ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crystal]

Oh here come those old disco perc samples! lol. That's a small fondness for me. This is interesting. Sounds like String Thing or M-Theory synth. I see you found dubstep drums. This is kinda nice. Sounds like the intro to an album.

Suggest studying common chord structures and playing with those.

LavaRift responds:

Thank you. I think that this is one of my best tracks. I don't exactly remember the chords I used but it started with C.

[Drop It Hard]

Interesting beginning. Still not dubstep, but I do sort of dig it. Drums could use more prominence in the mix.

That could have been a sick drop, but take a look at most dubstep drum patterns and the bpm, which should be at or near 140, not 120, not 170, etc.

LavaRift responds:

Thank you for the feedback.

[Zelda II Palace Theme (DJ-L Remix)]

Sounds like you ran the leads through a distortion pedal. A bit obnoxious at the beginning. Not awful but not really my thing. Sounds like a midi port. I would suggest toning down that screaming lead. A lot.

LavaRift responds:

Thank You for the feedback. I realized that I forgot to mix/master this once I had exported it.

[Acidized]

Overall, sort of going nowhere and annoying, but it seems as if you did put time looping everything and writing the scaling notes.

There's some progression, but this is just weird for me. I'm not really sure what's going on. The instrument change at 1:35 wasn't bad. It sounds like you're using Adonis synth a lot.

Watch your low register. The bass frequencies are conflicting and not resonating well together.

LavaRift responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I actually used sytrus and harmor to construct this song.

[Against]

Pretty good arrangement, and didn't sound bad except some panning. It's kind of unbalanced, especially on headphones, which makes the drums stick out for, well, not sticking out.

Kick isn't as punchy as it probably should be. It sounds almost like slowly slapping your thigh -- kind of wet and meaty. Either that, or the rhythm and lead are all drowning it out in the mix.

Kind of feels like a loop. Not much variation. Also lead isn't sticking out at all and could certainly use a lot more variation. There just wasn't much differentiation in the lead between phrases, or any feeling of progression. You would've done well to perhaps have a solo section over this.

LexRodent responds:

Thanks a lot for the heads-up on the sound of drums. I did some tweaks to the drums recently, (to give them more presence ironically) and modified the overall drums volume. Also the guitars could use some additional cut on the lows.

The lack of variation is because this used to have vocals, and the voice track was a big part of it, sadly those vocal files are now lost forever. I'll try taking the whole rhythm guitar out, and add some overdrive to the bass to compensate, I'm sure this will give it a different and not so repetitive feel, while I can figure something else, a synth line maybe.

[A.I.M - Burning Witches Light My Way]

Fantastic arranging, only the releases on some of the instruments are a bit too short. I actually think the choir could have a bit more high end on the EQ.

Violins at some points have too short of a release as well and stick out just a bit more than they should, especially on shorter notes.

So other than some mixing problems and uncanny valley synth instruments, this was a beautiful listen. Great chord structures as well, and it fits the art perfectly. Salutes to you. :)

Shozi responds:

thank you very much! really glad you enjoyed it :) truely mostly i focused letting the piece harmonize with the artwork as much as i can. i hate mixing and thats why i suck at it. but well...a bit more practice and i should handle the mixing part some day :)

[A.I.M. The Way Home]

I can't hear what RF is saying about hihat. Sounds okay to me, other than sticking out a bit. Maybe it's too loud, or panned too far left. The song does very much sound like going home, but I'm not sure if it reflects the fantasy elements of the art.

Other than the above, the mixing of the song is pretty flawless. Very laid back. I like it. Just the hi-hat threw me off. Mic-ing on them is a little strange -- snare is far away from the hat.

I don't have much to say because I can't find anything wrong with the song. Considering it isn't my kind of staple music listening, that's saying a lot. Good work!

cody104 responds:

Thank you for your awesome review, glad you enjoyed the song. :)

[AIM - This is War]

Wow, have to say, this surprised me. There are points where it feels flat, or the leads overpower the guitar and drums. But overall, the guitar shines despite that. Lots of variation here. It's really interesting stuff. Sounds like your cymbals are suffering from a lack of high end though. Bass also lags a smidgen behind guitar at some points -- only a little.

Solo was abrupt but it was nice. With a bit more attention to mixing, some more low end, etc., this track would be flawless. Some reverb here and there and a second look at volume levels and compression would fix a lot of the issues here.

Great work!

NahuPyrope responds:

I'm aware of the lag issue, I don't really find what that is, I record in Reaper, and I oftend find, that after recording, I have to move the track like, 7ms, so it's sync'd with the other instruments, Thanks for the review, I'll have in mind what you told me.

Thanks so much!