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:
- First of all, some mixing tips - your bass is SO far into the subs a lot of the time that it can be barely perceptible relative to the rest of the music. This also can sound very... weird and flabby with the rumbly texture of the waveform at 0:13 and 1:04. As TheDayGoes mentioned, the kick and bass don't quite fit together - and in dance music and electronic music with drops in general, having a good solid "basis" in the form of bass makes it much better (think of it like a building - the bass is literally the foundation, the mids are the structure on top of it, and the highs are typically the decoration and ambience). Low mids tend to be a good point for the 'growl' of basses to express, and the lower bass is more of the foundational notes for chords. If you look into how harmonics work for frequencies, you'll see why! Just be careful with making tracks too bassy, and use sidechaining to keep bass from muddying up your kick drums.
- In terms of composition, this seems to mostly be the same idea repeated twice, and in the second half the melody instrument switches to arpeggios. There is quite a bit more that can be done here - variation in the melody, more exploration in the sound design through the drops, trying a different drumbeat, using a different chord progression to recontextualize the existing melody... many methods would allow you to tweak the breakdown and second drop in order to help it remain interesting and engaging for listeners both times, without feeling like a complete repeat.
Compliments to the Composer:
- Your wobbly pad is quite nice, and the filter sweep opening it up for the drop is certainly effective. It's really useful as a way of bringing interest to the drop that doesn't exist as much beforehand. I think my favorite bit of sound design especially though are the very quiet echoing bells starting at 0:50 and showing up as especially audible in the outro. These are VERY lovely and have some wonderful harmonies, making me wonder why they didn't exist at a slightly higher volume or used as an instrument to provide some atmosphere through more of the piece. They have such a wonderful texture!
Final score: 5.5
GlaceonDash 
