Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

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

The bass was too buzzy, and 1:59-on was too flooded for my tastes, so you all stink for that! Other than that, I get where you were going, arrangement-wise. :-) Dunno why the end faded out so fast, but it was too quick, so consider fixing it to let that final moment continue to fade down for a few more seconds. 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

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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

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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

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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:

Artist Name: jnWake Collaborating artists: Mattmatatt and Kev Ragone. Another month passes, another DoD song to submit! This time, the monthly theme was "Mega Man" and I took the opportunity to cover a source that had been in my mind for a while, the boss theme (+intro) from Mega Man X2. Being honest, I'm not sure why my mind ever registered both as things to remix since I don't think they're actually that good haha, but I guess they do have some fairly unusual melodies and progressions so that must have registered as "interesting" in my mind. Regardless of that, I simply went ahead with making a cover despite some doubts about the quality of the sources! My approach here was jazz fusion-ish, Boss 1 in particular has a fun progression (Eb-Gb-F-Ab-B-D) that's harmonized in 4ths so it hides a bit of jazz behind the rock elements of the source. Initially, I set out to write something in the style of pianist Hiromi, but in the end the arrangement came out a little more like the supergroup U.K.... of course, on my musical level, not the much higher one of those artists! Since I went for the jazz-ish feel I recruited Kev Ragone, who's a very prolific drummer in DoD and live bands but I think hasn't been featured on OCR before, and Mattmatatt on guitars, who recently made his OCR debut. Both are extremely talented, I tasked Kev with finding his inner Simon Phillips (former Toto drummer who sometimes plays with Hiromi) and tasked Matt with finding his inner Allan Holdsworth (very well known technical guitarist, who played in the aforementioned U.K.). I don't recruit actual drummers often but it definitely adds a special feel to tracks! Matt did great as well, adding his brand of virtuosity to the track. I handled all the synth/piano programming/recording, including the bass which I wanted to have a funky FM-ish sound. I often make pretty detailed descriptions of source usage but this time I'm feeling a little lazy on that, so I'll go with "simpler" descriptions... 0:00-0:47: All of this section is based on Boss 1. Bass plays the Eb-Gb-F-Ab-B-D progression and is later joined by synths, piano and guitar noodling. At 0:22 the progression is slowed down for a guitar solo. Guitar lick at 0:40 also has the same progression as background but with more "standard" chords. 0:48-1:39 : All of this is based on Boss 2. First we have the chord stabs from the intro, then the main melody on piano at 1:08 and the next section from the source at 1:29. 1:40-2:11: All of this features the main melody of Boss 2, first straight on guitar and then a reharmonized variant on synths. 2:12-2:57: All of this section is a jam over the Eb-Gb-F-Ab-B-D progression from Boss 1 on bass. There's a reprise of the cover's intro as well. 2:58-3:19: Bass riff is the main bass riff of Boss 2 but the highlight here are the drums! 3:20-end: Main melody from Boss 2 returns with some variations, first on piano and then on guitar. We then have a repetition of the 1:29 section's chord progression and end the track with some rising arpeggios based on Boss 1's progression (now transposed). Hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Game: Mega Man X2 Sources: Boss 1 and Boss 2

Artist Name: Tremendouz I had been planning to arrange this one in a more grandiose style for years but when #SoundoleChillout2024 happened, I got a sudden inspiration for a downtempo version with mostly acoustic instruments. The backbone of the arrangement is the combination of classical guitar, concert harp and electric bass that are mostly playing together but with some call and response going on at times, using all three instruments for both rhythm and melody. Then come the acoustic lead guitar, some soft choir and string pads as well as drums. Together with the gradually increasing tempo I wanted to create a subtle build-up that hopefully keeps the arrangement interesting for all the 6 minutes. As usual for me, everything is MIDI plus virtual instruments. Games & Sources Game: Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward Composer: Nobuo Uematsu