ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Church In The Forest]

Like the dark SFX in the intro. Church bells sound almost haunting. I was not expecting them to go away. Definitely think they should have lead up to the section at 0:26 with cacophony.

I'm not sure this is glitchhop. Sounds more industrial. A bit slow to develop and seems to lose intensity before 1:00. I think part of this is the drums are totally buried in the mix under that beautiful bass.

Also not understanding some of the volume fluctuations here. Careful around 1:35. I heard some clipping, and not the good kind.

Really wish the song had a more constant level of energy, something going on even in those quiet parts to tell our brains that yes, even though we can see the waveform and know the song is not ending, no, this is not a poorly planned fadeout we're hearing.

Also swooshy transitions please. I need them in my life. Maybe even delay hang-over perc at the end of each phrase just to make those transitions less... weird.

Nice track though. Fun little bass line and church bell samples. Enjoyed it despite its quirks.

Red65 responds:

I usually don't get these kinds of comments, it's good that you specifically tell me what's good and what's not. Thanks for criticism that I can work with. I'll look into these things next time I make this. Thanks

[Return]

Watch out for those machine gun attacks on your snare rolls. I'm also not sure why the march is swung, and those rimshots could probably go as far as I'm concerned. The track is missing some... je ne sais quoi.

Writing wise, this is not a bad piece. It's got a definite theme -- could probably use a little overarching melody. I'm not sure how to critique really, as my only other critique would center on your midi instruments. I recommend Black Noh Snare for a more natural synth snare. Probably synful orchestra for natural, low CPU strings and winds.

That's really all I can say.

Novent-Music responds:

Thank you for your review and critique.

I looked back at the song and the snare does sound choppy, so I have taken that into consideration for the future.

Also thank you for the recommendations ill be sure to try them out.

[Lost]

Nice lead writing here, but your low mids and bass are heavy, muddy, and cluttered (chord wise)

I will say I REALLY don't like your guitar synth but that's just because it's machine-gun attacking. I would recommend something like RealEight, Ample Sound AGG, Shreddage... Or if you need a free library, Ample Sound AGML. The attacks on all of those instruments will not disappoint you.

This out of the way, 1:38, that lead has been waaaaay too loud for a bit and actually distracting me from what I was typing. It's a consistent problem throughout. It's glaring enough I think it could actually be your headphones not presenting to you in that frequency range. If you really can't hear it on any of your gear, I recommend Audio Technica M40x, used, if you can afford them. They are indispensable to me in identifying problem parts in the mix. Failing that, you can always look at a spectrum analyzer and/or sweep your track for frequencies that are sticking out in the mix with ReaEQ. If interested, PM me and I'll find the tutorial where I learned to do that.

You've structured your song well. However it does sound like it's been mixed way too loud before mastering FX were applied. Protip, before you apply FX to the master channel, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's ready to be mastered. 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. Mixing loud will not make everything sound better unless it already sounds good.

4:01 I can tell this track is compressed way too hard with how loud that lead is. Headache territory.

I definitely recommend some tutorials on mixing, mastering, voice leading, and writing melody/chords. For the first two, you'll want to try to stay genre specific, but the last two, Ben Levin does some great instructionals on YT. As someone who's been reading music and studying theory for years, it helped get me out of a box.

I do see potential in you to be great. Can't wait to see how you grow over the years. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC! :)

NoobGameYT responds:

Thank you so much for the advise, this is really helpful :) I will definitely check out some tutorials on YouTube to make sure I get my mixing better. Again, thanks for the advise and for seeing potential in me :D

[Sea Drift]

Lot of lo-mid noise on your reverbs. Try turning down the FX wet and hi-passing it. These frequencies tend to gradually build up and muddy your mix. I hear it especially on the big boomy FX. You'd be surprised how little reverb you really need to accomplish the sounds you're going for.

Boom FX is too loud in the mix. I think I hear clipping at points.

Other than that, chill piece. I'm vibing with it. Synth bass could probably use some humanization.

2:56 is clipping pretty bad. I don't think a limiter would be a big enough bandaid for it. Protip, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's ready for FX and compression in the master channel. 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.

KnockVoltage responds:

Cool, thanks for the tips! The clipping near the end gets me every time I hear it. I'll have to work more on master channel FX and compression so I can mix lower.

[The Seven Heavens - HalfEvil333.com]

Layering those two drum beats gives the sound a kind of cluttered sound, which is compounded more as we get into 0:57.

Overall, fairly simple track. Manages to make the orchestral and techno elements work together. Transitions are a little weak though, and I'm not sure what's going on structurally since we seem to almost be hanging onto the same chord for a majority of the song. I can't tell if you're just letting that held bass arp define the key for us or what.

2:30's are where the most adventurous part of our tune begins.

3:25 elements over top, I'm not sure where this came from and occurs without any obvious transition, twice. Not even like, wikki-wikki record scratches.

Also, random boom at somewhere around 2:40. Not liking that.

In short, I'm not really able to understand the piece. There were no fills or transitions to make me feel like it was anything beyond some moderately appropriate orchestral samples beat-matched to our drums, key-matched to our other samples. The arping bass also didn't do much for me. I would have rated higher for an olskool sounding bassline somewhere in there and some chop-sampled drums rather than loops.

HalfEvil333DB responds:

Thank you for the feedback. It really helps as I make new tracks. The idea for the song is to create 7 different heavens using similar sounds. Which is why all the sudden changes but similar beats. I will work on better segways in the future. The boom at the end was a thunder sound with rain to go into the next track. I am working on a song called when the Heavens meet the Earth where it will be a thunder storm with metal and beat elements. It's a tough one.

Again thank you your insite helps a lot. I want this new album to sound much better.

[00FF 63]

I'm not sure what's going on here in your intro. Not really liking that glitchy synth with the slow attack. Intro also takes a long way to get anywhere. I could have dealt with a slow low-pass play into the main drive at about 1:00 in.

There's a lot of noise in the way of your bass, keeping me from hearing the attacks and releases cleanly. It could even be reverb. Try cleaning up the EQ of your other elements to get them out of the way in terms of frequency range. You would be surprised that even leads can sometimes get some sub frequencies going, and the more elements your track has, or the more notes are going on, especially with effects like reverb, the more they pile up, resulting in a muddy mix.

Track seems like multiple elements have been mixed too loud and/or compressed. I can't tell really due to the distortion on multiple instruments. Protip, before you apply FX to the master channel, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it's ready to be mastered. 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.

I'm just not really able to enjoy this track, partly due to, as Kwing mentioned, there doesn't seem to have been much variation or risk taking going on except those really weird key stabs we hear in the beginning. I don't know how to stress how much I didn't like them, and every time they came up I was distracted from the good elements of your track, which I could harmonically understand, versus those stabs, which I could not.

No offense, just not my style. There were some points of the track I did very much like, just not where you involved material from your intro.

geonb responds:

hi ADR3-N thank you for the tips. I have no good mastering tools right now. Just low budget. I also thank you for the advice to mix the track to -6 dB. Do you think tracks should be completely uncompressed or little compressed? I also heard the opposite of that. Next time I will post my tracks completely unmastered just put them in like they are. I belive others can master them much better. If you are interested to listen to the track unmastered tell me and I'll post it as 00FF 63b best geonb
but meanwhile eat this https://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/816260 (It's a song that is more likethe issues you responded isn't it ;)

[Fortuna]

Interesting intro with the piano. The sub frequencies on reverb from the key attack is starting to build up in the background and give me that head-swimmy feeling though. Recommend hi-passing your reverbs to somewhere around 400 Hz

0:36, that sidechained piano is distorting, a sure sign of being mixed too loud.

Protip, before you apply FX to the master channel, make sure your track peaks no higher than about -6 dB. If your mix sounds good here, it is ready to be mastered. It's hard to squeeze a track under this when you're used to mixing everything all the way up, but it's worth it.

1:56, I really like this section despite being really low mid heavy and a bit of soft clipping in your bass.

Points for dynamic contrast as well, although I am noticing some of the issues Kwing pointed out. I don't quite know where we are going occasionally. I think the section at 3:12 could have been cut. Still noticing clipping, on that timp. 3:48 synth shines though, and we're back to the groove. I'd have kept that drop going for another repeat or 3, then let 4:18 be our outro for a good 8-16 bars.

Piano outro does bring an interesting texture though. 4:52 would have been the perfect, inquisitive little note to end on. When you kept that phrase going, I was soooo disappointed.

I'd have given a 9/10 if not for some questionable structural decisions in this track overall, not to mention clipping. Arrangement and chord voicing is what's keeping me from rating lower than 8. Overall though, I do see a lot of potential right here. Some tutorials on song structure, mixing, and mastering, and you'll be well on your way to being a successful trance artist!

Fynzyme responds:

Thank you for being so in-depth and for the protip! I understand exactly what you're saying and I really appreciate the advice.

[Trip to Egypt]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say I could rock with the guitar/synth arp if it didn't sound so dry. Could probably also use some more elements before that drop. As is, the mix kinda feels empty.

I also notice you apply distortion to that synth later. Garage Band string and key instruments are just kinda universally terrible for this kind of music. By 2:07, I'm feeling the feel you probably wanted around 1:11.

Outro was not bad, but would have been way better if it didn't cut off abruptly. Not sure what happened there. I know in my DAW this will occasionally happen if you select a section and hit render. I'm not sure if maybe you wanted this to loop or not.

Regardless, this feels incomplete. I'd have liked to see more done with this minor chord progression rather than just two chords with the root a semitone apart. I can't think straight enough to analyze what exact chord each is but it essentially felt like the same 4 measures repeated, with no real variation. I get that this is house, but if you listen to most house, they will also have more instruments, textures, percussion, and sound effects coming in every 8 to 16 bars to keep things fresh. They also will use longer progressions and add more chord tones as they go on. You were starting to do this at 2:14 and I was hoping for the track to go on in that vein.

I recommend looking at some tutorials for the genres you want to produce, studying how they structure their elements, and try to apply some of their principles to your own work. May also want to check out some basic videos on music theory and voice leading. You're off to a good start, but there's always more to learn. :)

There are also free VSTs like SQ8L, Dexxed, and APBL (ample sound bass plugin) and AGML (I think) that can supplement or replace some of Garage Band's crummier synths and help improve your sound.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC. Best of luck with your music. I look forward to seeing you grow!

DustifiedGD responds:

Well honestly now that you point out this stuff I’m really starting to notice it. My newer songs have much better progression and the WIP ones have some nice beats. The outro is very short but the beginning could have been made shorter. I don’t really consider this rock music because of the lack of variety and creativity. I just will keep this here as my first track but I’m pretty sure that bass plugins won’t really be an option because I think GarageBand has quite the variety of basses, but I see what you mean by the melody being dry. Also I don’t really want to focus on one genre, I want some variety in my songs for all listeners but I don’t think that GarageBand is capable of dubstep too much, sad but true. My next song should be more techno than house with nice drums and progression.