ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[unconventional]

Interesting to start off. Sounds like engines warming up, sirens, etc. at the beginning, then -- woah, such pretty noises at 30 seconds. You won me. This just sounds dirty, filthy... I want to know what went into this, what DAW, what VST, and Christ, if I own them, I want a preset, to see what we're playing with here lol. That sounds like a lot to ask.

1:00 is intriguingly gentle, with those reverse vocals, calming, before returning to that nice gritty, glitchy feel. I really like it. I feel that chorusy (delay?) effect took away from the silky death that was going on here though. Sounded good on headphones but my monitors didn't like it quite as much. Kind of drowned out your perc -- or just sat on top or beneath it.

Interesting stuff!

XEFSketch responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

As far as your questions:

The daw is FLStudio, VST's: mostly harmor and massive. Presets in massive are pretty simple just using band-reject filters on wavetables crude, melofantic, scrap-yard and sonic to get a mouthy-like sound. Growling sounds mainly focus on the midrange when it comes to "articulating" a raw gnarly sound. I also made sounds in massive, recorded them in edison and re-sampled them in harmor using a Hz-unison of 9 to get a liquidy sound. I just play around with resynthesizing a lot. Other effects that add to the mouthy-like sound are phasing and chorus.

The vocals were granualized and stretched out, the reason they sound quiet and displaced is I wanted it to sound like they were being suffocated and trying to speak out through the mess of noise, kinda like the sun peeking thru the clouds after a storm.

[Sunny Day]

Interesting, and fun chord progression, but there's a lot of what sounds like perfect octaves and perfect fifths moving around, which generally doesn't feel great on tracks with leads sounding as if they could be a duet. It's late; not sure how I can better put that into words.

Velocity and modulation really could have brought out your chords here. As is, it sounds like slamming your hands on the MIDI keyboard -- coincidentally with pretty chords. The notes bleed together pretty badly. I would try for shorter decays and releases in addition to velocity and modulation. It kinda sounds like happy-go-lucky ukelele music. I've never been one for that sort of stuff but it has its place.

The kick and claps didn't bother me much, but I feel the leads buried them a bit. Would have been nice to see some hihats and crashes possibly, or even cymbal rolls, reverse cymbals, etc.

Overall, it was a fun listen but could use some serious check-up on the post production. Sounds like a demo in its infancy at this point.

If you've got another review request, I'm finally at the point in my life where I feel myself enough to enjoy that sort of thing. Lay 'em on me. :)

Hallow responds:

Haha, this is AGES old, from back when I had no idea how to produce and was just a former guitarist experimenting in FL Studio's demo. If I revisited it to flesh it out I would certainly have done pretty much everything you mentioned.

The "happy ukulele music" isn't far off - as I said in the description, I originally came up with the chord progression on guitar.

[TheFatRat - Monody (feat. Laura Brehm) [GTB Remix] DEMO]

Responding to your review request from around this time last year.

I have to say, Laura's vocals are probably the focal point of this song for me. Instrumentation could be stronger. I'm not feeling a lot of sub bass. Sort of feels like the high end and the mid chomp up the bass. Hats are pleasant, but I'm not really hearing anything but them, the vocals, and ... It just isn't meshing. Not that it's bad. It just could use some improvement. Probably would back down the hats a db or two and bring up the accompaniment, and maybe drop that bass arp an octave.

Dj-Gonzo responds:

Thanks for all the reviews you made. I respond all of them here because I am finishing this remix at the moment, and I feel that you'll see that "just sidechain" isn't anymore my production skill ;D.

These songs from 2015 are pretty inconsistent in their mixing, I was learning to use compressors, EQs n stuff back then, so yeah, I couldn't agree more with your point there.

Again thanks for reviewing all my requests, so, if you want to see my "evolution" as an amateur producer, I would like you to check out my 2016 songs, specially Alma or, by the end of this week, the final version of this remix.

Hope you enjoyed the songs I made, it's always glad to recieve constructive critizism :)

Thank you, EDM364.

>GTB

[Underly]

This is a catchy little loop. I especially like the simplicity and percussion. No real complaints here, but I would say this is probably in the wrong genre.

Random-storykeeper responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I was really confused about the genres on Newgrounds at the time I uploaded it, but looking back at it now, this definitely does not fit into the 'Ambient' category. I'm not exactly sure where it would fit, though. It doesn't seem to be proper in any of the other categories, but I put most of my music in "Video game", so I've just moved it there for now.

[M I N E C R A F T W A V E]

These are some interesting sounds, but my god, that high ass squealing makes it almost impossible to listen to them. It's weird. What programs did you slap in there?

Stardust-Nation responds:

I 'slapped in' Minecraft Launcher as the the main bass line, as well as Adobe Reader and Microsoft One Note for other stuff.

[Gunslinger's Code: Keep Moving Forward]

Well written, but I feel there could be a lot more expressive velocity and modulation on our strings here, especially when similar or adjacent notes are in proximity to each other in a line. You represent your theme well here, however. Good work.

ChronoNomad responds:

Thank you for the quick review, EDM364! Your assessment is fair, and I truly appreciate your time and critical ear. Achieving higher levels of expressiveness is something that I continue to work toward. That aside, it's really nice to hear that the overall theme comes across so well. Thanks again!

[Hyper Dash - Cold Sprint]

I was really enjoying this one until the air horn sample came in. Just seemed egregiously ... cliche. Loop is flawless otherwise, and everything seems well mixed. I just hate that sample.

demon1000 responds:

i see... if i get another Complaint about it, I will replace the sample and notify you! Thanks!

[Lemmy - Storm Techno Project 01]

Interesting. Almost sounds like a hybrid of world music with old techno. Takes a while to come together but I'm enjoying it considerably here at 1:00. Everything seems to be coming together until the kick comes in, which has some serious reverb on it. This jars me a bit, as it seems to just reinforce this strange mid range reverb cluttering until it fades out again.

Next we have some spacy ... what sounds like pads. It's pleasing to listen to. Sounds almost like something you'd hear in Cowboy Bebop. The claps and kicks interspersed here I feel don't take away but don't add anything to the mix. Here being around 3:00. The spidery scales reinforce the spacy, almost videogame feel, reminding me of Megaman X Command Mission's later levels before quieting down.

Around 4 we have another 4 on the floor kick come in, with the main theme, the bassline, returning. I hear what sounds like a sitar, and the psychedelic spidery synths return.

At 5 we're back to the spacy pads and world percussion, before 5:35. This personally is my favorite portion of the song. The reverb isn't overpowering, and everything is fitting in its own little niche. It remains like this for a good minute or so before tapering off into another transition, then fading, then repeating this phrase at 7:00.

Honestly, as psychedelic as this is in its nature, it reminds me of some of the stuff I've heard on a Psybient channel. Good stuff.

MorphingThruTime responds:

Thank you for BIG and thorough review. Very nice.

["Twas The Night Before. . ."]

Interesting accents, though slips were a bit noticable. Takes some talent to cycle through them as seamlessly as you seem to be doing here.

whiteknave2 responds:

Thank ya' kindly. I'm not really an "accent" sort of guy, though I aim to change that. I appreciate the compliment, I LOVE the constructive criticism.