ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Oinks - Brainfuck]

Don't have headphones on to properly appreciate this, but I LOVE the grooves going on here up through 1:39. Whole track is just weird in a good way :)

01NX5 responds:

I think I mixed this track exclusively for headphone, which was a mistake of mine cause I did master this track only in headphones and without speakers, even though this was made on mobile and phone spekaers aren't the greatest, but maybe I shouldn't fully rely mastering on headphones.

But mastering aside, I'm glad you enjoyed the track, it was, for me and my sakes, risky cause I perfer to write more complex tracks whereas the minimal and repetitive approach I had on this track, I like how it came out and I appreciate your comment! :D

[White Knuckle (feat Ilya Mirosh)]

Decided to listen to this in my car. Was not disappointed. Ilya's vocal performance is an advertisement in itself. Very well deserved front page. I would actually back off on the compression on the master just a bit. Or the reverb coming in from the drums and low end. Otherwise sounding great. Like the stuff I used to listen to in middle school, and that's a high compliment! Think Breaking Benjamin and so on

FarFromSundown responds:

Thank you! I take the correlation to Breaking Benjamin as a high compliment. That's moreso what I was going for, so that's really encouraging to hear :D

[Unusual Times Advent Calendar 2024 - Song 2]

Here comes Santa claus?????

RealTin3Sn responds:

OMG you got it! You're first person to guess one of my songs LOL.

[Cut the Line]

Came here to drop 5 from the trailer

ChordC responds:

Appreciate it, mate! Keep on making banger tunes!

[WHAT REMAINS]

I really appreciate the technical talk on this one. I'm a plugin and sample hoarder, so it gives me new ideas for junk to fill my hard drive with ❤️

I would write more on the production and arrangement, but I hate typing on mobile and can't hear properly the finer aspects of mix anyway. But it does sound good on my phone, so that's a plus!

KI1 responds:

Always happy to find someone else who likes to go nerd mode. I'm sure we'll use those samples... one day.

You aren't missing too much this time - although I've been getting into panning a lot lately, trying to get W I D E. Thanks for stopping by again :)

[Just break it.]

This reminds me of 90s breakbeats, videogame music. If that's where you were going, I'd check out the Archive's 90s sample CDs. You'll have a lot of fun with them if you have the patience to sort through the samples.

Nice, simple little theme. Looks unmastered from the peaks, but not bad at all

OPFX responds:

Whoa, Nice find!

[Haunted Triplets (Wip)]

The swinging beats omg <3

Tapestoppa responds:

Thank you! We had the option to either do 6/8 or triplets, I figured triplets would be more bouncy and catchy so we went with it :)

[Anj_Pain Bodies (Gminor)]

Sounds great. Only thing it could use is a competitive (loud) master. I love your vocal delivery.

Anjovi responds:

My thanks!

[Toast]

This is odd, in a good way. It's hitting on several familiar points in my library of references, from corporate, to girly j-pop, to video-game EDM, and beyond. I don't quite know what to make of it, perhaps because it's so unfamiliar, but I do think it's well composed.

I also think that the level of snare and cymbal to lead, pad and so on, as well as master could be approached again some time in the future, while studying references in these similar genres (where you can find similar instrumentation in particular and have an idea of where to place them)

The jump in volume at 2:52 was unexpected, but again, I think you've written a satisfying progression, and the piece concludes in a pretty satisfactory way.

My favorite part overall was the guitar. I think it was wonderfully mixed and the picking style quite interesting to listen to. Great work and certainly an unexpected piece for me to stumble upon this round!

icantpronouncethis responds:

Thank you for the thorough review.

I was worried about the guitar. I haven't gotten the chance to mix real instruments so this was a challenge in many ways.

A lot of my influence do come from the genre you listed. (Snail's House, in the blue shirt, San Holo, etc). So it's really cool you were able to point those out.

One of the thing I should do more often is to use reference track when I am mixing. Honestly never really done that before. I was wondering if you can give me some tips or general information about doing that.

Thank you so much once again.

[Last in Line]

The chords on the vocal must have been quite hard to sing -- you rarely hear them in comtemporary alt rock, punk, ska, and indie.

I would appreciate a bit less distance from the mic, recording at a lower volume to eliminate room noise. I think I hear some but I can't be quite sure due to vocal treatment. There are a few good vocal plugins I recommend also, for dialing in a quick rock tone, Howard Benson vocals being number one for rock, and Xvox for smooth lead vocals. Some very cool things that can be done with both.

Your adlibs were mixed perfectly imo. I wish the leads were given just a bit more of an up-front, aggressive treatment (the singing will speak for itself, given the right edge to cut through!)

I also like your writing in general. That little G#3-A-G# is one of my favorite riffs, and the felt suspension of G# makes for nice moody dissonance. Overall, the feeling of being flippant and slightly unhinged brings me a nostalgia like you wouldn't believe. Well deserved frontpage.

Areas for improvement -- clarity especially in the lower registers and guitars and vocal balance. EQ in some places, again particularly guitars. Having a reference or 3 handy in this genre and comparing the overall sound profiles, both auditorily and with a spectrogram, will help in this area.

Otherwise, this is nearing on industry standard level mix and master. Keep doing what you're doing! I love it :)

Ajtastic responds:

Thanks so much for the awesome feedback and recommendations! I really appreciate it :)