ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dragon Slayer]

Interesting, spacious piece. I'm having a bit of a time judging due to hardware issues on my end.

Mix is a bit reverb heavy for my tastes. That wet has a messy tail on it. Tone it down a bit.

2:21, that hi-hat splashing could probably do with being shut a bit tighter.

Compositionally, I enjoy your lead writing. 3:18 chugging section was a bit abrupt for my taste, and I would like to hear a bit more of your leads. Mix wise, they were occasionally a bit washed out.

Your drums, with the exception of the toms, sound pretty flat. Kick is a bit flabby -- tuip-tuip-y. Snare also leaves room for improvement. I want to hear more of that top head ringing. Never be afraid to apply tape saturation/EQ/etc. to fatten up a snare. A nice 80's-ish snare sample might have even done the job if you blended it with the current sample.

Panning was pretty natural to my ears.

Cymbals were hiding in the mix. I'd take them up just a bit.

I also didn't like how disjointed 4:41 sounded from the rest of the track as a whole. It would have made a better bridge than an outro.

Overall, pretty good power metal, a couple hiccups in structure, tension, and release. Melody is fairly catchy, but it's missing that little something to give it some wow to go with the weird. As is, still jammin' though. Nice work!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

350teric responds:

Well, thanks for the review and the high grade of 4. While reading your suggestions and personal preferences in this review I got an impression that I would score something like a 2 or below. Regarding the mix, I'm always aiming for a natural sounding blend, avoiding compression and clipping, which too often is present in 90% of modern music and contributes to the "loudness war" of mixes. (Conventional) Song structure is present, but should be perceived through the prism of progressive metal style. Thanks again! :)

[! MDK - Press Start ( GD cut )]

"You voted 5 on this on July 31st, 2017 at 3:10 AM Eastern."

Stumbled upon this again in my GD search engine trawling.

LexRodent responds:

Almost 13 months later, and the joke it's still alive and kicking :D

[Shüpphedős a Talay(Dupstep RMX V2)]

I have no idea what's happening. Hurts my ears. A lot, with the screeching. I also have a hard time hearing the percussion over said screeching.

CanCerY responds:

Blabla, make betta noob

[8-bit Joyride Sackbot]

Super repetitive. I'm not really sure what's going on? Also, it's fairly quiet.

PuffballYoshi responds:

This was made in Beepbox. Sorry. Thanks for viewing!

[Contender]

Caustic DAW -- heard that one is notoriously problematic to work with. I would turn down the wet signal on your reverb and increase the low cut. It's creating a very muddy texture across virtually all elements of your track. Listen to the cutoff at the end and you can hear all that low frequency mud it's adding over top.

This piece is interesting. Harmonic minor. I'm having a little bit of a hard time hearing a lot of what's going on due to the volume. You might try rendering your projects first with Caustic, if it is your only option, then amplifying them in Audacity, which is free and will not allow you to amplify tracks to the point of clipping without doing so intentionally.

If you do have a computer, Traction DAW is free. I have several free VST recommendations, also, in case that's up your alley.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

YHTFLKC responds:

Thanks for the review yo!! Yea caustic can be a pain to work around sometimes I definitely need to get something more professional but Im just kind of making music as a hobby right now cause some or all of the time my phone is all I have at my disposal lol need to get my PC back asap and start trying other programs maybe get some better headphones or at least stop using my phone speaker for making music when I'm in a hurry, bad call on that one, woops..!

[Author wind - Future]

Intro sounds good... may have too much reverb. Turn down that wet signal and increase low cut. By 0:31 I'm noticing it muddying up your mix on every instrument you've applied it to. 0:56 it seems to happen to that pluck as well.

1:18 drop is simple but gets the job done. I would pull down your fizzy ... saws?

By 1:57 I can hear your reverb on that lead over your stabs. That's not good. It starts sounding like we're in a tin can.

Arrangement wise, this piece is structurally sound but fairly repetitive. I start to lose attention before 2:47. Perhaps factor in a key change or another lead some time at or before this section.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Authorwind responds:

Thx ;)

[And Falling]

5/4 -- initially it sounds like 4/4 with some pauses for effect. I'll have to try this some time.

Your chord changes are great. I could do without so much reverb, especially with that low rumble -- would prefer a straight low timpani roll. Too much verb sounds really dirty. Notice by 1:45 how the low rumble is almost distorting in the mix, pumping in and out? It sounds like improperly managed side chain, and the melody/accompaniment is having problems sticking out through the noise?

Turn your reverb wet signal down and increase low cut. It sounds wonderful all the way up on solo instruments, but so dirty on big sections. I'm getting a hardcore tin-can feel.

I also notice throughout your big section there is constant distortion every few seconds. This tells me the track has been mixed too loud before any mastering FX were applied -- if they were applied. I can't tell due to the severe crackling.

It's a shame. This is a great piece otherwise!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

SplatterDash responds:

Hey thanks for reviewing and judging my NGADM piece! This actually reminded me I have yet to reply to Tainted's review on a different song of mine so it makes this all the more needed lol

I think you're the first person to mention anything about the reverb at the beginning. I've heard about the original chords in this being a bit wonky when this was on Chips Compo (which was fixed here), but I never got the reverb being too much. Still, I can see how a timpani roll - or maybe even a single hit - could do better in the long run than the reverb.

I listened again to 1:45, and I'm gonna say it now and get it out of the way: this is only the second time I actually did reverb in something, the first being Running Back, so I am pretty much a complete noob to the process. In the piece I did go 5 dB below the regular volume during bass kicks and bring it back up to original... but that meant "everything" and not "everything BUT the melody" (I felt it was off to do it like that when I did it in Running Back). So that's most likely why the melody never came out during then, it was because the melody went down with the other parts and I was a complete dummy with sidechaining lol

I went back and checked the reverb, and I found out that the reverb I was using came with the instrument, and it's just a dial that goes from 0 to 127 (ableton lite is like baseline on that stuff lol). But it honestly taught me something, that using audio effects instead of instrument effects can help out quite a bit.

I've never noticed distortion on the big section - I don't even hear crackling or anything. I think it may be the drums that you're hearing, but I don't hear any crackling or clipping on my end, and nor did the other people who saw this on Chips Compo. In truth, I did apply some mastering volume, but I don't know if that may be the issue here. I could be completely wrong, and nobody has told me except for you, but yeah, I don't hear clipping or crackling on my end, and it may just simply be drums going.

Thank you again for the review! I'm hoping that I move on, but seeing the competition I don't think I have much of a chance. Still, thank you for reviewing this and other fellow NGUAC entries :D

[Partially Surdo]

Interesting intro. Your piano seems to be distorting in the left channel. Possibly mixed too loudly. Louder sections are distorting in both channels. Unsure why it's tremeloed.

0:55 section has a great progression, but sub frequencies are too loud.

Actually sounds like the entirety of the track has been mixed too loud, especially the sub, and the bass is overdriving excessively.

1:55 guitar needs to be double-tracked 100% left and right.

Guitar solo is great, but there's so much sub noise, the track seems cluttered. A large part of the problem seems to be reverb or chorus on your bass, perhaps artificial stereo expanding. I would take all of your reverbs, turn down the wet signal, and increase low cut to about 300-500 Hz, depending on the instrument. I feel a heavy tin-can vibe.

By 3:03 your piano is distorting noticably.

I recommend taking a moment to look at some mixing tutorials for your chosen genres, metal, d&b, and trance respectively, as well as Ben Levin's "How to Hear Compression."

Were the mix problems in this piece fixed, I'd give a solid 5. Compositionally, this is gold. I have no further comments. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

spectronoid97 responds:

Thanks so much for the feedback!

I still have to train my ear to this type of problems, but when you mentioned it, I did really notice them. Definetely going to take a look at these recommendations you made and I hope to improve my mixing skills. Thanks a lot! :D