ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[AIM - Not You Again...]

Arrangement of this song is good. Mixing is lacking a lot of punch though. Feels kind of muted, and like everything is sort of laying there with these tweety trumpets and strings over top. Snaps are a bit too loud, and things that should be loud aren't. The accompaniment is louder than the melody, and the snare is dominating the track. Other than that, not too shabby, and I did enjoy the tune quite a bit.

ConnorGrail responds:

Thanks for the solid feedback. This is the type of stuff I like to keep in mind when I'm doing a new mix.

[AIM - BattleStorm]

Composition-wise, this is very nice, but the highs are completely drowning out all the bass frequencies. Also, some serious tuning issues on your guitars. It could be a consequence of downtuning, in which case I'd recommend heavier string gauges on the offending strings. Your intonation is suffering. Also not liking the chord structure on full bar chords. Leads to a lazy feeling and some notes are just dissonant.

Also, the reverb on that classical sounding snare needs taming. It sounds quite unnatural. In short, playing and composition, good. Mixing is really stealing the emotive power of this piece. Even got a bit of clipping here and there, unless my ears are tricking me.

NahuPyrope responds:

Thanks so much for the review!, my guitar... is actually broken, I can't intonate it at all, I have to change the floyd rose on it because of that problem, I'm using .74-.09, It's actually pretty impressive you noticed it!, I don't know about the clipping, I really took care of it.

I have to get a lot better at mixing tho!, or get someone that can mix for me, thanks so much again!

[Penderecki's Dream]

This piece makes me sick, in a good way. Like looking at burnt, blackened skin. I can offer no critique, but I can say I wish to all hell I knew where you got hands on a string library to accomplish this piece! Very nice.

Phonometrologist responds:

>>This piece makes me sick
I laughed so hard when I read this.
The string libraries represented here are these two:
8Dio's CASE Solo String FX and 8Dio's CAGE Strings

Thank you for commenting.

[endK - Hybrid!]

Very strange piece, and spacey. I feel the percussion gets kind of lost in the mix. Kick is fine, underwatery, maybe. Snare just seems to be laying there. The rest of the track may not be to my particular musical taste and sound a bit preset-y, but that could be owed to the chord structures. I did enjoy the piece. Transitions were good.

endKmusic responds:

I love to experiment with panning and velocity when it comes to hi-hats and percussion in general (not kick and snare). Maybe that's the reason you said it's getting lost in the mix.
I wanted it to, let's say, flow - so it's not too linear.
And yeah, don't know what genre would it be, but was going for the melodies and transitions as the main focus of the song.
Thanks for another review :)

[AIM - Ultra Demon Cannibal Force]

A fantastic idea garbled together with the execution. The vocal filters and mixing are completely muddying the sound and soaring above the rest of the track in an unpleasant way. Generally, I adore screaming, but I can hardly understand it at all. Sometimes it sounds like holding a microphone in a wind tunnel.

TSRBand responds:

Thanks for the tips :D I have lots of practice to do with these vox, will definitely be trying other approaches in the future!

[LL (Old) - Enslaved To The Pain]

This gives me a very keen, uncomfortable feeling. Probably stems from a lot of abuse in my life, suicide, etc. The double vocoder stack is not so much a bad idea as one that could have been taken better advantage of melodically, rather than in drone. Transitions are well done here, and poetry is quite evocative. It's just hard to get behind without an overarching melody in those vocals that cover up the hopeless atmosphere you've crafted.

Lich responds:

Ayyy, the stack was a weird one to control, very sensitive to even the slightest of changes. Pushing it through different notes via a carrier makes the stack sound wildly different and in many cases, worse. Keeping it as a monotone throughout the track and slapping extra chorus on ended up being the safest compromise in this case. I wish I was doing this through a hardware vocoder, much easier to do then haha. I'm usually used to doing Power Fry-Styled Aggrotech vocal processing on my pieces so this was a gamble I was willing to go for in the end.

[An Fáinne Nua (The New Ring)]

Composition-wise, this is very solid, dynamic, and quite enjoyable. What I dislike is the mid-range reverb ringing, which is just very unnatural to my ears. No matter how much I enjoy the composition itself, whatever reverb plugin you've got going on is just not doing it for me.

frootza responds:

Thanks for your thoughts EDM. No reverb plugin, just the reverb that comes with Versil's EtherealWindsHarp VST. Composing for playable harp can be challenging, (which this scored composition is, a playable harp composition). At any rate thanks for leaving a review :)

[The Dark Desolater]

While I much prefer the atmospheric portions of the track to the dub elements, this is a whopper of a composition. You took several seemingly contradictory elements, added some malice, and here we are. Stellar job. Tuba synth really threw me off until things came together. That's something that probably could do with a bit less nakedness.

Spadezer responds:

I appreciate the feedback. Thank you. I guess the tuba seems to stick out like a sore thumb (especially when it's pointed out more than once lol). I didn't change it much compared to how it fits in the rest of the song other than maybe the dynamics of it, which I guess goes to show how much blending and mixing can make a difference.

Your first sentence gives me hope on this track being competitive. I don't expect to win this contest now (which isn't as important) but it's good that the composition is noticed.

[AIM - The Lonely Hermit]

I actually think I prefer this to your usual vein of work. It shows a sensitivity and freedom of expression rarely seen. ASMR elements make for an unusual exploration of sound, which I feel very much represents a story. I will say that the eating bit absolutely annoyed the SHIT out of me as a misophone who normally listens to music at obscenely loud volumes in order to ignore eating noises -- eating noises which were currently going on around me. Subtracting half a star as I was supremely disturbed by that part. Very good piece, though. Thoroughly enjoyed.

EctiBot responds:

Dunno if I'll be able to make something like this again, but I certainly hope so :D.
Glad you liked it :D