Dwelling of Duels
Tracks made for and debuted in Dwelling of Duels.
SnappleMann is an A**hole
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Scott Schreer – SOURCE: NFL on Fox, MLB on Fox |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Synths, Brass, Strings, Percussion | |
| GENRE: Epic Sports Theme | |
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JUST RENAMED THIS BACK TO “SNAPPLEMANN…” BECAUSE PUD’S DUDS IS GOING BE NAMED “PARAGON…” NOTES: So uh…this song…yeah…Let me give you a little backstory. Early February I decided I wanted to participate in the Dwelling of Duels of that month, the theme was Sports Games. I talked to Snappleman about it, and we decided to collaborate. We brainstormed several ideas but never settled on anything. Finally, Snappleman gets the idea that he and I should have an epic DoD battle, where he would cover the NBA on NBC theme, and I would do the NFL on Fox theme. Both are in video games. So we start trash-talking and I get pumped up. Snappleman sends me a link to the NHL on ESPN theme, which is likewise as epic and he tells me that he was going to add it to his song. Not about to let him one-up me, I added the MLB on Fox theme. The battle was ON! …but Snappleman flaked out a day later and told me he wouldn’t do his song. I kept on trucking, because I was hoping that he would make the song 3 days before deadline (which he always does, mind you), but if he didn’t then I still had a cool song to enter. But time apparently was not on my side in February, and I found myself scrambling hardcore to finish up the track, and I was in Super-Punchfest mode the day of deadline to get tangible material in to compete. The shred section was meant to fill length and really didn’t add much musical content. But, apparently I had another dilemma. Those sports themes were not created for video games, and there’s been a constant debate and grey area over at DoD about such songs. Not to mention, there was no section created on the DoD page to address music of this manner, but I was way too far in, I submitted, and prayed that Paragon would understand, and I threatened to kick his ass if he disqualified me. So he did. This is why Paragon is also an asshole. Without negotiation, my track was demoted to Alternate and taken out of competition. It was originally named “SnappleMann is an Asshole (part 1)” obviously because of aforementioned reasons, but also because this track is more of a beta track and I will develop it into the original vision I had for it. It’s not NEARLY the song I want it to be. Plus, it’s a parody of a couple of Snappleman’s song names: “Manning Up (part 1)” and “Where No Mann Has Gone Before (part 1)” So just be wary. You might think this arrangement rocks, you might think it sucks, but do know there’s a LOT more to come and I guarantee it will give you chest hair and increase your testicular fortitude when you hear the final version. |
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Toejam & Hurl 2: The Eyes of Satan
Special Stage (Bass Exclusive Series)
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Masato Nakamura – SOURCE: Sonic 2 (Special Stage) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Bass | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Bass | |
| GENRE: Bass | |
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NOTES: One of two alternates entered for the Dwelling of Duels November 2008 Sonic Themed competition (same month Sonic Gargles was entered). Don’t know why I haven’t posted it until now…Every sound you hear in this song is made with one of my basses. It’s part of a “Bass Exclusive Series” in which I take songs and play them entirely on bass. So far it’s only these two Sonic songs, but there will be more to come. |
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Chemical Plant Zone (Bass Exclusive Series)
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Masato Nakamura – SOURCE: Sonic 2 (Chemical Plant Zone) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Bass | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Bass | |
| GENRE: Bass | |
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NOTES: One of two alternates entered for the Dwelling of Duels November 2008 Sonic Themed competition (same month Sonic Gargles was entered). Don’t know why I haven’t posted it until now…Every sound you hear in this song is made with one of my basses. It’s part of a “Bass Exclusive Series” in which I take songs and play them entirely on bass. So far it’s only these two Sonic songs, but there will be more to come. |
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Egyptmini Man
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Yusuaki Fujita – SOURCE: Mega Man 3 (Gemini Man) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Organ, Synths, Piano, Acoustic Bass, Strings, Ney Flute, Djembes, assorted ethnic instruments of all kinds | |
| GENRE: Latin, Middle Eastern, Asian, Prog, Prague……Ethnic | |
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POSTED November 6th, 2009 NOTES: An unreasonably progged out arrangement of the Gemini Man theme from Mega Man 3. It takes inspiration from Steve Vai’s “Voodoo Acid” and incorporates a ridiculous amount of random ethnic instruments and styles. I totally whored out my EWQL RA library for this song. Originally released for the Dwelling of Duels July 2009 competition. |
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Vestigial Fusion Factory
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Masato Nakamura – SOURCE: Sonic 2 (Chemical Plant Zone, Aquatic Ruins, Casino Night Zone, Drowning) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming; Doug Perry (aka DrumUltimA) – Vibraphone; Kyle Etges – Saxophone; Mark Kinz – Trombone; | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars (Distorted, Wahed, Clean), Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Organ, Synths, Saxophones, Trumpets, Trombones, Vibraphone | |
| GENRE: Beefy Big Band Jazz | |
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NOTES: Sonic song #2, eh? This was released for the April 2009 DoD month, which was "8-bit vs. 16-bit" month. The idea to do Chemical Plant Zone was actually created by Dan Orosz (aka prozax) when I was hanging out with him at MAGfest. This song was also intended to have Dan play the lead guitars, but he went AWOL for a while and I had to record the lead guitar parts. This is the first song I tried to do a big Jazz brass arrangement on. Expect a suped up version of this song with even more people on it soon! |
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Knights of Hyrule
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Muse/Koji Kondo – SOURCE: Knights of Cydonia / The Legend of Zelda (Hyrule/Overworld Theme), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Lost Woods, various Ocarina Medleys) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson – PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Bass, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming; Travis Moberg – Vocals | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Guitar Hero Style Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Synths, Ocarina | |
| GENRE: Zelda Metal | |
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NOTES: Despite being my worst placing DoD track to date, it was still really fun to make this song. Ever since the first time I heard the original Knights of Cydonia song by Muse, I thought it sounded like Zelda metal. Only until recently did I try to turn that into a reality. During the DoD month that this for (February) I was very busy with many other things, and while I wanted to enter that month, I couldn’t do a lot of work. So this song came from that. As I was arranging it, I became very surprised at how well the songs went together, and you will be too. The reason why this song is under arrangements instead of video game covers is exactly that. It’s more of the Muse song than the Zelda songs, which ultimately led to it’s demise in DoD. I got my musical compadre Travis Moberg to do vocals in one night and a few hours of recording from never having listened to my version of the track, nor the vocal melody, nor the lyrics. On the spot. Way to go. Lyrics: Listen to me, But how will Link win, No one’s gonna take Link alive, |
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A Coelo Usque Ad Centrum
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Yuzo Koshiro – SOURCE: Actraiser (Bloodpool, Northwall, Great Tree, Fillmore, Volcano, Boss 1&2, Boss 3, Cloud Castle, End Story, Psalm, Clear) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming; Mathew Harradine (aka GuitarBizarre) – Lead Guitars; Chris Feener – Lead Guitars | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Organs, Synth, Piano, Harpsichord, Strings, Brass, Choir, Xylophone, Concert Bass Drum, Concert Snare, Cymbals, Chimes, Timpani, Big ass Taiko Drums, Soundscapes | |
| GENRE: Epic Orchestral Metal | |
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(Title pronounced "Ah Koh-ay-loh Oo-skay Ad Sen-trum" and means "From Heaven to the Center of the Earth") NOTES: MAAAAGFEEEEEST!!! The 3rd place track from the greatest month DoD has ever seen (Even getting in top 10 is quite an accomplishment). Knowing that anybody who’s anybody was going to enter this month (christ, even BrainCells did a track!) I knew that I had to make a track that just grabs you by the balls and not let go until the last second. I talked to GuitarBizarre and had him help me figure what soundtrack to do for it. He told me to check out Actraiser. Instantly I was hooked. This was also right before I learned that the MAGfest songs were going to be randomized. Since Actraiser would have undoubtedly gone first, I needed to make the biggest opening statement ever. The arrangement took me quite a bit of time, but I actually arranged as I went along, using EWQLSO Gold, so the Orchestra parts you hear now are the same parts that I wrote during the arrangement process. After all the arrangement and recording was done on my end, I decided to have both of my guitar-playing collaborating veterans play on the track. This is how the lead guitar duties broke down: 01:16-01:52 – Lead: GuitarBizarre 02:13-02:36 – Lead: PoD 02:45-03:40 – Lead: PoD 05:13-05:35 – Lead: PoD 05:35-06:02 – Solo: PoD 06:23-06:44 – Solo: GuitarBizarre 06:47-07:14 – Lead: PoD 07:25-08:08 – Leads: PoD 08:38-09:07 – Lead: PoD Also available for download is the ‘stripped down’ version of the song. Since I did not spend nearly as much quality time making the orchestra more standalone-able as Hell March, I wont give it it’s own spot on this page. In that version I included Lead Guitars and Synths to fill in blank spots. |
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Sonic Gargles with Garden Marbles
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Bobby Brooks, Brad Buxer, Darryl Ross, Doug Grigsby III, Geoff Grace, Scirocco – SOURCE: Sonic 3 (Marble Garden Zone) |
| ARRANGED BY: Tony Dickinson - PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson – Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Programming; Mathew Harradine (aka GuitarBizarre) – Lead Guitars | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars (Distorted, Wahed, Country Bumpkin and Clean), Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Rhodes, Clavinet, Synth Strings, Synths | |
| GENRE: Funky Rock | |
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NOTES: Sonic rules. Music rules. Sonic music is amazing. Plain and simple. For the November 2008 DoD, it was the long awaited Sonic month that was overdue in DoD. Thankfully, it didn’t happen until now so I could participate in it. The first idea for a main entry was a long metal medley. I started arranging some things from Sonic 3D Blast, but then the idea just quickly died. I said "screw this," and scrapped the idea. I pulled up all the Sonic tunes and looked for which song would be best in style that is not metal. I’ve always loved Marble Garden Zone, groovy from the beginning and not without great melodies. So I followed up with that, made it groove and rock. I arranged this song also during the same time I’ve been writing songs for Sylva, so there are many similar elements. The other thing I wanted to do is get other players on the song. I decided to ask my bud GuitarBizarre (Mathew Harradine) to do a solo on this track. He does the solo at 2:15 – 2:45. All other guitar leads are me. |
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Hell March to the Apocalypse
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ORIGINAL ARTIST: Frank Klepacki – SOURCE: Command & Conquer: Red Alert (Hell March), Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (Hell March 2) |
| ARRANGED AND PERFORMED BY: Tony Dickinson | |
| INSTRUMENTATION: Rhythm Guitars, Lead Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Full Orchestra: 5-piece Strings, Trumpets, Trombones, French Horns, Piccolo, Flutes, Clarinets, Choir, Piano, Concert Bass Drum, Concert Snare, Timpani, Anvils, Cymbals, Concert Toms, Gong | |
| GENRE: Epic Orchestral Metal | |
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NOTES: Made and entered for DoD October Month. The original inspiration for this song came from watching the video of Frank Klepacki playing both Hell March songs with the Video Games Live orchestra on Youtube. Immediately after watching that, I thought "Holy crap…what a good idea". And after finally getting a computer that would be able to handle everything, I started playing with some ideas. In the end I had 4 instances of EWQLSO Gold Pro XP, an instance of Colossus and an instance of RA, all 8 instrument slots filled. The dialogue clip in this song is from Einstein in the intro video saying "Time will tell…sooner or later…time will tell". |
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