ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Take Me Away (NGADM Entry)]

My critique is reserved for mix -- it sounds like the track is too loud prior to hitting the compressor -- and looks so as well. This causes at points treble to be over represented such as at 57 seconds

What I'm hearing is your extreme high end on your pads. I see we really love lfos also :)))

Love the incorporation of bigroom snare on final bars of phrases.

Would like to hear at 2:49 or so those percs more clearly. Perhaps less verb throughout would help some with clarity, and rolling off some of the low end of wet signals.

In terms of composition, fantastic work. I think I would like to hear more stereo wideness of mid and low mid frequencies, but overall, great. Certainly not like I do much of this wizardry myself!

[NOAH!]

Lyrically, vocal performance included, and in terms of ideal, this is FIRE.

Mix wise, it sounds like the whole track has had low pass thrown on it, and that causes some issues of clarity. If you wanted to keep this, I would do it selectively, or not as aggressively.

I would like more of the background shouts, more takes, that is. They're great for effect.

The kick is a bit subby and could use a grittier attack. Snare could come up in the mix. Cymbals also sound rolled into oblivion but I believe if you didn't have the aggressive low pass, they would be too loud. Perhaps take them down and bring back some of the high end there.

I want to hear more of the bass, and less of the low end of the guitar -- more high mid there.

Vocals could be more differentiated in terms of panning where vocalist 1 and 2 come in -- could also be more compressed -- and overall brought up .2 dB. The low pass could remain in place with a notch or two in the mids.

Great work!

[Trauma]

Lovely experiment and sounds like a lot of fun! I definitely feel your electronic roots in the production. So there are some things I would note if you intend to continue in this direction down the road.

Guitars for heavy metal are typically double tracked, meaning rather than using a chorus on the rhythm guitar to achieve stereo width, 2 different performances of the same guitar line are panned 100% left and 100% right. To achieve this digitally, edit the midi velocities and occasionally articulations and pinches, hand position if applicable, and attack and release times. I will usually use humanize function on only one track.

It sounds like this was not done for your 7 string, and that detracts from the mix for me.

Regarding your approach to drums, I think your drum writing is great. That jingle bell in the right channel I would pull down some volume wise and move a bit more to the left than where it currently sits. More orchestral cymbals would be appreciated. At subtle volumes they add a lot of space.

I think I would put this somewhere in industrial, as it feels very electronic and not so much metal, but definitely a fusion genre (and I am not rating genre anyway)

For your snare, I think I would actually hard or soft clip it and compress it dynamically, as well as add a subtle slapback delay or other FX noise below it with a longer tail. It sits a bit flatly and could use grit -- have you ever heard the bottom of a snare?

Your hihats could probably sit a bit further in the left channel. Sometimes I like to add a subtle delay to them that ping pongs to the right channel.

Some variation to guitar articulations would be appreciated, like diminished chords and dissonance, chuggs, etc.

Otherwise, wonderful piece. Great work!

ESHRR responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Definitely a new style for me so I appreciate it. About the doubling, I had it on in the quarter-time parts since those parts were where the rhythm guitar was the main focus. And yeah, listening back to it I see what you mean about the hats and snare. I’ll work more on that in future projects! I do also agree that to the song could use more variety. I made the song thinking about how a metal song with vocals would be made, but obviously this is instrumental so some parts ended up a bit lacking. Again, thanks so much for the feedback!

[The Threat in the Corner of Your Eye]

I think I actually would like a bit of high end rolled off of your cymbals for this track. They are quite bright for such a dark and brooding dirge.

Some issues with mix early on, lots of wet verb and delay crowding out the finer points of your mix and muddying the dry signals. Bass playing is taking center stage, and it sounds great, but I also want to hear your kick, snare, rhythm guitar, and lead. 2:30 is a point of contention in that regard. 2:48 suffers less so as it is intended to be a big open section without extreme lyricism.

Overall, I find that the verbs could be taken down and or tails shortened as not to take away from your fantastic structure and melodic ideas.

3:44 sounds best. Bass playing is lovely and lyrical. It almost becomes a lead instrument of its own.

Panning on the hihats could stand to be pushed to the left channel and taken down a bit. Snare may benefit from a 3 to 5 percent right panning and the room panned 2% to 4% left.

Love 5:29. This is much cleaner and a great balance.

Synths could use low end rolled off of their wet signals and low mids. The lead guitar chugging in high mids could be pushed up .3 dB and high end rolled off. Ping-pong delay, chorus, or auto panning 15% left and right would help bring that element above the shoegaze subtly enough to be heard.

Mastering compression to be applied after these and other small fixes would do much good! Compositionally I would rate 5/5. In terms of mix, there is just a bit holding it back. Fantastic playing and mood is on point. Great work!

Mischa-head responds:

Thanks for listening and the really detailed feedback!

[ShadowFox - Predator]

holy shit, that album art slappeth

36, we appear to be attempting to achieve analog warmth. I think I would like a bit of that high end fuzz rolled off from your bass, not so that it is gone, but so that the harsher elements don't cover up your leads and other filter play. I also feel like hard compression could have waited for a drop.

At 1:07 the compression is brick walled it seems, to the point it is hard to make out the kick and the result is that the drop sounds flat. A grittier kick transient may have helped here.

Snare at 1:53 is a bit too high in the mix and probably could benefit from lo passing. Same at 2:16.

2:30, the drop again sounds kind of flat. There is no real low mid or high mid substance, and the bass itself is not unpleasant, but does not fill the space. Left to right panning by hand for individual notes could have kept things interesting.

I praise your writing throughout and your melodic themes. The dnb bit at the last is nice. I wish that would have kept on to the outro for one more repetition. The current outro is a bit abrupt and unexpected.

Mix wise the final drop is starting to blow out from levels being too high pre compressor. The bass is quite loud, snare is quite up, and the leads are mostly centered or panned without a slapback in the opposite channel. They are also so quiet as to sound almost dry? Which is a shame because they are very well written. I would have liked to hear those chords pushed hard and sidechained to the kick and snare.

Otherwise, great work. Keep doing what you do!

[Fever]

That string instrument is a bit dark and tinny sounding. I think I would like if different portions of it were near hard panned left and right to give the feeling of space. Mixed as is, it feels boxy and centered.

1:03 is a nice, clean drop. I feel the arabic-y guitar could come down in the mix. It is quite loud and there is not a lot in that sonic space.

1:43 I would like to hear more of the backing delay pad effect, in a much louder sweep. About as loud as it is at 2:20 if not more.

Drop 2:30 is a nice switchup

Overall, I find myself yearning for a heavier balance of your house staple instruments, particularly bass, versus your accents and leads. The track stays a bit samey throughout. I think more elements aside from the ... is it a zither? I don't know. The arabic string thing is what I'll continue calling it -- more elements than that could be brought in -- some odd percussion sounds from that part of the world, perhaps a sitar line for a half a beat here or there.

Beyond that, sidechain is nicely done, bass line is catchy, and other house standards are pretty well handled. Good job!

[Lost Island (NGADM '23 R1)]

Those subtle piano chords are really making the piece by 1:00. Oh, those textures! Tasty as hell. Rarely do I hear something as well done as this, or as interesting at a slow pace.

Only thing I'd really change is the volume of the bass drum slash sub. It's quite up there and is the only thing in that space. There also is the ghostly shakers at 2:10. Some more variation in velocities or delay intensity may help. Panning of percs through 3:08 could potentially use some stereo widening, but at this point I am nitpicking.

Fantastic job. Best I've heard so far. Great work!

[Summer Skies]

Vibes intensify

Excellent incorporation of vocal

glissando/portamento working well for those chords

polyrhythms ensue by 1:48

... was that a gun cock sample? moderate discomfort aha

outro works really well

Mauxus responds:

Hahaha no, no gun cock samples were used no :)
Thank you for listening and leaving feedback, I really appreciate it!

[Paradigm Shift (NGADM 2023 Round 1)]

A bit overly reverbed in the intro, but by 38 seconds is coming together nicely. The white noise sweeps are a bit too high up in the mix, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot.

1:06 the over reverb is hurting those tikki tikki digital stabs cutting through properly.

This piece is a lot of intricate moving parts I see. I think at some points this may be hurting intelligibility a bit

Writing wise, great work. Is definitely feeling like Final Fantasy aha.

dnb elements, kick and snare I feel should have some more high end to them and cut through the mix more

Beyond that, really enjoyed the piece. Nice work!

Also speaking of paradigm shift, are we calling back to FF13?!?!

ET16 responds:

YES!!! I can die happy knowing someone caught that!!!! FF13 soundtrack had some of the most hyped battle themes in gaming!!!!

Yeah mixing is def my weakest link and failed to realize how echoey that intro was! So I def agree with your criticisms! Thank you very much for the tips!

[Floating]

I find myself wanting a bit more variety from this piece, not in rhythm so much as melodic themes. There is a certain... I don't know what that is missing. But beyond that it's well mixed. There are some elements I question, such as multiple instances of the same funk guitar sample either so hard chorused they are entirely different notes, or pitched on top of one another, that give a queasy psychedelic feel. But otherwise, enjoyed!