ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[new day]

I have some nitpicking for the vocal processing. The FX is quite interesting to listen to, and melodies catchy. What distracts me is the sibilant consonants of T, S, poppy P, fricative F, and your breath noises. You will achieve better results cutting off breaths by hand, manually ducking t, s, p, f, and others.

Lyrics are very relaxing.

Vocal mix at times is MUCH louder than accompaniment and at parts rides roughshod over it. I think this can be corrected to some extent by bringing up bass, snares, hihats just veeeeery slightly by 0.2 dB or less, decreasing reverb on accompanying instruments and other wet FX. The pads are suffering quite badly from inaudibility of the lower register.

2:07 is the worst example.

At 2:36, the levels are starting to come into balance!

At 2:58 the vocals are about 0.2 to 0.5 dB too loud. I think a more judicious compression or hand leveling may help.

Your solo at 3:33 is very nicely played but could benefit from snare and accompanying vocals coming up somewhat.

Your vocoded vocals at the end are gorgeous. Much enjoyed.

I actually think after hearing your outro that a lot of the mud and unintelligibility of the track is due to compression picking up reverb and other wet effects and giving the impression of a wall of sound. Check out 2:02 with those pads getting lost in a wall of reverb.

Your vocals sound like they're spread out almost completely evenly in both channels, leading it to sound as if there's a weak center. This works for your vocoded vocals but makes the entire track sound very flat for your lead. Recommend a bit less chorus and perhaps a very light pingpong delay.

Instrumental wise, beyond the leveling, I'm very fond of your arrangement and have nothing bad to say. Transitions are done well. The only thing I would harp on even a little is just making sure if you must use a ton of reverb, you shorten those tails, take care to mind that reverb tails from previous chords don't clash with the next chords, or simply use them for effect with a big cut off like your end. Modulation, modulation, modulation, or you'll get mud.

Beyond that, great piece. I'm suffering from depression myself, so I'm here with you. Keep doing what you do!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

cadecomposer responds:

thank you so much for the detailed feedback! this was my first real go at vocal mixing so i'll take a lot of this into consideration in the future

[Wind Call]

Props for being in 5/4. Gives an otherworldly feel.

I think the biggest detractor here is the felt lack of stereodepth and space that all the instruments are supposed to sit in.

Personally I probably would have taken your bass down one octave or by 27 seconds begun to double it, when what sounds like a tabla comes in. Advice I recall from a few years ago was for transitions to take two elements away and add two more for transitions. I suppose the same could be said for one.

I enjoy the windy synth toward the end but I have a hard time making it out with the tablas as loud as they are. I believe a more effective use of them would be somewhat pushed to the background, quieter, with a pingpong delay to one side or the other. I would increase the volume of your wind to the tune of your synth holding longtones through 1:55, so that it grew in volume OR decreased in volume with those notes. You are going for an atmospheric piece and I feel more as if I'm sitting at a desk wondering how to solve a math problem or investigate a murder that no one will talk about in an anime highschool. That's not a failure, but it's not what you were going for I'm sure.

I think your atmosphere is somewhat betrayed by the quality of instruments used, relative static quality of panning and effects, and the volume of the dry tablas in particular. Also, there is a distinct lack of other sounds, metallic percussion, water slapping the shore, rain drop SFX, seagull ambiance, transition risers and downers. Be sure to think about those when you are at a loss for what else to do with a track.

An interesting listen nonetheless and refreshing ideas. Wishing you well wherever your music takes you.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[An Amazing Adventure]

Pretty simple structure to the song. Nothing offensive in the sound design. Everything is clearly audible. I would recommend some changes to leveling.

Kick and snare should be proportionally the loudest things in your song. Whether this is accomplished through PERCEIVED loudness, opposed to actual loudness, is up to your taste -- i.e. sidechaining versus raising the levels, or adding distortion or saturation and transient shaping to your percussion to help them stand out. Your snare for your drop is a little hard to hear relative to the rest of the elements because it doesn't have a very pronounced mid to high frequency profile. Otherwise the leveling.

Your structure is good, but your transitions leave some to be desired. I think what you're lacking are crashes, transition FX - risers and downers, percussion fills, melodic fills and solos to tie everything together.

As a whole, the piece does not clash internally with its arrangement, melody, and progression. It's very easy to follow, and no part sounds BAD. This is great -- you're making songs that are coherent and easy to listen to. I think it just lacks some special sauce to make it truly unique. You will pick this up in no time, I'm sure!

As far as your leads, I would take them down by .2 dB to 1 dB, and your bass I might pull down an octave for drops, or write some more interesting rhythms, even if it's just 8th notes going back and forth between low and high octave of the same note -- a technique you often see in techno.

Other than that, nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

burningmagma responds:

You're welcome! I will do my best in the competition.

[Ji4H3 - Chasing the dream (Original Mix)[Free download]]

Coming in with what sounds like a nice clean, contemporary Alan Walker-esque mix. I'm not sure about the transition at 33 sec. 0:46 makes up for it.

I would lose a little bit of your reverb for the drops and turn down the kick a bit on the sub frequencies. Sidechain is meant to help it cut through, which it is doing. It's just a tad loud. Perhaps a more subtle touch on the release.

As a whole it sounds not unlike a lot of others in its genre, nothing wrong with that. It means you're getting somewhere! However there is something I feel it lacks to stand out, which is variety, especially for being a long 4 minutes. I think the key change was not necessary -- but to each their own!

What I would like to hear is some more varied instrumentation, ethnic percussion accents, more stripped down sections of the drop earlier on to give later drops more depth, etc. You've got a solid structure and nothing in particular is detracting from the piece except that it sounds like I've heard it before, but I know I haven't.

Beyond that, great work, particularly on your mix. Heavy compression didn't blow it out of proportion sonically and that says a lot. I think you know what you're doing, and in time you will surprise us all with where you're going. Great to hear from you.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Zero_Em & Bonfire - Dream In Digital]

Blazing fast pace, dirty bass, nice beats, and great transitions.

My only complaint is it's hard to make out the percussion in the beginning and it sounds a bit mid-range heavy throughout the piece. Everything but the bass at least. Particularly 1:09 could benefit from just a bit less on the synths on the side, slightly less sub bass, and a bit less compression. Or a bit less volume on different elements going into the compressor. Take your pick. Cleaning up frequencies and levels would make this a solid 9.5 for me.

I'm not sure if you meant to leave in the clicks where string samples come in at 2:48 or so. That can be smoothed with a bit of playing with attack.

The whale-like ooooo is a bit too present for me.

Otherwise, fantastic piece, great listen. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BonfireRMX responds:

oh! Thank you! I was really waiting for this opinion. me and my friend will take into account what you thought, thank you very much, and what you had said at minute 2:48 I think it was not intentional, that part was made by my friend but really thank you very much :D

[The Deamon]

This is smooth as hell. At 0:30 I am only thinking to turn down the chip synth in the intro by 0.2 dB

Your melodies flow like an orange sunset going down over the horizon, smooth, effortless, and a pleasure to observe unfolding. Great writing on your basslines. I supremely enjoy them. I might apply a bit of saturation or distortion, turn them up a bit.

2:17 is a nice suspenseful transition. 2:28 was unexpected, returning to the same groove, but hey! The track itself is varied enough I don't mind.

Spanking nice work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

BAOWZ-Tobass responds:

glad you liked it! love the comparison XD. I'll try slightly more saturated baseline next time 😉

[Mr.Market]

I'm sitting at 00:40, and so far good development of elements but the progression seems slower than it should be into melodic/bass material. You have a lot of cool ideas and interesting composition.

I once was listening to a channel by a guy named Kush, and he said a great idea is to add 2 things and take 2 away for each transition. A man by the name of Adam Neely said "repetition legitimizes." Take what you will from that, but I think some study of song structure will do you really nice. That bass riff at 01:39 slaps, and I was sad to only hear it clearly for like 5 seconds!

I think you are on the cusp of discovering who you are as a song writer, and you will get there. Keep studying. Keep writing. Keep doing what you do, and never let anyone dissuade you from following your passion, whether you intend to keep it as a hobby, or turn it into a job.

Also, the piano at the end was random, lol.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AthosBR64 responds:

i appreciate that you make a whole review about my song.thank you very much for the feedback!

[Dim Dimension]

I love your lead writing throughout and your chord structure.

I don't have much critique beyond those related to software and mixing. Obviously, drum samples could be better, and it could use mastering and compression. I have tons of freebies hiding out in my newsposts if you would be interested to sift through.

I think the track as a whole would benefit from bringing up your kick and snare in the mix, turning down reverb and delay wet signals, and experimenting with panning.

Beyond that, the piece holds together really well and is well structured. Your ideas are clear. At no point am I ever bored. It moves on with a definite idea of what it is and where it's going. Great job in that regard.

The bass is not obtrusive but could be taken down a slight amount.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

AnnieHer responds:

Yeah, experimenting with stuff is pretty fun. And as I improve with time I will understand how to properly use every part of my toolkit! Thanks for the feedback

[AniGleb - Inner blast]

Хочу сказать, что давно не писала отзыв на русском, но стараюсь, чтобы вам более или менее понятно то, что думаю о песне.

В общем, она классна, громкость разных инструментов ровно балансирована. Барабаны четко бьют, и прекрасно слышу их характеристики. Сжатие канала мастер также звучит вполне нормально и не мешает. Этим я всегда удивляюсь, слушая от новых исполнителей на нашем сайте. Значит что 2 года с нами не зря потрачены!))

Дроп второй неплохой. Только хотела услышать немножко побольше басовых частот среднего диапазона от 01:21 к 01:46, или, возможно, больше суббасов. Ревущему басу это поможет.

Кроме того что структура и мелодии песни относительно просты, у меня другой критики нет. Спасибо за вдохновляющую работу, и что пришли на NGUAC!

If someone speaking English wants to know what I said, you can copy the text and paste it to Reverso Context or another Russian translator :)

AniGlebGD responds:

Glad to hear that! And thanx you caring about language.)

[Laurie's Interlude]

This piece is pretty quiet, and there is a high pitched ringing in one of my ears over 20khz. It's louder than a lot of the other elements.

HOWEVER the vocal elements are enchanting, and the ride cymbals are nice. I would just bring the metal dings down very slightly.

Beyond the low volume, very hard ringing, I don't have much critique. I think the piano could do with some more gentle velocity, and not be layered in that lower register on the chords. I think that detracts from how ethereal the track as a whole sounds.

But overall, wonderful atmosphere and great work. It was a pleasure to hear and very relaxing!

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

anadevar responds:

Thanks a lot! It is nice to hear that.