I'm not very familiar with sonic 2 or the source, but it sounds like a great track. I like the overall direction of your remix. In its current state, I found that the synth sound that starts at around 1:10 feels a bit buried. I'm enjoying the percussion in the track, but found that it was a bit buried in a few places. As far as the arrangement, I found that some of the transitions were a bit sudden, for instance the intro into the first section at :06 seemed a bit sudden to me. Overall really like the direction.

Howdy, Nase! I'll echo the other commenters on the choice of instrumentation -- funk and metal is a great combo and you've achieved a working blend in the mix. I can hear some crash cymbal hits (e.g. 0:45, 0:49, 1:20 and 2:21) that are either very dry or choked. If they are choked hits, they're unusually placed. A live drummer would have a hard time replicating that, so it pulls some realism away for me. Good call on your decision to alter the intro. It's pretty jarring as is, but once it hits the funk, it's gellin'. Good feel shift at 2:14-ish. As others have mentioned, keep an ear on the volume of the slides on that lead guitar. I'd love to see where you take this mix from here! I'm not very familiar with the MS/GG version of Sonic 2, so it's cool to hear some deep cuts and hidden gems--er, emeralds. :P

Just what I noticed during review: 1:12  - feels like there's phasing in the snare layers (?) 2:15 - the slide guitar bit is just a little loud here. I am a huge fan of all of the instrumentation, it's really fantastic, but the mix does feel a little dry overall, and feel like it could stand to exist in a bit more of a 'space'. Definitely worth seeing this through, super spiffy remix so far!

Listening with headphones. Overall, I like where this is going. Intro chords are fine, then the sudden funk is surprising but certainly not unpleasant. I think the shredding guitar slides in the intro section sounds a little disjointed sonically with the rest of the mix, maybe reverb-wise? Character change after 2:18 is refreshing as it builds towards the current climax. I'm guessing that this is currently not the end and the echoing slide doesn't seem to fit right with what comes before. It just seems to end too suddenly. Maybe I just don't like that slide guitar. However, I think this is a solid little mix in terms of the structure that's there up until the end, but sonically it sounds a bit disjointed in the space. So now I see that it's meant to be longer. I think it would work best in a modified ternary form, i.e. A-B-A*, with some pizzazz added to that repeat. As for that slide, I think the reason why I don't like it is because to me it sounds a bit "thin". Overall this is a good jam! 

A judge's aim isn't to identify whether it hit the artist's brief or not—which Flexstyle touched upon—but actually whether it hit the site standards. And on a creative level, I like what you did with it. Yes, it has a more simplistic approach with some interpretive variations on the primary source and the battle theme's usage as a bridge—but in this case, simplicity works. To break it down even more, you put the opening notes of the melody on the gated synths at 0:14, overlaid it with the melody, and kept it this way throughout the build that ended at 0:54. You then got the melody at complete focus at 1:08 with the half-time drums, changing to four-on-the-floor kicks and gates at 1:24 and repeating both ideas with different synth layers from 1:38 onwards. The cute 8-bit break at 2:06 turned to more of that half-time sound when interpreting the primary source's second half. At the other side of the battle theme at 3:38, most of your second interpretation had no percussion and more of those Mega Drive-style bells for a more spacious finish, give or take a brief section at 3:51 that briefly went back to that initial main source presentation. I am also okay with how your bass and pad (try to) work together, and it doesn't detract from your overall vision, either. So, while that checks out, the production, on the other hand, still needs some work. Yes, I love your choice of effects and overall sound design, so that should be fine, but the mastering still needs work. As previously mentioned, there's no low end here, and the bass, in particular, is trying so hard to poke out from the rest of the instrumentation. Chimpazilla mentioned an excellent technique for doing EQ cuts on other instrumentation to get it to shine through, in addition to side chains when necessary. The little bits of bass I am hearing are trying to push through the sub-frequencies, which would typically rumble under an actual present bass at a higher octave and get the subwoofer to really work, if anything at all. It makes sense to mention EQ cuts on other instruments because when you're writing several dozen stem projects like this one, it makes sense for you to understand where your fundamental frequencies (aka pitches) and harmonics are so you can choose what you want to emphasize/minimize and EQ the rest of your instruments around your cuts and gains. It'll no longer be a case of piling up a lot of virtual performers on the same pile on a stage and more of squeezing them neatly for the sake of performance. Angelique, this is a creative idea, and I am all for this submission, making it onto OC Remix. However, it needs another mixdown pass before I feel confident about its inclusion. Again, don't give up, and keep being you. :-) NO (resubmit)