ADR3-N's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[For Them (NGRMC Remix)]

That initial fantasia-ish pike reminds me of a song I used to listen to -- swear I can't remember the name, but it was a remix of some Tinashe song. You'll know it if you've ever heard it.

Now, our intro is quite long, 2 minutes. Not a huge issue, except it gives me a lot of time to focus on the articulations and rather centered panning of lots of your orchestral synths. At 2:16 I'm confronted with this airy timpani; there's so much reverb on it, that's just about all I hear.

With better libraries, this could be a banger. Do note there are tons of free libraries out there if you're willing to spring for Kontakt, and if not, there are also tons of samplers/romplers out there for you to make these libraries yourself. As is, the strings at 1:16 sound extremely washed out, depending almost entirely on reverb for any sense of breath; this leaves them sounding muddy, also.

3:15, that lead is up way too high in the mix, and too dry. The rest of the instruments themselves are far too reverbed to pick out clearly.

Rubito piano sounds fine to me. Perhaps a hair late, but one could always drag that first bit out a little more to cope.

Overall, very imaginative take on the piece. Changing the time signature and genre, twice? Who'd'a thunk. :P I was also very pleased by your chord progressions in general, especially 3:00 to close.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

SplatterDash responds:

Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to to judge my piece! I really enjoyed getting your feedback on this, especially since this was the first time that I tested out a couple of free VSTs, including DSK Overture and Orpheus. Because this is the first time I used them, some of the sounds (mainly the strings and timpani) may have sounded a bit off. I'm hoping I can get a better sound someday with this.

I can honestly agree, 3:15 was a challenge with the lead. I wanted the melody to stick out, since the glass piano was being drowned out by everything else, but the device I used made it stick out either too much or, when I tweaked it, too little. I actually had the same problem at 3:27, and that of course didn't work out as well :p

I've been getting tons of comments about the intro being too long, and listening to it I can understand why. The reason why I made it as long as I did was because I was inspired by a piece called Atlas, which can be found here: https://youtu.be/Bw2Up2BRRII I know how I could improve that intro in the future, though, so hopefully I can improve that easily.

Thank you again for the review! Decided to take a different route and do something different with the melody, so I figured an Eb melody in 7/8 would do. Really glad that you enjoyed this, and I'm hoping that I can get used to more VSTs. Maybe I will even come back to this and make it better :D

[Pulse Waves Are People Too (NGRMC)]

Super unique take on the main melody. Not often I see people take chip into the competition environment, and even less often I see a genuinely entertaining 8-bit remix. You make those chip instruments sing, although the outside elements like the kick stick out a bit in the mix due to the condensed texture chip tends to have.

I have nothing but the highest praise for your lead writing and phrasing, as well as fantastic use of those static-y 8-bit sweeps. Just jammin'.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

[Dynamisis (NGRMC)]

I'm thinking your kick needs some more 808. As is it sounds almost like a low tuned snare bottom mic. It's also a bit too loud in the beginning and hard for me to differentiate with the other elements.

What little else I think I have to say about your perc could probably be best summed up in Quarl's comments about samples, particularly how that clap-snare sounds good, but doesn't quite cut it as a snare itself. It'd make a better top layer.

Compositionally, this is a very interesting take on the melody itself, largely aided by an almost otherly chord progression. I'm a bit confused by the choruses such as 2:23 where it doesn't really feel like we're in our home key, and the overarching melody itself is just a visitor from another dimension.

I'm also pretty sure this is somewhere in the realm of house rather than synthwave. Synthwave is fairly 80's-ish in its presentation. This is much more modern.

That said, not bad. I dig it.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

MRM3 responds:

Oh. My. Goodness.
I'm so sorry for the late reply!!!
I had a whole responce typed out 3 times, no less, and apparently the tab got closed or something, and it didn't register.
There are those things in life that make you want to kick yourself repeatedly, and then keep on kicking yourself.
I totally agree with the "needs more 808" part, wow, this would be so much different if I had made it now. xd
I changed it to "house" after you had said that.
The clap snare could definitely be added to.
On the subject of the Chord progression, I am vastly inexperienced.
Thank you so much for the review!!
And I will definitely be participating next year (given that NGRMC is still around next year)
:3

[H4D_2_G0 (NGRMC Remix)]

Sounds kind of like an RnB instrumental to me, minus the glitches, which are occasionally too frequent for my tastes. Initially I didn't like the super slowed down tempo with the obvious artefacts, but it slowly grew on me. I would have preferred you recorded this with your own instruments or synthesized it yourself -- sounds much better and more organic.

Also, there is a loooot of low rumble reverb going on, which makes it very hard to hear the tonality of each individual instrument. Other than this, the mix is fairly clear, but the sample itself is up fairly high relative to the other elements, and I can hardly hear the bass. Solution, low-cut your reverb.

1:42 feels almost like a filler, or outro, though 2:02 does sound pretty nice to my ears. Much better than the main section actually. I was somewhat sad not to have heard the theme continued to the end with the re-introduction of the RnB elements.

Also, the track itself looks like it's un-mastered. No compression, etc. Not a huge complaint since I myself am not a fan of the loudness wars, but can't argue compression itself is the magic mix glue.

That said, nice chillout piece. It actually made me sleepy, haha.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

GoodL responds:

Thanks so much! I totally feel where you're coming from on all points. I appreciate it!

[13th Planet (NGRMC Remix)]

I'm seeing a lot of chunky chords here in your opening. By 0:14 we've got these full, sound like a finale intervals, when your build-up comes in -- perc is probably too loud there; I'm not sure if it's compression problem or what.

By 0:23, I'm noticing a lot of the emptiness mentioned. It feels like we're just porting the main melody into different instruments, and the accompaniment is sort of there to fill up the empty space instead of transporting us to new dimensions.

Couple things could have really amped up this piece.

1, bass line. I'm hearing a clear chord progression, but when we get to 28 secs, it's like a house with no floor. That may even be most of the lack-of-progression feeling. You've got interesting synth design going on here and even a lot of textural changes. They just don't feel like they're going anywhere because there's nothing to anchor them. The percussion would also sound a lot less out by its lonesome in that regard, too.

2. Variation. Textural variation is in spades here. I actually think it might be a bit too much. What I'm talking about is melodic/phrasal variation. Now I know EDM loves to keep its same 4 chords. I'm here to tell you that conventional bridge sections, B sections, verse and chorus differentiation, all of these things are your friend. With simple choruses like the one we have, a song is going to sound almost capriciously single-minded without them. Definitely recommend some study of music theory to that end; it will make composing and remixing so much more fun, and you won't constantly be wondering, "Okay, now I've got all the bells and whistles, and these 8 bars sound great, but jeez, what do I do about the rest of the song? How do I keep it sounding fresh?"

Another thing you can look up to that end is bass note reharmonization. It becomes a lot more useful when you know the basic music theory of scales and chord structure, but you can use it as a layman even without realizing it. The idea is, move the bass note around to give certain chords different tonality. I.e. you can use the same melody and top chords and change the bass note to give them new life.

Anyway, not a bad track overall. Just needs a little growing room.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

Lot7even responds:

Thanks for taking the time to review! It means a lot :P

[Programmed Sky (NGRMC Remix)]

I'm not a huge fan of that initial icicle type stab, or the kick intro; that could just be my preference of genre talking though. I'm also not sure this is synthwave.

A major detractor for me is the lack of a bass line. The only thing we have anchoring us in our key is that tuned kick to tell me we're in Ab minor or something related, and without a bass, subsequently we don't really feel a tie to the tune itself. The kick alone would have been fine for an outro or break. As is, the song feels underdeveloped.

Going without a bass line really limits your chord combinations. With one, you can change the feeling of entire chords just by moving the bass note around in the scale/mode. It's really cool, and I definitely recommend trying it out.

Also, the chords themselves seem like they may just be the same triad ported around. The detuned ... saws(?) sound too loud for your lead to sustain, and percussion is lying on top of that pretty heavily. A little music theory goes a long way; I definitely recommend hitting up YT for inspiration in that regard. Some great channels out there like Signals Music Studios have helped me personally. Guaranteed to take your writing to the next level.

That said, your sound design itself was creative, turning a major sounding melody into a minor chillout. So it's not that I don't dig the idea, just the execution.

Thanks for coming out to NGRMC!

[Yoda12 - Flower (NGRMC Remix)]

I may have actually enjoyed this if not for the clipping. I'm not sure what that says about my musical tastes.

midimachine responds:

it says u have bad taste cause clipping are the best industrial hip hop group to ever exist

[lost in my mind]

Interesting chord progression. I wouldn't have expected it to work. Still, piece seems to be the same thing over and over after the lead comes in.

[What i see]

An interesting theme, but not a lot of development. For your second piece, not bad. I don't think it's the "samples" or FX that's the problem so much as a very short, very simple tune.

[Creepy Manision]

Sounds more like a ringtone than a level theme. A bit ear piercing.