The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Shooting Gallery [2A03; 0CC-Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2022-01-19 | Also the theme used for the Bombchu Bowling Alley!
I'm covering a shorter song this time, but I've got some ideas brewing already for the next thing...
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor3 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comRick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up [Chrono Trigger-style; SNES]ZeroJanitor2023-04-01 | I've been wanting to do this cover since like 2017 but every time I thought of it I never had enough time. Not this year. No more giving up. No more letting you down.
This may seem like a random pick for a cover, but I've always thought this song was really good. I did a 2A03 cover of it a long time ago, but I've been wanting to make a new cover with more complex instrumentation.
You can think of this as a sort of pseudo-sequel to my Hard Man cover from last year: it uses a lot of the same arrangement techniques and PCM samples.
Kicking off 2023 by covering a Follin Bros. song, which I've somehow never done one before.
Also I recently released my 2022 compilation, featuring everything I released last year (plus some things that weren't on YouTube): zerojanitor.bandcamp.com/album/2022-releases
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor3 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comIn Your Dreams (original) [VRC6 8-bit; 0CC-Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2022-12-15 | It's a cold winter's night. The sun has just set, the sky still a radiant purple as you walk through a fresh blanket of snow. The illumination of the Christmas lights on the nearby trees bathe your path in a faint iridescence. As you look back, you can see the warm orange glow from a nearby village, and you admire the way they contrast against the blueish light of the stars above.
You can think of this as a sort of spiritual successor to Leaves On The Sidewalk in a way, as I used some similar arrangement techniques here, and is also made to be evocative of seasonal weather.
I've got a cover all ready for Halloween, but... well, it's not Halloween yet. So once again I decided to cover something quick and easy just to have something to tide myself over. Plus, this is a song I've been wanting to do anyway, so it all worked out.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comPanel de Pon / Tetris Attack - Forest Stage (Poochy) [2-N163; 0CC-Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2022-10-04 | Truly absurd to think a dog could swap two horizonally adjacent panels in order to match three or more panels of the same color. I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comSuper Mario 64 - Slider [MMC5; 0CC-Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2022-09-14 | AKA the song that plays during The Princess's Secret Slide, Cool Cool Mountain's secret slide, Tower of the Wing Cap, Vanish Cap under the Moat, Tall Tall Mountain's secret slide, both Koopa the Quick races, Tick Tock Clock, Rainbow Ride, and Wing Mario over the Rainbow.
Yeah, it gets a lot of use. Though personally I associate it the most with Tick Tock Clock.
I actually really like the treasure-hunting stages in SA2, though I wouldn't call Mad Space one of my favorites. The localized gravity mechanic is pretty neat though, almost like a precursor to Super Mario Galaxy.
This was a fun one to cover, though more difficult than I was expecting. I tried to arrange it in a similar manner to my 8-bit Stickerbush Symphony cover, though I ended up diverging from that style somewhat, as this song has a greater emphasis on melodic percussion and deep bass tones.
Nah, but I'm just giving you a hard time. The last cover I did made me remember how much fun it is to work with DPCM. And of course you can never go wrong with duty cycling!
I wanted to do something in a 2A03 style without DPCM for a change, and this song felt like a good fit.
Check out DynamiteManEXE's channel if you wanna hear more awesome 8-bit renditions from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie soundtrack: youtube.com/watch?v=KHe8bJDhvdM
Kinda surprised I haven't done anything with just MMC5 since 2017. I definitely learned a lot about extracting samples from Genesis games. For example: it's weirdly difficult!
This was a challenging remix with all the tempo changes and complex layering, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Also put it in a new key, just because.
Fun fact: The original song, despite claiming to be in G, is actually in C. I guess you could argue that they meant G mixolydian, but that seems like a stretch tbh.
Wanted to use some SNES samples that I don't use very often, since I felt I was relying too much on the tried-and-true sample bases lately. I've also been wanting to find something interesting to do with Hornet Man's theme, and Super Mario Kart seemed like a good fit.
And because someone always asks: this was made with OpenMPT, which is the tracker you see on the screen.
Ever since the Workshop Pack dropped last month, I've been getting back into Rivals big-time (Pomme is such a fun character!), and it's really made me want to cover another song from the game.
Fire's Last Hope seemed like a good fit for an 8-bit rendition. Certain little things in the song were difficult to extrapolate, but I tried to at least fudge it in a way that sounds natural.
I wrote this one with absolutely no sort of plan, which is why it shifts gears halfway through the song. Some inspiration was taken from Vikare during that section.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comCastlevania - Heart of Fire, Bloody Tears [SNES; MMX-style]ZeroJanitor2022-02-04 | Heart of Fire tends to get lumped in with Don't Wait Until Night in both official and fan-made remixes, but I think it has potential to be lumped in with other Castlevania tracks as well...
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comMega Man 8 (Saturn) - Tengu Man [VRC6; 0CC-Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2022-01-04 | I used to be kind of indifferent to the this version of Tengu Man's theme, but after I played through the Sega Saturn version of Mega Man 8 recently, it kinda grew on me.
Mostly I'm curious why they gave him a different theme at all?
Also be sure to check out my 2021 compilation album if you haven't already, it's got downloads to everything I released on YouTube/Soundcloud last year: zerojanitor.bandcamp.com/album/2021-releases
This is a song I have a lot of nostalgia for, but not because of Final Fantasy 4, or even SMRPG. No, my first exposure to this song was as a MIDI in the background of a sprite comic. I figured out how to dig into the HTML of the webpage and save it to my computer, and I've ended up taking it with me across several different generations of computers. Still have it, in fact.
Nothing much to say about the arrangement itself except that this time I used Follin-esque arps that modulate down instead of up. Also liberal use of hardware sweeps because they're underrated imo.
For those who may not know: This is the prototype version of Carnival Night Zone's music from a prerelease build of the game before the Jackson/Buxer tunes we know from the final game were implemented. This version of the song (as well as the ones for Ice Cap and Launch Base) was used in the Sonic & Knuckles PC Collection, but it wasn't until relatively recently that it was discovered these songs were originally planned for the Genesis version all along.
(On another note, I finally got a new computer which is much more robust at recording video, so enjoy the 60fps!)
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comLeaves on the Sidewalk (original) [3-N163 Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2021-11-18 | It's autumn (or fall) in the northern hemisphere, and though I typically don't care for the dreary cold seasons, fall is starting to grow on me as I get older.
I made this song with the idea of walking down the sidewalk on a breezy day while all the orange leaves are blowing off the trees. The bouncy rhythm and melancholy chord progression really capture the spirit of the season for me for whatever reason.
I tried to remix the classic theme from the Halloween movie franchise in the style of a final boss theme and I'm very happy with how it came out. It makes a good counterpart to the Friday the 13th remix I did last year.
Doing something different here and covering an old Mega Man fan song that I really liked back in the day.
The arrangement is largely the same as blkjock81's original version, just with some additional harmonies and transitions.
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Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comMega Man X2 - Crystal Snail [VRC7 FamiTracker]ZeroJanitor2021-07-13 | For such a short song, this was surprisingly difficult to cover, mostly because of the percussion. I also didn't realize how many times this song changes time signatures, going from 13/8 to 12/8 to 8/8 back to 13/8.
The mixing was also really hard to get right because volume works a little differently with VRC7 compared to 2A03, but I was able to use one of the FM channels to make some decent percussion, which I'm happy about.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comDuckTales - The Moon [SNES Chrono Trigger-style Remix]ZeroJanitor2021-05-30 | I've lowkey been wanting to cover this song ever since I started making music, but I could never think of a way to do it justice. The Chrono Trigger sample library allowed me some interesting arrangement opportunities and I'm happy that I finally got to make my own take on this classic song.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comMega Man: The Wily Wars - Buster Rod-G [VRC6 Famitracker]ZeroJanitor2021-05-18 | I'm surprised it took me this long to do a cover of this theme, it's always been one of my favorites from any Mega Man game. The "G" must stand for gravitas...
Decided to do something a little different, so I recorded some actual gameplay footage to have in the background. I'm very out of practice, especially in Wily Wars, so don't expect epic gamer strats.
Very excited to show off a collaborative effort with friend and fellow musician ArcanaXIX! We both did an arrangement of the Shiver City theme from Paper Mario and arranged them medley-style.
My section was done in 0CC-Famitracker and their section was done in MuseScore. He also provided the image used for the thumbnail.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comMega Man: Powered Up - Time Man [Mega Man X-style SNES Remix]ZeroJanitor2021-04-03 | So, one of my oldest MMX-style "covers" is my cover of Time Man's theme from 2011. It has a decent number of views, but I'm not really happy with how it sounds even for as inexperienced as I was. Not to mention the fact that it's an instrument swap of King Meteor's MIDI and not my own arrangement.
So I felt like making a new version of the song, one that's my own arrangement and designed to better fit the Mega Man X style.
The head of Time Man's sprite is from Mega Man Maker, edited onto X's frame.
I recently played through Diddy Kong Racing using just Pipsy. She has the lowest top speed in the game, making some of the boss races difficult (Bluey 2 was especially brutal), however her superior traction and handling were quite the boon for silver coin races. Very fun character overall.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comDonkey Kong Country 3 - Frosty Frolics [Famitracker VRC6]ZeroJanitor2020-12-21 | Happy holidays, everyone! With Dixie Kong's Double Trouble recently being released on the Switch's SNES Online app, it seems like a great time to chill out in the Northern Kremisphere.
This song was actually much simpler than I thought it would be going into it; it's fairly short and tends to repeat a lot of phrases. That said, these are very atmospheric tracks, so I think the instrumentation is what really makes it come alive. To that end, I've added some percussion to give it a little more of that classic Donkey Kong Country flavor.
Twitter: twitter.com/ZeroJanitor Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/zerojanitor2 Bandcamp: zerojanitor.bandcamp.comAbyssal Fortress [Mega Man X-style original]ZeroJanitor2020-12-09 | Wanted to get out of my musical comfort zone a little so I made a song in 10/8 time that also incorporates neapolitan chords. Its still in C minor though, so not THAT far out of my comfort zone. :P
I'm fairly happy with how it came out, maybe some things could be improved with regards to transitions, but overall not bad.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the very first song I made in Famitracker! And since I was feeling a little self-indulgent, I decided to celebrate 10 years of Famitracking by remaking that very song!
I no longer have the original file, but it was easy enough to recreate since I know I only used the bottom row of keys when making it. I didn't have a great grasp on how to make music sound good at this point, so in the remade version, I altered the backing to be more harmonic while still feeling like the same song, as well as some flourishes to help remedy the hard transitions and repetition.
Overall, I think this is a great indicator of how far I've come in the last 10 years. I'm very proud of my progress, and I'm grateful for every one of you who's been along for the ride. :)