ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sugar High]

Nice atmosphere on this piece. It does sound fairly upbeat.

My gripe, the the drums are pretty buried in the mix -- and they kind of sound like stock FL drums. Very thin and tinny. That said, their arrangement is pretty solid. Kind of reminds me of old 70's music in that way. Your drum panning is pretty good, though I personally would have panned hats to the left channel in this piece since you've got your crash rolls on the right.

Thematically, this piece keeps a steady pace, and I like your bass line -- though I'd have loved to hear a bit more of it throughout.

I would pull your leads and pads down a tad and raise the overall volume of the piece. You may even take advantage of side-chain compression on your choruses some and/or compress the piece. Right now, it sounds unmastered.

Overall, enjoyed your work. I'd have liked to hear maybe some mallets (bells or w/e) now that you mention it, but I think the fantasia synths work well enough on their own. Keep it up!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ColinMuir responds:

Hey thanks man. Yeah i can understand what you said on mastering. I'm usually in a weird mix of thinking it needs to be edited, compressed, etc. or just sound how it is with the peaks. I'll hopefully figure out how to do my songs better that way, thank you for the input. :)

[Forever Jazz]

This is midi? Man, someone is really pushing the envelope.

My complaints can mostly be reserved to over-reverb and hearing a lot more of the subby thud on the upright bass than the actual notes themselves. 1:41's reverb is a huge example of reverb overhang.

Overall, however, nothing necessarily sounds bad, barring maybe that snappy doot-doot lead trumpet, un-muted.

I would probably recommend a different e-guitar than Halion's admittedly not bad jazz guitar. Ample Sound's AGG2 and others are far superior after having done some demos.

Compositionally, this is a treat. Starts off with some sweet swing -- great ghost notes on that perc. Sax solo through 0:37 is blazin', almost sounds human, which is a testament to your writing. Cannot say the same for jazz guitar. Drum and bass solos are great with the exception of the aforementioned subby frequencies on that bass being out of control.

Around 2:04 I would have gone with a bit more relaxed releases and probably humanized those chords a bit more. Bass writing through that section is wonderful.

I'd have liked a little bit more of a hold on the final note of the outro.

Overall, great piece. Really enjoyed it! Only wish I had more to write, haha.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AzulJazz responds:

Thank you so much ADR3-N, for this really helpful and detailed review!!

[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 ;)