The riser at the beginning is pretty cool. The popcorn snare at :04 kinda overpowers the dreamy pads beneath it, but a bigger problem is how much the sub-bass distorts the rest of the texture at :09. Notice how that mid-range synth riff sounds a lot quieter at :09 than it did before? That’s a sign that the texture is getting distorted because you have multiple instruments playing at the same frequency range. You can fix it by using an equalizer to filter out the bass tones (less than 200 Hertz or so) in the harmonic instruments. “how to use an equalizer in _____” (whatever DAW you use). You might already be familiar with similar mixing tools - you should use them way more often, is the point.

Mixing aside, the transition at :23 is a bit sudden, and while I enjoyed the build-up into :37, I was a little thrown off by the injection of new riffs at the drop. The intro just doesn’t do much to foreshadow the content during the drop very well. The synth at 1:20 sounds very cheesy, and also doesn’t do much to add variety to the harmonies. The entire second half of the piece, in fact, could use some more variety, especially compared with the content of the first half of the piece.

At the same time, a lot of the transitions in this piece are pretty abrupt. A good rule of thumb is that, with limited exceptions, you should have at least 1-2 harmonic instruments (i.e., not drums or bass) playing the same pattern on either side of a transition, just to keep the listener well-oriented to what’s going on. You can also use sweeps, crashes, filtering, and automations to smooth over some otherwise rough transitions, all while adding interest in the middle of otherwise-repetitive phrases. I’d suggest you experiment with all of these approaches at some point.

Sorry if this isn’t a very positive review. I do like the rhythmic content, build-ups, and a lot of the individual synth riffs here. But overall, the composition feels a bit disjointed, repetitive, and cheesy, and the mixing could be a lot sharper. Still, this is a catchy piece with potential. I’d encourage you to keep working on it. When you feel like you’ve implemented some of my feedback, feel free to send me a PM and I’ll leave you another review. Keep at it, guys! :)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
.75/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1/2
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?)
.25/1
Composite score
4/10

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