Really creative sound design and rhythmic elements here. I think the texture gets a tad too busy at around :16, though. There are a lot of heavy, distorted, bass-range synths in here, and they’re stepping over each other a bit too much. It might help to transpose one or two of these instruments up the octave so that you have more of a balance of higher and lower pitches. Part of the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of mixing and mastering work here. The synths don’t blend particularly well together, and the entire texture sounds pretty indistinct and bottom-heavy, especially at the busier parts. There’s also very little melodic content or creative transitions to give the piece a sense of narrative. I like a lot of the isolated riffs, especially the quirky eastern-sounding one at :56, and I think the structure of the piece makes for a good loop. I just wanted to see you do a bit more with the composition of this one. It’s a catchy beat, but it doesn’t progress much beyond a gritty rhythm section and abrupt, 10-second bridge. Sorry if this review comes off as too negative. I think if you took a few more compositional risks in this track, they would be rewarded - more variety in the harmonies, a fuller palette of instruments beyond bass synths, etc. Let me know if you have any questions about my feedback, and thanks for coming out for the NGUAC! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.5/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.25/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
.75/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.5/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
3.5/10

Oh this feels olskool. I dig it. Remembering when I didn't have anything but a sampler to work with.

I think that distorted bass can come down a dB or two.

Before I dive in, I want to say that I LOVE this kind of music. If you keep improving your mixing and sound design, I see a wonderful future for you as a very creative electronic music producer. This is raw and out of the box. I don't have a ton of tips for you, as the track is quite minimal, but having said this I will now listen again and do a more thorough pass.

I really enjoy the chopped guitar samples. On the same note, they give great atmosphere. I would recommend for lower octaves you have a separate track with low tuned guitar samples. I also recommend learning to double track with samples.

Doubletracking - two tracks, one panned 100% left, one panned 100% right, playing the same or very similar melodic content (and may include different FX like different amps and EQ) to give the illusion of a fuller sound. It's used in rock and metal for the rhythm guitar, where usually the guitarist will play the stuff twice and pan one take L and one R, with slightly different settings.

YOU on the other hand can just find two samples of guitar chops (if it's not the same note, you can change the pitch in the sampler) to make this illusion. I think it'd sound really cool here.

For your bass, I would not actually choose that note at 0:32, at least without writing a moving bass line. I'd pick the tonic (usually the bass note) of the guitar chords you're working with, just to keep it simple. Some other instrument can play that nice little dissonant note there.

I'd like if that section with the bass was repeated elsewhere like a chorus -- learning to write with a song structure will speed your development drastically as a producer btw, highly recommend.

I like your kick but I'm having a hard time hearing it over your bass. I think it would sound nice if sidechain was applied. I'm missing snares, hi-hats, and cymbals/transition FX.

Those spoopy melodies toward the end are SICK and really tie your piece together. Will be stuck in my head!

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This concludes the actual review portion

I don't know whether you're working with a PC or mobile app given the track complexity. However I have some recommendations for you for free synths and samples, which I will try to list here.

Free drums: Elsita soviet drum machine, MT Power Drum kit (super simple rock kit), Adreanaline sample pack (in my news posts), Bedroom Producer's blog has tons

Free FX: KSHMR Essentials Kick -- for processing percussion essentially all at once, DIABLO Lite by Cymatics, also for percussion

Free synths: MeowSynth can do crazy shit if you check my track LUCY. I'm sure you can figure out how to do more with it if you can make samplers sound this good. I also recommend Basic65 which is a commodore 64 synth

Free mastering: Soundcloud mastering, Bandlab, Music gateway

Hope you find something here to chew on. I'm excited to see what you come up with in the future.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

This is weird, and I love it!