ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

["Lose/Lose"]

Due to how naked this song is, it's very easy for the vocal and guitar to sound as if in two separate places. Guitar playing is very clean. I would recommend changing the way you record your vocals, your setup. I can hear a lot of room tone, where that isn't the case for the guitar. The vocal also doesn't sound very compressed, nor up front in the mix. Also, the performance could be a bit more passionate, but hey.

Your songwriting is great, and so is your structure. Keep at it! The only thing holding you back sounds like is mic setup and maybe a little self-consciousness. That's not a lot in the grand scheme of things, so keep your head up!

LANPartyAnimal responds:

Appreciate you taking the time to listen and provide feedback

[The Expedition]

This track would get 100% love from me if the huge amount of reverb were cleaned up prior to the drop at 1:54. Literally almost nothing else is wrong with it except there is a lot of low frequency noise on the verb and long tails, resulting in a muddy mix.

Your drop writing and sound design is wonderful, your melodies are compelling.

Minor gripes aside from that, the electric guitar is in the center channel; best practice is to double track the electric guitar with 2 separate instances, one humanized, one not, and pan them 100% left and right opposite one another. This creates depth and a thicc sound.

I love your drop rhythm and growls

I do think on the first drop the snare is getting buried a bit though.

In short, keep all the ideas you have for this track. They're freaking great. Clean up the mix and it will be PERFECT :)

OkuuMusic responds:

thx for the feedback!

[Doppelgänger]

Indeed sounds thicc

Two things I wish:
One: that the track were mastered -- although it looks some compression may have been applied to the track based on overall waveform. If this is the case tbh I would throw it in Audacity and hit amplify and this is a quick fix for quiet waveform.

Two, the snare were more audible

Overall great groove and intonation on your playing. Love the chugs.

Also love the clunky bass tone. Sexy. I can't tell if it's been chorused but if so, I would bring the freqs below 180 or so hz on the bass into mono and emphasize some of the mids. Also, it sounds like you're quad tracking -- are you panning all the guitars hard left and hard right or no? If yes, try bringing them in a bit more. I'm feeling a weak center in the mix. Though perhaps some of that is the drums lacking presence. The snare in particular, I can only really hear the bottom rattle and the transients for a hair of a second.

Kick drum is also a bit out front relative to the rest of the kit. Cymbals are at about appropriate volume.

I also think for NG you could make a version which properly loops, or just punch in a final stinger note here and not loop the track.

I'm stoked to hear what else you come up with. Seriously great grooving.

76/100

BALDORF responds:

Thanks! And really great feedback!

I struggle with mastering and drums quite a bit, so it's good to get some specific notes on what seems to be lacking and how, appreciate it!

Indeed, I am quad tracking, at least I think lol not very good with technical terms.
But I layer two rhythms hard left/right and layer two leads just slightly left/right, generally speaking.

Oh and one last note, it isn't supposed to loop, I just thought it sounded good to go back and conclude with the opening.

[Novenarious]

NGADM shortnotes:
Piece has a great melody and good arrangement for the genre, in 9/4 which is an interesting innovation.

Mix and master are where it could stand to improve. Master could use more compression.

Bass and synths should be sidechained to kick and snare a bit harder, enabling turning the kick down. The kick is creating a pumping feeling under the master compressor, telling me it is potentially a few dB too high. There is also a bit much reverb, and the lead is spread slightly too thin.

Besides that, great groove!

82/100

MrSpud8 responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[Feel free to freestyle.]

A fantastic laid back beat to freestyle on. Only thing it lacks is a hard master. Meaning it's a little quiet. And the 808 could come up in volume a bit

The 808 sounds like it might be out of tune by one semitone on the tonic note of the beat, but I kind of like it actually. You could open the midi back up and play around with leaving it where it is at the start of the bar and lower it by one later in the bar -- hard to explain over text but transpose it up 12 semitones and you'll hear what I mean -- it doesn't match the bottom note of the piano chord.

Either way, more like this please

TonyaBROWN-LIFFORD responds:

Thanks, I've been trying to produce better, and I love hearing people's honest response about this.