--NGAUC Review--

Good mixing on this track, but...There isn't a whole lot to mix. The track is sparse. Not a lot of melodic material going on, nothing particularly interesting in the chord progression, and not a lot of development. This isn't a bad track, but there's not enough going on to make it a particularly good track either. It's quite repetitive, and the ending gave me a sad face. :(

You might consider adding a contrasting section with a different chord progression in the middle, or adding rhythmically active counter-melodies to what you've got here. The melody that comes in at 1:00 is simple, slow, and repeats for a very long time. You could pit some nimble counter-melodies against that for contrast.

What you've got here is a decent foundation, but it needs more compositional depth to be compelling.

Score: 5.8/10

That build at 0:45 to 1:00 sounds very Martin Garrix-esque. I feel like the track doesn't have any surprises or keep my attention. It's very linear. The change up towards the end was nice but I believe that you used Gross Beat, or it's equivalent, if you work in a DAW that isn't FL Studio.

Overall it was nice to listen to but I listened to a few of your other tracks and I think this one isn't quite as successful as the others.

If you have the time, please review my track. I definitely haven't made as much material as you but any constructive feedback you have will help me improve.

Here's a link: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/637745

== This is an NGAUC Knock-Out Round Review ==

Well dang. I have to say, you pretty much nailed the mix here (with a few minor exceptions). The kick is loud as heck, the basses are properly bassey, and so forth.

You’ve got all the nice swooshy and cool aspects of EDM in here. The sound design seems true to form, and it even has a couple of nice unique touches - my favorite of which is the piano! I really wished you had done more with the piano, actually, because I thought that was a great touch that made the piece a bit more emotional.

I have to say, the minute-long intro was not really convincing me, and I was kinda worried that this song was going to go nowhere until the melody appeared. A little more progression towards the drop in the first minute could help this problem.

I wish that the drop would have reiterated the melody in a higher octave. I feel like the octave and instrument that first express the melody is the best one, so I really wanted you to bring that back during the drop. The melody brought down a few octaves sounds less interesting to me.

Although the mixing was generally solid, like I mentioned, there was one flaw I noticed: at e.g. 3:01 I hear some piano chords, which sound like they could be really cool, but they are buried like HECK behind everything else, and I could barely even make them out. This is interesting to me because the rest of your mix sounds pretty solid, but this is a rather serious error.

All in all, this is a good attempt at an EDM track, but I feel like the piece really doesn’t have that many ideas to it. The buildups were not very compelling - I think they could have used some more effects, but they seemed rather dry. And the song really only has two melodies, which necessarily sound stretched thin when they’re used to fill 3 minutes and 30 seconds. So in sum, the song is a good start, but it needs more of your ideas in it!

Overall Score: 5/10

Mini-Scores (see here: http://johnfn.newgrounds.com/news/post/936953):
* Composition: 2/4
* Arrangement: 3/4
* Mixing: 3+/4

Hey there. Some general commentary on your song for NGAUC.

-This actually has a really cool intro, though it didn't quite sound like it at first. Nice use of a phaser for effects, it's done really tastefully.
-I feel like the instrument at 1 minute in is a bit too basic to be *that* bare.
-This fills itself out pretty decently at 1:30, but I feel like it could have had something a bit more if it's going for the bassy sound. It's almost like dubstep but without the wobbles and without anything on the higher end. You could definitely have fit a higher and longer-lasting instrument in the high frequencies even with the high-end reverb.
-Nice break at 2:00, there's enough going on for the little basic instrument to work.
-Drums come in a tad dramatically at 2:16. I think they could have come in a bit more subtly like the piano was.
-That poor piano. It's totally buried at 2:46. You could totally have something in the higher register playing those chords if it was introduced earlier.
-Okay, dblue_glitch. I hear you in there, in all your raw and unedited glory.
-When this ended, I did a double-take because I wasn't sure I was seeing things correctly. This could definitely use a better ending, it sounds pretty unfinished when the sound goes straight from 70% to zilch.

Final score: 6.7/10

bro this is so good! love the transitions! my favorite part is the beginning 0 to 1 min in just because of the suspense and awesome beat