop. Got some strange harmonies I don't quite understand in your stabs on occasion, and as you mentioned, it is quite compressed and lacking in range. BUT, I think revisiting again with a mind to clear out wet FX where they aren't necessarily needed, think about your reverb and delay sends -- that low freq noise below 200 hz or so can safely be cut away leaving only the heavenly high freq "air"

Nice work :)

NeuralDelverM responds:

Thank you, always room for improvement so I appreciate the detailed constructive criticism.

[SENTIENTS]

This is sort of a hybrid between the modern day midtempo music, house, and synthwave, and I love that.

1:33 I would check your bass levels and see if you can get that bass more into mono. I'm hearing something overpronounced around the 150-200 hz range. It may be percussion.

I think you probably already know what's up with the rest of the mix. Minor gripes of some reverb wet signals muddying the mix, cymbals occasionally washing out with white noise at points, sounding naked and overpresent at others, and not having a lot going on with panning or slap-backs in alternate channels to keep things interesting.

Your vox chops could also come more to the front of the mix and pan around. The mix to me is either balanced slightly right, or I'm losing more hearing. Check that out and lmk.

Fivening for friendship goals

82/100

KI1 responds:

Thanks! I'd love to give actual midtempo a proper go one day.

Scratched my head for a while on why that part sounds wack. After looking back, it might have something to do with the fact I duped the 'lead' synth (which has a ton of unison) and put it an octave down, which may have muddied everything(?).

Really helpful feedback there, thank you. I think it's well past time I improve from the 'put-on-some-reverb/convolver-and-go' approach I've had for too long. Panning has been something I've been tentatively getting into, going a bit crazier certainly couldn't hurt.

I'm not too proud of the chops if I'm honest - cringing if I turn them up, but not hating them enough to get rid of them entirely... I think you may be right (lol), I'm starting to learn that panning isn't just a simple set-and-forget affair. Looking at where I've left the panning knobs on the mixer, it looks about as right-leaning as a Reddit centrist.

Yay, friends! :D A very generous score, thank you.