Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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

I’m always attempting to give my best description of what I’m hearing, and hope it can provide some degree of worthwhile insight, but since Chimpa’s a mastering engineer and I’m not even a musician, I’ll almost always defer to her as far as articulating what’s potentially going on with a track. :-)

Cool lo-fi adaptation of the source tune; sounds lovely to start. Good textural escalation at :27. I dug the lil' rhythmic plucked string-style accents brought in at :40; those were a subtle element, but a sophisticated touch to add some swing and depth to the texture. From 1:07-2:02, whatever got added in was adding lots of murk and mud, which made this less enjoyable. I listened to a control track just to be sure it wasn't me (djp's Revenge of Shinobi "Consent (Make Me Dance)", for reference). IMO, I don't see what making things so murky does to make the track an optimal listen. Even at :40, there's a relative indistinctness/mud to the texture that's obscuring the part-writing (e.g. the cool percussive rhythms from 1:36-2:02 are pushed down too much, and the rain SFX -- which was more audible/discernible in the intro -- turns more into a dull crackling, like an egg on a frying pan). Loved the gentle outro, including the clanging metal SFX and the effects on the lead; the sound design's excellent. The arrangement's lovely & rock solid, and I like the track, yet I'm a stickler on this mixing, especially with the track being so brief. I just rejected another track for similar reasons, and had to bust out a control to ensure I wasn't wigging out here. I'd still love this on the site, but if we somehow couldn't get another version, I'd regrettably say NO (resubmit) as is. As much as Wes hates my old man ears -- and I'm well aware I can't get infinite passes on that -- it needs another mixing pass, IMO. EDIT (6/20): New version sounds better! It's still murky from 1:07-2:02, so I'm still old-man-ears about it, but it's notably less (accidentally overdriven), rumbly, and muffled across the board, so count me in. :-) YES

IMO, this is still lossy-sounding and lacks proper high-end sharpness/clarity. The fuzziness from 2:41 was intentional, yet still felt like soft, unwanted distortion that was cluttering up the soundscape. Wasn't a fan of the piano handling the OoT Title melody at 2:06, mainly because it sounded so close to the original music, it felt like it was sampling the original audio. Compositionally, by around 2:50, things were plodding and I was waiting for something else to develop. On the whole, the arrangement is on solid ground despite the meandering, but I'm not on board yet with this mixing. It'll come across as me disliking Everybody Man's track -- IMO, it's too boomy in the lows and the whole thing is too murky and indistinct, particularly from 2:24-on, enough so where I'm unfortunately going NO (resubmit) for the time being. If this makes it as is, I can understand that, however, I feel the production side merits one more pass.

I like the subtle lil' swirl effect on the opening sound; nice and engaging opening playing with the rhythm of the source and with some very cool sound design. The imagery feels like a scientific/technological experiment going on that has a lot of futurist potential. 3 minutes in, the rhythm keep going as it did from the start, yet it doesn't plod at all, then the textures started to get subtractive and wind down starting at 3:08. Contemplative as advertised, I love the mood this sets! :-) YES

Feels like a throwback right from the get-go; sounds straight out of a mid-90s PC game where you're stopping by a village. :-) I'll sound glib as if I didn't enjoy the track or feel it's not worth a "full" vote. proph summarized this well. There's too much repetition, and the arrangement -- while going in the right direction of transformation -- was too repetitive in a cut-and-paste feeling way. The sampled guitar tone was decent albeit obviously not humanized, and the timing was too rigid. It's too tough to really get beyond the issues adding up when taking into account the arrangement not feeling fully developed & evolving relative to what we're presently looking for. Great base here though, Justin, and I like the way this is a more intimate and stripped down texture; would love to hear another pass at this to further vary up the arrangement as well as humanize the timing. NO (resubmit)

Which game is this primarily arranging, Metroid Prime? Would y'all mind timestamping this so we can highlight the way things trade off between the themes? Thought I voted on this. Pretty epic! YES

Original writing at :03 was SO LOUD over the top of the Pictionary base, it pretty much drowned it out until :17. :'-( I can tell at this point that I'm not going to be enjoying the mixing due to the levels feeling too LOUD. It'll sound like I'm saying the production was jacked or below the bar; IMO, the leads are OK, but feel too dry and loud. There's probably a way to give the texture a warmer, more cohesive sound to it that I'm just not knowledgeable enough to convey, but hopefully a musician J can. Arrangement-wise, this is awesome and that carries it. :-) YES

Rancho Relaxo over here! Zack & Seph's guitar performances sounded extra classy. Are y'all trying to melt up the ladies? :-) YES

Opens up with some very fakey piano, but the tone has some character. Wind lead at :17 has exposed attacks, though those also had character. Beats at :31 felt kind of hollow and the panning being so wide was questionable on headphones; I wouldn't mind it as much if things ended up being recentered after a brief instance of very wide panning, but since that never happened, that's a problem, IMO. At 1:34, the chorus line on those airy belltones was too loud relative to everything else; it sounded piercing. From 2:01-on, things were again too loud and piercing. I did like the sound design in a vacuum, but the track's too shrill and abrasive, particularly in the right ear. The countermelody added in on guitar from 3:07-3:20 felt like too little too late in terms of differentiating the melodic presentation. It'll sound like I'm saying this wasn't creative or well in the right direction. Right now, despite good, gradual escalation in the textures -- arrangement-wise, the melody was on auto-pilot, so the track still plods as a result; consider introducing other variations of the source melody, even if it's just varying the instrumentation rather than the writing. as everyone else has said, great potential here, Hitrison! I hope you're willing to see what more you can do with this and will consider resubmitting it. :-) NO (resubmit)

Whoa, I'm lovin' it! Aaron's layered vocals sound awesome, and I love how comfortably the lyrics fit with the melody, something that can be easily taken for granted until you hear someone perform vocals too rigidly in time with a source melody. The instrumentation was lush, and the textures built up nicely in the first minute. Man, y'all even made a key change sound seamless and non-disappointing (hey, I can be a key change hater). The end at 3:34 wound down too quickly, so I dunno if it could be touched up to let things resonate and breathe, otherwise, this was perfect. Y'all should seriously consider doing a Touhou EP and selling it at Comiket; this would go over extremely well there, this is so cool! :-) YES

Oh snap, jungle! Definitely never would have expected this genre from either of you, which is a kick and half given how long we've all been working together. :-D I've got a soft spot for this genre because of Liquid Neon's old ReMixes; it's wonderful hearing this genre executed with an unprecedented level of sheen around here. This source tune was perfect for it! P.S. "It's pronounced 'Bouquet'!" :-) YES

The mixing wasn't as sharp as I'd have liked, but it wasn't a huge deal to me. Great comping & vamping throughout, and Joe on beatbox was a great touch. Let these guys cook all day! YES

Artist Name: Zach Chapman Contributing artists: Me - arrangement, mixing, mastering, bass - https://www.youtube.com/@zach-esque TheManPF - guitars - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ze45nN-uvYhBoeI96gZgg NewmaJoe - saxophone, vocals, lyrics, beatboxing, bonga, tambourine - https://joenewman.bandcamp.com/ Ian Martyn - keyboard - https://linktr.ee/IanMartyn Ronin Op F - percussion - https://linktr.ee/roninopf Lyrics: It's the real Deal We keep it on the DL We got slick flowin' and the fit funk feel You courting controversy, I'm the in-house polemicist My drive's more mega than an overclocked Genesis How do I do it? Is it born or bred? I could check the DNA but I'm a lousy geneticist But either way, yea, it must be said Yo, my rhymes is so funky I gotta call a hygenicist It's just the emphasis I place with such an eloquence My excellent intelligence demands no further evidence But if I sense the listener has got incredulous I got a chorus, let me introduce the elements You just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at I got a chorus, let me introduce the elements You just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at Just don't know what we're doin' We locked in the rhythm, the rhythm is just groovin' You just can't hear what we're sayin', uh But you gettin' what we're playin' at Games & Sources Game: ToeJam & Earl Track: Big Earl Bump, by John Baker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqhG2cbX6eM

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

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

Artist Name: TheManPF This is more of a recent one, Dwelling of Duels was doing their Sega Genesis/Mega Drive month and I was in the mood for doing something very high energy, poppy and happy, mainly because I was listening to Babymetal. After looking through several soundtracks (I never played a Genesis game, surprise surprise) I found the soundtrack of the original Puyo Puyo for the Mega Drive, and boy does it fit exactly what I wanted to make. This ended up being quite EDM-ish, Trance-ish, Eurobeat-ish-ish? I don't know, I'm not familiar with electronic music subgenres, but I was mostly chasing the sound of Babymetal's "Iine!" (which literally translates to So Good! in japanese), so naturally I also add a lot of electric guitars, and tried to have a pulsing sidechained beat with the rhythm guitars for a great groovy effect. I can't sing kawaii vocals though, so instead I settled on something more akin to Eiffel 65, live but heavily processed, to add more to the electric feeling. For this I constantly change between different sections of both Brave and Final, purposefully ordered in a way that makes sense as a pop structure. I wrote original lyrics for it that would hopefully present the same cheesy feelgood-y vibe that Iine! has, and I also played the original guitar solo from Final note for note (and yes it took a lot of work to learn). This is also a solo project, and while it placed 11th in DoD, I was pretty happy with it. Lyrics: Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Neon lights flash, earth-shattering sounds Amplify how we feel, so Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Quick reflexes, colors jump all 'round Electrify and we feel so right The sight, the taste, the touch, the smell Overflowing Pleasure, adrenaline, delight Overloading My mind warping reality Psychedelic Let go your cares away (So good, so good) So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so good Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Rapid movements, rainbow reflections Magnify how we feel, so Let's go! Puyo, let's have a good time Faster that you can say [Puyo Puyo SFX] Pulsing heartbeat, fire in our eyes Purify and we feel so great The sight, the taste, the touch, the smell Overlapping Pleasure, adrenaline, delight Overtaking My mind warping reality Psychedelic Let go your cares away (So good, so good) So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so nice So good I party till the morning So good I feel over the moon So good I have my woes behind me Scream my heart out I feel so good I feel so good Edited yesterday at 01:12 PM by TheManPF Games & Sources Game: Puyo Puyo (Sega Mega Drive) Songs arranged: Brave (https://youtu.be/06tH5Qosjrc); Final (https://youtu.be/8oaDWL-1W20) Original composer: Masanobu Tsukamoto; Akiyoshi Nagao System: Sega Mega Drive mostly but also a shit ton more Year: 1992

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

Quick co-sign on the excellent atmosphere here. The piano tone has realism issues, but nothing major. Very cohesive sound for something that was a very start-and-stop process! My man tinkers too much after submitting. :-P YES

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

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

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

Literally have to leave to drive somewhere, so I don’t want to text and drive. Strong medley, great production! YES

Artist Name: minusworld Yet another Dwelling of Duels (DoD) entry, from PS2 month in May 2023. At that time, I'd been itching to do a proggy entry and ended up with this. A funny tidbit, I mistakenly thought that "Calm Before the Storm" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNBNqpLkzTc) was the song that played during Thunder Plains and was planning to progify that. Then I looked up the actual Thunder Plains tune and this arrangement immediately started taking shape in my head instead! Memory is a funny thing. :) The two main influences for this track are Plini and The Contortionist, particularly the album Clairvoyant, though the latter's influences may be more subtle. The Thunder Plains source has three sections, ABAC, and I felt like I needed one more section to make for a nice flow. My arrangement first pulls out the quarter note ascending/descending line and string swells from the A section for the intro, second goes into an original section (with a melody definitely, absolutely not aped from Plini's "Electric Sunrise" 🫣), third has versions of the source sections ABABC with proggy chords and riffing underneath, fourth revisits the original section, and finally outros with a short variation of the ascending/descending line used in the intro. The title is a reference to a minigame in FFX in which the player is given rewards for dodging consecutive lightning strikes on Thunder Plains. The final reward is given at 200 dodges, hence the title. :) Enjoy! (I hope!) Games & Sources Final Fantasy X - Thunder Plains - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG279JYg3H4

Artist Name: Kuri This is probably my favorite song in DKC2. David Wise is awesome and what he was able to pull off with the limited space of the SNES was nothing short of amazing. Forest Interlude just has a vibe of its own right up there with Stickerbush Symphony. Every time I play through DKC2 I find myself humming and beat boxing a long with the tracks or adding my own twist to it while I sing along. This arrangement is the manifestation of just that. A beat I heard in my head that I felt would compliment Forest Interlude. It was a lot of fun to make. Games & Sources The game I've used as a source is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. The song I chose is Forest Interlude. The composer is David Wise who as most of us know crafted some amazing music for the DKC series. Here is a link to the aforementioned song: