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:

- Please don't separate the stereo of your snare quite as much as you did - it sounds like you inverted one half of it in oZone as well, which just makes it sound very off. Drums tend to not be wide individually, but rather their width is achieved by having each drum panned left or right to give the whole drumset a wide feeling. Remember that individual drums produce sound from a singular point in space, rather than from two totally different spaces simultaneously! This actually impacts the overall sound of your track quite a bit and repeatedly pulls me out of just enjoying the solid drumbeats.

- Okay, common amateur producer issue time. Please reduce the amount of reverb you're using on your instruments and especially reduce their volume. Reverb makes each individual instrument sound good, and thick, and wide. However, remember that you're making a music piece where they all fit together. Individual instruments don't actually have to sound good when played alone, but instead they need to sound good when blended with other ones. When you have this much reverb (especially in more bassy frequencies), the mix suffers. Think of it like taking a picture and blurring every single line on it. It won't typically look as good unless the entire piece is based around that idea - most art with blurred textures uses it for specific things, like the background of a piece focused on a single character. Reverb in music is like blur in art. Excellent for ambiance, but not as much for the parts of your piece that need sharp focus like leads (try a delay instead!). Your instrument volumes are actually a simple fix: I'd simply recommend reducing all instruments by -10dB (to have headroom) before limiting your full track to -1.1dB (normal volume). That should be the final step of your mixing process, and I think it'll do some magic for you in terms of clarity and keeping the music from sounding overcompressed by mp3 conversion.

Compliments to the Composer:

- I love your slightly-awkward melodies, your sound palette is lovely, and you obviously have learned quite a bit about production. Your drum fills are good, all of the composition is just plain tasteful. Once you fix up the mixing, any continued composition issues should become more clear and easy to handle, and your overall music will absolutely sparkle. This is such a chill track.

Final score: 7.8