Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

Artist Name: Seth Skoda 2016: I was already making beats while renting a room in a boarding house. Dude in another room said I should make Death Egg Zone into a beat. So I did. Started the intro with Lollipop by Lil Wayne as the style base. Mixing was a hot mess, but mission accomplished regardless. Fast forward to 2024: I hear a song that blows me away with its retro vibe and use of FM synthesizers: Million Dollar Baby by Tommy Richman. Like, this beat is fire. Best hip-hop/R&B I've heard in a very long time. I start working on a SEGA Genesis version of the song (for my YouTube channel). I upload a demo of the cover as a short. Mid-2025: I get an overnight job, which gives me more time to work on music. So, I'm doing stuff, resub High Voltage, get rejected. Meh, I'll get it next time. Then, something clicks in my head to completely redo my remix of Death Egg Zone. But this time, I'll use Million Dollar Baby as the style base. I can literally hear it in my head. I get to work on it and post a demo in the OCR Discord 2 hours later. Other people there approve. Some number of hours of work later, here we are. I hope y'all enjoy this. BTW a little inspiration to do this based on Cannon Fodder "Cannon Straits" and Sonic Colors "Everybody Wants To Rule The Wisps" which are also style-based remixes. Games & Sources Source tune is Death Egg Zone Act 1 from Sonic & Knuckles. I believe this one was written by Howard Drossin like other music in the game.

Artist Name: ThePlasmas One of my favs from Altered Beast, a game that I played a lot when I was a child at the local arcade. I tried to do a straight-to-the-face rock song, including some harmonies, guitar soplos and a very powerful drum beat, that's how imagined the ost if a rock band played those songs live. Games & Sources Source: Altered Beast, SEGA Platform: Arcade OG Track Name: Closed In Upon Me / Swamp & Palace Theme (Round 2 & Round 5) Composer: Tohru Nakabayashi Link to OG song:

Artist Name: CrazyGroupTrio I tried to capture the feel of the game Clock Tower and using the fairly simple song Cradle Under the Star, making the arrangement simultaneously upbeat and haunting by mixing orchestral sounds with synth, and using some samples from the original game. Games & Sources Cradle Under the Star from the Super Famicom game Clock Tower. Music is composed by Kōji Niikura.

Artist Name: Ridiculously Garrett Source Tune: "Katamari Stars" Composer: Hideki Tobeta Release Date: March 18, 2004 This song plays in the Constellation menu of Katamari Damacy. It's a dubiously simple tune. However, when you break down each melodic idea and motif, there really is quite a lot of material to use. This arrangement is designed in the boom bap style, others may call it simply 90s hip hop or jazz rap. I'm a very large fan of specifically East Coast hip hop from the 90s and its many artists, like A Tribe Called Quest, Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Big L, Lord Finesse (from D.I.T.C.), etc. This style sees heavy use of jazz record samples. The following arrangement contains no samples from actual jazz records. It is arranged more with a "live" jazz quartet setting in mind. Instead, the arrangement contains a mixture of MIDI controlled virtual instruments via Bitwig Studio's sound library and drum, vocal, and saxophone samples from Erik Jackson's "Fat Pack": https://hiphopdrumsamples.com/products/erik-jackson-fat-pack?_pos=1&_sid=45e126cd3&_ss=r I've decided to title this track "Cosmic Knowledge" as a common phrase in 90s hip hop is "dropping knowledge." Basically meaning "imparting truth or wisdom." This track does not follow the original arrangement section for section. Instead I opted for an ABACDA format. There is vinyl noise in the background - this is intentional and not a defect in audio quality or rendering. I start off with a bass line which you do not hear in the original composition. I decide to then separate the original introduction into 3 separate melodies at 00:22. You hear the guitar arpeggio in the A section, and I've designed it to be a record scratch part in line with the style. Accompanying it is a single saxophone note - this type of saxophone sampling is heard all throughout 90s hip hop. This plays for 8 bars and then goes into the B section, where we hear the two other melodies. Return to A section at 01:30. Then in the C section at 01:55 we the get the main melody twice. Bass line changes in line with harmony. The D section at 02:40 carries us into the climax accompanied by a vocal sample which I have applied rhythmic auto pan and record scratch. We return to the A section at 03:48 where we finally the melodies of the A and B section. One final refrain with saxophone and piano taken to a final lone vibraphone chord at 04:34. Arrangement follows a philosophy of "keep it moving." I strove to change the melodies/instrumentation about every 8 bars. This pulls from class arranging techniques of 1950s "hollywood music" from the likes of Paul Weston. Drums remain consistent throughout with various fills, though not copy and pasted. Each section recorded individually. Same goes for piano backing. Bass line is copy and pasted, however, I feel this is important to keep the style grounded as there usually isn't much variation in this regard. Lastly, piece is pitched down to -0.22 cents. Because vibes. Please enjoy. 🙂 Games & Sources Game: Katamari Damacy Source:

For anyone unfamiliar with the source, you definitely get more out of this arrangement by getting familiar with the original theme, but it's worth it. :-) Keyboard sounds like it's in the uncanny valley to me, but wasn't a huge deal. Great energy here! Just like the original, this feels super chaotic; love hearing different part-writing all swirling around the arranged source melody. A heapin' helping o' prog, this is nothing but fun! YES

I got to sit in on BrOA listening and sharing thoughts in person with Hemo about this one during VGMCon, which was an awesome moment I was honored to witness. Needed to give some distance on this one to better wrap my head around the source, but Hemo explained it for me, and after listening to it again, I'm cool on the source usage. I read through everyone's POVs, and I'm surprised that only Emu a little and Wake touched on where I felt the main issue was, which was the drums, namely the writing. They felt stilted and bland, and lacked synergy with the other strong instrumentation (both programmed and performed). I can hear why some Js thought the reverb/effects were too much; wasn't ideal, but didn't do anything to hurt the track, IMO. I also had 0 issues with the trumpet mixing relative to any other part-writing. The piano writing was an excellent touch throughout, and I really liked the contrast of the synth lead at 1:23 handling the melody compared with TSori in the previous iteration; great contrast, and I thought the dynamics of that worked very well. Also liked the shift in energy at 1:56; the bass kicks were providing some good heft, though the other occasional drum beats still felt vanilla. Not sure if there was round-robin action going on with those drums either; even if there was, it didn't sound like it from what I could tell. Weird lil' sample retriggering thing at 3:19 that would be nice to iron out, but wasn't a big deal. Nice approach to the theme, TSori's performance was strong, the piano stuff (including ambient noise from movement) and synth writing were all good, and the shift at 1:56 was a personal highlight. I get why this has YESs, and if anything, I'd think my issues would be in the minority and that the other NOs have weird reasons for NOing, but here we be. :-D So this is where I'm unhelpful. The other NOs brought up mixing stuff that I felt was overwrought and overstated, stuff where I agree with pixelseph was a feature, not a bug. I'm not sure what the other Js expected from the energy level here, but I thought the overall dynamics were fine. But for me, the drumbeats have a static, bland, plodding feel to them that's undermining the otherwise solid energy here. There's a rigidness to their writing/timing that's not clicking here, so this would need to be reworked somehow to not sap verve away from the overall presentation. To me, this is 85% of the way there and the other writing and production choices don't need to be touched. Eino Keskitalo's "Sadevakio" is such a great example of a track with mechanical timing that still sounds very fluid and expressive, including his beats. I'm sorry that I can't better articulate it, because it'll sound like I'm saying the energy level needs to be picked up/ramped up, when it's more about the fluidity and flow of the drumming, not the speed and activity. If this doesn't make it as is, you're more than capable of groking something from checking out that piece to level up the drums here. NO (resubmit)

Not the worst samples in the world for a quick mockup, Hupusu, but sending a 26-second ringtone isn't a fully developed arrangement by any stretch. :-D If interested, develop it into a full arrangement and see what you can do about improving the instrumentation quality. For being a quick hit of the theme, it's a nice genre transformation. Hit the Workshop forums and our Discord if you're genuinely curious at making complete songs. NO

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Original Decision Artist Name: Lucas Guimaraes ft. TSori & TheManPF RESUB AW YEAH. Here's a link to the original thread. Please include my OG writeup if this is posted. I can pick out parts if needed. ANYWAYS, story time! I don't have much to talk about here. I finished this track back in 2023 during moving, went back, revisited it, made it sound better than the original PM submission. Got the feedback from the rejection, took a good chunk of time away from it, redid my entire production process to have it make sense (I wish this was a joke), and now I'm... here. I love talking shop on this stuff but feel like if I start writing, I'll end up with like nineteen paragraphs. So, for any fellow creators reading this, here are some neat takeaways: The first to my process is focusing more on the most important things, so you can 'half-ass' other background/etc elements. I had the epiphany where I was like "if I get my leads/bass/drums sounding good, that's 80% of the production process right there." It was also a part of simplifying feedback. The feedback I got on the original submission was pretty much in agreement: "This sounds great! Except the bass and drums need work" so instead of trying to chase down the original project files, I just worked with some of the old stems, rebuilt some new stuff with MIDI data, and here we are. The second is now I do tracking/producing and mixing separately and this has been a life saver. My process is literally now just Arranging -> Tracking/Produce -> Mix -> Master. By the time I get to Mastering, it's basically a five minute job. which I know professional mastering engineers cringe at the self-mastering bit but HEY. I'm making VIDEO GAME REMIXES here. Gotta save where I can. Finally, and I can not sing their praises enough: TSori and TheManPF rock. I look forward to working with them again. They really gave this track so much extra juice that really elevated it to the next level. Hope you all enjoy! And as usual, I love putting energy into revamping and addressing as many corrections as possible. It's funny cause, I used to get more bothered by rejections, but now I'm like "Cool, I love the process so much so this is just a bonus." Games & Sources In the Refugee Camp - Xenoblade Chronicles

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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: