The idea for this piece is interesting, but there are a lot of dissonant chords. It usually has to do with your bass completely clashing with another bassline on the bottom of the chord. The section from 0:42, the bassline doesn't go with both the secondary bassline, or ANY of the leads, the clarinet synth loop, the piano, or the chords on the side.

The 2:32 section is also dissonant as well. I'm not sure what chords you want us to hear, other than the clarinet. I think it may be a case of hearing the dissonance enough times that it becomes normal. By 5:32 it certainly isn't pleasant to me, but I've become accustomed to it.

I'm not really able to offer much critique beyond that. You have what sounds like two different songs or an A and B section put together. So the best recommendations I'd have are some music theory and lead writing. Good channels for that are Holistic Songwriting, Signals Music Studios, and Ben Levin.

When it comes to songs, remember to keep things simple. Two basslines is one too many. Keep it simple. The more you can pare down a section or simplify parts and still get across an idea, the better, at least in most cases.

As for mix, I did hear a lot of reverb, and at points the percussion were drowned out, but I'll be honest, I wasn't really able to listen for that very well. As a rule of thumb, turn down reverb sends to about 75% of what you first wanted to do with them, turn the low cut up to 250hz, and make sure the percussion is the loudest part of your track -- meaning turn everything else down until you can hear them clearly without focusing on them. Use a reference track if necessary to get the volume levels where you want them, listening to a song you want to sound like and your own track, back and forth, until it sounds right to you.

Don't worry if your music doesn't come out like you want it to at first, or even most of the time. The more work you put in, the more songs you're putting out, the better you will become. Never give up. :)

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!