Hey djt! Thanks for being a judge for this month's NAC. Before I talk about the stuff you mentioned, I will actually say that I think you're the first person who has said they don't like Paragon's music lol. I don't have anything against that; in fact, I'm actually kinda happy that there is some difference in opinion on his songs and I am more than willing to welcome that :D

I think the one thing that was an issue here was the percussion - TheComet and Flashburn also mentioned that as an issue. I think I may know a fix around this, but considering that I have Ableton 9 Lite, my samples and mastering materials are kinda limited, so it's kinda working with what I got. Still, I think I may know some solutions to this for other songs.

The intro, when I made it, was an attempt to separate from the original, which used the melody to build into the main part. I wanted to make it longer than in the song to give it leeway to expand before the actual song began. I can try looking to see how I could do the same in half the time, though, for future stuff.

Thank you again for leaving a review! I will take you advice into consideration for the future :)

Hey TheComet! Thanks for coming out and being a judge for NAC :)

I honestly wish I did have some other percussion sounds to pull from, but because it's Ableton 9 Lite, everything is limited everywhere lol. I still think I know how I could improve on the sounds I have, though. Thanks for the advice on that!

Hey, Dreamscaper! Thank you very much for taking the time to be a judge for the NAC, and I really appreciate the feedback you gave me.

The choir has honestly been my main trouble for this song, since I had sidechaining on them from the kick, which meant they had to be loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to go over the melody, carried by a piano and bells. I kinda failed in both regards, since the melody didn't want to come out (hence I added the guitar at 1:09) and the choir was still too soft. Hopefully I can play around with it if I do something like this again.

The bassline for the dubstep portions was also a little troubling, because it didn't want to come out when nothing else was playing and the main focus was on it. I probably should have went all in on it and then went back to the melody, though, since it does, as I listen to it again, break up the stuff that's going on just to be there and open, but also not there.

Mixing is my weaker spot, so I can probably play around with different things to bring out stuff at the right time and volume. Still, though, I feel like I could definitely learn a lot from your critique. Thank you for both reviewing and, again, being a judge of NAC :D

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, mixing is my weak spot in my songs, and I think I may have something I want to try out to see if it provides a solution, but I will definitely take your advice into consideration as I work with it :)