ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Thunder Man]

Nicely structured, catchy little loop, with solid progression. Since this is intended to be retro-gaming music, no complaints about instrumentation.

Volume wise, drums could stand to come up about a dB. Leads occasionally get a bit too loud for the bass to sustain. Then at 0:47, bass suddenly becomes too loud.

0:19, the hi-hat seems to be slightly dragging behind the leads.

I can see that the loop looks to be well-cut, but it isn't looping properly in NG's player. Would be a smoother transition if you took the time to write an intro, repeat the section we have here with some alterations, then wrote a short outro with a stinger. Would have been an extra half star for me.

[rat on toast]

Solid intro. A bit quiet, but dynamics are great. Level-wise, I'd like to hear snare come up a bit.

Track is quiet as a mouse, sitting about where it probably should for mastering, maybe even a bit below. It just seems as if mastering has not been applied, or maybe the mastering channel has even been turned down.

2:31, sounds like a double layered kick or one just a bit too high to support the rest of the track. Leads are also a little quiet, and chords could benefit from some inversions -- but for genres like this, it's almost a convention to keep your keys chunky.

Still, enjoying your progression. It's unique but functional. 2:11 is a great B section.

Overall, minimalistic presentation. Biggest weakness, volume. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Emotion]

Opening lead sounded like a preset which had my expectations somewhere around ground-level, but I'm glad I kept an open mind. The texture development at 1:19 is a refreshing change, with a nice chord progression.

It does sound like the track as a whole has been mixed too loud, especially when the kick hits and causes the track to distort. I don't have much else to critique other than very short track length, an inexplicable loop, and an abrupt outro.

I would like to see this idea expanded into a full, standard form trap beat. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Yugoslavia 1982]

Side chain intro is interesting, but I would either take down your brass/bass, or bring up your percussion. It's hiding in the mix.

Song-wise, this is too short for me to really give a good score. A good 30 seconds of the track is comprised of intro and outro fade-out, leaving only about 45 seconds of music. The elements you've brought together are good in and of themselves, but there hasn't been enough development to evaluate those ideas fairly.

That said, I will attempt to go instrument by instrument through the piece.

Your snare is very low-mid heavy. Sounds pitched down. I would recommend distortion or saturation to give it a bit of grit, and if it still doesn't work, either layer a sample or swap it out entirely.

Kick is fine, but bass is loud enough in the mix that it sounds small in comparision.

Hi-hat sounds standard for trap music, which is an interesting combination. It could probably use more body in the mids.

Brasses have a bit too much reverb and at times sound mixed too loud, but I really would have liked to hear another section like 0:47. That's probably a symptom of the track's length talking.

Bass sounds octaved, which is fine. I really have no critique other than it being slightly too loud for the mix to sustain.

Score would have been at least a 3/5 if the track were longer, but I enjoyed what I did hear. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Chickenizer responds:

Hi, thank you for listening and so many good words of advice!

I agree about the percussion hiding in the mix. As for the composition, I am really kicking myself for not developing it into what this >sketch< promises the listener. Not much time I had, do something I had to (probably one of the few Yoda talks that seem to make no sense at all, lol).

Saturating my sound is definitely one thing that I should look into. I'm aware of the technique, just green. Also, after all the years, still gotta be very careful not to overdo the reverb.

May I ask what monitors you listened to this track on?

Thank you once again,
Cheers!

[Waterblock - BB520]

Piano in the opening is a bit tinny compared to your low-mid heavy lead. I'm not a huge fan of the chord progression -- feels like it's going to sound a little chunky with the chord voicings. My suspicion was confirmed at 0:44.

If you want to hear what I'm talking about, Adam Neely's Q&A #52 broached the subject. Basically, the overtone series between two or more notes in the lower register are jockeying for position in your ears. They sound cluttered as a result, which is not very satisfying. Using chord inversions can help clean up the sound a bit, but there's a limit to how much you can do with them. It's best to space out your chords so that they can sound properly massive.

I'm noticing a lot of repetition, mostly with that plucky, glassy lead.

2:00 you've got some distortion going on, which gets a bit worse as we go into your second, harder chorus. This is a sign to me that things have been mixed too loudly.

2:48 change interestingly keeps the same progression but moves the lead up to an occasionally dissonant register.

Doubling this at 3:14 struck me as a relatively unimaginative way to lead into our final chorus. I'm also noticing a lot more distortion here. Watch that.

I would definitely recommend some tutorials on voice leading, melody writing, mixing, and mastering.

Also, I'm not sure I heard a single snare or cymbal throughout, other than at transitions? This sucks all the punch out of what could have been a great kick-back and watch YouTube kind of track, leaving it sounding unfinished.

Overall, a great start. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BlueBerry520 responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I wasn't very motivated that much making it so I don't think I'll fix it completely but I'll play around with it. Also, I got a new laptop that runs fl studio so much more smoothly, so I'll notice these things more.
And yeah I hate using cymbals and hi hats and sometimes snares. Which it literally what all my projects need. Idk why but I just cant

[Chillbase]

Nice opening chord. Smooth resolution at 00:10. Looks like a relaxed 2 chord progression. I would say this is probably synthwave rather than new wave just based on the instrumentation, although the lead at 1:16 is a bit more modern.

Bass is a bit loud but smooth, good modulation. Drives the track along at a relative leisure. Sudden change at the outro caught me off guard and probably would have worked better as a whole note at the end on your I chord.

Other than a relative lack of variation throughout, I have no real complaints. A newcomer to the genre might have preferred a more varied lead line, maybe even some key changes or a bridge. As is, the song structure is probably the weakest part of the piece.

Mix wise, the drums need to come way up, or the bass and lead need to come down. Drums should always be the loudest part of your track; our brains aren't paying as much attention to them, so they need to be screaming loud to cut through the mix.

I'd like to hear a little more low-mid on your snare, perhaps some saturation.

Would also cut the low end up to about 250 or 300 Hz on any reverbs or delays you have floating around, and decrease the release time. The track feels spacious but somewhat muddy at the same time.

Would definitely recommend some mixing and mastering tutorials for your DAW, perhaps a few on compression and other FX. One I thought of off the top of my head was "How to Hear Compression" by Ben Levin.

Overall, chill track. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[At The Speed Of Light (Deathmix) Rough version]

Wow, apologies for how long this took to get out -- this is my second try getting a review out to you. Computer issues.

Now, to the track, it sounds eerily familiar to a track I've heard before -- oh, now I get it, Dimrain. It took me a second to recognize. I can see you've really gone the extra mile to try and switch things up.

Arrangement wise, there's nothing really wrong here, although I do find myself wanting more drum fills every 4th/8th bar just to keep things fresh. You might also try something outside of the usual Kick Snare Kick Snare pattern.

I'm finding it hard to hear your bass, not so much volume wise -- the texture. A square wave would have worked better. Sines are best in the sub, layered with another bass. With such open spacing between your bass and very little tenor/baritone presence, I feel like I'm constantly waiting for a chorus to hit. Texture feels very tinny.

Those opening crashes were used nicely, also quite dynamic with the softer crashes. Definitely found myself longing for more of that throughout. I would have liked some cymbal rolls as well to complement those sweep transitions.

The more I listen, the better the song sounds to my ears, and I hear some nice things you're doing with your percussion here and there.

I would definitely recommend changing out your choir and string synths for something better, with better attack/release. The ones you have are very muddy. If I'm not crazy, pocket blakus and many others are still available for free -- check the free kontakt library thread in the audio forum. Another option, which I highly recommend, is Synful Orchestra, which can emulate all kinds of instruments, like clarinet and french horn, sometimes these ears can only tell the difference when I've written the parts myself, lol. It's also much more light on RAM than any other instrument I've used.

I would also recommend not writing your strings all in one midi envelope and instead writing each different part, SATB style, separate. Many instruments do have great legato settings, but we destroy them by writing block chords. Writing them separately will also help with realism if you also humanize them separately -- makes a huge difference. With kontakt instruments, you can load up multiple instances of the same instrument, slightly detune them, pan them around, etc.

Your percussion are hiding in the mix. Remember, percussion are the loudest instruments in any song, but we don't tend to hear them that way -- because our brains are focused on the music, not the rhythmic pulse. You've got to bring up those drums. Also, sounds like you have some flat samples as well. You may want to try tape saturating, distorting, or compressing them individually.

I can see from the wave form that this piece is probably unmastered. I definitely recommend some tutorials on mixing and mastering. They will take your craft to the next level. :)

Let me know if there's something here I haven't addressed. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

death2go responds:

Thanks for the review man! You gave me a lot of stuff to look at, which I will surely do whenever I have time!

[Twilight Techno]

Just going to casually note this song was my wakeup alarm for like 9 years. Respek. <3

[Zelda: The Windwaker Intro]

Saw this song in the number one spot in genre on the wayback machine from ages ago. Not bad, but there is soooooo much reverb. Still, pretty well handled for the time period. I remember getting good synths used to be hell. I'm happy this piece is still here.

Minus half a star for some clipping.

[[a.] Endless Sky]

Wow, no machine-gun articulations! Could do with a shorter reverb tail on your piano in your intro though.

Was recommended this track by Quarl. I can see why. Break is strong. Just a bit sibilant overall though with a little clutter from that delay and 'verb. I'd like to hear a cleaner sound throughout.

HOWEVER, this piece was very well written, breaks never got stale, and it felt a lot shorter than 3:26. Nice work!