Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- Let's look at the mix! To start with, this is actually a pretty full mix. ZacStriga is absolutely accurate with the drums, they could use a bit more presence and "punch" to their impacts. At the moment, they have a LOT of room reverb, and the dry sample should be brought out a bit more so they can fit in with the rest of the music. This would also let you enhance the kick and snare a bit more directly. Essentially, because they have reverb and the rest of the instruments are direct input, the drums sound disconnected from the rest of the music. This is actually why in the mastering process of music like rock, a touch of reverb is often added to the master channel so it sounds like every instrument is being played together live, regardless of whether they initially were. I also want to address that synth. It sounds like it's either set to randomly play at different octaves, or cycle through them steadily. Either way, the high end needs to be brought in a bit as it pierces a little too much and can be a painful listen, especially for people sensitive to higher frequency sound. Reigning in the trebles would also help it fit the rest of the music well. Try playing around with the preset too if you don't want to have it randomly jumping between octaves, there's a near 100% chance that it's a setting you can turn off.

- Let's look at the arrangement of this track too. As a short track, I wouldn't necessarily expect hugely developed ideas, but... this also only really has ONE idea that's cycled between instruments and octaves. I think it would do very well to have a B section with a different chord progression recontextualizing the melody, or a different melody developed for more than a single iteration before going back to the main theme. This would also be an opportune time to change up the feel of the track. I think a breakdown would work very well, even if it's just laying off the groove from the drum and bass, focusing on the chords and a single melody for a short period. This would also fit the genre quite well.

Compliments to the Composer:

- This is a really chill vibe, and my god I *love* the electric organ and cleanly amped guitar. Those are both some of my favorite instruments to have in acoustic rock tracks. Your main theme is actually really good too, and the bass groove feels very satisfying. You have a good foundation and some solid playing (or midi work, that guitar does sound quite sampled to me, albeit a good one). Definitely would enjoy hearing more work from you.

Final score: 8

The synth fucking pulled me in buddy. Awesome mix too, personally would have give the snare and kick the teensiest bit more body but that's my own taste. This rocks 🎸