Man, I just have to say, this is a truly fantastic atmospheric track! You certainly have no reason to be disappointed in your score, and I'm really glad that you took some extra time to polish this up a bit from the CHIPS version.

The section that begins around 1:47 and goes until the end actually reminds me, oddly enough, of the ambiance in Tourian from the Metroid games. It's got a dark sense of tension, sort of like an 'anything can happen, so be ready' kind of feel to it. You've got all kinds of fantastic atmospheric sounds and ideas going on, some incredibly timing and ideas, and they're brought together incredibly well with a really solid instrument selection.

Your musical elements mesh pretty nicely with the ambiance, although I personally feel that the melodic content could have been much more fleshed out and less sparse, but your percussive game is straight up tight. You really do kind of overdo it with the reverb, though. Dialing that back in general would be good, but some spots end up getting pretty muddy, so I'd suggest ditching all of it and just adding it back in bit by bit. With the overall atmosphere of the track, I do understand what you were going for, but still...when it damages the overall mix, something should be done.

Suffice to say, this is a really solid Ambient track and a very enjoyable listen! You knew that it would be a pitched battle, and you came prepared. Thank you once again for coming in after garlagan dropped out, and I look forward to hearing what you come up with next.

8.94 out of 10

Hey, Adjeye. Time to get a review!

Stuff that's great:
- ALL THE ATMOSPHERES.
- The little popping synth coming in at 0:36.
- All the crazy drum crap around 1:50 onwards.
- The drum pattern at 2:35. Which I definitely had nothing to do with. (in all seriousness, that was well-processed. Knowing the source material just makes it more impressive)

Stuff that can be improved:
- The melody at 0:36 is really good, but it sadly falls apart with the phrase at 0:50.
- The buzzing around 0:50 also gets somewhat annoying, if there were a way to make it less grating when it comes in, that would be awesome.
- Okay, I know you were taking inspiration from me and 1f1n1ty, but you didn't have to put THAT much reverb in the middle around 1:20. Goodness. It messes up the mix.
- Transition at 1:46 is awkward, lowpassing it doesn't solve the issue of the pieces not actually meshing together.
- To be perfectly honest, I think you nailed the atmosphere, but really really whiffed on the content. You said it yourself in the discord chat, more ambient music NEEDS more content unless it's a lush atmosphere that you can sink into. This has a lush atmosphere, but the drums don't let you sink into them and there's not enough content to support it otherwise.

So, this is good. It's very good. It's mainly just empty and needs more content and/or ear candy to fill in the blanks. (content, preferably) I think you can definitely make far better music of this style, but it definitely would take practice.

8.5/10

I like the mysterious mood at the beginning, and the rain FX is a plus. The thin-sounding synths at around :35 were a nice touch. By around 1:15, the mix doesn’t feel quite as spacious as it could. You might want some stricter equalizing or perhaps just reworked volume levels, because the pads and FX overwhelm the moving notes until around 1:45, and I think you could’ve done more with the melodies at that. There are some cool rhythmic elements to the piece at around the 2-minute mark, and the minimalism there works well to offer some structural relief. It’s a really cool piece overall. The sound design and atmosphere are amazing, and overall the structure and flow are good too. I think my main problem here is that you could’ve done a bit more with the composition - there’s a lot of tension built up in this piece, and it never really has an emotional height to hit it home. That said, I thought your combination of ambient and DnB was really creative. Definitely gets full credit for atmosphere and originality. Keep it up, Adjeye. ;)

Mixing, mastering, and balance
1.75/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1.5/2
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
1.75/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1/1
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the above elements interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
8.75/10

You nailed the atmosphere. This is amazing!

I'm glad you are the sixteenth submission this round. Well deserved I think! I can tell you worked hard on this track and it was a pleasure to listen to.