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I like the catchy piano riffs at the beginning, although the piano itself sounds a little bare in the mix - some more reverb and other mixing effects might’ve helped jazz it up a bit. It also sounds like it was sampled from a DAW with relatively little “humanziation” - automating the volume levels and note lengths might help make it feel more authentic, and you could also use a MIDI keyboard to record it yourself if you have one. That said, I like the string chords at :40 a lot, as well as the creative drum patterns. Again, the drum pattern itself might need a bit more “pop” in the mix, including some more compression and reverb.

I like the breaks at 1:25, although the mix gets a bit distorted once those eerie synths come in at 1:45. I might try to soften up the sidechaining and try to make the EQs a little tighter. By around 2:30, the synth line feels like it’s falling behind the beat a bit - can’t if something either wasn’t quantized or misaligned in the piano roll, or otherwise the delay effects are a bit too heavy. I like the re-intro at 2:50, although that section could’ve been a tad more dynamic and led into the final refrain at 3:55 more organically. I found the extended pause at 3:45 to be a bit disorienting. I’m glad you added the sweeping pads and mallets at 4:30 for some extra pizzazz, although this is another spot where the mix could be a bit tighter. You tied up the piece well with the militaristic percussion and reverb automations.

Overall, I’ve lobbed a lot of nitpicky criticism at you here, but this piece is catchy, well-structured, and has a number of neat compositional details, from the rhythmic syncopations to the filtering effects during transitions. Keep at it, AlienSumo! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.5/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.5/2
Instrumentation and sound design
.5/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.5/1
Composite score
7/10

VaeArt responds:

well first off thank you for leaving such a well constructed critique even if it is "nitpicky", second i agree on a lot of the critiques/ points made it does sound a bit robotic and messy, and the synth does kind of just lag behind and or disappear, the drums feel quite dry and do need to pop out a bit side chaining is a bit aggressive at times.

I'll try in the future to mitigate these kinks, and i once again thank you for leaving a critique and i appreciate the compliments and i hope to get around to joining NGADM when ever it arrives again. <3

Credits & Info

Artist

Listens
161
Faves:
1
Downloads
3
Score
Waiting for 3 more votes

Uploaded
Apr 30, 2023
3:04 PM EDT
Genre
Drum N Bass
File Info
Song
7.8 MB
5 min 43 sec

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