ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[you were honest]

23 seconds is such a nice moment! I'm wowed once again to see so much great dnb dropped in a single day. I'm gonna have to go to your profile and see what externals you got.

My one item of critique is the ending is super abrupt

[net suffering]

So happy I decided to go on a roll down this tag (and shocked to see a near album dropped in a single day)

I'm shocked that almost a full day has gone by without more reviews, but maybe that's just the state of the portal these days. I keep thinking with each review, no, this track is my favorite, but I think I'll name this one so. I just love the chord progression.

What DAW do you use by chance?

aak3ng responds:

Thank you a lot for your comments, they mean a lot!
I use FL Studio and sometimes Cubase for Mastering, hope this helps you!
Thank you for being here

[who is she? never seen her]

Mmm, again with the juicy chords and atmosphere. This one reminds me of ParagonX9's best works. I'm so happy to hear this style still flourishing on the web. Excellent work! The frantic breaks and gentle bass really make this track.

[lonely destruction]

My review here basically concurs with the last that I just gave you. Minus the part about break volume. Imo that's just fine here in your intro and verse.

Taking me back to the good old dnb days. Love it.

I do think at 1:31 that a bit less low end on the snare would sound a bit better. Drop sounds just a bit muffled. Otherwise, totally clean. I have N64 racing games playing in my head as I listen to that chord sample.

[we broke the core]

Ooh, those gorgeous chords grabbed me from the jump. I would love to hear more of your breaks and a bit less verb, or at least less low end on the verb.

Great chopping and I especially love the phasing feel of those cymbals.

At 48 I think you could stand to pare down the verb quite a bit to make room for that subby bass. Nice quote sample use as well. Very atmospheric.

[vhsdubs_ - ↑elevate↑_]

Is complete brick wall compression a trend coming over from phonk? As a bit of an old head I'm not a huge fan of that. I'm amazed you got this to sound as good as it does with such a THICC waveform. I would suggest turning the compression or clipper down just a little to let the track breathe a bit. The arrangement allows for such dirt, but on lower volume my ears still feel really full and a bit uncomfortable!

That said I really like your writing, arranging, and transitions!

[Xtrullor & Panda Party - Sheol]

Darn I was really hoping this was new. Was searching the dnb tag since I had just submitted to it, but it's a trip down memory lane. I had to double check you were still around, because I still very much love your music!

[Hello, world!]

I was expecting dnb immediately based on the tags (out of curiosity I selected a tag I just submitted to!), but I think you got something going on here lyrically. Would love if you posted those below

The only thing about this mix is it's pretty low and low mid heavy. It's nice that the hihats aren't in your face, but it's a bit hard to hear the drums. I would turn the sub down quite a bit and push the vocals forward more.

Cutting the low reverb wet signal will help significantly, same with any delays. A reverb or delay that will allow you to control these values with a hipass is very helpful for cleanliness of mix. Sidechaining things out of the way of the kick and snare will help too. Flux is a free fake sidechain plugin that I use religiously. I discovered it while searching for what to post onto my monthly free plugin/resource magazine, posted on my blog the 15th of every month.

Besides the bass being pretty loud throughout and overpowering the melodic elements of the track, I really appreciate the writing, especially the hook. You have great songwriting and I encourage you to keep going!

solenlovesyou responds:

tysm for the feedback ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ i adore getting detailed advice and i will be sure to apply ur mixing advice when the song gets remastered for the EP's release!!

as for lyrics, a video is available on my youtube! i just updated my links to include that
thanks so much again!

[Is this justice?]

I gotta know what kind of lead that whistle is. It sounds super versatile. If it's not in fact modeled after an actual instrument, props for making it sound like it is.

I think some things could be done to make this pop

For one, make sure the kick and snare cut through. They're pretty quiet in the mix relative to the lead and side synths -- but I am very thankful the lead is audible.

You could do to cut out a lot of the low end reverb wets and hi-pass those to 250 hz or even higher if the instrument is in the low register. I hear a lot of reverb which is sucking out the power from those chords!

It also sounds like you are using stock drums for the kick and snare which is not bad. They just don't seem to have a lot of character.

Really the only thing that is holding this back is mix. Compositionally it sounds great!

DumbOctopus responds:

That whistle is just whistle preset from FLEX with some effects. Thank you for your comment!
Yeah, mixing is hard for me, but I'm trying to improve!

[Mᴀɢɪᴄᴀʟ ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛ.]

Not bad for a first! I think you could do a lot more with it. Only rating low because it's very short.

If you ever need music resources, you can check out my profile. I try to do my best to help independents as much as I can.

Anyway back to the track, you have a solid lead riff. It works fine. I think you could have taken a basic song structure you found on the internet and broken that down (like say what happens in a chorus, usually all the instruments are in and so on, whereas on a verse you might just have the percs and riff)

You can take that knowledge and apply it here to your track to make it more interesting and dynamic. Don't let that fool you into thinking you didn't do a good enough job. This is your first music! Keep going and I have no doubt you will go onto great things!