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Oh yeah, that source is killer! Haven't gotten to check out Risk of Rain 2 yet but played some hours of the first one, very enjoyable. Opens with some dark chords on the rhythm guitar and some nice groove from the kit, with the bass coming in after with some filtered delay. The feel here is a bit looser than I'd like, and the delay on the rhythm guitar and bass make some sour notes in spots (:22, :30, etc). I'm a fan of the vibe, just there's some lacking here on the mixing execution that's holding this one back. One note about the delays on the guitars and basses - all the delay choices are mono, and when there's a walking groove going on in the bass (see @ :24), the notes start to clash. Consider ducking the delay while the bass is playing, and panning the delay to the edges of the stereo field (using a ping-pong delay or automating the instrument in one speaker and the delay in the other). :28 gives us the lead guitar, which has a nice neck pickup clean tone. Love the way the chord changes @ 1:01 set up the breakbeat change @ 1:13! This breakbeat section is incredibly muddy. The rhythm guitar is all but lost - some of it is from the amp tone and some of it is from where the chords are being voiced. Consider shifting the voicing up an octave here, or double-tracking the rhythm with a higher voice and separating them with panning left and right - they are competing directly with the bass here. I noticed earlier the drum mix was pretty bright (lots of information above 12khz) and while it's serviceable in the intro, here in the breakbeat section, the kit's sibilance buries everything else. The kick, in particular, is all beater and no body - is it being swallowed up by the bass and rhythm guitar? I'm hearing similar issues in the next few sections, though I'm now hearing the rhythm guitar is slightly out of tune after the second breakbeat passage around 2:40. I like the neck tone of the lead guitar during the calmer sections, but it lacks the leading presence during the breakbeats. Bridge pickup and a different amp tone would make a big difference here, though if the drumkit's mix isn't adjusted, it'll have trouble coming through. I'm going to echo Proph and jnWake here - there are some interesting ideas here that are being held down by the mix and stringed instrument performances. For me to pass this, I'd need to hear: A tighter recording of the bass and guitars Variation on the voicings of the instruments - chords, amp tones, etc Another mix pass to cut down on drumkit sibilance and make the delay FX not mask the source instruments NO

Sheesh, that source material is like 90% A section, 10% B section. :P The opening has some evolving synths, putting the A section melody in the bass with a low-pass sweep. There are lots of small changes across the sound spectrum despite maintaining the actual A section for 2 and a half minutes - the filter sweeps, adding the ride cymbal to the drumkit, then ride bell for time-keeping, side-chain choral synth. There's an over-reliance on drum fills here, like Proph mentioned - I do hear different fills in places, but the majority of this early section uses that same tom run-down. I am a fan of slow burns, but I'm feeling like the piece is dragging hard by the time we reach the break @ 2:33. The change up to the B section here is great, though I can't help feeling like it's arriving late from a macro sense. The drums in the second act of this sound noticeably different, which is another welcome change, though they suffer from the same issue the earlier drum kit does in that these are one-shot samples that are static throughout. In a shorter piece, this would be less grating on the ear - 2 minutes for each section, and the snare sounds basically never change throughout, makes the whole groove feel plodding. @ 4:22 we get a more exploratory section that focuses on the side-chain choral element, feeling much more like another B section from the source. We add some sweet bends @ 5:05, and it trucks through into the outro and out. There are elements here that are working great - it's super easy to grok different instruments from one another even with the mix being loud, and I do really enjoy the filter sweeps and sidechain bounce! However, I'm in the same boat with jnWake and Proph - this one suffers a lot from overly long and repeated sections, which exposes the static nature of the sound palette. For me to sign off on this one, I'm going to echo Proph specifically and say: less repetitive drum fills, and a more compelling composition shorter sections would be preferable, but more interesting rhythmic or dynamic changes in each section would also work.   NO (resubmit)

Before listening to the remix I listened to the source and wow, that's a nice way of making a track that evolves, awesome! Anyway, this begins with some simple percussion and then a guitar playing D-Bb chords (I believe, I find it a bit curious you're going for the Bb since the source goes for the dorian feel but it's still valid!). I played along on my keys and I'm pretty sure the guitar isn't properly tuned. Bass joins soon after and around 0:27 a guitar enters playing the main melody. Some notes on production here, the drumset sounds very dry and not super punchy, it struggles cutting through the mix. Bass sounds very clicky and it's way too loud, it definitely needs some compression and some EQ to tame its tone. We get a few repeats of the melody until 1:01, where we change chords and key, just like the source. I'm very curious about the chords you picked here, which I believe are D# and B. The first one fits the melody (descending D-C-A) if we think of it as major but then the B doesn't really fit and, at least to my ears, it sounds kinda wrong. At 1:13 we return to the first melody and have an increase of intensity on the drums, just like the source. Sadly, the mix here is extremely muddy and it's very hard to tell what's going on. I like the drum playing itself but the mix isn't doing it any favors. You do both versions of the melody and actually use the source's chord progression for the second one, making me more curious about the unfitting progression earlier. The madness takes a break at 1:49 with a return of the 0:27 approach but for the variation we return to the fast paced drums. Finally, at 2:25 we get the source's ending section, covered in a very faithful way and then the remix ends. On the arrangement side, I have some criticisms. One is that the first minute takes too long to build-up, with several identical repetitions from 0:27 to 1:01, you could definitely add variety there. Second are the chords on 1:01, they simply don't fit the melody well. Finally, I think the treatment of the source, outside of that particular chord change, is quite straightforward. I think some more interesting guitar writing, for both rhytm and leads, could let you craft something more unique. Production is, however, what's really putting this down. The mix is very muddy, with the bass in particular sounding extremely dirty. Sections with the fast paced drums are very chaotic and nothing really cuts through the mix. As an aside, the tuning on the guitar is definitely off. As a positive, the drum performance is sick. Overall, I dig the idea of covering this source with a standard guitar/bass/drums band, but both arrangement and production need more polish. Work on a cleaner mix, fix the guitar tuning and try adding more interesting guitar lines on a second version. NO

2nd post updated :)

Opens with some synth strings and heavy bass/percussion playing a B-G-E-G progression (taken from the source) before returning to B. For some reason you left out percussion on 0:21 where a neat A# is played, I think that transition would work better with a drum fill. We then focus on a sort of drum build-up until 0:43, where the main riff of the source enters on synth bass. The sample you picked struggles to cut off at times but as the track progresses you start adding some extra fuzz that makes it clearer. Although the evolving sound is cool I think it starts way too tame and eventually becomes arguably too loud. This continues for quite a while with some extra elements added over time. We reach a break around 2:32, similar to the one in the source. Main riff returns at 2:55 on a weird lead while the bass now highlights root notes, there's some fun variations here and there with how you use the bass or how you play the main riff. At 3:38 a new layer doing the main melody is added. This section lasts until a silly tom heavy drum fill at 4:21 and we move into a new section similar to the one at 2:32 but with more active drums. At 5:07 there's some strings/synths added on top that create a cool mood. This section actually last up until the end, where the snare starts getting more and more dramatic (biiiiiig reverb) until we're done. On the production side I dig this, it's very synth heavy which is always a plus for me! There's definite work put into varying the samples over time, which is especially evident with the introduction of the bass synth. My main nitpick would have to be that drums could be punchier, especially in sections where you up the volume or presence of the bass, since the kick gets almost completely lost in those. On the arrangement side, however, I'm mixed. As something to put on the background this is quite neat as it has fun sounds, but there's too much repetition. In my description on the first paragraph you'll notice most sections last quite a while, the first bass riff lasts from 0:43 to 2:32, the repeat from 2:55 to 4:21 and the final section lasts from 4:21 to 6:16 (the end). Long sections can work if there's enough variety in the writing and I think that there's potential to improve on this front here (prophetik's comment on the drum fills is pretty important here, but there's also the option of changing the drum rhytm more often). Overall, while I do like the track's vibe and how it sounds, I really feel it could use the equivalent of a radio edit since it's just way too long without enough variety to justify it. I'd love it if you could attempt a second version since this has a ton of potential. EDIT: On a relisten, the issue with the drum patterns being very repetitive became extremely obvious. That's also something that definitely needs a revision. NO