Liontamer

CREDITS: colorado weeks (Colorado Weeks): main arrangement, production, drum programming, synths, backing vocals CivlaCivla (Alvic Plan): lead vocals, vocal arrangement, backing vocals bjkmenu: lead electric guitar, rhythm guitars, additional synths This was our entry for Dwelling of Duels' Free Month in July 2024. "The Natural Playboy" is such an iconic track from a real hidden gem of a game. After working with The Vodou Queen on a New Jack Swing track for GSM1, I knew I wanted to dip my toes in the genre again. This arrangement has been on the to-do list for a while, but it didn't get done until recently because I need a proverbial gun to my head to finish my damn tracks (a.k.a: a firm deadline.) I was never great at fighting games as a kid, and Bust a Groove was no exception. Luckily, I had a much more skilled kuya (CivlaCivla) that I could watch play. Because of his skill, I was able to experience all of the great music as well as the colorful cast of characters. Considering how much of an influence he was in my musical journey and my love of video games, it really meant a lot that I was able get Civla to record vocals for "Playboy Philosophy." To add to the emotional heft, we recorded the vocals in one session in our childhood bedroom. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention bjkmenu's influence in making this track happen. I was in a creative funk for a good couple of months until bjkmenu posted a couple of versions of "The Natural Playboy" in ThaSauce, including this extremely funky cover by The Consouls. As a novice guitar player, I have significant blind spots in guitar arrangement due to only being limited to what I am able to play. bjkmenu was truly a font of knowledge in this regard, even providing feedback and suggestions for the arrangement, the performance, and the mix. Again, a huge thanks to CivlaCivla and bjkmenu for lending their talents to this track, and to The Vodou Queen for all of her New Jack Swing recommendations! LYRICS: [VERSE 1] All the people everywhere Everybody wants to hear My playboy philosophy 'Cause I look like a star when I'm smoking my cigar They wanna be just like me It's true, my gold ring is beautiful And everyone wants one Everyone wants to have my style [VERSE 2] In a club or on the streets Everybody that I meet Wants to learn and play my game And they watch the way I move From my head to my shoes And all the girls know my name [PRE-CHORUS] I know in their hearts they wish and dream That they could be like me But if they want to know the truth It's true [CHORUS] That I'm the natural playboy of town And I am blowing every mind 'Cause I'm one of a kind And I'm the coolest dancer around The lights are shining down on me So everyone can see The natural playboy [VERSE 3] All the people everywhere Everybody wants to hear my Playboy philosophy 'Cause I look like a star when I'm smoking my cigar They wanna be just like me [PRE-CHORUS] I know in their hearts they wish and they dream That they could be like me (Could be like me) But if they want to know the truth It's true [CHORUS] That I'm the natural playboy of town And I'm blowing every mind 'Cause I'm one of a kind I'm the coolest dancer around The lights are shining down on me So everyone can see The natural playboy Games & Sources The source tune is "The Natural Playboy" from Bust a Groove. According to the Bust a Groove wiki, the music was composed by Tomoki Ishizuka and was written and performed by Kaleb James.

Artist Name: jnWake Collabers: minusworld (guitars), Jabo (guitars), Unknown Pseudoartist (Kefka laughs). As usual, another DoD month means another submission! This time, I decided to tackle one of those ridiculously overcovered VGM tunes: Dancing Mad! There are a huge amount of covers of this track already, so it was a challenging prospect... OCR already has a couple metal takes on the track from awesome mixers like pud, zircon and Lashmush, while DoD had already seen its own versions from the likes of Cory Johnson and Pokerus. If you also just look at YouTube covers you'll find takes from GaMetal and other metal artists, but also more creative takes like Shnabubula's reversed tiers remix. With so many covers, what could I add? Well, for my take I decided to not follow some principles that many (but not all) covers seemingly follow: begin with a long build-up, have the main melody of Tier 1 be a slow part likely featuring a singer, follow the Tier structure of the source and, finally, be very long! Hence, I decided to make something more action oriented and less long (not short!) as my guiding principles. I also decided I'd not necessarily follow the order of the original and threw riffs wherever I felt they fit the most! As usual, I recruited collabers to help me. Jabo and minusworld both played guitars here, each having a solo and each playing one side of the rhytm doubletracking. Jabo also played the bass. Finally, I recruited UPA to do some Kefka laughs in a couple of spots, which he nailed awesomely. Anyway, I think this came up pretty well so I hope you enjoy! Breakdown (I'll reference timestamps from the YT link): 0:00-0:05: Starting with a bang! Chord progression is a modification of the main Dancing Mad one, just with funny synth arpeggios on top! 0:06-0:36: Guitar riff is a variation over the main riff of Tier 4 (7:03 on the YT vid, basically changing it to just straight 8ths). The Dancing Mad chord progression returns on strings/choir soon after. 0:36-0:42: Basically a sped up version of the chords at 0:30 in the original. 0:42-1:00: Main melody of Tier 1 on guitar (0:55 of the source). On the usual Dancing Mad cover this part is slow and usually sang but screw that! 1:01-1:25: The part that follows directly after the main melody (1:23 on the YT link), but I changed the time signature to 12/8 for a triplet feel which is super heavy. Melodies had to be adjusted accordingly. 1:25-1:40: A variation over the original chords to create some drive as we return to 4/4. We also move from C minor to C# minor. 1:36 is a repeat of the 0:36 section, now on C# minor. 1:40-2:05: We return to 12/8 for a heavy take on the first riff of Tier 2 (2:43 in the YT vid). 2:05-2:36: This is the part that follows (3:16 from the source). For extra chaos I added some modified melodies from Tier 3 here (4:47 and Kefka's theme are played on harmonized guitars with a heavy flanger effect, while 5:04 and 5:09 are played on organ). 2:36-2:51: Parts from the ending on Tier 2 are adapted here, first 4:06 from the YT vid and then the chords at 4:39. 2:51-3:12: Main melody of Tier 4 (8:27 on the link) on piano and later trumpet. Usually this part is left for an emotional ending and guitar solo so I thought it'd be neat to feature it earlier. 3:12-3:16: This is the buildup that begins Tier 4 (6:33), first you have the stacking of 4ths and then the staccato augmented chords. UPA's Kefka laugh hits there as a transition to the following section. I like to think that if this was the actual soundtrack of something it'd be the transition to the second, crazier, phase. 3:16-3:30: On this part I took the organ arpeggios of the original (at 8:00) and modified them to fit a 4/4 feel but on triplets. Every 4 bars there's a break where the organ plays the chord progression that plays just before this section in the original (7:54 for example). 3:30-3:41: Lots of playing around Kefka's theme, first on bass then on synths then on rhytm guitar and finally on lead guitars. Piano in the backing is playing melodies from Tier 3 (4:59) and when the synth hit a trumpet does the harmony from Tier 4's take on the Kefka melody (8:06 for example). 3:41-3:45: Transition is the part from 8:22 but on straight 8ths and repeated many times. 3:45-4:11: Jabo's guitar solo! Backing is a modification of the first riff of Tier 4 (7:10, organ is the most evident quote). 4:11-4:16: Mini keyboard solo, chord progression is the same that the organ played on the 3:16-3:30 section. 4:16-4:37: minusworld's solo! The riff is basically a faster version of the one from 2:05-2:36. 4:37-4:44: Keyboard solo is a quote from Dream Theater's Octavarium. This was Jabo's idea! 4:45-5:01: Here, guitar plays arpeggios from Tier 3 (5:39) while the trumpet plays the bass from that section as a melody. This is followed by some diminished chords and arpeggios taken from 6:04. 5:01-5:28: Repeats from the first half of the song, the main riff and the sped up chords! There's some slight variations over their first appearances. 5:28-5:50: Main melody from Tier 4 returns on full force, now on guitar! Piano melody is playing a variation of the main melody from Tier 1 and the harp is doing the classical FF arpeggio over the chord progression of this section, which first follows the source but then dips into "original writing". 5:50-6:12: A repeat of 1:01-1:25, now on C# minor. On the second half a trumpet plays a variation of the main melody from Tier 4. 6:13-end: Chords of this section are based on the chords that end the first half of Tier 1 (0:39 in the link), but with some variations. Source begins with chords over D and then C, while here we begin with C# to D# then back to C and finally on D. However, the idea of the source's riff (ascending chords over a pedal tone) is kept. Whew... that's a long breakdown. Games & Sources Source: Dancing Mad

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The shift into "Lake Hylia" was a nice bit of contrast, forgoing the percussion for about half a minute and focusing more on the strings and brass, and I also enjoyed the transition into "Zora's Domain". The shift to "Lanayru Sand Sea" felt clunkier, but I'll live. For me, there's nothing wrong with the structure; while it's all meant to be mysterious and mystical, there's meaningful effort into the transitions as well as varying up the energy of the textures, even if the instrumentation is pretty fixed, because you have different parts dropping in and out. I dig it! YES

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Would need a new name if approved -LT Artist Name: Why_ It didn't let me upload the file so I got you guys a google drive link to the file. I hope you guys like this this will be my first submission here this is one of my personal favorite mixes I've made. Link to my YouTube video for this song in case you guys need it:

Artist Name: NarnianWarrior Hey guys! This is my first submission, and like all my EDM works, it was produced in Garageband iOS. Despite its reputation, it's a surprisingly capable little piece of software, especially considering that it comes free with every iPad! The only issue I had with it for this piece was the overly fake strings, but over time I came to appreciate the rather N64-esque sound that they have, which lends the piece a unique and nostalgic quality. I've always adored Super Mario Galaxy and its soundtrack, and I wanted to do them justice with this arrangement. I particularly wanted to amp up the outer-spacey feel of the source, truly transporting my audience to the Comet Observatory and giving them the feeling of traveling through space with Rosalina and her star children. It is still a lullaby at its core, but it also has the energy, awe, and wonder that I associate with space travel and the night sky. It does also attempt to capture the sadness of Rosalina's story (hence the use of "Sad Girl"), but the overall message is one of hope. We may see upsetting change in our lives and see the ones we love desert us or die, but you can't chart your course based on the stars behind you. You can only use them to tell if your ship is where it's supposed to be. Gosh, now I'm really hoping I didn't wax philosophical only to drop a mediocre track, heh. P.S. The title comes from a beautiful but depressing bluegrass song by Nickel Creek called "The Lighthouse's Tale," which is another piece of media that, like Super Mario Galaxy, I'm quite nostalgic for. I also subtly referenced its chorus (which contains the line the title was taken from) in the section at 1:17. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/Jigp5IkagOY?si=eo79MChefkgdWYVv Games & Sources Both tracks courtesy of Mahito Yokota. Super Mario Galaxy - Luma Sad Girl - Super Mario Galaxy

Artist Name: tibonev This arrangement was created for the Dwelling of Duels Jun 2024 contest, theme was franchises fusion, where you had to make a medley/mash-up of songs from two different franchises. Since i've been playing A LOT of MSFS2020 lately, i really wanted to cover it, and adding Pilotwings was a no-brainer, given the theme relation between the two franchises, i've also been meaning to do a track without drums or percussion for a long time, but i've always postponed, well, not this time. The arrangement is slow, chill and borderline ambient, using lots of moving synths pads for the foundation while the rythymic information comes from the muted guitars on the back, the melodies are present but not always the main focal point of the mix, i've been listening to a lot of Boards of Canada these days, specially during work hours, and i wanted to do a track with a similar approach, but not exactly in their style, which is why i named my track "above the borders", it alludes to their name, kinda of, and alludes to flight which is the theme of the remix. Source Breakdown: 00:00 - 00:35 - original part based on msfs2020 chords 00:35 - 00:52 - pilotwing chords and arp riff 00:52 - 01:01 - original transition 01:01 - 01:36 - msfs2020 melody part A 01:36 - 01:45 - original transition based on the part A chords. 01:45 - 02:11 - pilotwings melody 02:11 - 02:46 - msfs2020 melody part B 02:46 - 03:22 - msfs2020 chords / with original radar ping over it. 03:22 - 03:35 - original part based on msfs2020 chords 03:35 - 03:58 - long fade out of last ringing chord. Total time: 238 seconds Source time: aprox. 153 seconds (64% aprox). Games & Sources Game 1: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (PC / Xbox Series X/S) Source Track: Color 1 (Menu Music) Youtube Link: Game 2: Pilotwings (SNES) Source Track: Bad Results / Bad Points Youtube Link:

After starting things very conservatively, nice curveball at 1:00 with the dropoff and then slamming things with a full soundscape, then the interpretiveness of the arrangement really picked up from that point on. The lead from 1:25-1:49 was too loud and was also pushing down everything else, so the track was feeling imbalanced, but it wasn't for too long. Nice change of the melodic instrumentation at 1:50 to keep things fresh, then 2:29 used similar techniques as 1:00, only more intense. Nice Street of Rage "HEY!" at 2:42, that was random. :-) I do wish this had something going on in terms of stereo/panning, but the adaptation to chiptune's effective enough that it overcomes that. JSA makes all of these chiptunes a pleasure to listen to. YES

:43.75-1:23, 1:25-1:29.5, 1:38.5-1:39.75, 1:41.5-1:42.5, 1:48.5-1:50.5, 2:02.75-2:08, 2:19.25-2:46.5, 2:49.5-2:54.5, 2:57.75-3:05.5, 3:20.75-3:31 = 103.5 seconds or 50.61% source usage I'm sure there's stuff I overlooked, but some of the claimed usage felt liberal and/or fleeting, so I wanted to stopwatch it myself. Track was 3:24.5-long (ignoring non-music talking, :07.5-:14.5, before the intro), so I needed to ID the source tunes in play for at least 102.25 seconds to consider the source tunes as dominant. Alright, Emu gave an arrangement breakdown, and I compared it against what I could recognize; I'm good. The musicianship was solid, I just needed to understand the arrangement's construction. A lil' cerebral of an approach, but certainly jazzy and sophisticated. :-) YES

I was basically out on parental leave when the previous version was subbed, so I've actually never heard that version; let's see what's going on. Intro seems unrelated to the source, but then hits the melody at :31 with some lovely, spacious faux-vocals, then Jorito joining in on backup at :47. The Synthesizer V vocals are impeccable; if you'd claimed it was a live singer, I would have readily agreed. Nice synth lead at 1:03, though the beat was feeling somewhat flat, and I felt the soundscape was muddy, enough to merit commenting on it. A reprise of the fauxcals at 1:42 with different textures underneath them. Slight tweak to the lead of the chorus section at 2:13, then some cool vocals at 2:20 adding some color to this section. Nice isolated vocals at 2:51; Jorito's choral stuff behind them sounded great as well, functioning like a pad. Good addition of the guitar at 3:23 to accent the vocal melody; at this point, the overall feel was getting repetitive (nothing threatening a NO vote, but still...), so it was good to hear even more playing around with the textures behind the leads at 3:56's chorus section. Not sure what would have held this first version back. /listens - Oh OK, I get it. Yeah, more stilted sequencing and thinner textures compared to the current version, and the Realivox Blue vocals were brutal (terrible articulations, very stiff timing), but I can see why Sir_NutS was saying this had lots of potential back then. No worries about that now for Jorrith, this one's now flying high. Great treatment of a cool, overlooked theme. :-) YES

Dayum, comes out sounding cramped right from the get-go, but man this is hitting the listener hard with intense sound. The core beat pattern at :51 was plodding but only lasted until 1:03. IMO, the bass writing, which is good, was pushed down and obscured, which made the writing & textures feel more simplistic than they really were. It's not a B-laze track without going over the top on the volume, yet the drop at 2:26 was nice and spacious with totally different instrumentation (including some chippy spices), so kudos for a nice bit of contrast there (and for providing a "let me up" moment). Nice original writing at 2:47, which turned out to be the finish rather than an set-up for more treatment of the melody; a lil' unorthodox, but it's a resolution; it's also better to leave 'em wanting more rather than overstaying the welcome. Heavy as a sumbitch, B-laze brought the power to this theme! Bubsy's finally gonna get some spotlight here, that's awesome! :-) YES

Cool personalized cover with more graceful vocals from EK and more gritty rock from Erika. Fun textural changes throughout, plus the lil' cameos of other themes were a nice, subtle nod to the original game. The performances all felt very cohesive. The mixing was a little cramped for my tastes during the final big crescendo section, but it was nothing really dinging the track. Love it, this is strong! YES

Just to be clear, when you say "i am still a conditional but tbh this is good enough for me to go as-is if it doesn't get fixed.", that's not a conditional vote, that's a borderline YES. :-P I didn't make out any of the brief "Ninja Step" elements mentioned in the comments, so if any of the Js wouldn't mind helping a brother out... (9/18 EDIT: No worries, I hear it now.) Cool sounds for the intro. The lead from :23-:48's no good, a very stilted sound, but the overall sound design's interesting even if I don't like that one part. Can't go wrong using a lot of sounds similar to the original music courtesy of FMDrive, yet this is far from sounding like a cut-and-paste or simple sound upgrade of the original source tune. Melody arrives at 1:12. At this point, the lead sound design's actually feeling flat and unexpressive in some ways until the change in leads at 2:05. It's nothing that's putting me off from voting in favor of this so far, but there's some flat or underwhelming parts. A little comping style variations on the melody from 2:37-2:59, which was good. The soundscape's somewhat cramped, but I can make out the part-writing OK, so no big deal. That higher synth at 3:22-3:30 & 3:41-3:52 is another example of a flat-sounding part. Piano line at 3:30 was cool, and the orch stabs added some cheesy but OK flavor. Love the shimmering outro sound and how it stylistically bookended with the intro. I do understand how MW went NO in terms of feeling like things didn't dynamically vary enough, because these heavy beats are pretty pervasive and the track's generally pretty texturally full, so it can come off like it's just hammering the listener. Nonetheless, this has enough textural changes to get by, carried by interpretive arrangement/presentation and reasonably solid sound design (despite some "mixed bag" feelings). Looking forward to hearing more from you, Adrian; nice job letting this simmer. :-) YES

To me, the flow of this initially felt jarring because I know these distinctive themes so well. :-D Interesting tradeoffs throughout; this'll be interesting to time out to figure out what primary game this gets assigned. On the mixing side, this felt cramped and hot, particularly from 3:28-on (lead at 3:51-4:01 & 4:04-4:11 sounded pretty shrill); not enough to reject it on, but enough to notice and remark on. Quibbles aside, a very cool premise, well structured and executed! :-) YES EDIT (9/12): DKC more dominant - :00-:08, 1:00-1:26, 1:41-2:15, 3:29-3:52, 4:12-4:33 = 112 seconds CT more dominant - :08-1:00, 1:26-1:41, 2:15-3:25. 4:04-4:12 = 145 seconds Some of the second half blending felt more even, but the point still stands, this'll be considered a CT mix for the database. :-)

The track was 5:06 long, so I needed to identify the source tune in play for at least 153 seconds for the source tune to be considered dominant. :43.25-:48.5, :50.5-:55.5, :57.75-1:02.5, 1:05.5-1:10.5, 1:12.75-2:00, 2:27.5-4:12, 4:32.5-4:33.5, 4:39.5-4:56 = 189.25 seconds or 61.84% overt source usage I wasn't majorly concerned about source usage, but did want to time it out since the intro sounded original and the melody took a little bit to come in; wouldn't want to be groove biased, of course. :-) Long build-up, but the main melody finally came in around :44. 3:26 was an opportunity to do something markedly different with the melodic or textural presentation, so I get where prophetik's coming from in terms of wanting further ideas. To me, everything's dialed in and meaningfully evolving within this groove. A little building blocky, one could argue, but I'm enjoying the groove and didn't have a big problem with the lead (which had a bit of a piercing sound that's cutting through but wasn't a huge deal for me). Loving it; what a cool tribute to Jenz and of a game that doesn't get nearly enough arrangement love, which was an extra treat. Wonderful to hear how well things are going, James, and I do hope you stay on a healthy path so that you make the most out of married life (congrats!) and get to do that potential musical collab, I'm selfish there. :-) YES

Let's see how we did with this different type of collab scenario. Bass at :51 was produced in a way where it's doesn't sound focused/forward enough, if that makes sense, it's more of an indistinct low drone, but it's still somewhat recognizable from the theme. The melodic variations sound good, and I liked playing with the timing of it, dragging it just a bit to alter its feeling. I liked the original countermelodic line added in at 1:12 as well, that was a very nice touch. Nice line handling the source's countermelody at 1:45, that was very cool sound design, a fluttery feeling to it. So well personalized, and nice dynamic contrast at 2:45 that was less beat-driven and more atmospheric until 3:04. Some nice swagger until 3:26, then a little mellower while still beefing up the textures a touch. Loads of ear candy throughout, while the arrangement personalization is way up there, this is how you do it. :-) YES

Sounds lovely. I dug the acoustic guitar vamping at 1:10 and appreciated things cricling back to more overt variations of the melody at 1:30. The shift back into the violin taking point at 2:15 was cool, and I enjoyed how it was produced, as it sounds more like an e-violin. Rancho relaxo throughout and has tons of personality; nice work, Shea! :-) YES

Artist Name: Shea's Violin I started arranging this song on a live stream but I made a mistake and forgot to change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4 before I recorded a piano part for it. Without realizing what I had done, I started recording the violin lead line and very quickly found out that I had the time signature wrong, but I improvised the lead line to fit into the 4/4 structure. At the end of the first take I listened back and I really liked how it sounded: lazy, drifting, dreamy, wandering. I kept the first take and built the rest of the song around this "Bob Ross Happy Accident (tm)." On the second pass through the melody, I gave the guitar and mandolin a very free interpretation of the melody before heading to a solo section and bringing the melody back at the end with a reharmonized version of the source borrowing the Eb from the B section before ending back at the tonic. I almost didn't post this because it was such a deviation from the source and spawned from an accident, but after I did I got several messages asking me to submit this to OCR, so here we are! Games & Sources The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time: Zelda's Lullaby