nice one

I like the atmosphere at the beginning and the eerie spoken word vocals. The reverb is a bit heavy, especially on the bass, but the minimal texture ensures it doesn’t compromise the mix too much. That said, I wish the drums were a bit punchier - they don’t quite pop through the pads as much as I would’ve liked. The piano solos and rhythmic syncopations at 1:40 or so are really nice, and I like the glitchy elements at 2:05 as well. The time signature changes are rather well done, and the sound design is a highlight of the piece for sure. I enjoyed the transition back into the spoken word refrain at 3:25, although I might’ve liked to see a bit more variety on some of the main harmonic riffs towards the end. At some point, a stronger contrast in the energy or volume levels might’ve helped give the piece a stronger sense of dynamism. That said, the engrossing atmosphere, neat ‘80s synths, quirky meter, and smooth progression are all very well-executed here. Congratulations on your success in this competition, Aardvark04! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.25/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.5/10

While I'm here I might recommend some drum kits for you. Si sounds good, but something about the snare to me. There is Saudade snare, I think based on the same snare as used by David Silveria of Korn. MT Power Drum kit may also have some use for you. Then there is Cherry Snare, Black Noh Snare, and DarkKick VST. Cymballistic is a great hihat and cymbal library. Also, salamander drum kit. These are all free and relatively easy to work with. I recommend more velocity modulation on your drums. The hihats are machine gunning a bit on the attack.

The section at 2:40 sounds fantastic. Love those chords and that wahwah bass. As well as your warm outro.

I think my only problems with this song lie in its mix. The composition is nicely complex without sounding pretentious, somewhat unpredictable (pleasantly) due to time signatures. What I would like to hear more of is reverb (maybe gated) on your snare, reverb on your crashes or delay, etc. Occasionally I like to pingpong delay my hihats on a hardish left or right.

Your bass could use distortion of some kind. I hear a lot of the frequencies around 250-400 hz but not much sub. This may be because it is so high. You could double an instrument an octave below it for beef. In this case I think actually a low piano would be fitting, given that you have used that already throughout.

Your lead instruments all sound somehow centered but also spread too thin across the channels to me. What you can do to combat this with your guitar lead specifically is have two different patches with different amps and cabs anywhere between 5 percent left and right to 27, add a pingpong reverb to the other channel or a reverb send. This technique will make it sound fuller and is used with live instruments in the studio.

Beyond that, great work. Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

This is really cool. I really dig the time signatures. It gives me vibes of old cartoons i watched as a kid, like those cartoons with a gloomy aesthetic. Really cool, love it!

I can kinda make basses like that
what DAW do you use?