ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[You'll Get Yours]

I may not agree with that first couplet from an ideological standpoint, but song as a whole is great. I only have a few critiques on the mix/FX.

Vocals are a couple dB too loud, even into the big outro section. Sound a bit too dry as well until the 2:18 outro.

1:36, sibilant s sound sticks out.

Otherwise, it seems to be a bit over-reverbed in places, 2:34-2:35 started clipping -- seems mixed a bit too loud before . You could get that nice, silky, spacious lead tone by double-tracking it 5-15% L-R, then applying light reverb via sends.

Enjoyed the track. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

dude2312 responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I am so glad you enjoyed it, ADR3-N! I am getting great tips by everyone here on Newgrounds, I am loving the people over here!

[Yugoslavia 1982]

Side chain intro is interesting, but I would either take down your brass/bass, or bring up your percussion. It's hiding in the mix.

Song-wise, this is too short for me to really give a good score. A good 30 seconds of the track is comprised of intro and outro fade-out, leaving only about 45 seconds of music. The elements you've brought together are good in and of themselves, but there hasn't been enough development to evaluate those ideas fairly.

That said, I will attempt to go instrument by instrument through the piece.

Your snare is very low-mid heavy. Sounds pitched down. I would recommend distortion or saturation to give it a bit of grit, and if it still doesn't work, either layer a sample or swap it out entirely.

Kick is fine, but bass is loud enough in the mix that it sounds small in comparision.

Hi-hat sounds standard for trap music, which is an interesting combination. It could probably use more body in the mids.

Brasses have a bit too much reverb and at times sound mixed too loud, but I really would have liked to hear another section like 0:47. That's probably a symptom of the track's length talking.

Bass sounds octaved, which is fine. I really have no critique other than it being slightly too loud for the mix to sustain.

Score would have been at least a 3/5 if the track were longer, but I enjoyed what I did hear. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Chickenizer responds:

Hi, thank you for listening and so many good words of advice!

I agree about the percussion hiding in the mix. As for the composition, I am really kicking myself for not developing it into what this >sketch< promises the listener. Not much time I had, do something I had to (probably one of the few Yoda talks that seem to make no sense at all, lol).

Saturating my sound is definitely one thing that I should look into. I'm aware of the technique, just green. Also, after all the years, still gotta be very careful not to overdo the reverb.

May I ask what monitors you listened to this track on?

Thank you once again,
Cheers!

[At The Speed Of Light (Deathmix) Rough version]

Wow, apologies for how long this took to get out -- this is my second try getting a review out to you. Computer issues.

Now, to the track, it sounds eerily familiar to a track I've heard before -- oh, now I get it, Dimrain. It took me a second to recognize. I can see you've really gone the extra mile to try and switch things up.

Arrangement wise, there's nothing really wrong here, although I do find myself wanting more drum fills every 4th/8th bar just to keep things fresh. You might also try something outside of the usual Kick Snare Kick Snare pattern.

I'm finding it hard to hear your bass, not so much volume wise -- the texture. A square wave would have worked better. Sines are best in the sub, layered with another bass. With such open spacing between your bass and very little tenor/baritone presence, I feel like I'm constantly waiting for a chorus to hit. Texture feels very tinny.

Those opening crashes were used nicely, also quite dynamic with the softer crashes. Definitely found myself longing for more of that throughout. I would have liked some cymbal rolls as well to complement those sweep transitions.

The more I listen, the better the song sounds to my ears, and I hear some nice things you're doing with your percussion here and there.

I would definitely recommend changing out your choir and string synths for something better, with better attack/release. The ones you have are very muddy. If I'm not crazy, pocket blakus and many others are still available for free -- check the free kontakt library thread in the audio forum. Another option, which I highly recommend, is Synful Orchestra, which can emulate all kinds of instruments, like clarinet and french horn, sometimes these ears can only tell the difference when I've written the parts myself, lol. It's also much more light on RAM than any other instrument I've used.

I would also recommend not writing your strings all in one midi envelope and instead writing each different part, SATB style, separate. Many instruments do have great legato settings, but we destroy them by writing block chords. Writing them separately will also help with realism if you also humanize them separately -- makes a huge difference. With kontakt instruments, you can load up multiple instances of the same instrument, slightly detune them, pan them around, etc.

Your percussion are hiding in the mix. Remember, percussion are the loudest instruments in any song, but we don't tend to hear them that way -- because our brains are focused on the music, not the rhythmic pulse. You've got to bring up those drums. Also, sounds like you have some flat samples as well. You may want to try tape saturating, distorting, or compressing them individually.

I can see from the wave form that this piece is probably unmastered. I definitely recommend some tutorials on mixing and mastering. They will take your craft to the next level. :)

Let me know if there's something here I haven't addressed. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

death2go responds:

Thanks for the review man! You gave me a lot of stuff to look at, which I will surely do whenever I have time!

[Crossroads]

Here from Discord. Ooh, nice vocal line in your intro. I'd like to hear a finished take on this, perhaps with a little bit more volume on that line. The strings that come in at 0:48 or so almost drown ya girl out.

I'm sensing a bit of repetition in this piece, maybe for dramatic effect. Minus a star for abrupt cutoff though, and that's pretty much it.

AceMantra responds:

Hey! Thanks for the input! ;)
Out of all of the old songs I sifted through, I might actually pick this one up again and continue to work on it.
I agree with what you mentioned at 0:48. I initially used a full choir, but decided to stick with a soloist to hopefully project loneliness.
Thanks again for dropping by. :)

[Sodium]

Didn't expect guitar tracks with this instrumentation.

I would have liked more modulation on your synths in that intro. Not sure what's going on at 0:35 but that lead is not meshing very well with those guitars.

Structure of this song is good -- but that drop, something is missing. Sounds like the sub bass there needs to be sidechained to the 1:11 bass wobbles. As is they're competing for the same sound space and the sub is winning, resulting in a muddy mix.

1:36, had I not looked, I would have thought this was a premature end to the song. Actually, that could have worked. I feel like you really just bring back the same elements we've heard earlier around for round two here aside from the swung perc. 2nd drop could have gone to the 1st or 2nd half of the first drop and made a much more cohesive song.

Also, perc is hiding in the mix. I wouldn't bring them up though. I would bring everything else down until they shine!

Walpang responds:

Good to know 👍

[lchavasse - Lunar Abyss (Ummabeats Remix)]

I don't think I've ever heard the original to this song.

This mix is a bit sibilant, lacking in the low mid range, and your percussion is too loud -- sounds side-chained and too loud at the same time.

Other than that, your transitions are great.

1:05 sample is too loud. Volume levels as a whole feel inconsistent throughout, like those drop wobbles. Interesting approach with the short brass section. I was hoping that would be more developed.

The mix as a whole on your drops feels very empty for some reason, other than that really loud growl. Probably could have used some offbeat or backbeat chord stabs.

Did like the piano outro.

UmmabeatsMusic responds:

Thank you for your detailed review.
I can understand everything and hope that I'll do better stuff in the future.

[Perception]

Wave sample panning around so hard was a bit confusing. I see that you're playing with that to create a soundscape. I recommend some delay on opposite sides to balance the sound out. Rain sample was abrupt.

The chorus on that piano is so hard, it sounds like a flanger. I would probably recommend turning it down, playing with the settings some more... I'm really not liking how it seems like those harmonies you lay over it at 0:55 are just the same interval transposed around. It isn't very exciting. This actually sounds like Mixcraft piano with classic chorus on it. I'm not for sure on that though.

I would probably take this piece back to the drawing board and studying chord inversions, if nothing else, to help you spice up those chords. 3:15 is probably the most varied, exciting bit of your piece. More like that!

Also, watch for clipping. It sounds like parts of this track were mixed too loud. Protip, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's safe to apply master FX like compression, EQ, and limiters. It's hard to squeeze a track under -6 dB when you're used to mixing everything all the way up, but it's worth it.

TheB34R responds:

First off, you are quiet right when it comes to Mixcraft... The rain sample is a stock one from Mixcraft and this was more of a test piece if anything that ended up becoming my assessment piece making it get a little rushed. I'm starting to completely remake this track as now I feel like I can do so much better with this song. With the piece at 3:15 I'm looking around at how that part worked, and just tinking around with this piece. And with mixing I'm still yet to get used to it, mixing is a little hard at times, but that is also the reason why I have so many lost projects just because I could never mix them well. Again, this was being slowly made at a time but then it became my assessment for school meaning I got a small time limit and this got rushed out. I'm kinda glad for this feedback though because it gives me something to work with, and knowledge of things I could do better

[Space Academy]

That's one unique intro. I'm not sure what's going on at 0:17 and beyond. There is a lot of tension but hard to find the releases. There are a lot of different and interesting melodies entering the fray at various points, but I'm not able to understand what melodic statement you're trying to make.

Also, your chords in the lower register are very dense and chunky sounding. I recommend studying some videos on chord and voice leading, as well as inversions and chord voicing. These will help you make the statements you want.

There are some places this piece shines like 2:03, but even these are muddied up with mix clutter, probably too much reverb, etc. Try turning down the FX wet and hi-passing your 'verb sends. These frequencies tend to gradually build up and muddy your mix. It's also beneficial to manage your different instrument reverbs via send tracks. I.e. create send track for appropriate 100% wet reverb, put reverb on the send track, then determine how much of each other track you want sent to it, and manage the volume of the send track collectively. This saves CPU too.

It sounds like there's not really a bassline going on as well. Most of the frequencies I hear could be played on a trombone or something, without an F trigger. A lof of the energy in tracks comes from the bass!

In short, I'm not sure exactly how to critique here, but recommend definitely checking out tutorials for the genres you want to produce, make sure to learn some music theory (it speeds up the writing process exponentially once you know the basics, and it only gets faster and better the more you learn) -- let me stop a sec and appreciate 5:08. Those first two chords are good. They work. Kinda chunky and condensed as mentioned. Third is wonky and I would change it out. 4th is just the right amount of nasty to sound jazzy.

Really, I would have liked to hear more in the vein of this outro. Six minutes was a long time to wait to get around to that -- and really, this part felt more well thought out than the rest of the piece combined. Extra half star for that.

Tetrahedrix responds:

Thanks, due to the situations involving the track prior to something happening and after. The ending melody kind of took a sad turn and was in fact I suppose where all my details and attention went toward since the rest of the track was pretty much done to me at that point. I see your point of unnecessary length leading to that part. I definitely still have some transitional and length issues with my tracks sometimes.

[Rainy Day]

That free piano sounds great! What is that?

I find the SFX just a bit too loud for the piano to sustain, especially the occasional thunder cracking.

Sonatina violin -- or cello -- sounds a bit much too dry when it enters. Also lacking those breathy, sibilant pieces which could set it apart from the rain foley.

I really have no other critique aside from the track itself being fairly repetitive up until the outro at 2:15 or so and not really being able to emotionally engage with the piece. It's almost monophonic and does not seem to really progress. Was hoping for a more bombastic -- or even smooth, flowery section before our rather somber finale.

No points deducted for this as well, but that's a really long silent tail. I try to remember to always cut those in audacity or something once a track has been rendered. :)

tansuma1 responds:

It's called The Whisper Piano http://bigcatinstruments.blogspot.com/2014/09/bigcat-maize-vstis.html Bigcat has some amazing instruments that he and a few others put together on that page, all free!

On another note though, thank you for your review. I've realised lately that I have been making music that only really engages with my needs/emotions and that is not the way to go about creating music, so your criticisms are fair but hit hard. Oops! I always forget about the tail, I'll be sure to edit this promptly.

Maybe my next piece will be the flowery bombastic sensation it should be! :D