ReMix:Castlevania "Enough Time to Dance" 3:55

I'm technically on vacation, but the mixpost must go on... hopefully our US visitors had awesome Thanksgivings & are now well-fed and amped for more quality VGM arrangements. If so, well, you've come to the right place; up first is newcomer Magellanic (formerly Lidawg) with an upbeat electronica/dance arrangement of Castlevania, off Vampire Variations, which he resubbed based on panel feedback:

"This version may sound rather different to the last but I think its punchier, clearer and more energetic. There isn't really any change to the arrangement. What's mostly changed are the synths. They should sound more organic and human. They are better quality and I've re-recorded the parts to give them a bit of swing and soul. Andrew mentioned that he would of liked the drums to have more oomph....I think they have a little more than before. Hopefully the soundscape is a bit more exciting and atmospheric too.

Other than that I'd just thought I'd say how this mix has been a labour of love. I started the track in July for Vampire Variations and it is now almost unrecogniseable from what is was then. I've lost count of how many times this mix has been revised. I owe a lot to the guys on Vampire Variations, they were and are fantastic to work with."

Part of me feels like EVERY mix should be a labor of love, but there are also a lot of great tracks that only take a few hours for their workflow-optimized creators to produce. Personally, I always have more of an emotional attachment to the tracks I spend weeks (if not months) with, even if that in and of itself doesn't guarantee their comparative strength. This mix is solid and plain-old enjoyable; while metal tends to fit Castlevania like a glove in terms of genres, there are actually a good number of kickin' dance/trance CV mixes, and I'd point to this as yet another example that Belmonts, Dracula & co. can bust moves as adeptly as they bang heads. Judges were split, as some felt there were further mixing tweaks needed and that the instrumentation was a smidge generic, but the prevailing sentiment was summarized nicely (again!) by Emunator:

"This is pretty decent, I feel like it's just on the cusp of passable as far as simple, generic electronica goes, and the strong arrangement and pretty neat transitions are what push it over the edge. Your production sounds much improved from some of your other submissions that I *do* remember, though I think you might have gone a little bit overboard on the sub bass frequencies in your bassline, it's a little strong on headphones.

Pretty sweet though, I love the writing across the board here and the production/synths, while nothing special, definitely get the job done and don't hinder your arrangement at all. I can sign off on this."

Kudos to yet another Vampire Variations mixpost; I'm really glad so many of the tracks off this album were submitted, and that the panel revision process allowed for improvements that facilitated their being posted. Congrats to Magellanic for a straightforward & accessible CV mix that doesn't reinvent the wheel but takes on a lesser-arranged source & does an admirable job with it!