ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dark Days]

Literally the only issue with this track is the compression and distortion as a result of said compression -- the volume leveling basically. Watching the spectrometer, there's a lot of red lining, which tells me either everything is just turned up way too loud to get a clean output. This takes away from the darkness and sonaural strengths of the instrumental and -- have you ever had a battery powered speaker start dying on you? This is the equivalent effect, except Reaper literally can't render the audio any louder than it is, so when it tries, it ends up distorting the shit out of it and losing its gravitas. Some people intentionally ramp up the output and compression to all or part of a song because they think it's hilarious making ears cry in more extreme examples. This I assume you really don't want, since without it, you've got some filet mignon on the plate.

TLDR: Watch your output levels. Your peaks should never consistently ride 0 dBFS. Otherwise what you hear on your rig and in the mixer might sound great, but what comes out is going to sound -- well, just worse than it would if you rendered everything at a more reasonable volume and then went and amplified it in Audacity (being sure not to allow clipping, or you'll have the same problem).

Around 2:47, your sync between recordings is a little off, just enough to jar me but not enough to draw my attention from the verse, which I will say is impeccably written and meaningful, as always. So no comment here other than a thumbs up.

On vocals, do have a look at noise cancellation like I mentioned. This will bring your vocals up a notch and help with mixing them properly. You could also do with some more clarity in the 12-18 khz range, and if you've been doing the sock on mic trick like I did for years, might swap to a sock stretched over a wire coat hanger. I mean, because hell, it works just as well as the 20 dollar clip ons if you have some clothespins.

Keep killing shit. Mad respect -- you've always got something interesting to bring to the table.

Teqneek responds:

Hahaha oh man I just died but it's cool. Just funny is all...

OKAY- Let's do a quick science experiment; we shall follow these simple steps...

1. Take the first 8 words of your review.

2. Gently cover up all the other words in the review.

3. Read the 8 words ("Literally the ONLY issue with this track is"...)

4. Remove hand to reveal entire review.

5. Laugh at yo silly self.

Hahaha I can honestly see myself doing exactly what you just did so don't take what I just said as an insult btw.

It was just kinda hilarious to me. I read that and was like "Oh cool... And this is a long review too so I'm about to see some praise in them 3 paragraphs down there. Yonder".

Anyway I ain't jabbing on ya, well maybe but only kiddingly if that's a word.

4Realtho- Thank you for your review and pointers. I REALLY just need those hip hop Keebler Elves to whisk my recorded vox away and hand me back a professional-sounding vocal file with some chewy chocolate chip cookies. Why can't this be reality? Anyway... fuck this is becoming a long-winded reply; lemme get to it...

Yadda yadda my mastering needs work. We've talked equipment so you know that situation. As for the other advice you left, I appreciate it and will heed those tidbits of knowledge. As for the sound...

If you're talking about that feeback-y noise audible mostly in the beginning... it came with the beat Ax sent me. But for real I gotta re-read your comment to fully get a grasp on your pointers, but thanks! Btw, a comment worth a second read is a GOOD comment. Unless... the reason said person is re-reading is because of illiteracy- whether his own or that of the commenter. But I digress...

[Prototonus]

Excellent writing. Could really use better mixing on vocals and delivery. Track FX are your friend, specifically reverb and chorus, and compression. Then, proper leveling. Then you don't have to be right up on the mic to get a good sound and volume. Also, falsetto sounds a bit weak and lacking passion/power. Instrumental is a little too loud and sounds like it's distorting at points. This one could go back to the drawing board in terms of mixing. But it was interesting enough I wanted to hear it out to the end, and written well.

Teqneek responds:

WOW that was super critical...
Yeah we kinda just wanted to know if you like the song.

Also about 90% of what you recommended we do- was already done. We are well aware of what vocal effects are, and Rampant is a talented composer/producer who employed the tactics he deemed fitting.

If anything- MY part is the only real weak point, and maybe I'll re-record it some day but I'm actually pretty happy with this overall. So yeah. Thank you for the review though; we're just not looking for people to talk to us like it's our first rodeo and I'll leave it at that haha...

[Deft]

Interesting. Perc could probably use to come up in the mix. Your writing is interesting though. I like it. Snare rolls are very nicely done. Maybe that plucky synth in the intro could come down a bit, and a bit more attention to volume could be paid. The song constantly gets louder, which isn't great in electronic music. Classical? You'd be A-ok, but not electronic... disco-y? stuff like this

GTard responds:

Thanks so much for your review! I'm terrible at mixing, so I'll try to implement some of those changes once I redo this song in Cubase :)

[Party Beat]

Sounds like a wacky intro to a music video. Interesting, and dark! Mixing could use a bit of a tune up though. Sounds like the whole thing has been chorused and given a bit too much reverb.

xMoonManx responds:

Thanks for your Feedback always nice im just trying to fit in on here you know find my place.

[Chaos Ensues]

This sounds interesting, although the mixing could use a little help. The synths are a bit on the loud side, leaving the track top-heavy. Send me a PM if you like. I haven't done a collab in ... a long, long time, haha.

shinedrummer responds:

Yeah I didn't even pull this from the original source because I no longer have it and at the time that I made the mp3 file I hadn't mixed it. I pretty much just composed it inside the DAW I was using and sent it to my friend for a reference of where I was at lol. Thanks!

[Waves]

Actually, it's not too bad. You said this is an iphone app? Well, I suppose that negates a lot of my mixing considerations. I have no idea about mobile DAWs. You've made quite a catchy little creation here. Although I feel the keychange wasn't necessarily needed or transitioned well.

HyprdrivE responds:

That's what I thought about the key change. I was going to fix it, but then I kind of forgot about it. XD Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

[bullion-first work]

For a first, you bring a lot of interesting chord progressions to the table. Loop is not perfect, and I feel like it's very much unfinished, but you should definitely keep pursuing what you're doing. You have the makings of a stellar producer if what I'm hearing is all original composition. Just work on your mixing and instrumentation, and the rest will come natural.

claycubed responds:

thank you ADR3-N, i haven't been posting here mostly because i forgot this website existed... but in other news i have been hard at work perfecting my craft, and on another note, all those chord progressions aren't mine, they are third party ones. i am pretty embarrassed about this work, not only because its not exactly mine, but also because my new work is much better. I'm glad that you commented on this and hope we can keep in touch!