This is an official NGADM '18 Round 1 Review

Beginning comments: I enjoyed it. I like the theme of the piece and I think it fits your description for the most part too. But on to the breakdown.

Production and Mixing: The beginning is nice, but I'm not fond of the percussion hits in the 0:30 section. I can't tell if the low snare is competing frequencies with something else or if the reverb is feeding in on itself too much. Actually in general I feel like this song is a little too heavy on reverb. I say that because there weren't many points that I felt everything was given their space to breath. Instead it felt more like elements were trying to be heard more than working in the space they naturally fall in. Aside from that, the balancing was decent for the most part, and overall the sound was managed well for the tone of the peace.

Composition and Structure: The plucked synths are combined well with the piano. I like the theme you introduce in the first big section at 0:48 and actually I wish it developed a little bit more before you moved on. I liked it a bit and I felt it was cut off. I you reintroduce it which is good, but I still feel like it didn't have enough room to develop. In general I like the hopeful feel and relaxing nature of the song, and there is okay use of dynamics, although some of their effectiveness was overpowered by the mixing but that doesn't influence the composition. The structure was decent for the song. It's not in a sense a logical song structure, or maybe common is a better word, which I say bravo to. You could have developed it a little better I think, but I'm pretty okay with what you have here actually.

Sound Design: Uh, I don't think rain and thunderstorms are condensation, but I digress (I see the point you're trying to make in the description so it works in that sense). I'm not as fond of the percussion where it's quiet, but you make up for that with the drumset utilized in the louder sections. The synths you picked were smooth and helped center the tone of the piece you were looking for. No big complaints here.

Ending Comments: Really a relaxing piece that I think captures the atmosphere that you were looking for. One nice touch I forgot to mention, I can tell the bass VST you're using isn't a high quality one, but you utilize it in a good manner which doesn't really make it obvious. Otherwise, neat song.

Score:

Total - 7
Production - 1.25
Sound Design - 1.25
Composition - 1.5
Structure - 1.5
Replay - 1.5

This is nice! The melody is almost like it's from a pop song. But the other instrumentation is like some atmospheric edm song. It's cool :D

Cool FX at the beginning. I love the rich atmosphere and sense of climax into :15. I wasn't a huge fan of the percussion sample that was playing at the off-beats at :15. Something about the timbre just didn't seem to fit the rest of the piece. That said, the production quality is strong, and the refrain at :48 feels nice and cathartic. Nice work with the slap bass, too - it's a really fun addition to the texture, especially when it has that mini-solo at 1:03. The synth entrance at 1:30 (and a couple other places) sounds a tad harsh. Might need some more filtering or volume adjustments. The piece really starts coming together by around 2:20, though. The melodic content there just expands on the other motifs of the piece so well. The stop-start transition at 2:47 wasn't my favorite. It just didn't seem to match the smooth-flowing vibe of the rest of the piece very well. That said, the dreamy outro was a plus. Overall, nice work! I love the atmosphere and sound design here. Good luck in the ADM. ;)

Impressive track! I really enjoyed the energy in this piece. I feel like the percussion at 2:08 could have used a little love (sounds kinda plain), but other than that there isn't much I can pick at. Great job, and keep it up!

This is a beautiful track! The atmosphere is lovely, and I like the unconventional mix of instruments. It sounds very uplifting.

My only complaint is that I think it sounds very condensed. In other words, I think that there isn't enough repetition, and this piece would be catchier and more memorable if some of the sections lasted longer.