I like the heavy piano chords at the beginning and the dark, foreboding tone. The reverb might’ve been a tad too heavy for my tastes - it’s either that or the chord spacing that’s distorting the piano a bit at :10 or so. The melodies are nice, although there could’ve been a bit more variety in the instrumentation, especially early on. The kick drum at :37 sounds a tad too heavy for a piece like this, but it still helps give an extra little punchiness to an otherwise very flowing piece. The vocals and strings at 1:15 add a nice bit of variety, and the violin chords at 2:00 are a nice touch. I think what this piece needs compositionally is a stronger sense of direction. The sound design has a great potential for emotional impact, but in order to capitalize on that you need more dynamic contrast and phrasing - gradual build-ups and breakdowns that give the piece a stronger narrative flow. Otherwise, you’ve pushed all the right buttons here with the production quality, harmonies, and atmosphere. Strong work, 4203! ^^

Mixing, mastering, and balance
2/2
Structure, transitions, phrasing, and variety
1/1.5
Melody, tonality, harmony, and texture
2/2
Instrumentation and sound design
1/1
Emotion, atmosphere, and catchiness
1.25/1.5
Originality and uniqueness
1/1
Overall (how do the elements above interact?)
.75/1
Composite score
9/10

Not bad. I see you're going through the age old struggle of soundfont strings and trying to get a more lively sound while fighting reverb.

I would cut your wet signal on your reverb down by about half of an hour on the clock and shorten the tail somewhat. I would also modify the velocity on your hihats so that it doesn't sound like the same note over and over. Emphasize the head of the measure and lower the other beats so that we get a sense of pulsing.

At some point I might also change the lead from piano to something else like harp. It's not hard to make a harp sound natural because it doesn't have a huge change in tone depending on velocity.

There seem to be more than one layer of piano. I would pick and choose which instances of those I wanted to keep piano, so the piece didn't sound so samey.

At 1:37 I was expecting a full stop to the piece, or a change in texture. The parts up to 2:12 lead up to a final chorus that doesn't feel as intense as we did just a bit ago before 1:37. It feels like a very long outro. I would change where those moments are in the piece, perhaps. By 2:52 the outro feels a little tired.

As for those high strings by 3:00, you can get away with some synthwave brass usually and still have a very pleasant Toto - Africa intro sound, without being very obtrusive. Those high strings as sound fonts just don't do your writing, which is good, any favors.

Anyway you've got some great ideas on the table here. A little reworking of structure and some thinking about instrumentation, and you'll be moving along really nicely. Great work, and thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

pretty relaxing i think i will hear this evry time before i go to sleep :D