just like city in the future

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:

- This has two common errors I see with amateur producers. The first of which is that you only really use one melody throughout the entire track. This is also the case with the chord progression. You do have very small amounts of variance, but the actual content and mood of them is the same. Specifically - they maintain the same notes on the same rhythms with added notes in them, and those all fall into the same chord progression. This feeling of sameness is enhanced by the lack of variety in your sound palette. It's all generally the same type of sound - constant four-on-the-floor beat, basic drums, sidechaining to each beat, same pad without much modulation, etc. It's all very... inoffensive - but at the same time, nothing particularly sticks out because of how similar all of it is.

- The second is some... very odd harmony. Specifically the chord progression at 0:08-0:11. This... is odd. Specifically, while this piece's style is based in classical western harmony, this chord progression doesn't quite work in that theory. See, western music styles are based on the idea of tension and release. In chord progressions, the most basic form of this is V -> I (something like a G major chord to a C major chord). This doesn't happen with your chord progression, and it's noticeable in how actively awkward it ends up sounding. The major problem with this in your piece is that this is the conclusion of your chord progression - it causes your melody to do some very weird things and fail to feel conclusive, or really even achieve much of a point of 'arrival'. What I would highly recommend doing is looking into chord progressions in music theory, and perhaps tracing out the chord progressions of some of your favorite songs, recreating the harmony with your own midi instruments to see how they do it.

Compliments to the Composer:

- This track is honestly pretty solid. Aside from the chord kerfluffle and some of the monotony, it's generally very nice and chill. In fact, the monotony isn't actually that major an issue - it's just a result of the factors I stated in that piece of criticism. Otherwise, this is really nice and easy on the ears, feels decent to listen to, and isn't even mixed all that badly. I think once you tweak a bit of your chord progressions and add a B section that changes up your chords and melody, you'll have some really solid little tracks on your hands, even more than this is already!

Final score: 5.5