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Strings feel slightly behind in spots, but the overall flow's pretty smooth for ye olden days. A good choice for a mellow playlist!

Artist Name: jnWake Collabers: Jabo, Ivan Hakštok. Yet another Dwelling of Duels track by me. This one comes from february 2025's Katajun Month. Katajun is DoD's former director, who recently left that position. He's a big fan of PC games and even has a cover band himself so the theme was PC Games! One of my favorite games as a kid, and also one of few primarily PC games I've played, is Starcraft, so I took this month as an opportunity to finally cover a track from it. Starcraft music covers a couple different styles for its playable races, with the human race (called "Terran") featuring a mix of progressive rock and spacy synths. Since the game is a RTS, the music isn't super melodic and is more meant as background. Still, each track is quite long and varied so there's a lot of material for remixing! Source is already kind of prog. rock-ish so for my cover I went with a straight prog. metal style. There's heavy guitars, bass riffs, time signature and tempo changes, sudden transitions into a completely different genre and a lot of synths! My main inspiration was Symphony X but DoD compared it more to Dream Theater. Track features 2 collaborators. On guitar, we have my usual collaborator Jabo, who happens to be a big Starcraft just like myself (he's even covered Terran Theme One himself for DoD before!). Like always, he did a great job playing all sort of guitar parts, particularly the leads which are always a high point of Jabo's playing. He also helped me find silly samples for one particular transition. On bass we have another usual collaborator in Ivan Hakštok. This track was actually produced in a tight timeframe so we recruited a bass player instead of having Jabo play the bass. Naturally, Ivan completely nailed the part in a couple of days, adding the super fun slap section around the middle. Thanks a ton to both! To help judging I'll separate the main sections of the original: A - until 0:15 is the intro; B - until 0:45 is melody #1; C - until 1:16 is melody #2; D - until 1:32 is a variation of C; E - until 1:51 is a weird transition with some b5s; F - until 2:37 is the "funky section" and features melody #3; G - until 2:53 is a fun riff; H - until 3:29 is melody #4; I - until the end is a slow chord progression. And here's my breakdown: 0:00: Based on A, the riffs aren't identical but pretty recognizable. 0:15: Initial part of melody #1 (B) on lead guitar with the intro riff on guitar. 0:29: Full Melody #1 (B) on synths, now on 7/8. 0:56: Melody #2 (C) on guitar. 1:10: Return to the intro and a guitar solo. Chord progression at the end is from C. 1:46: Melody from D with an "original" chord progression. 2:15: Section E, pretty straightforward adaptation. 2:34: Fun transition! 2:37: Funky section! Made even funkier here. At 3:06 melody #3 (and accompanying keyboard lead) play. 3:36: Fun riff (G) plus a keyboard solo on a variation. 4:07: Chords from I. 4:22: Melody #4 (H), tempo raises here for extra urgency. 4:46: Repeat of the 0:29 section for the end. Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Source: Terran Theme Two

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Thanks for DarkeSword for clarifying the source eligibility and widening the lane for it. We can indeed roll with this as Pikmin 2 since it was used there. The music was 5:39-long, so I needed to hear the source tune used for at least 169.5 seconds to consider the source material dominant. :29.5-1:22, 1:48.5-2:40.5, 3:00.25-3:03.5, 3:05.25-3:07.75, 3:10.25-3:15, 3:39.75-3:41.5, 3:43.75-3:46.5, 3:49.25-3:53.75, 4:20.5-4:57.75, 4:59.25-5:11.25, 5:13.75-5:28.5 = 188 seconds or 55.45% overt source usage There was connective tissue I'm likely overlooking with my timestamps, but I was just making sure the vocals weren't the sole connection to the source or that I was being bowled over by the musicianship. maclaine's vocals sound absolutely lovely, charming, and captivating. I'd argue the instrumentation was too loud relative to the vocals (e.g. 1:35), but it's potentially done in the effort to have them swim in the music. Loads of synergy with the instrumentation side of this anyway, and it's rewarding to try to isolate different parts and hone in on their individual contributions. Awesome presentation, folks! YES

Theme finally arrives at :32. The grace notes added into the woodwind lead (:38, :44, 1:08, 1:11, 1:17, 1:21, 2:29, etc.) were awkward, with :38's feeling off-key, but it was just a blip. Even if the melodic personalization sounded a bit ham-fisted/try-hard, in principle, I like what was done there, and it sounds more comfy on repeated listens. The brass swell at 1:43 exposed the samples a lot; not a great sound, but thankfully only a brief moment. I'm not an orchestrator, but should this woodwind lead be so loud over the other orchestration around 1:06? In any case, the woodwind lead was getting tired, but I did like the change at 2:13, redoing the melody in a minor. Minor thing, and I might have missed more of these, but there was a faint pop at 2:45, usually meaning there's a problem with a sample. To me, this is getting it done on the bread-and-butter level, and I'm cool with that. I agree with proph that the mixing should be better balanced and the levels reined in, but I can actually live with this, and it would have been a shoo-in 20+ years ago. It's not the most fluid, but its earnestness is winning me over as good enough. Because Audiomancer has done/is doing/will do tons of revisions and resubs, it can be easy to take his availability and appetite for redos for granted; what I'm saying here is, if the source files were kaput, I'd rather we post this than not. YES (borderline)

The opening felt pretty busy/messy, but nothing I still couldn't follow. Transition at 1:39 was pretty poo, IMO, but I considered it a lil' speedbump (and my only critique); would have expected a more thought-out/clever/seamless shift of the themes. The saxes handling the Mettaton theme at 2:51 were my favorite part, pretty much all the newmajoe stuff was hitting hard with great musicianship, and of course all 3 artists you could say the same thing on insane performance skills. Anything where the themes were being doubled sounded incredibly fun. Strong sound choices, infectious energy throughout. :-) YES

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I too enjoyed the Orwellian voice intro. Track hits hard and is arguably too bright, but I'll live. It's like taking Helldivers to the club, this is cool. When the Orwellian spoken lines come back in at 1:32, they're too loud, so you can't as easily understand what they're saying, much moreso at 2:02; again, small potatoes, but spud's worth noting. Nice change in the supporting writing at 3:29, I definitely like that bubblier sound. Interesting threading of the needle between upbeat and dystopian. Stay calm, stay vigilant, stay free! YES

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Vocal mixing isn't the best; the choir's well-performed, though it all tends to just bleed/mush into the music during the densest sections and the SFX also just gets swallowed up, which is all hurting the intended storytelling & comedy (e.g. the bubbling noises for the volcano at 1:15-1:20) . I get how the announcement bookends are meant to sound distant and coming from a megaphone, but they also can't be understood whatsoever, so it just F's up the presentation. Would definitely love to hear a revision, and I'm sure some musicians Js could give tips on how to increase the clarity of the lyrics without sacrificing anything and I could see others argue it needs to be revised instead of approved, but I won't hold it back for just that. The arrangement's on point and it's a strong, silly concept. :-) The arrangement's an easy pass, while the production gets a "good enough diploma". If this is rejected for that reason, no shock to me. :-D YES (borderline) EDIT (7/31): Grunt had paradiddlesjosh & Chimpazilla help spruce up the mixing. Unreserved YES now!

I was fine with the previous version, though I can certainly empathize with why it got voted down. There's a very stilted quality to this from the drum programming, but I feel what's here overcomes this. Same with the synth timing for the line at 2:25 and the bass at 2:41, it's not pleasing. Second verse, same as the first, the overall interpretation and treatment carry it over for me more than the stiff timing holds this back, but I can see the case for arguing otherwise. I've heard plenty of tracks where the metronome-like timing is a feature not a bug, and this isn't a case where it's the same. For me the live guitar and the some of the synth design are solid enough as well to walk it over the line. :-) YES

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Kredits: Main Arrangement/Lyrics: General Grunt Vocals: Newmajoe, Michelle Dreyband, DylanWilliamVA, angrypolarbear Trumpet: David Lallande Violins: Shea's Violin Viola: Nemo Fairlight Accordion: Ian Martyn Percussion: DeLuxDolemite Guitar, Additional Instrument programming, engraving and mixing: Pixels & Paradiddles Lyrics: Kremling Announcer: Welcome to “it’s a little isle: stupid happy boat ride” Please keep your krew together as you walk past the zinger hive. Klaptraps under age 7 must be accompanied by an adult please do not carry any food or kutlasses when entering It’s a Little Isle. And Please Keep your Arms and Tails inside the boat at all times. Thank you. Song: It’s a little Isle That’s Full of crocodiles On a Pirate ship We sail the ocean blue It’s a little Isle That’s Full of crocodiles It’s just we do We’re crocodiles But come and stay awhile! Oh it’s a Little Isle of Crocodiles Here’s a volcano and a mine Its an Isle of crocodiles we’re in a swamp oh me, oh my! It’s a little Isle That’s Full of Crocodiles Here’s a carnival The one you’re in right now. Here’s a library With a coaster inside it We really don’t know why I guess it was to Make books a bit less boring And now you’re In a dungeon That smells like bad onions Which is the only thing That we found that rhymed It’s a dungeon Filled with radiation Its almost the end of this stupid ride It’s a little Isle That’s Full of crocodiles This wasn’t fun for us And It’s not fun for you It’s a little Isle That’s Full of crocodiles It’s just we do We’re crocodiles But come and stay awhile! Oh it’s a Little Isle of Crocodiles This ride is over, get off the boat Exit near The Krazy Kremland gift shop And buy a stupid T-shirt Or a fridge magnet! Kremling Announcer: “Please keep your ugly children seated until this boat comes to a complete stop, and you’re told to disembark.” Enjoy the rest of your day at Krazy Kremland. En Espanyol "Las cucarachas entran, pero no pueden salir." Kremlinglish: “ONK!” Artist Notes: Hello OCR! Grunt here with another insane arrangement. This track has a history of twists and turns. My inspiration was basically: What if Krazy Kremland in DKC2 had a kiddie ride similar to "its a small world" in Disney? This would be the song that endlessly plays throughout the ride. Of course that was years ago. Fast forward to 2025 and Universal Studios is actually making a Donkey Kong park. C'mon Nintendo THIS should really be a ride there!!! Anywell...Originally this track was around a minute and a half, with no lyrics and was mainly played on a calliope organ. That version is on the VGMCon Vol. 1 charity album which you can find on most music streaming platforms. THIS version was revised recently for the Dwelling of Duels David Wise Month. This new version is MUCH more elaborate. When I was revamping it I went with the notion that, while the Small World ride in Disney takes the ride goer around the countries of the world, THIS ride takes the ride goer to the various Crocodile Isle locations in the order in which you play them in DKC2: Gangplank Galleon Crocodile Cauldron Krem Quay Krazy Kremland Gloomy Gulch K. Rool's Keep I reflect this in both the lyrics/music. I used Welcome to Crocodile Isle as the main melody and made the entire arrangement into a major key (except the Gloomy Gluch/K Rool's Keep part) to give it that happy disney ride feel. I also incorporated the gangplank galleon (the piratey intro part only) and K. Rool returns in there for the other lyrical segments. I managed to sneak in a SMALL portion of Krook's March in there too, so see if you can spot that. This is probably the most time I've spent on an arrangement since I've been working on this on/off for at least 2 years. Anyway, its another "out there" arrangement from yours truly. Hopefully you enjoy listening to it as much as I had fun arranging it. And I should say everyone who helped with this deserves as much credit as well. Without the tremendous contributions from live instruments, to amazing vocals right down to mixing, this wouldn't NEARLY have come out as great as it did. Thank you to everyone! Enjoy judges (I'd bribe you with Kremland Tickets but Crocodile Isle is currently sunk in the bottom of the ocean) PS: I think this would be absolutely perfect for an April fools post (IF accepted of course) but no biggie if it can't. Games & Sources Games: Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 Original Composer: David Wise Arranged Tracks: Welcome To Crocodile Isle, K. Rool Returns, Gangplank Galleon, Krook's March

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What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

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What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

In the shadows, we stay busy. ;-) Joining us as a Sage, we now have @Treyt, who's shown off a lot of skills, enthusiasm, and potential since his fateful forum post nearly three years ago! We're proud to announce some staff promotions with the twin magic of Sages @pixelseph & @paradiddlesjosh stepping up to become two of our newest judges! We had some fun internally joking that they were a package deal, yet I'm happy to say they both independantly have done well and proven themselves capable to help us out in this new capacity on the panel! We've also honored to have another judges panel addition in @jnWake, who cut his teeth in OCR way back and has massively grown since becoming a Dwelling of Duels regular! All three of the new judges should help us NO every VGM arrangement submitted to us with more speed, politeness, and class. ;-D Be sure to use our resources in the Workshop forums and our #workshop Discord channel and you may just get some feedback from our new staffers!

Artist Name: Michael Hudak There was an awful lot going through my mind when I made this, but not much I want to actually say... I approached this piece like I was painting a picture as much as I was making a piece of music (I'm an awful visual artist). That's often how I work, but for a ReMix I'm a slave to the source, so it's exciting to find more ambient sources that I can find a reflective quality in that also happen to be from a game I love. The source is based around the following (seemingly endless) arpeggio progression: Ax6, Bx6, Cx3, Ax4, Bx7, Dx7, Ax3, Ex6, Fx6, Gx3, Hx3, Ix4, Jx3, Kx6, Lx6, Ax6, Mx6 I don't know what these chords are, but essentially what I did was this - Line them up the proper order, use some as arps, use some as held chords, test out instruments with different granular synth and reverb sends (sometimes just using the sends' audio and ditching the instrument VST audio after bouncing them separately into the track), and start painting. Lots field recording snippets. I faded out a lot of the transients in lieu of the smeared nature of the song, but kept some because I like how they sound and the rhythms they generate. There are all kinds of extra bits of melodic content floating over top of these arps in the source, and I was happy to ignore them, aside from the magical bit at 1:58 that appears at the very end of my version. It's a quiet master, but it's ambient/post-rock/room noise/whatever, so I think it's fine. The dynamic range is much more important to me in this particular case (I think it's around 15 LUFS of range). Originally, I had a bit more in the subs in the mix, but I rolled them back because they were too overpowering and IDM-like. The granular plugins I used were Fritz Granular Engine, which is part of the Reason rack, and Imagiro Autochroma. This write-up looks a little pretentious reading it back. A couple of the songs I listened to while making this were "New Grass" by Talk Talk and "In a Silent Way" by Miles Davis. Now it looks even more pretentious! Games & Sources "Ancient Temple Dungeon" from Skies of Arcadia is the lone source. YouTube link. That is the official song title listed on the game's OST. Yutaka Minobe & Tatsuyuki Maeda are the composers.

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