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Resub 1 Original Decision Artist Name: Audiomancer, Aka Eric File upload failed, link provided above and below. This is another resubmission of this ReMix. Taking into consideration the feedback I got from the judges last time around, I have.. -Replaced the "dancy" piano with a celeste. The piano was Addicted Keys, for what it's worth. -Altered some of the articulations and notes on the flute part. Hopefully it sounds more organic. -Adjusted the EQ on the trumpet part, as well as adding a flute duet to that section. I hope that helps with the level of interpretation. -Added a soft knee compressor, threshold -15 db, ratio 1.1. I hope this brings up the perceived volume some, while maintaining the dynamic range of the piece. I then "normalized" the volume with a limiter, the loudest part of the song brings a -1.5 db reduction. -Changed the choir. The one I had in before, even with the attack set to nothing, still had a very noticeable swell. -Lowered the volume in context of the "heroic" horn at about :53 in. -Worked on the pizz. section. Hopefully it sounds more like how it would actually be able to be performed;) Also, I tried fiddling with the backing strings when the voice comes in towards the beginning. After many different chord changes I experimented with, I still like the dissonance that has been mentioned...I think it adds a little tension. I also have some dissonance on the flute duet part. That's intentional, I hope it's well received:) One of the judges mentioned something about "artifacting" on some of my vibrato notes. I took a listen at the sections mentioned, and that's my actual tone:) If you were in the same room as me while I was playing, you would hear the same thing. My private instructor in high school taught me, especially if playing solo or exposed, that your tone should sound like you are a hair's breadth away from jumping to the next higher harmonic. I've actually been scolded in an ensemble setting for playing too powerfully (the section of the song was Forte, even...Eric Whitacre tune), and to reign that s#^t in, Ha! As always, I appreciate the time taken for the feedback given. You know, in all of my years visiting the site, I always liked reading the split decisions the most, it pleases me to do the same thing, more feedback that way;) Respectfully and Semper Fi, Eric, aka Audiomancer Games & Sources Forever Rachel, FF6. Nobuo Uematsu

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Artist Name: L.T.H It's intended to be a lo-fi Remix of Justice - Park Avenue. It was my favourite song for a while before moving to Sunset Heights. I'm happy to make the first Sonic Forces piece on this site – if it gets accepted, of course. Games & Sources Original arrangement by Tomoya Othani for the SEGA video game by the name of Sonic Forces.

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Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes Arrangement, Production, Mix, Master - Lucas Guimaraes Vocals - colorado weeks Bass, Additional Drums, most Guitar - Sly Man The source is plastered like, all over this 0:16-End - The rhythm that's played in the background on the bells 0:32-1:35 - Section A 1:36 - 2:08 - Section B 2:08 - 2:40 - Section C 2:41 - End - Section A I don't have a whole lot to say about this track. I'd been in the mood for making Vaporwave for a while thanks to Ridley Snipes. I've already been doing Synthwave for a while (with mixed results... but hey, I'm learning!). I was listening to some Vaporwave, heard this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYb57fJzV7k and thought "Wow, Thwomp Volcano fits with that!" So I worked on it in October... and then it hit my draft folder. DoD came up with DS/3DS Month and I was like "I guess I could finally release some songs I've been working on." so I recruited colorado for vocal chops and sly for bass. Honestly, it was one of the most fun collabs we had. We were a bit deadline tight, but I had a blast. I don't have much else to say about this track. If requested, I'd be glad to talk about the process in-depth more for the post, or to anyone interested in listening. The biggest thing I focused on here is making sure I got a good mix/the best sounding vaporwave *while* remaining true to the aesthetic... so some of the stuff you hear that might not be the cleanest mix (e.g. drowned in verb) are intentional Enjoy! Games & Sources

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Artist Name: Cyril the Wolf Guitar Solo: Zack Parrish No need for a stop watch that intro ostinato is present through the whole thing: but if you're worried about interp - the "verses" are completely original in terms of melody and many of the musical ideas are re-contextualized to fit in with the rock aesthetic without just being synth rock. Additionally --- I wrote some lyrics and sang' em. I'm back at it again writing way-too-serious lyrics about Mega Man! Dwelling of Duels had a theme month of Nintendo DS/3DS and while there's plenty of games and series that are appropriate I took another listen to Green Grass Gradation and something finally clicked. I actually have been taking vocal lessons over this last year and it change my approach to something like this in a lot of ways. For instance: instead of just keeping it in the original key of the song I explored other options to work around areas of the melodies that didn't work that well with my singing approach. Ultimately the tracking took next to no time because I didn't have to struggle aimlessly trying to find out what would work. The high powered vocal pyrotechnics at about 1:45 are a direct result of something coming out spontaneously and easily. Lyrics are about choosing to the do the right thing in the face of your own past and the history of the world (which is a primary theme of ZX and it's sequel) Thanks to Zack for doing the guitar solo because I am not that confident of a lead guitar player and I knew a solo section on a song of this style would be important to really pull it all together. It gave me more time to focus on ut outs to the feedback from the Dwelling of Duels community - the only change is some effects on the intro to make it fit a little bit better. Here's to returning to confidence - thanks for your time. Lyrics link: Games & Sources Mega Man ZX Green Grass Gradation (Area A)

Artists: Pixels & Paradiddles (pixelseph, paraddidlesjosh), Zack Parrish, Cyril the Wolf Okay this time this really is your Dracula's castle After swearing off of doing a main for Dwelling of Duels this year to focus on other projects, they went and hit us with a second-month-in-a-row of double-feature themes that cross-pollinate with Pixel Mixers - namely, Nintendo DS/3DS Month (PM's is Handheld Games month 😃). And, y'know, we simply must clown around with our fellow metalheads for some Castlevania after how fun GSM2 and David Wise month was last year! This is the cursed fruit of this month's labors: an 8-minute progressive metal journey, complete with vocals from Pixels and Cyril! Timestamps with source usage included after the obligatory Stats for Larry Nerds! STATS FOR NERDS: Key: E minor, E harmonic minor, A major Time/Tempo: 4/4 @ 142 BPM, 7/8 @ 172 BPM, 6/8 @ 74 BPM Credits: pixelseph - lead guitar, lead vocals, lyrics, arrangement paradiddlesjosh - drum programming zackparrish - rhythm guitar, acoustic guitars, organ, mixing, mastering cyrilthewolf - bass, backing vocals VSTi Used: Native Instruments Vintage Organs, BFD Drums BFD 3 (core library, Sabian Vault) VST Used: Nectar 4, Neoverb, Ozone 11, Sonitus Delay, Sonitus EQ, Heavyocity Gravity, SDRR2, Guitar Rig 7, Kontakt 8, Sonitus Compressor Pixelseph's guitars recorded using a Line 6 Variax JTV-59 through a Line 6 Helix LT interface; vocals recorded using a Scarlett CM25 mk-II through an SSL 2 interface. Zack Parrish's acoustic guitars recorded using a Taylor 224CE-K and Kremona Verea on two Shure SM81s through a Scarlett 18i20 interface; electric guitars recorded using a Schecter Hellraiser C-7 FRS through a Scarlett 18i20 interface. Cyril the Wolf's basses recorded using a Yamaha RBx765a through a MXR Bass Compressor -> Tech21 SansAmp VT Bass into an Audient id14 mk-II, clean DI recorded using a Rupert Neve Designs RNDI; vocals recorded using a Sennheiser 865e through a Saffire Pro40 ADAT into an Audient id14 mk-II SOURCE USAGE: Intro (:00 - :42) - Demon Castle Pinnacle D section [1:51 - 2:02] Interlude 1 [chorus riff] (:43 - 1:17) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Theme 1 (1:17 - 1:31) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Verse 1 (1:32 - 2:25) - DCP A section [:12 - :54] Prechorus 1 (2:26 - 2:35) - Cursed Clock Tower [:56 - 1:03] Chorus 1 (2:36 - 3:05) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Theme 2 (3:06 - 3:19) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Verse 2 (3:20 - 4:12) - DCP A section [:12 - :54] Solo 1 [organ] (4:13 - 4:42) - DCP B section [:54 - 1:23] Prechorus 2 (4:42 - 4:51) - Cursed Clock Tower [:56 - 1:03] Chorus 2 (4:52 - 5:20) - DCP Theme [:04 - :11] Bridge (5:21 - 6:44) - A Fleeting Respite B section [:54 - 1:26] Re-Intro (6:45 - 6:56) - DCP D section [1:51 - 2:02] Outro (6:57 - 8:32) - AFR A section [:10 - :54] LYRICS: Black, black out the sky now Storm clouds made of bats Hunters of blood, purging weakness Hide the light Hide in plain sight Hide on your own Still, still as a statue Gargoyles alive Harpies and gorgons On the war path Look away Medusa’s gaze Turn you to stone Take in darkness Dracula’s essence Beyond undeath Beyond judgment Belmonts, demons, Vampire heathens, Whip cracks, undead Hunter: hunted Souls, souls for the harvest Screams and gnashing of teeth Nothing but chaos everlasting Circle of moon A portrait of ruin The dawning of sorrow Death, death of the world Death of a selfish aristocrat And his lavish Castle halls Castle walls Castle falls Take in darkness Dracula’s essence Beyond undeath Beyond judgment Belmonts, demons Vampire heathens Whip cracks, undead Hunter: hunted Games & Sources Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Demon Castle Pinnacle (uses the Theme [:04 - :11] in 7/8 (choruses) and 12/8 (pre-verse/theme riff), the A section [:12 - :54] for the verses, the B section [:54 - 1:23] for the organ solo, and the D section [1:51 - 2:02] for the intro) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - A Fleeting Respite (uses the A section [:10 - :54] for the outro and the B section [:54 - 1:26] for the bridge) Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Cursed Clock Tower (only includes a brief quote of the CV3-inspired stabs @ :56 - 1:03)

Thanks! I've found a current link for the project at https://archive.cavestory.org/csrp/, so I've replaced the link with that. It should correct itself on the site in the next few hours.

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I had to 2X this to more readily ID the otherwise straightforward source usage. After a straightforward albeit slowed down intro, around 1:10-3:30 felt more abstract and disconnected from the source, but then the second half stayed based on the melody until nearly the end, so the overall approach was grounded and mostly recognizable to me despite the much slower tempo. Because I also listened to this at 200% speed, when you double-speed the lil' piano accents starting at 3:38, it sounds like the connecting SFX in Sokobond, and anything that makes me think of Dualryan is cool with me! (You should arrange of one his soundtracks, e.g. The Yawgh.) This definitely isn't for everyone, and it isn't even for me, but as a piece of sound design, it's dank, dark, and something to swim in. :-) YES

Artist Name: maiorano84 Years ago I had written an arrangement of the Megaman 3 Intro and submitted it to Newgrounds under the handle "italian-dragon84" (a terrible name in hindsight). This was created and posted in 2004: I'd always liked some of the elements from the original piece, and occasionally revisited it over the years with many failed attempts at a new arrangement. I wanted to continue using a very piano-forward piece, and felt that it suited the introduction much better. Unlike the original arrangement I had done, I wanted to incorporate more instruments and began experimenting heavily with electric guitar sounds. The biggest hurdle was mainly me not knowing how to actually play guitar and not finding any suitable preexisting electric guitar sounds, so I relied pretty heavily on distortion effects, auto-tuning, and using my own voice to fill in a lot of the gaps. Games & Sources Megaman 3 Intro by Yasuaki Fujita:

When are we getting to the theme, I say to myself, with this extended ambient build. Excellent, there we are at :29, and some impressive sound design to boot. Beats fade in after :50 and this just goes into the weird shit category with some funky beats, belltones for the melody, and lots of SFX mockery. 3:26 gets back into the source tune's chorus section. Nice lil' pointillist approach to the theme at 4:03, and a simple but effective adding of some thump beats at 4:31. Theme drops out at 5:00 and it's original beats with some quiet inclusion of the melody and chorus layered in. The track was 6:34-long, so I needed to identify source usage for at least 197 seconds to consider the source usage dominant in the arrangement. :29.5-59.75, 1:05.5-1:08.25, 1:13.5-1:15.25, 1:20.5-1:24.5, 1:28.5-1:32.5, 1:35.75-1:39.25, 1:43.25-1:55.5, 2:01-2:02.75, 2:05.5-2:09.5, 2:12.5-2:19.75, 2:27.75-2:56.75, 3:26.25-3:54, 4:03.5-5:05, 5:08.5-5:12.5, 5:17-6:00 236.75 seconds or 60.08% overt source usage I was just sanity-checking it for source usage since this has some longer gaps between the melodic notes in places, but just going off the feel, I wasn't expecting it would be a close call. Trust but verify. Awash with creativity. A sound design delight and a dynamic piece of business. :-) YES

The track was 3:40-long, so I needed to identify source usage for at least 110 seconds to consider the source usage dominant in the arrangement. 46.75-1:06.5, 1:16-2:33.5, 2:37.5-3:07.75 = 127.5 seconds or 57.95% overt source usage There could have been more I wasn't recognizing, I was just doing my due diligence to ensure it was over 50%. Normally, I'd mind the intro and outro both being unrelated to the source, but the middle was fully about arranging and expanding on the original VGM, so with the source usage handled and dominating the arrangement vis-a-vis our Standards, the sandbox was H36T's to play with as far as the overall structural approach. After an extended original intro, the source finally comes in from :46-1:06, and I like the added string writing underneath it. Switches over to some handdrums and metallic percussion. At 1:35, the melody's swung and staggered on the keys before going back to straightforward and doubled with nice choir vox from 1:55-2:33. Solidly done escalation at 2:33 into more grandiose orchestration and more forceful choir for a strong conclusion. Shifted at 3:07 into an original outro punctuated by the female vox. The brief hits of sampled female vox for both the intro and conclusion were tasteful. The textures were relatively simple yet effective, and every part registered while meaningfully contributing to the overall sound; this is a strong example to point to of something with only a few elements going on that nonetheless sounds spacious. Nice work! :-) YES

Artist Name: drizzle rainwater Press Garden from Sonic Mania (act 1 specifically, I don't think it gets enough love), had been stuck in my head, so I decided to give myself a crack at it. My goal was to emphasize the funky elements and give it a more jazzy flair. I added in a piano and organ solo to switch things up a little bit, and I changed up the instrumentation to make it more groovy! I hope you enjoy! Games & Sources Sonic Mania - Press Garden Act 1 (Tabloid Jargon) Original Music by Tee Lopes

Interesting phasing/pumping going on. Good sound design, though I'd say the kicks at 1:04 felt very underwhelming and soft compared to the wilder energy of the other instrumentation and effects, which were all over the place in a good way. It can come off sounding unfocused, but I can follow it. I dug the DDRKirby-esque chip pivot at 2:03. Piano for the close sounded pretty fake; dunno why it also seemed to have a flat note at 2:57, I guess because of the one note behind it that was sliding down; would be nice to iron out, but minor anyway and I got used to it. That said, it was an effective close from the compositional level. The beats don't quite pack the expected punch and mixing sophistication, but that's my only meaningful ding on this. Very varied sound design and treatment of the source theme, and the lil voice clips were reasonably well integrated. No shock Treyt was able to bring it! YES

Lovely stuff from the start. Being able to hear things more closely in my headphones, the bowed strings are in the uncanny valley, but of course still well beyond the quality level we need for a mockup, and it's not like they're a weak link or causing a quality disparity vs. the other sounds. After a genteel intro, the beats were brought in at 1:08 and added good movement here. Snare that cameo'ed at 1:34 was too loud for me, but as a point of contrast, it was a great momentary rise in energy for the drums; all of the drum writing sounds intricate and varied, and these evolving textures are great as the energy level continued to gradually escalate. Nice little dropoff at 2:17 before changing the textures again at 2:30 with beautiful, understated support from the acoustic guitar. Electric guitar joined in at 2:55, then ratcheted things up with some quick soloing at 3:11 before taking over as the melodic lead. It seems like the ending cut out a moment too soon, so we can ask about that. Both the instrumentation and arrangement were very impressive. As a conceptual contrast, very fun to hear Zack go collaboration maximalist with his FF7 DoD entry compared to being a one-man army for this FF6 DoD entry. Talented in whatever musical direction he wants to go in, it's safe to say. :-) YES

Cool instrumentation choices. If you can get it sounding more fluid/humanized, the concept has legs. :-)

The source breakdown was truly appreciated, thank you! Everything was right where you said it was, which made the source usage a mere check-off, which then allowed me a fresh second listen to just enjoy the overall evolution of the track. I liked the sound design overall and you managed to personalize your sound compared the source mainly by going so beat-driven, but also through different instrumentation choices for the different source segments you referenced, some cool textural changes, and some cool moments of moving around the stereo field. Everything had a dense and delayed sound, though it feels like it's missing a little something; would love to hear Chimpazilla's POV, because there's even more untapped intensity here, IMO, especially with the kicks, but it doesn't get there. More nitpicks: would have loved hearing some occasional areas of clarity as another contrast opportunity, especially because the effects tended to feel samey after a while. Also, more (subtle) variations with the loud core beat pattern when it was in play would have helped, because it felt like it had only had the one main pattern when it was on. Maybe someone else can better articulate what I mean with my nitpicks, but either way nothing close to dinging this though, just observations worth noting. Great theme choice, and I enjoyed your treatment, which stayed dark yet managed to have its own personality. Argle: "I think it works?" YES

I've never heard the previous two versions, so I'm visiting this sub with fresh ears. I also voted on the revised version Seth included in his comments after he said he noticed the mixing was wrong. Opens up with a rise in volume of a pad, followed by some basic synths and claps at :13. The theme arrives at :25 and there's some decent density to start. The theme's there, but this is texturally scant despite all this volume. Volume doesn't equal fullness in terms of the writing; right now, the beats sound really barebones. Hits the chorus at :55 and there's countermelodic supporting writing until 1:22 that sounds off-key, though it's relatively quiet. The melody's quietly brought in from 1:36-1:47 in a way that also sounds sluggish and off-key, like it's being chorused or delayed; not sure what's going on there. Once it hit the chorus from :54-1:22, the interpretation of the source melody itself felt very minimal and straightforward. This combination of sounds doesn't make sense when the percussion, beats, and bass are so minimalist and basic, yet it's surrounded by this busy-sounding yet off-key ornamentation underneath the melody. 1:49 transitions into what's seemingly an all-original composition section where the volume's loud while the texture feels very basic. More off-key supporting writing underneath the melody from 2:18-2:46 that sounds pretty bad on headphones but might not stand out as much on monitors; this writing sounds like it's meant to be doubling the lead, but it sounds clashing the whole way through. I grew up on this theme, but I'm sorry if I'm not recognizing something taken directly from the theme from 1:49-2:18; I couldn't make out any connection. From 2:18-on, I don't recognize that stuff from the source tune either, but it's possible it's taken from some sort of quitter supporting writing in the source or I'm just ignorant in recognizing some sort of interpretation. The source melody could bear more interpretation and/or variation, the beat-writing is too simplistic, the beats do have some weight to the sound, yet they don't fill the soundscape enough to not let the overall track seem thin, and the densest section are filled with off-key writing adding noise instead of substance. The less dense sections work better on account of the lack of clashing background writing and are, arguably, the track's best feature, yet those sections *still* feel texturally empty, so it's a tough approach to get this to a place where it could rise above the bar here. (I see you in the community, so the links are more for posterity and for others who may see this feedback and want to take part). That said, Seth, Audiomancer tried 10 separate times with one track before his debut mixpost, so if you have the sticktuitiveness to regularly use the community resources on the Workshop forums and on the Discord server for more feedback and guidance, maybe you can be another success story. NO

The core beat pattern at :11, :34, :45, 1:30, and 2:05 ended up overused by the end, but there were enough changeups in the part-writing supporting the source melody to make that beat repetitiveness a non-issue. Kind of crunchy when it comes to the mixing, so some of the supporting writing was obscured, but nothing beyond a personal preference nitpick there. Nice formula for source tune personalization, primarily done by never letting the instrumentation or textures rest on their laurels for too many measures. The end result was that this packed a lot of evolution in its short runtime. We'll see if the other Js agree that the treatment was substantial enough, given how short this is. Folks may also notice that the track loops perfectly, which was also a nice touch. :-) YES

Cool contrast of the bright, bubbly theme being given much darker undertones. Y'all pulled it off well! Lots of effective changes in the instrumentation and textures to keep the piece evolving. Really strange direction to take it in, but it's embraced wholeheartedly, so you've sold it to me. ;-) YES

It'll seem like I disliked the piece when I mainly hear lots of unrealized potential. This was texturally empty, just way too thin and simplistic, which was unfortunate after a very promising intro with a cool sound. The volume of the elements in play doesn't make up for the relative lack of complexity here. Finally some beats come in at 1:26 to thicken things up more, but the part-writing is very straightforward and lacks that next level of sophistication. prophetik said maybe there's not enough arrangement, and I get where he's coming from, but he's mistaken in how he attempted to articulate the issue. This is presented in a melodically straightforward manner, and that's fine. What was missing here was more complexity in the accompanying parts and more creativity in the sound design. This is already going in the right direction in terms of different instrumentation and different sound design, the combination of which does help this stand apart from the feel of the original, but clearly not enough yet based on prophetik's reaction. But this sounds like a work-in-progress, not a fully developed and finished piece. Something like Charlie Atom's "Toriel's Pain" isn't where our bar has to be, but it's a great example of a melodically straightforward rendition with way more attention paid to the detail work of supporting writing that adequately fills in the textures, and killer sound design. That's not the bar, but it's a genuine North Star. This is a solid start, Noga, but it still needs more writing complexity behind the melody and other sound design ideas to further personalize your take. Even if you don't end up reworking this one, you can definitely be proud of how far you've come with this. There's a lot of untapped potential though, so hopefully you keep developing your craft. If you haven't already, consider joining our Discord for more feedback and/or using our Workshop forum resources. NO (resubmit)

Oh wow, all the years I've heard EarthBound's music, I don't think I've ever listened to this one. Didn't recognize it, but it's a nice piece! This arrangement in an of itself feels like original game music when it comes to the overall sound quality and fidelity, like late-stage SNES soundtrack music from a different palette than EarthBound. By going this route though, lots of humanization, expressiveness, and production options were sacrificed. SNES vibes aside, the opening sounds still feel super basic and vanilla, but it's potentially all in how you use these sounds, so we'll see how that plays out. The timing of beats feels very locked to grid with a plodding core pattern (:01-:57, 1:38-2:17). The first verse at :17 the leads felt relatively lively despite being programmed in, but the overall sound is very silted, there's not really any getting around that. Organ at 1:06 was very flimsy-sounding, but it's meant to sound more stylized. I don't know music theory, and my ears aren't primed to pick out wrong notes, but, unlike prophetik, I didn't a single thing that stood out as bad/wrong notes, I just heard supporting writing lacking direction and synergy (e.g. :34-:49, 1:54-2:09). Machine gun drum kicks from 2:24-2:25 that are fleeting but do sound low-quality. The arrangement does go for a more upbeat feel but when prophetik said "what most of the instruments are saying is bland or looped a lot - like the drum patterns and backing organ", that's correct to me, and I'll go back to the stilted timing and plodding beats. It's cool for a chiptune aesthetic, but it also feels very limited instrumentally. I've heard fan-made 8- and 16-bit-style chiptunes and MIDIs all sound more fluid and expressive than this, so I'd have to see something like that done here. The goal seems to be to stick to SNES soundtrack-level sophistication, which is fine, it just falls outside of our production standards, IMO. There's good potential in your music-making as long as you keep at it, Rhino. NO