Sonic Colors - Wispy Planet (Act 2) The Chillstep Continues

[Naru]

Originally when I uploaded this, I put a lot of Neku in the track. I removed all of the Neku-ception just for this. Any type of feedback would be nice. 

Original:

 

[Rozovian]

Why is this so familiar... oh! This one! One of my recent favorites. And apparently that's the only Sonic Colors source remixed on the site.

eval:

Voice thing is super annoying. Personal pet peeve. Do what that feedback what you will.

Mixing needs work. It's obvious from the first kick and snare appearance, but the other elements need work as well. Your kick is very exposed, and it stands out from the mix. The snare lacks impact because it's high-passed, and can't stand on its own. It's okay when it coincides with the kick, but on its own it's too weak. Getting those elements strong enough on their own is difficult. I had to abandon an idea for one my own current mixes because I couldn't get it right. Hopefully you'll have an easier time figuring it out.

The hihat rhythms are rather loud, and there are times when they don't fit the pacing of the other elements. Like at 0:34. The hihat rhythm suggested something high-tempo. That's not what happened. But the hihats are still pretending that's what's going on. From 1:01 it's better, but I'd still look into alternative rhythms for them here. While on the subject of drum writing, the drum fill you use it not very good, and when you repeat it rather often it just makes it worse.

Sound design is otherwise fairly good, the choice of sounds works well. It's eclectic, but that's not a problem. It draws from the source in that regard, and I like some of the instrument choices you've made here that set it apart from the source. That somewhat chiptune-y lead, for example. A bit excessive and inconsistent use of reverb and other effects. 1:29 marks a huge difference in sound. I get the change in dynamics, but the whole sound changes to something much drier than before. It's rather jarring. You might want to use a different set of drums for those parts, too.

The arrangement seems to be a 1:1 copy of the source. Too conservative for ocr. There's some changes to the dynamics and sound which always happens when you adapt a source to your own instrumentation, and some differences in drum rhythms and obviously instrumentation, but I don't think that's enough. Study some posted remixes of sources you know well, and pick them apart, figure out what they did to make them different. Some will be largely unchanged in arrangement but get a completely different mood going, others will mix in original solos or play the original on an original groove, others still will disintegrate the original and put the pieces together in a completely different way. There are many ways to make the arrangement your own. And if you want to make it an OCReMix, that's what you have to do.

The end cuts off abruptly. It shouldn't.

It's a great practice track for mixing and sound design, and the end result is fairly pleasant to listen to. Nice work. There are issues, though, and the one that is the main obstacle to getting this posted on ocr is that the arrangement is essentially unchanged from the original. As a cover or source remake, it's fine. But that's not what ocr posts.