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I'm never quite sure if there's a more succinct or accurate term to describe these (I've heard 'arrangements' get used too), but lately I've been really into listening to covers of 8 or 16-bit soundtracks using real instruments. Discovering covers that are actually well produced is really difficult, and it's easy to get lost in a sea of 'club remixes' and guys recording a drumless metal cover in their bedroom with a webcam. I've got a few I've found that totally do the original music justice, that I'll list below.

Anyone got any others to share?

Project Chaos (Sonic 3 & Knuckles)
By Various
One of the oldest and best. Various genres, mostly true to original score, but some artistic license here and there.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 0709FD9F0B

Synths of Rage (Streets of Rage 1-3)
By Console Crusaders/Various
Mostly true to original score, amazing synthwave covers of 1, some of 2 and a couple of 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdUoZ968zPE

Synth Fighters (Street Fighter)
By Console Crusaders/Various
Hope you like more synthwave...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XfTig4d_Oc

Synthality (Mortal Kombat 1-3)
By Console Crusaders/Various
If you still didn't get enough synthwave...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrNSQOMda2w

Road Rash II and III Remakes
By Dean Harris
Just discovered this guy and he deserves way more views. Tracks sound exactly as Rob Hubbard probably envisioned them before converting them to suit the 16-bit hardware. Road Rash III seems to be WIP.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2rCcvQJ4F7
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Lhm0EflhDM

Smooth McGroove
The one man a cappella group legend. Single tracks covering everything from select cuts from Sonic to Mario, Zelda to Pokemon, Final Fantasy to Undertale.
https://www.youtube.com/user/SmoothMcGroove/featured

I love Smooth McGroove! And I know what you mean about the metal covers with the sequenced drums. They're a dime a dozen. Some of them are pretty good, a lot of them are meh, and there's just so many of them that I'm never really interested in them anymore.




I know of quite a few, actually. Here's some of my favorites...

insaneintherainmusic - This dude has a ton of covers on his channel. You can also find him elsewhere, like Spotify and Amazon. He often collaborates with other YouTubers. He has a couple of original compositions upload too. Very jazzy, and very easy to listen to.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/insaneintherainmusic/featured

The Consouls - A group of musicians from Australia. They also have a ton of covers on their channel. Also very jazzy, and easy to listen to.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheConsoulsBand

Super Soul Bros - Part jazz, part jam band, part funk, all awesome. You can find them elsewhere, like Band Camp and Sound Cloud.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSoulBrosBand

PPF - What I really like about this guy is that he recreates video game music using the closest approximation of a real instrument compared to what is heard in game. For that reason, not all of his tracks are perfect for an easy listening play list. But they're all excellent to listen to in their own right.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/PoopPoopFart

Burning Idol - About 10 years ago they uploaded 3 awesome DKC covers, and then disappeared.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/BurningIdol/featured

Normal Activity - They put out a couple of great covers but haven't uploaded anything for a few years now. They only have a few songs, but they're excellent!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7CTda ... fEeYlOo2Kw

TheOneUps - I haven't listen to these guys in a while now, but I remember them being good. I'll have to check them out again.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOneUps

8 Bit Instrumental - I really love their cover of Green Hill Zone, but none of their other tracks really seem to click with me.
Link: https://8bitinstrumental.bandcamp.com/




I might know of a few more, but the above makes up the majority of what I've been listening to. At least, as far as VG covers go. Around 2015 I started listening to VG jazz covers on YouTube while at work, then YouTube made one of those mystical auto generating playlists for me. I saved the link to that playlist, and I use to listen to it all the time. Eventually, track 1 on that playlist was deleted from YouTube so it broke everything. Luckily, I was able to eventually get YouTube to auto generate another VG jazz covers playlist for me, and it was OK but not as diverse as the first one was (it would favor larger channels like insaneintherain and The Cousouls). One day I'll finally get around to making my own playlists of my favorite tracks from the above mentioned channels.

I can't do this topic a good post right now. I'll try harder next time.

I'm constantly amazed at how much KHInsider has grown recently. The updates to their rips, naming and cover art over the past few years are incredible. I'm fascinated by the remixes released on CD that were made by prominent japanese artists doing collabs with fellow industry veterans, and some other fan-made, but still very prominent chiptune artists that had their discs in conventions. They're all there! All you need is a login. (Edit: oops, you need to pay - guess I did already) I have unlimited-bandwidth fibre-optic. I'll host requests - Let me know what series you want and your preference - Flac or MP3. Don't download one at a time... jeez.

I spent a long time exploring AmigaRemix for tunes. Every game that was originally on or ported to Amiga has a ton of remixes cataloged and rated. They have remixes of the old original songs I used to listen to just because they were recommended MOD or other tracked formats from the 90s. All the bangers were remixed or updated to use the original samples instead of the 8-bit mush that was in the original modules.

I love RushJet1's remixes using original hardware.

About Jazz, I was just about to mention the Smooth Jazz All Stars cover of Gorillaz, but it's off topic.

I'm really glad Smooth McGroove is okay. I was worried by his existential-crisis posts before he went silent. He almost died, but he's better now. Looking forward to seeing his cat again, and the new kitten.

Super Guitar Bros - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHXgyt ... 2XOobFZlZA

Two guys, two acoustic guitars, all video game covers.

I absolutely love game music covers.

Not sure if I can add much to the topic but:

BG Ollie
This guy rocks the banjo so hard (and a accompanys his own music).
https://banjoguyollie.bandcamp.com/

Lars6683
1st off, not a superfan or anything, just caught my notice at some point.
She's a quite talented pianist and plays with uncanny ease. Perhaps at her best when just taking requests and riffing themes at will into medly's. She learns tunes on the fly (even unlikely ones and makes it work somehow; I decided I was impressed when she pulled this out:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LIxgJbuz3Lo
But that's not VGM, so here, take your pick:
https://m.youtube.com/c/lara6683/videos ... ootVe=3611

It might not take much to impress me otherwise. I mean, I got a kick out of this and his PVC pipes (skip to 2:26 for my favorite part, Gerudo Valley):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BTinHVB9lyE

nightrnr wrote:It might not take much to impress me otherwise. I mean, I got a kick out of this and his PVC pipes (skip to 2:26 for my favorite part, Gerudo Valley):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BTinHVB9lyE

Yeah, that's really neat. PPF uses PVC pipe in at least one of his songs (more IIRC, but I can't remember which right now).

DKC2 Mining Melancholy - https://youtu.be/0No1WPXWEis (you can first hear them at the 0:27 mark).

nightrnr wrote:Lars6683
1st off, not a superfan or anything, just caught my notice at some point.
She's a quite talented pianist and plays with uncanny ease. Perhaps at her best when just taking requests and riffing themes at will into medly's. She learns tunes on the fly (even unlikely ones and makes it work somehow; I decided I was impressed when she pulled this out:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LIxgJbuz3Lo

Guessing she might be pulling up some sheet music, too. Combine very good listening skills with good sight-reading skills and this is very believable.

8-bit Big Band - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxUheF ... xW9DBd_6bA

Not sure why these guys never popped up in my suggested videos before. I've only listen to a couple of songs so far, but they seem awesome!

SquidPhysics - https://www.youtube.com/c/SquidPhysics/ ... &flow=grid

I use to watch his videos some years back but completely forgot about him, then this morning he popped back up in my feed! He's not strictly video game covers, but the stuff that he does that isn't video game related I think would still be appreciated by the people on this forum. Definitely worth checking out, his covers are awesome.

Cirno's theme - SMB3 cover

The author of this, 125scratch, is an adorable person, he's my soulmate pretty much... I love him <3