Love it!

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:

- So... "underneath it all"... is sub-bass. If there is one thing that holds this track back the most, it is the sub-bass - and specifically, how that sub-bass is too loud. I noticed when initially listening that the volume of this track was lower than it felt it should be, and there were some particularly low frequencies audible in my headphones. After downloading your track and checking it in a spectrometer, there are quite a few frequencies not just in the sub-bass region of about 30-60hz, but there were some lower than that, at around just 20hz or even LOWER. The problem with this, and having bass be too loud in general, is that it distorts the rest of the waveform. Human hearing drops off as you get into the lowest audible frequencies, and 20hz is the common lower limit to human hearing entirely. All those frequencies lower than that are 100% distortion and saturating the audio to be louder in terms of dB but not in terms of human perception. As a result, this track has decent volume... but really unexpectedly low LOUDNESS during the drops (especially the last one). After all, those arpeggios get MUCH louder after the bass stops, pretty much immediately. Otherwise, you can also master this up to -1.0dB rather than the current setting for your limiter. That can give you more space for fine detail as well.

- The second point I'd like to make as well is that your drops seem to mostly consist of a gated bass with a phaser. I think you can definitely add some more variation to this by using some FM or ring mod, perhaps even waveshaping or bitcrushing to add some more sound design development over time. By changing up your chord progression during the breakdowns (or even during the drops) in order to add more variance, even if it's just by substituting alternate chords, you can keep some additional engagement over time.

Compliments to the Composer:

- Honestly, the phaser gate bass is a really cool idea. I wish it were developed a bit more. Your overall mix outside of the excessive sub-bass frequencies is solid, and you have some grasp of development over the course of the piece, making this a really enjoyable listen.

Final score: 6.8

Nice. I like it. :D