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:

- Alrighty, let's look at a couple things here. First things first, it seems like you're having trouble staying in key. You have several chords and an arpeggio starting around 0:34 (and later at 2:47) which is harmonically consistent with itself, but it's completely different harmonically from the psytrance bass plucks, unlike the additional pitched sounds starting at 1:40. I'm not certain exactly what this is due to, but it doesn't quite fit. Let's listen to a classic high bpm psytrance comparison, Laur's track Sound Chimera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_udndPAO4 Starting at 0:41 for analysis, there is a clear bass note, which stays the same despite the higher pitch singing melody. Afterwards, the bassline stays the same regardless of changing into the classic psytrance plucks. Notably, it changes pitch with differences in melody to a note just a half-step higher. This provides some variation while still keeping everything roughly the same. You clearly can change pitch and tone, but it still needs to keep existing harmony in mind. It sounds like you might have been inspired by Laur, so perhaps doing some deep analysis of their psytrance tracks might be helpful.

- The second point is to do with all of your sound effects. Clearly you love them, as they provide the main variation through your track. I can't blame you, I LOVE some good 'ear candy'. However, that 'candy' can't be the 'main course', and what this track is really missing is some variation outside of the sound effects layered on top. To use Sound Chimera as a point of comparison again, it applies musical variation that would function very well even without the sound effects on top. Notice how the sound effects used at 1:23 provide rhythmic syncopation and variation, and there are small drum fills and cymbals providing additional support to change the tone periodically. Later, the psytrance sections switch into a lower bpm, then return to the higher bpm with a change into triplet timing. All of this maintains interest through the track regardless of whether the tone remains the same, completely WITHOUT the sound effects. Those add even more spice on top of a solid foundation, which is what your track needs the most work on currently. As one last minor addendum, you might find it's easier to add this additional content and fit it into the mix if you reduce the flood of reverb on your other sound effects and moderately reduce the amount of bass frequencies in your bass to give your mix more room for detail.

Compliments to the Composer:

- So, I mentioned how much I love ear candy, and god, even soaked in reverb you have some pretty nutty sound effects. I want to make it really clear that I DON'T want you to remove them by any means, just add more variation underneath. They add so much character and spice that it would be a shame not to appreciate the work put into them (also, it sounds like you've used a couple samples from one of my favorite little "hi-tek" sample packs. Could be wrong there though). I also do love psytrance, and the base you have here is satisfying and solid. I'm impressed the mix is as good as it is with all the reverb saturating it. Give Laur a good listen and see if you can take your tracks higher!

Final score: 7.5