ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hold On]

The swing felt a little clumsy to me, but you managed to tie back into a gritty, cohesive sound. Great work!

BOULLIE responds:

Yeah I didn't treat the drum loop too closely. I remember the swing growing on me after a bit and I left it where it was.

It's still hella wonky, but I'm glad it's at least enjoyable lol. Look at the newer stuff!! *Nervously bites at nails*

[Block Stompin']

Some good stuff. The string bass stuck out a bit, but I really like the distortion on your drums, and the panning and delays were fantastic. A phrasing problem happened around 1:35, but it could just be because it was easy to get lost in that atmosphere of the softer long notes. Your outro is nice. Wish it could have lasted a little longer or been hinted at somewhere else.

Great work -- and this is just your early stuff. Nice!

BOULLIE responds:

Oh god! Don't look at this stuff!!! lmao

I can't even listen to most of these anymore without feeling a tinge of embarassment, no matter how important they were to my development

[GloomyCity]

Your writing isn't bad, but your instrumentation and mixing leaves something to be desired. I feel like everything is sort of laying flat. I think there is a chorus or flanger on your high strings. It's really sticking out. The piano is also laying too loudly on top of everything. It should be spaced out, not in the way of all the other sound. Also, I feel like the low strings are too busy, or just too loud. Needs more 808 bass.

You could be doing a lot more work playing with those hi-hats than I hear here. It's just really long, and a lot of repetition of the same. For a beginner though, this is a good start.

I recommend learning how to use a master limiter on your mixes. This will solve volume problems without the risk of distortion. Compression is your friend.

Some good tools for trap are Massive, any 808 based synths you can program and get a good low end sound from. Sometimes I use distortion on my basses to make them stick out. If you don't have access to a good synth, there are VSTs like Alpha Sampler that you can plug in trap or hip hop 808 samples into and write them that way. Pay particular attention to the most common rhythms in this genre. Listen to other artists. Imitation and emulation can lead you to develop your own definitive style.

IMO, you should have busted out with the end of this song from the beginning. It's the best part. A lot of people would hear this and press skip. I'll compliment your fade-out though. Keep it up!

[8BitDickery V2]

Not bad. I really like it. Could use a master limiter plopped on top to pump up the volume though. Also, watch your chord structures. The high melody sounds like the second note is falling outside of the chord when it comes in. It could be my ears.

[enzo07-electroniz]

I like the high string synth, but the rest of the track could use work. 32 seconds is a nice sound. I just really feel like you could have tried to work in some bass to complement your perc and melodies. Your percussion is also hiding in the mix again. I can easy pick out samples too. Could use hi-hats.

Needs more attention to detail basically

Enzo07 responds:

Ok thanks for the advice!

[Ode to a Woman]

Sweet and simple. I like it. The chords resolve well. Only could use a little more precise tuning.

larrynachos responds:

The guitar was a VST, so the tuning is fine. I turned off most of the bend humanization so it wouldn't detune.

[~{ Wub and Effection }~]

Not bad, but it was easy to pick out parts of the drop that sounded almost exactly the same. The high, for instance. Sounds like Skrillex made love to some techno. Your drop clashes a bit with the overall chord structure of the track in places.

larrynachos responds:

Yeah, I should have added more to the drops. I had made the drop first, as a project for school, then I finished it without modifying the drop further (which is probably why it sounds so dry).

Thanks for the review!

[-BattleTown-]

I felt like it took too long to really get anywhere, but this is a good tune. You really do churn out music at an impressive rate, and your chord structures are pretty choice in most cases. The bass is very consistent as you mentioned. Nice piece!

[Addiction]

Nice work! My headphone cord broke halfway through listening, but what I heard is nice. Your phrasing is great. Now, just need to add some edge to that. Sounds really old school.

HaydeMusic responds:

Thanks, I really hope my song wasn't the reason your headphones broke haha

[[House] Nicki Minaj - Fly (Instrumental)]

Hmm, everything sounds sort of samey. It sounds like Impulse synth, Minimoog, and a combination of others like Messiah and Lounge Lizard. But I do like how you've mixed your percussion and bass. I just wouldn't quite say this is your average house. Most house has a lot of modulation on the leads, at least the House I've heard. I'm no expert, by far. Do you listen to house often?

You may want to apply a master limiter to fix the loudness problem. It will prevent most distortion and compress quite a bit. I master limit all of my output tracks for the sake of just preventing clipping and adding volume when needed. You can automate this in DAWs like Mixcraft. I also think you could benefit from a stronger kick. Dubstep style drums in the middle were also an unexpected change, at least without wobble bass.

Overall I like your original compositions a lot better than covers. Just seems like you bust up in the eardrums and get shit done more without trying to emulate a particular style or song, if that makes any sense. Anyway, keep plugging away at that DAW. Genre experimentation is your friend! Looking forward to seeing/hearing more from you!