ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Waterbird (re-imagined)]

Not too bad. Mastering needs a lot of work, and you have a lot of muddy frequencies blending into each other on the low end. I recommend looking up johnfn's mixing/mastering tutorials, which you can probably find in the NGUAC thread.

The progression here is about the same as Pachelbel Canon. Melodies sound pretty canned to me and aren't really .... melodying. They're just sort of porting around in the chords. Melody usually goes stepwise.

Also, be mindful your bass drum can actually be heard in that muddle of low frequencies. Compress your percussion. Snare and hats also seem overly dry and stick out because of that.

My computer crashed while I was writing this review so I forgot a lot of what I was going to write. Bottom line, good idea, not so good mixing. Also try to incorporate more stepwise and fluid melody. Jumping around is for harmony -- otherwise you end up with a song that sounds kinda neither here nor there

ColinMuir responds:

Thank you, that means a lot. Ill take everything you said into consideration :)

[Become Like Them]

Interesting start, and this one picks up very quickly. Drums are still buried in the mix, and the track sounds a little muted. Again, the harmony is a bit too loud and buries everything. Vocals stick out reasonably well, but it sounds a bit like listening to a YT video in 240 or 360p. This can be caused by over compression, or it simply can be a combination of EQ issues piling on top of one another.

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the review!

Yeah, I think it's mainly EQ mixing + the compression I'm using. Usually, when I listen to it directly in FL Studio, it sounds better, but the output version always sounds a tad different. I created this song a couple years ago, so hopefully, my mixing got better!

[Efficient Bird]

Not bad, fairly empty sounding spatially and a little repetitive. This definitely wouldn't suffer from having some percussion to give those arpeggios weight earlier on. Also, what perc you do have could be louder. Again, buried by the melody and harmony majorly. Compress those drums hard.

Doesn't sound bad, but it takes a while to get where it's going, and mixing decisions make it hard to get into.

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I do think the percs could be a lot more noticeable, huh?
Hopefully, I can improve on mixing more. Drums and "spacious" sounds are especially hard for me.

[Reflect Upon]

Sounds quite empty before it gets going, but I think this may be what you're going for. However, it stops holding my interest somewhat due to lack of dynamic contrast and very slow, somewhat uninteresting progression. The chords ported around with doubled octaves are a little predictable, and it sounds very much like something we've all heard before. However, this doesn't necessarily make it bad.

Release on your piano notes needs to be a little longer, or perhaps there should be more reverb. Cutoffs are very short and abrupt in what feels should be a spacious piece.

Your mixing is extremely muddy! Percussion sounds like it's a mile away, hiding under the piano, and FX is drowning it. Too much reverb, too long of a release, not enough highs and mids. Perc should almost always cut through, even in quiet pieces such as this, to give a little drive. Remember not to do any sort of compression or FX on the master until you've got ALL of your volume leveling down pat. It can make it impossible to make good mixing decisions.

2:15 feels less like an ending and more where the track should have been at its height. I would have shortened your intro by about half and built to that a little more quickly, held it for most of the duration of the track, then fell off into a diminuendo and stinger on the end. If you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to some similar pieces in the genre. I'm getting sadness and determination from this piece, but it delivers none of the determination until the very end, when it's too late to enjoy!

rsonbie456 responds:

Thanks for the awesome suggestions! I agree with what you noticed. I'll try to improve mixing a bit more.

Originally, this song was going to be for an animation, so I timed the ending scene with the ending melody. However, I realized that as a piece alone, it does move too slow as it does not have anything interesting in the beginning.

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out mixing/EQ. I recently just got into the realm of actually messing with it. I'll take what you said for future stuff.

[drowning (AIM)]

I don't know how I missed this. Thought I got every damn AIM entry. Guess not. :P

Let's see, again really not liking the highpass play intro. Hi-pass play on the drums was interesting -- UNTIL naked drums came over top of the track, and then it felt superfluous. As a rule, hi-pass when you've got something under it. Low pass when it's naked. Remember the sound pyramid shouldn't look like lady Newt Gingrich.

Progression is holding my interest. Good for lounging, relaxing, reflecting. Overall, pretty sexy ambiance. Not sure if that's intended or not. Also, you're going to have to kill a hostage, because this isn't synthwave! It's closer to jazz. Listen to those solos! Now, does that fit in a genre of music that sounds straight out of the 80's?

Mixing is where this one suffers most. Nothing is particularly clashing, but that bass is very dry and is sticking out because of it. It's also a little too loud. Everything else sounds very syrupy, then along comes this bass and... I think I might hear a piano under it, but can't tell if it's that or just a really low-passed piano to begin with. I think I hear synthy pick noises. Maybe not. Everything else is all pretty sounding, but this bass sounds like it's just there chilling, waiting for the song to be over.

Also, your injection of percussion is probably not as dynamic as you want. Watch your volume leveling. Pay attention to cymbals. This one could have used cymbal rolls for its transitions specifically. There are points where some sections sound like they were just pasted on the tail of another, like at 2:00 where we get what sounds like a lightly brushed hat, but the section is so naked, it sounds abrupt! Maybe tap on a ride to get a little ring out of it first. Warm up the ears!

Good song overall. Enjoyed the listen. Did not enjoy the uncomfortable thoughts and anxiety that came with the premise, haha.

johnfn responds:

ty for the very freaking long review EDM! tytyty

[The Afterlust]

Great piece. Only problem was the slightly muddy low end. You could probably eliminate that by hi-passing the guitar to get some of those gnarly low frequencies out of the way of the drums and bass. There's never really a point where it's naked, so you don't need those frequencies in the 0-220 or even 300 Hz range to beef it up as much.

FinnMK responds:

Good tip. I did hi-pass them, believe it or not, but clearly not by enough!...I think I only did it up to 100-125 Hz. Getting good, meaty, but clean guitar is my main mixing challenge right now.

[duality]

Can definitely tell it was made in 2 hours, but beyond that, pretty solid. The panning moving around on that arp disoriented me a bit. Would have preferred something stereo-widened or two complimentary arps, one in each ear. Probably would have also appreciated somewhat more aggressively EQ'ed percussion because on my speakers, the rest of the song is totally crushing them into the ground. Little more high end, maybe? Then again my headphones utterly destroy from about 14k and on up dynamically. They still sound so sad and small compared to the rest of the track. Compress them harder?

johnfn responds:

you had to review my WORST TRACK IN THE LAST 2 YEARS????? i mean if yer gonna review something review charge or drowning that one track by goodraccoon. Or my forthcoming NGADM tra........... oh wait huh nevermind

i mean your critique has merit but i just wish i could apply it! none of my current stuff sounds like this =p

[Turn Out So Cold 2007]

Sounds like a bar gig. Easily understood the lyrics, but it loses coherence as he loses time with your playing. Good for a demo, shows talent in both of you. I'd actually love to see the stems from this or remix it. Bluesy vibe in a classic styled track.

Only places it suffers is vocal FX, compression, and mixing the electric in with the acoustic. Sounds like a gig in a really small venue.

Manx1 responds:

thanks, yeah not bad for a 17 year old kid... I'm 28 now, haha.

[Iori Licea - Together]

The distortion all over this piece really took me out of what was a decently written, if not cliche piece. Watch that clipping. It sounds like the volume has just been ramped up to the point it's ready to red line and distort, and then we just compressed the CRAP out of it. It boggles the mind since the tack quietens down eventually -- but then ramps right back up. Fix that distorting and you'll go from a 3 out of 10 in my eyes to a strong 6.5. It pains me to have to give such a low score for a track with GOOD transitions and okay structuring, but distorted artefacts like this hurt my soul!

iorilicea responds:

So sorry! This is my first attempt of glitch-sounds!