Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Oooh, I'm super-familiar with this track from looping it a ton in college. The arrangement here's cramped in spots, but I can make out things well. Loved the ticking of the original utilized so well here in keeping time yet sounding impactful and combining well with your amped up version of things. Solid textural and occasional rhythmic changes throughout to keep things engaging and interesting, I'm a big fan of your approach, which was full of life. Things felt stilted from 2:47-2:53, due to the keyboard, but it was very brief. Great original section at 3:02 to nearly close things prior to the final changeup at 3:32; the original writing fit very comfortably with the energy of the arranged sections before it. Ending was relatively abrupt, but I was alright with it. Very good source tune choice, and this interpretation stood apart very distinctly from it with a thrill ride of a creative direction. Nice work! :-) YES

Awesome source tune choice; I'm ashamed to say I've never encountered it until now. :-D Opens up sampling the original's choir; love the echolocation-style pings, which were a bit too muddy, but I'll live. Same with the guitar at 1:00; it's muddy and crowding out the brighter synth line, so I'm not getting synergy from it. Melody kicks in at 1:24, and I feel like I'm hearing the song playing out of a boombox while standing at the other end of a short tunnel; so much of the sound feels like it's bouncing off the walls multiple times and mudding together until 2:12. The dropoff at 2:12 opened the textures up again, and things sounded clear until going back to the overdriven electric guitar and flooded soundscape from 2:36-3:54. Same from 4:48-5:36 until basically the end. From 5:36 until the end, things were crowded and the guitar was chewing up most of the space; things were a little brighter with the melodic lead to present contrast with the earlier part of the track. I've approved some stuff by Black SeeD, and I have openness to degrees of personal production choices; call me biased, I genuinely don't see how this is enjoyable to have things mixed this way, with details becoming so muddy & obscured, genre-appropriate or not. The arrangement's solid, but this production's a dealbreaker for me due to being unable to make out the partwriting clearly enough. Strong concept, and I may get outvoted on the production/mixing qualms. NO (resubmit)

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Will need a new title if approved -LT Well, it’s been a hot second. The last remix I submitted was in 2012. Since then I have become a father, scored 8 games, released hundreds of licensed game and film covers, gone through the loss of my first wife, and remarried last year. That said, I have directed my life experiences into my music, especially lately, and into this cover. Ok, so, I’ve been wanting to cover the Introduction piece of music from SQ III for years, 23 to be exact. I’ve tried twice (without submitting said versions here) and failed, miserably. Fast forward to 2024, and I think I finally got it right. My cover of this one is unsurprisingly a full on orchestral re-recording of this piece, but surprisingly isn’t as epic as my usual submissions. I wanted it to sound similar to sci-fi scores (like The Last Starfighter) from the 80s with a closer mic position, and utilize a synthesizer integrated into the hall with the orchestra. There are a ton of nods throughout to composers such as Jerry Goldsmith and Craig Safan. Alternatively, I think it could feel right at home as the opening credits piece to a Space Quest streaming series……why hasn’t that happened yet? But I digress. Speaking of the synthesizer used, I utilized a Roland D-50 which was released just two years before Space Quest III hit store shelves. Seemed very fitting and it fits the Space Quest vibe like a glove, especially since the original game score sounds its absolute best through a Roland MT-32 sound module. Kismet. It was extremely fun to finally tackle this piece properly, I may just have to re-record the rest of the score. Space Quest III holds a very special place in my gaming heart. I remember playing (and falling in love with) it in ‘86 at a friend’s house and then eventually beating the game in my teens. As brutal as the gameplay is by today’s standards, it’s a very cool game with an amazing score by Supertramp drummer Bob Siebenberg. The introduction piece features a wonderful heroic theme on brass for the game's hero, Roger Wilco, and it lends itself very well to a live orchestra recording. The second half goes into surprisingly darkly heroic territory, which again is perfect fodder for a more orchestral setting. Games & Sources

Pretty vanilla/bland synths and very basic textures, though the mixing and panning sounds decent. Unfortunately, it's a very underdeveloped arrangement. Once you get to :33, you're effctively just hearing segments cut-and-pasted with sampled SFX (creatively) sprinkled in. The distorted beats from 1:35-2:15 were low quality and only added mud & clutter. Not much going on in terms of substance for the last minute. There's some basic creativity here, it's just not polished in any major way yet, so it's far from our bar. I hope you keep at it, Crabs, even if it's not with this arrangement. NO

Artist Name: Capt Crabs A Hype remix to a 150 bpm Hardstyle of the original Bubble Bobble theme song. Games & Sources from NES version of Bubble Bobble

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No samplings are used. Klonoa is one of my favorite games. For my first game music arrangement, I tried arranging my favorite song from this game. Baladium's Drive is a really cool song and there are a lot of intense arrangements, so I deliberately created a song with a calmer tempo. Changing the time signature to 4/4 was also a key point. Games & Sources Game:Klonoa Door to Phantomile（風のクロノア door to phantomile） Original Composer:Kohta Takahashi（高橋弘太）

MASTERING DONE BY: Pixel Mixers # Proudly done as part of Pixel Mixer's "PM Rockin'!" album, celebrating the 30th anniversary of EarthBound / The Mother series of games & releasing the 27th of August this year, 'Saturn Valley' is one of my favorite quirky-as-fuck songs across many-a-game-franchise I've had the pleasure to play and experience. I was sad to see no one pick up the song when the call came out to claim something for the album, so I took the initiative myself, and this will be the first (technically second, but Golden Sun isn't nearing release yet) Pixel Mixers joint I've ever done! This actually came about...as a result of many different things: a joke between me and my best friend, some chatting with fellow community members in regards to my TimeShift album piece I've been mulling over to do (as in, exactly what to do with it...) and a concept of figuring out more about...I suppose myself, along this long and arduous musical journey. As people have pointed out several times here, no one really knows what or how to describe my music, as it always comes as a fusion between at least TWO genres and employing techniques across a wide spectrum, never settling on any one thing. The TL;DR of the TimeShift conversation was people's general hint at me taking the source(s) I've chosen and to do something...a lil' unorthodox with them, seeing as I gained some insight on a plausible idea in listening to and discussing the group Black Violin, which is comprised of two Black dudes absolutely killing it on said instrument, but to the backdrop of Hip-Hop drum n' bass. In some of my own observation not only on this site, but across other communities, hip-hop has been done with VGM and remixes a-plenty, sure, but it's seemingly not as welcomed or fully embraced by the larger audience--not to the degree that Heavy Metal, Rock and EDM in their variety has staked their claims and made huge waves. You'll see Urban genre(s) way less and far between than a solo piano piece, or another orchestral piece. Hell, I think aspects of Jazz and Blues are more keenly felt and appreciated more often. . . So...why the fuck not? Not only growing up in a household which cherished eclectic and wide-spanning tastes in music, I grew up in and amongst Urban genre scenes of all sorts, I myself being of the Afro-persuasion. And, it'd be a missed opportunity to functionally slip more of those facets into other genre-bends and VGM remixes where...maybe no one thought there could be an obvious connection (e.g. like in Sonic music, which has clear and tight ties to Rap and Hip-Hop and Alternative over the history of its franchise OSTs). The "this came from a joke" side of it was purely because my friend was taking the piss and poked fun at me doing Phonk and Jersey Beat--due to our newfound love and hittin' the griddy on Creepy Nuts' "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" from Season 2 of the anime Mashle: Magic and Muscles, and how listening to random Phonk and Russian Bass tracks literally made me lock-in hard-core in tackling the highest difficulty of Risk of Rain 2 as REX (one of my favorite characters in the game). Always wanted to try Jersey / UK Drill Trap, with a bit o' Phonk, as well as Electro-Swing--a genre that really stuck to me in the wake of listening to groups like Caravan Palace and Swingrowers over the past few years or so, (and other takes, like Genie's "A Friend Like Me", from Disney's Aladdin, done up in that style). And...here we are. After extensive research, we got the smattering of Ragtime piano, the hip upright bass plucks, the New Orleans-style trumpet razz (and yeah...kinda uhm...a bit proud of myself managing to write / improv all of that from the source material, inclusive of the synth trumpet's riffs, trills, flutters, licks, etc), and those 'bones going ham, all wrapped in a neat lil' package of needing moar cowbell and phat 808s. I honestly dunno how the hell I managed, but I guess inspiration is bound to happen when the thought of those cute lil' pink guys shakin' ass to Jersey beats pushes you to the absolute limits of imagination. :D **As a side-note, yes, some of the FX that sounds like cartoon noises is from EarthBound, and I also wanted to immortalize the lil' guys' unique dialogue ticks from the game. Utilizing Alter/Ego voice-banks, I simulated various Mr. Saturn onomatopoeia (sound-words) into actual percussive and rhythmic elements as part of the song, and these elements were hand-written MIDI notation, linked to various FX chains/sends and (soft) vocoding to get some backing layered synths to follow their tones, and add to the melodic and harmonic aspects of Saturn Valley. I wanted those lil' guys to sing! The words include: "Hi, OH, Hi!" "Hi Hi Hi!" "DinG, DinG!" "BOinG!" "zOOm!" See if you can hear them in the song. ;) At any rate, it was a blast making this. Learned a lot. Enjoyed a lot, and hope y'all enjoy it too! Set your wub-wub subwoofers to high, or bust out your bass-heavy ear-buds! This came from working with Pixel Mixers for the 1st/2nd time ever, but it certainly won't be my last with them. They rock; y'all rock. Let's keep the party groovin'. Other musical references: ZMiX / sparda716 - "Saturn Valley (Dubstep/Electro Remix)" (similar synths and basses used in the bridge section for this arrangement) Fred Wesley - "Get Down Widcho Baad Self" (naming the song, LOL; literally that's it) Games & Sources 'Hi Hi Hi - Saturn Valley' EARTHBOUND / MOTHER 2: GYIYG NO GYAKUSHUU; DISC 1, Track 4 - Theme of Saturn Valley, (Hi Ho); Composer(s): Hirokazu Tanaka, Keiichi Suzuki & Hiroshi Kanazu; Original Release Date: 02 November 1994; Label: Sony Records

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