Mario Party "Put the lime in the Koopa shell and drink it all up" 3:53

We've had a little Mario/DoD mini-theme going on this week, so let's top off a trio of mixes by heading back to the Mario Party! We've got a great source tune choice in "Yoshi's Tropical Island", and I'll have to get past the mental disconnect of saying "Yasunori Mitsuda" without adding the word "Chrono" in there somewhere! Anyway, our Mario party's drinks are being served by Mel Decision, courtesy of her relaxing collaboration:

• Arrangement: Mel Decision
• Bass: darmock
• Guitars: Siolfor the Jackal
• All percussion: DeLuxDolemite

In a first for her, Decision decided to dive into the deep waters of DoD! How she resurfaced holding a delicious adult beverage, we've yet to work out:

"This arrangement was created for Dwelling of Duels' Party Month in September 2024, and got 9th place out of 24 tracks. This was my first month participating in DoD. I had a bit of trouble figuring out what to arrange -- some of my first choices didn't fit all the criteria -- and fell back on the first Mario Party on N64, since I'd recently played that with a friend. "Yoshi's Tropical Island" is a jam, and got me inspired to dive in the prompt.

While it's a fairly conservative arrangement, I've taken a more laid-back approach to the piece's beach vibes. This is the kind of party where you sit back and relax with a piña colada in hand or bust out the grill. Collaboration, not competition, you know? I've subbed the steel drums for guitars performed by Siolfor the Jackal, added some additional movement to the bass, performed by darmock, and added a bunch of additional percussion including a full drum kit part, all of which was performed by DeLuxDolemite. DeLuxDolemite also improvised a conga solo for the piece. In place of some of the default percussion from the song, I subbed in some samples from Mario Paint and Yoshi's Story.

With the guitars, bass, and percussion, I did more processing of live instruments for this track than I have on any previous track and learned a lot about mixing everything. The drum kit was especially a learning experience; instead of working on one or two MIDI tracks, I have audio tracks for each section of the kit.

This piece also inspired me to go out and buy some additional percussion instruments so I can play some myself in future arrangements. In fact, I've already recorded some for the next DoD prompt. :)

I focused on redoing the mix from scratch for the resub, paying close attention to the rhythm guitar and drums to address judge feedback. I also added a few spots with steel drums to reinforce the marimba per pixelseph's suggestion."

Great job not letting a little thing like those un-chill judges harsh the vibe or whatever we olds now say; resubs can be good for the soul (and the music), we promise! :-D Judge Hemophiliac was kickin' back from the beginning, championing the original submission at the outset:

"It's party time. A chilled-out party at the beach. I actually laughed at the usage of the sneaky Mario Paint sound usage, completely unexpected. Siolfor's guitar tone is perfect for this style. Great job letting everyone also take a turn at soloing and letting them bring themselves into the piece.

This slower tempo fits this very well. This is fairly conservative until 0:52 when we get some small guitar noodling before it quickly comes back into the primary source idea at 1:01. Trading off between sections of source being presented with verses where the parts get to solo and improvise was a good choice to add your own interpretation."

Since getting her feet wet in the rough and tumble surf of DoD competition, Mel's already been involved with 9 tracks! It sounds like the way to self-improvement starts with a drink and an lil' umbrella in it. :-D (OHOK, maybe not, don't hit me! What I meant to say was consistant timebound competition leads to growth, stop h8iitting! :-O) The overall instrumentation, energy, and performances from darmock, Siolfor, and DeLux are excellent, and now I know what "Mel" is short for, because the mellow vibes have arrived in style. :-) Nice job, folks!