Hello! This is a review for the NGUAC competition.

I've gone over one or two general categories of issues specific to your song, and one section of things I think also deserve complimenting. I prefer being very direct with my critique, none of it is meant to offend. Thank you for your understanding!

Constructive Criticism:

- There are two fairly obvious things in this track that definitely need improvement. The first is the mixing and general levelling of the track. See how it makes a literal flat rectangle taking up only about half of the space in the waveform visualizer? You can absolutely INCREASE the peak volume of the track by limiting it more appropriately. Try setting the threshhold closer to -1.1dB so that it stays around -1.0dB (sometimes it goes slightly above the set threshhold). At the same time, try to vary the volume of individual instruments. You don't need to bring ALL of them up together, and in fact that can make it extremely difficult to identify individual instruments. Around the 2 minute mark this is very clear, where there are many instruments, some clearly bring brought up in 'volume' and causing clipping, but not actually increasing the volume of the track because there's no room given for it to actually increase and develop.

- Secondly, the vast majority of this track is audibly made with arpeggiators tossed onto the instruments being used. Arpeggiators are extremely useful, but not when they're applied to so many instruments. Others sound as if their patterns are made with the randomizer function in FL applied to the chord at any given time, which... has the serious issue of leaving all melodies essentially aimless and without any intensity curve. It may be good to try replicating pieces of music you like in midi to see how their chords, harmonies, and melodies are laid out. In this way, you can bring your music into having more cohesiveness and clarity through their length. Remember that listeners typically want some kind of hook or concept to really cling onto!

Compliments to the Composer:

- Speaking of hooks, there are a couple sections I really like. The organs in the outro, as well as the switch to piano is a wonderful touch and I wish this was used more throughout the track as a time of reduced intensity. Orchestral power metal music often nails this type of thing - I think you might love listening to Kamelot if you haven't before, not to mention their music might be particularly good to study if you plan to continue this type of music! Another section that also really hooked me started at 0:43. Those changes in instruments with intense rapid rhythms was fantastic and made me perk up - if developed more, this could become a really solid foundation for more of a climactic section.

Final score: 3