very nice, i didn't like the clap though

~~~~This is an official review from an NGUAC judge for the 2020 NGUAC Knock-out round!!~~~~

First off, I always get scared when I see a waveform that is totally peaked and clipped at the edge of the waveform. That being said...

Once the drums came in at 13, GREAT MIX, super tight, powerful drums, and you can still hear the rest of the mix. So my fears are gone. Great work on mixing.

I will agree with (I'm just going to say ADR3 at this point ahah he's reviewed everything before me ahah.) ADR3 when it comes to the chord progression. It feels like you definitely just moved the chords around within the key with the same intervals. All the notes in the chords move in the same motion always. It's a bit uncomfortable to the ears, but the mind forgets about it once your lead comes in. Honestly once the drums come in for me too.

Whatever that little eerie voice in the back of the stereo image is is GREAT at :12.

This song reminds me of "Spag Heddy - Permanent"

The actually melody is okay. The constant pitch bending and portamento is a little uncomfortable.

The lead is a bit too loud, sits WAY over the mix. great reverb and delay automation at the end of phrases.

Okay this HAS to be inspired by Permanent. Your piano at 1:39 and the structure and transitions are fully inspired by this song. great song!

I will admit I'm wrong if you DIDN'T write this song based off of Spag Heddy's one, but I will put money on it. And it will be weird as HECK for you to listen to that song if you TRULY have never heard it. :)

All that being said, couple things here. The melody that you created comes off as very jarring. I think it wouldve worked better if you used the crazy portamento and pitch bends on one voice, and then doubled it with another voices that played the melody without the portamento and bends at all. it would clarify the idea of the melody and fix it entirely, makes the porta's an accent to the melody. When you hear the melody in the piano at 1:39, its clear and sounds great, a catchy melody. But when the lead comes in by itself and bends all over the place, it makes it seem very confusing and hard to latch onto.

The piano voice you use at 1:39 is GREAT. I can tell its not a blatant sample rip from Spag's song, i WANT that preset haha. Your melody is a bit different and GOOD when played by the piano, however, it is fundamentally similar to spags. Which is fine, this feels like an inspirative song! But its just NOT clear in the lead voice.

Over all, I could also use more sub, the overall structure is a bit weird due to when you decide to bring back in the drums, like the breakdowns at :12 and :38, and how you bring them back in and then back out before your drop. Love the drop though i think some WUB sounds are a bit over mixed, over compressed and eqqued a little uncomfortably.

NOW the drops, once the wub sounds come in, they take over your entire mix, the kicks dont cut through like they were in your breakdowns, the snares are very quiet almost not there, feels like a kick drop. great transitions and ideas for sound design throughout, just all the subby wubby sounds were mixed and compressed SO MUCH over the mix. Great great design though.

I LOVE fake drops as I call them, a drop that builds up into something sounds like its going to be BIG but then drops to something chill. This was 2:51 for you. However the transition into this one was a bit uncomfortable, could used a bigger impact then settle into the fake drop. Just didnt hit home for me.

Overall great work.

I'm not a huge fan of the chord progression -- it seems just kind of ported up and down.

Now, when your lead comes in, it works.

Leads are pretty well written. I'd prefer a faster portamento. Piano lead sounds good.

Structure wise, the section at 1:21 on isn't flowing super well to me. The space between drop and verse is pretty short and unpredictable. It ends up sounding like several songs mashed together. If you usually spend a year on tracks, I understand why -- it's your work flow. Having to take a fire and forget approach makes it hard if you don't usually work with a set structure.

That said, your lead line is interesting, and the track itself holds together nicely. Your use of different instruments keeps things varied and fresh, even if at times I don't understand what's going on.

There's something with the mix. The percussion is laying down a bit in the mix, and it sounds like there's a ton of reverb that is being sidechained off. I'd turn those wet signals down and scoop out the low end up to 250 hz. A lot of that gets in the way of your actual instruments. I especially noticed it on builds where your kick would sidechain that out, but it still wouldn't sound a lot cleaner.

Bass I would say could probably come up .5 dB

Other than that, really interesting listen. Enjoyed the piece.

Thanks for coming out to NGUAC!

It's so inspiring!

No es mi estilo de música pero aún así me gustó, buen trabajo y sigue así