ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[bit coin]

Hey nothing wrong with flipping the same sample again! As long as you make good music, that's what matters :)

What 808 is that? I'm digging that salty saturated overtone.

For your percussion I think you could use something to compress and widen them out. I used KSHMR Essentials Kick on every percussion instrument in my last track -- and they were all lofi drum machines with terrible transients. Get it while it's free. It's good quality :)

Like the glitching on the sides. I think the only thing this beat really lacks is maybe some layered hihat rolls, a nice orchestral crash to glue it together, and compression mix glue. I found a new structuring method that works too to get a solid drop and stretch it to a full track searching on youtube. Might look there :)

Glad to see you out here still doing your thing!

heyopc responds:

I made the 808, imma check out kshmr rn

[Hole In The Sky]

Reading the other reviews, I'm not seeing any really issues with mixing outside of maybe too much reverb on sustaining instruments. I would like to hear those strings back some off of that piano. They're sustaining, and the low strings are even sort of drowning out the bass at points. I would on the contrary bring that up more.

The coins falling are a bit distractingly loud for me. I might bring that down or pan it differently.

Lots of interesting world sounds here.

Maracas or shakers could move around in the space or be taken down some. I also think the coins or whatever that falling percussion instrument is could stand to move into the right channel probably.

The drum set, I'm not sure what it is that I don't like about it. I think it's the hihats and maybe the snare. Could use saturation there. But I'm very, very happy that you didn't bury them in reverb to get a pleasant sound.

.... I figured it out, it is the hihat. There's a very synthy ring that I don't like. More velocity editing may help. It could also probably be compressed more to drive the piece.

I felt one thing that could have been added is some bluesy ride cymbal work and big spacious crashes throughout.

Other than that I found the melodic content quite compelling and was reminded of the Fallout 4 theme, mixed with Dragon's Dogma character creation theme. Very pleasant, positive, and uplifting vibes. Really enjoyed it.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Nebula (Official Release)]

Я вижу на странице, что вы из Владивостока, итак приветствую! Стараюсь на русском писать отзыв, чтобы мы с вами друг друга лучше понимали. Простите меня за возможные ошибки. Не все термины сведения и музыкальной теории мне знакомы.

Скажу прямо, мне очень нравится песня. Жанр совсем недавно был мой любимый. Вы выбрали приятные аккорды, и показали хорошее знание и структуры и прогрессии того жанра. Единственный недостаток -- я бы хотела слышать чуть чуть поменьше сайдчен. То, можете просто делать большой барабан немножко громче, может быть и басс, и малый барабан. Мне кажется, что сайдчен вот здесь лишь 1 2 децибел по громче, чем должно быть.

В общем, сведение мне звучит чисто до 0:50. Потом я бы делала реверберацию тише, чтобы барабаны звучали как можно яснее, может быть увеличить уровень сайдчен. Проблема не повторилась около 2:52, но тогда звучит, что возможно все треки играют чуть громко для компрессора.

Но как уже сказала, песня мне так понравилась, что я слушала 5 раз. Очень хорошо сработали!

Спасибо за участие в конкурсе NGUAC!

[Raindrops]

In your intro, that piano probably could use some more velocity in the right channel. The string impact almost becomes a percussion instrument itself.

By 0:54 compression or lack of a limiter is causing a lot of distortion in the low end.

I agree with Mutty99, despite lots of technical issues, the underlying melody and composition itself were an interesting listen, even if fraught with so much reverb. I would take it down probably by more than half the current value, change the decay to a faster rate, and low cut up to 250 hz.

To fix your distortion issue, you can take your master channel, mix in 32 point float, and pull it down until the levels are no longer in the red or orange. I personally prefer yellow to green. Then I master in a third party service or using a different host of plugins. Alternatively, you can mix the entire track so that without touching master volume or fx, your track never hits those nasty red levels.

For your percussion instruments, it sounds like the transients could use shaping. There are two free plugins for that dominion and KSHMR Essentials Kick. I recommend both highly. I use them on literally everything.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Calamity Gate]

Insane arpeggios. Dig it. Better mixing, and I have no doubt you'll go far. So much great melodic content here, no doubt hearing a lot of techno influence.

Regarding mix, I can't tell if everything has a chorus on it, or if the mix is just very boxed in with lots of reverb.

There are some things you can try to alleviate this center pressure feeling. For one, panned crashes about 38% left and right respectively, maybe more if you want to arpeggiate hats in left and right channels on transitions. That piano arp, you could even alternatingly pan left and right on those ascending swells to give more movement.

Your kick and snare should always be cutting through the mix. I would take them up by probably a dB or two when you're going into that first drop at 0:30 or so. Cutting reverb down all around the mix will also help in that regard. I find myself wanting more snare throughout, as well as a nice saw or sub bass to sit in the middle of that flangy sounding ... is that a ramp? I don't often actually think through these things making music. Just flip the knobs around. Anyway, the bass throughout also sounds pretty thin.

Any time you're mixing, make small moves. Each time you adjust one thing, it can push something else out of balance. Moving even .2 dB sometimes is big enough to make a difference. Get things balanced how you like them, and then figure out what instruments in the mix you want to push. Once the percussion and other elements are all glued together, you'll find you can start to move things around without causing trouble. And if something is just not laying right, you may even try adding some fx.

That's really all the issues I heard hear minus maybe shortness. Melodic content was fire. Took me back to the old days.

A quick fix for your percussion not cutting through -- try KSHMR Essentials Kick. It works well on pretty much any percussion instrument. I used it on my last track for everything, and those were all freeware plugins.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

[Hand In Hand- NGUAC 2020 Final Round Submission]

Really nice clean playing for those acoustics in the opening. Very nice production. I personally would have liked with the vocals as naked sounding as they are, bringing them up in the mix. I have a lot of issue understanding the lyrics and hearing them as the lead instrument. It does have a nice, bar-rock blues meets country feel.

From what I've heard of you, live mixing is probably your best strength. I personally feel on bigger sections, your acoustic chugging rhythms are just a bit too far pushed up in the mix, contributing to the muddiness of the very dynamic vocal.

That said, absolutely love that you've written it for a friend's wedding. That's super cool man.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

ConnorHeather responds:

Excellent thanks for the great constructive criticism i will take everything on board it helps a lot, ear fatigue is a real thing and is difficult when you do it all by yourself, having fresh ears and perspectives is a big help thanks! Will most likely go back and take onboard what you said for the final mix.

Thanks for all the work you guys do to make NGUAC happen! It's been a pleasure to participate!

[Ahurac - ID 2 (NGUAC Final Round Entry)]

Starting off, I like your intro and transitional FX. I think you could stand to sidechain them against your synths.

The mix as a whole sounds pretty heavy on reverb and super mid heavy. Almost like there's a vinyl effect across the whole song.

Kick I think could stand to have a bit more bite, maybe saturation. KSHMR Essentials Kick is a good one-stop fixer. You could also tune it to the tonic. Something's going on with the harmonics in the upper low mids and it's not meshing to my ears.

Other than that, compelling melodies. It almost sounds too balanced of a mix for me. There are points -- your 8 bit percussion could stand to come out a LOT and possibly sidechained for where it's present. I can barely hear it under your top snare, but I know it's there because I know the sound -- so it's serving as mix clutter.

Reverb I would say you could stand to either take down by about half its value or more. I feel like it's being used to make synths sound more real, opposed to modulating them by hand. I say that as I'm guilty of having done it myself just to get done with a track. If you're going to do that, I would low cut up to 250 hz on the verb itself. Almost every instrument I'm hearing sounds like it has reverb on it, very boxy low mids.

I might tune your snare so the overtone is either a harmonic of or the tonic itself, to give it some feeling of belonging.

Beyond that, a bit short, but I enjoyed the tune. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

Ahurac responds:

Woah thank you for all these feedbacks! I'll take them in note for the final version (because yes, this is still an ID, that's why it's a little bit short).

[A Stroll Down St Pancras]

Never cease to amaze me with your compositions. This is freaking epic. To think I wouldn't have found it had I not been checking audio advertisements on the same day as I just released a new piece!

My only complaint is the reverbs could be taken down and low cut to make individual instruments stand out more. The rest is absolute fire. Nicely leveled, your vocals especially have come so far in the years I've been following you. Sounds angelic with those lower alto tones particularly. I might take just a little bit of sibilant D or T in the 5-7k range off of your stabs but other than that, loving what I'm hearing. Even when those are more naked toward the end, they sound better. It could just be level chasing causing the sibilants to stick out more at a lower volume. Additionally I would shorten reverb tails or apply gated reverb -- that end stinger is a little waffled with verb.

Otherwise, nothing to say. Freaking love it.

[Midnight Shuffle]

Something about that first bass note in the chord progression I don't really like. I'm sure I'd get used to it over time listening through.

This is an interesting composition.

Personally I would take down your reverb sends across the board, low cut them up to 250 hz or so if you find you must have this shimmer. You can also apply autogate effects to it to keep things interesting.

By 3:44 the progression itself is sounding really good but the reverb is muddying it up.

Also I feel like there's a but much sub on your kick. Could use some more air to it. I came across the plugin KSHMR Kick for quick, easy mixing on that front. It's a free kick shaper. I'd also recommend following Bedroom Producer's Blog or BPB for more freebies to enhance your sound and get you away from sounding stock-y.

Anyway, nice work. Saw you in Audio Ads, hit the play disc, and here we are :)

ScottJacob responds:

Hey man! You're feedback means a lot! Thanks for taking the time to write this, i appreciate it! I definitely feel i struggle with mixing and want to get better. Thanks again for pointing everything out and suggestions, it all helps!

[Last Breath (VIP Remix)]

Sounds pretty good. Interesting concept with that super phasy chorused bass. I'd bring it more to the front with maybe some parallel compression. As it is your chord stabs and other synths are standing on top of it in the mix. You could just drop them some DB.

Other than that, pretty standard track. You got any YT visualizer or album cover? It's really convenient to pop those in the NG description (and more effective than dropping social links alone). I think a track like this could use one.

At some point I plan to make a tutorial on how I made my last visualizer without AfterFX in 10 minutes flat. Let me know if you'd be interested.

Nue22 responds:

Thanks for the review :D.
I think I wanted to copy Arcanemusic's wild bass style a little bit here. True, the polish is lacking... Every time I tried to finalize it I ended up completely re-writing it, plus it was extremely laggy/choppy to the point of being terribly mastered like it is XD.
During production I was thinking about putting together a physical visualizer but even that is a bit too complicated for me. A visualizer tutorial could be useful, though. Who knows lol.