Awesome!

I like the cute synth pattern at the beginning and the subtle build-up into :18. The production quality is solid, although the first minute already feels pretty repetitive. I like the melodies at :54 - very upbeat and dynamic. The breakdown at 1:31 was a nice change-of-pace, and the tense atmosphere at 1:50 created a good backdrop for the build-up into 2:26, although the build-up itself felt a bit dragged-out. The mix sounds a bit strained at 2:26, with the snare in particular struggling to pop through at times. The glitchy outro at 2:45 was a nice touch, but also a bit overly repetitive. Overall, I really like the sound design, melodies, and progression of this one. The composition could be a bit bolder at times, especially later in the piece, and at times the pacing feels a bit slow too. That said, the triumphant mood and bouncy synths are still very strong elements of this piece. Thanks for coming out to the NGUAC, fellas! ^_^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
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
.75/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
1/1
Composite score
8.5/10

This is honestly such a great track! The arrangement is super duper interesting: you go from all these cool glitch hop sections with all these cool 8-bit effects perfectly placed on the composition. The transition into the bridge section is phenomenal: I loved all the instrumentation such as the piano and those pitch-bended percussions, the bass... everything pretty much. The build-up after that is pretty much perfect, because the bass, drums and ambience have done a great job at building up the tension. I think that the build-up was also the part that was best mixed out of any other section.

The only thing that didn't convince me so much is the final drop; I initially thought that the reason the transition between the build-up and the drop wasn't as smooth was because of the sudden change in rhythm, but after re-listening to this (it is that good) I think that the overall sudden change in everything as a whole threw me off. Perhaps you could just remove the first half and let the rest of the drop do the hard work. Otherwise, another idea could be to maybe make the first half of the drop half-timed (kind of like in the outro) and then have it slightly build-up to the faster, crazier second half, which would add more uniqueness to the already very unique arrangement.

Overall, you guys have done a really great job on this regardless! I would be very proud of having made this if I were in your shoes >:D

P.s. I have just read the author comments. Honestly, @AndrewCr, listen to Virtual Riot; he's been amongst my favourites in the dubstep scene for the better part of a decade now, and his arrangements are simple, but great. But in general, listen to more music, especially if it's made professionally.

With more time to refine the mix prior to the final drop, I think this song would be an instant classic. I'm hearing composition elements that remind me of the best YouTuber let's plays I've ever seen, and Calvin-Harris-esque rhythm sections -- think This Is What You Came For.

I don't mean that in the sense of plagiarism. Rather, I think it's a sign of great technical ability on both of your parts. The compositional elements work in a technical sense, and all the instruments sound good in context. It really inspires me to learn these styles.

Where this song suffers is in dynamics and a few somewhat heavy-handed hard-ish panning decisions. Those take time to get used to and might be items to revisit, should you ever touch this piece again.

Regarding compression and dynamics, look at the waveform. Only in the final chorus are we feeling full throttle, in genres which are known for being unapologetically loud and high energy for each individual drop, utilizing heavy sidechain to compensate for squashed dynamics -- OTT, soundgoodizing.

The compression between parts is not entirely uniform, nor would I say the input level being fed into the master compressor is adequate at all times. For instance, on the intro, I can see some very dynamic peaks.

Another concern is the overall level of kick and snare specifically throughout. At times they are hard to discern -- both transient and note body.

This is in part due to their frequency profile and in part due to relying on sidechain and silence to make them cut through across sections. Yes, by all means use these things, but be mindful that your snare does need a little bit of bite to sound connected in the context of the song -- it should always cut through, excepting for transitions, where hi-lo pass asssist in motion.

I'd have liked to hear the high end of the snare emphasized a bit more and a slight .2 to .5 dB pump on it in particular; by 1:00, it's lost in the mix. Side chain around there also might use an adjustment to the ms used. The gap is slightly more noticeable than I would usually expect for the context.

At 1:39, there is a fizzy layer, probably a ride or hat playing on top of the snare and the percussion there rather than being muffled takes a turn for tinny. As a transition, this is definitely something I noticed as development but was unsure how to feel about it

Moving to 1:50, I think comparing to a gain-matched reference, perhaps the one I name dropped, This Is What You Came For, would have helped bring this portion in balance.

Let me explain what I hear. The ride cymbals due to their frequency feel like the lead instrument in this section and are clearly audible through the drop. Backing them off and going with a 808 or 909 fizzy cymbal underneath may have helped give them some more context (so as not to stand out), while allowing you to turn them down or pan them out. They just feel disconnected somehow.

I appreciate the sample at 2:01 and want to know what it is -- reminds me of the "Infinite One" Goldeneye OST sample I'm so very fond of.

The sub to me almost completely drops out, and quite early for the build into the final drop. I feel it should have been very present from 1:50, growing at 2:11, and only begin to fade around 2:20.

There's not much feeling of crescendo in this portion due to input into the compressor being quite low already, then being squeezed again via hi-pass/band-pass. I have some gripes about the overall instrument balance. The rides are rides up too high, colorized textures sit a bit over top of other elements, glitches and hats lie over top, and of course the rhythm section (i.e. bass and rhyhtm synths) is not delineated enough to form a driving foundation.

As I said, the levels of the drop are pretty great, as is the composition. I still think the bass is not standing out much as in should, in a way that will be noticable in other spaces, on other devices.

Having a handy reference for all these mix issues, as well as ample time to work on a piece, will fix all of the issues I mentioned.

Otherwise, the composition is super banging. At the intro I was a little unsure, partly influenced by your description of things being dragged out, but realistically, you could have cut the drop portion past 36 seconds off and gotten by fine; I didn't really feel that was necessary, but just a response to your notion that it was too long. I think it's fine.

Was a real pleasure to listen to, as evidenced by the amount of time it took going back and forth with this review. Great work!

The mixing on this is super impressive, and all the little bleepy bloopy elements. I don't listen to too much glitch hop, but perhaps after this I'll be more inclined to. This is just a really great feel-good song in general. Best of luck to you both in the finals of the NGUAC!