# Favorite Video Game Cover Composers or Channels?



## dhmusic (Jun 17, 2021)

I'm trying to get a sense of the landscape and some good examples to model after when starting. Hopefully some others will find this helpful too.

I've mostly been looking at channels with Final Fantasy content but that's just a starting point that excites me. Definitely open to other content as well. 

A few that I've come across so far are:
- Alex Moukula (https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexMoukalaMusic/featured)
- Grissini Project (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9eDYJu0NlveLrK64glOAHg)
- FalKKonE (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAHYPBvyaQIpjyTSdQhOMQ)
- Edelbird Productions (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUB6kD4j1ofhNPAjr8F04rg)
- @mybadmemory (VI control)

Please share any that come to mind!


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## mybadmemory (Jun 17, 2021)

Wow, thanks for the compliment! I'm really just a hobbyist trying to learn how to use my libraries by remaking some of my favourite childhood themes. Since I started out around 2 years ago I've made 6 VGM covers: SoM, SoM, FF6, FF4, FF5, FF6. Hopefully I'll be brave enough to share some original work too some day. 

I'd love to add three of my favourite VGM cover youtubers here:



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ7uHvfPDJH1xrD2sVViWqg




https://www.youtube.com/user/PoopPoopFart




https://www.youtube.com/c/IsrafelCello


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## Henu (Jun 17, 2021)

@Celestial Aeon Project would most likely be one the best to check out!


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## dhmusic (Jun 17, 2021)

mybadmemory said:


> Wow, thanks for the compliment! I'm really just a hobbyist trying to learn how to use my libraries by remaking some of my favourite childhood themes. Since I started out around 2 years ago I've made 6 VGM covers: SoM, SoM, FF6, FF4, FF5, FF6. Hopefully I'll be brave enough to share some original work too some day.
> 
> I'd love to add three of my favourite VGM cover youtubers here:
> 
> ...


Wow I just saw these, thank you! I assumed no one replied lmao. how do you get notified for comments in your own thread? I'm not very bright

But yeah you bet! I really enjoyed listening to your rendition of Phantom Forest in particular, so damn nostalgic. Hearing FF III (SNES): "Decisive Battle" was the first time I remember being totally captivated by a musical moment in a video game. After that I was addicted to boss music lol

I'm working on a version of FF XIII "Saber's Edge" right now, hopefully I'll post it in the next day or two. Are you working on anything else right now? I can pester you if you need the push


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## dhmusic (Jun 17, 2021)

Henu said:


> @Celestial Aeon Project would most likely be one the best to check out!


Awesome Henu, thanks for the recommendation! I'm gonna check it out tonight. Do you have any favorite OSTs or do any VGM music yourself?


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## mybadmemory (Jun 17, 2021)

You get notified by the bell icon in here, and you can also chose to get notified via mail when creating the thread.

Not working on anything atm, my day job (in games, yes I ended up there) currently take up all my energy, but I’ve been wanting to do something from Octopath for a while, so perhaps that’s up next.


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## Henu (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> Do you have any favorite OSTs or do any VGM music yourself?


Yes, both! I've been doing music for mostly mobile and casual games since 2004, and since 2013 I've been inhouse composer for a rather large mobile-oriented games company. I do all kinds of stuff from whatever ukulele mariachis and deathmetals into even live orchestral things (though that's pretty rare), but rarely any covers of existing material for obvious reasons.
Most of my life circles around game music. I've been a huge fan since the late nineties and mostly listen to that stuff in general, if not for personal passion, then for possible references and checking out what the others have done. I also study the subject a lot and constantly try to improve myself in various areas from composition to implementation on each project I do. We listen to a lot of game music with my family as well, and just yesterday we had a long drive blasting Yoshi's Crafted World OST from the car stereo. I love that soundtrack and the game, and so do my wife and kids. 

Some of my favourites are pretty much anything Blizzard (WoW is my absolute sacred shrine of music), general RPG stuff coming next. I absolutely love the Lucasarts soundtracks too, and anything that Matt Uelmen lays his hands into.

Ok, this wasn't supposed to be a goddamn self-biography, sorry, haha! It's just that I'm extremely passionate on game music and could write a too long book about it if someone asked. :D


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

Henu said:


> Ok, this wasn't supposed to be a goddamn self-biography, sorry, haha! It's just that I'm extremely passionate on game music and could write a too long book about it if someone asked. :D


Nah that's my vibe too haha you're good! That feels much more human than talking about V.I. drugs thank goodness. But yeah I feel the same, there's so much room for self expression and audience interpretation in game music. That's so cool that you write for games and it sounds like you're really enjoying it. I live in a city with a decent game dev scene and I'm kind of surprised I haven't gotten into it in the years I've been freelancing. Probably a bit too much of a lone wolf mentality, although I'd love to work on a team. Alas, it's mostly commercial/corporate work for me and I'm fortunate to have anything as a working composer.

Outside of that I guess I tend to write pretty audaciously. I can't imagine getting on a project anytime soon that would call for it. Even the covers I'm doing are less mockups and more FF7:Remake style arrangements and I kinda worry people will be resistant to that. I guess we'll see 

But I digress. I'd like to hear some of your music if you could share a link!


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

mybadmemory said:


> You get notified by the bell icon in here, and you can also chose to get notified via mail when creating the thread.
> 
> Not working on anything atm, my day job (in games, yes I ended up there) currently take up all my energy, but I’ve been wanting to do something from Octopath for a while, so perhaps that’s up next.


I haven't played Octopath but I've listened to the full album countless times, It's great! Those battle intros must have been so much fun to write - they remind me of Valkyrie Profile.

You totally should do an Octopath track. Do you have one (Or a few) that you'd lean towards?


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## mybadmemory (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> I haven't played Octopath but I've listened to the full album countless times, It's great! Those battle intros must have been so much fun to write - they remind me of Valkyrie Profile.
> 
> You totally should do an Octopath track. Do you have one (Or a few) that you'd lean towards?


Well, i like my harps, flutes and strings, so probably Ophilia?


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## Henu (Jun 18, 2021)

Yep, I really enjoy it.  And if you want to hear some of my music, I just recently updated a bit of my Soundcloud stuff because the last ones were about 5 year old things- you can check some of the newer material here! I'm not really much of a "showcase" guy, so I couldn't even decide what to put there and so forth, but I put some songs I enjoyed making and felt representing more "myself".


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## nyxl (Jun 18, 2021)

Not sure if you're looking for something like this, but I found this channel when I was looking for WoW sheet music, and was really impressed: https://www.youtube.com/vgoscore
Great source for studying video game scores for me.


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

mybadmemory said:


> Well, i like my harps, flutes and strings, so probably Ophilia?


Ah yeah that's a really sweet track! I wonder if that's a live flute? A number of the recent flute soloist libraries are rather convincing.

I freaking love like the main theme, especially the reprise at the end. I also really dig the operatic energy of Moment of truth/The One They Call Witch/Daughter of the Dark God. But... I wish it was just a little less... wobbly lol. Would make a good cover.


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

Henu said:


> Yep, I really enjoy it.  And if you want to hear some of my music, I just recently updated a bit of my Soundcloud stuff because the last ones were about 5 year old things- you can check some of the newer material here! I'm not really much of a "showcase" guy, so I couldn't even decide what to put there and so forth, but I put some songs I enjoyed making and felt representing more "myself".


Oh damn you did Angry Birds?? These are great btw. I can see how you'd have a blast with these.


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

nyxl said:


> Not sure if you're looking for something like this, but I found this channel when I was looking for WoW sheet music, and was really impressed: https://www.youtube.com/vgoscore
> Great source for studying video game scores for me.


Oh I totally referenced his score for a mockup of Audi Famam Illius! ...I should probably post that... it took me like a month lol.

I made sure to subscribe this time, thanks for the link, nyxl! Have you tried Musescore too? That's proven to be a great resource for all sorts of music and they usually have midi files in addition to the scores available. I think it's free with a daily limit to downloads.


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## nyxl (Jun 18, 2021)

Would be curious to hear your rendition of that piece using the score 
Yeah, I also found some great scores on musescore, but the quality there is very inconsistent. I guess I'd need to find people to follow on there, but I'm not that into musescore (yet?)


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

nyxl said:


> Would be curious to hear your rendition of that piece using the score
> Yeah, I also found some great scores on musescore, but the quality there is very inconsistent. I guess I'd need to find people to follow on there, but I'm not that into musescore (yet?)


omg dude my music reading skills are basically:




I was mostly checking a few runs that threw me off while transcribing it and realized I took quite a few liberties in my version haha

And yeah like 20% of the scores are missing fundamental parts or need obvious corrections. Not that that stopped me from hoovering up everything in sight lol.

But hmmm... You mean the Brawl theme I'm guessing? I suppose it would be kind of a waste just sitting here. I'd say it's about 95% finished - I kinda just abandoned it after struggling with the choirs for a couple weeks. So maybe that's a good reason to post.

nyxl, you're a genius.


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## Henu (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> Oh damn you did Angry Birds?? These are great btw. I can see how you'd have a blast with these.


Thanks!  I didn't do the first AB as I was still working in another company at the time, but have been working with the franchise since Star Wars 2 (2013) every now and then. Most of the AB games have my music though- some more, some less! I do a lot for other games and projects as well and diversity and the possibility to all sorts of game music is absolutely the greatest part of the job!


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## darcvision (Jun 18, 2021)

1. Malcolm Robinson
i love his music especially undertale and chrono trigger. he's using eastwest product.

2. Blake Robinson / the synthetic orchestra
he's just really good and his music are very realistic. my favorite probably his anime cover.

3. 상록수


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrfk6THLcteWX5hlvt4Lyw


his final fantasy 6 - dancing mad cover is really good.

4. Atelier Joshua
his cover are mostly anime stuff and it's very great. i also like his album too


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## darcvision (Jun 18, 2021)

nyxl said:


> Not sure if you're looking for something like this, but I found this channel when I was looking for WoW sheet music, and was really impressed: https://www.youtube.com/vgoscore
> Great source for studying video game scores for me.


vgoscore is very great, i heard he's using cinesample library. my favorite is his cover from ori and the blind forest


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

stefandy31 said:


> 1. Malcolm Robinson
> i love his music especially undertale and chrono trigger. he's using eastwest product.
> 
> 2. Blake Robinson / the synthetic orchestra
> ...


I'll def check these out thank you! I want to do Dancing Mad soon and I thought I heard all the versions out there but I haven't heard 상록수's version yet. It's inspiring to see all the different directions people take and see how you can add to the "conversation"

Edit: Listening to it now and I really like where this guy's head is at. It feels appropriately bombastic. I might like it better than the Distant Worlds one. I'm so using their lyrics though hehe.


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

Henu said:


> Thanks!  I didn't do the first AB as I was still working in another company at the time, but have been working with the franchise since Star Wars 2 (2013) every now and then. Most of the AB games have my music though- some more, some less! I do a lot for other games and projects as well and diversity and the possibility to all sorts of game music is absolutely the greatest part of the job!


Do you get to just write tunes mostly or is there a lot of tedious behind the scenes stuff too? I'm super unfamiliar with the actual game dev world


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## Henu (Jun 18, 2021)

Huge behind the scenes all the time. As I have laughed and complained to my wife, it used to be about tunes "back then" but now the whole planning process takes easily half of the job. :D I think we started to switch from "tunes" into more adaptive and designed stuff in late 2017 when we had some personnel changes and haven't really looked back then. Personally, I couldn't be more happier with this direction, though I still fucking hate Wwise because it's SO COMPLEX. :D

The whole world of game music has changed and simple background tunes just don't cut it anymore if you actually want to make immersive and quality game music and audio- you have to actually design the whole thing from start to finish, not to even mention the adaptiveness in the music which is an _absolute must_ for us in any mid+ sized projects. Not many mobile- oriented game companies use adaptive stuff, positional audio and Wwise for example, so we actually treat our audio basically like any triple A company would do, haha!
But to be completely honest, that's actually one thing that keeps me excited- the constant learning and the possibility to challenge yourself in almost every new project. It's really not about the platform but more about how you approach it.


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## EgM (Jun 18, 2021)

Orchestral Fantasy (Andrew Thompson) has tons of videos in which he remakes Final Fantasy/CT with other players. This guy plays everything 



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ7uHvfPDJH1xrD2sVViWqg


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

Henu said:


> Huge behind the scenes all the time. As I have laughed and complained to my wife, it used to be about tunes "back then" but now the whole planning process takes easily half of the job. :D I think we started to switch from "tunes" into more adaptive and designed stuff in late 2017 when we had some personnel changes and haven't really looked back then. Personally, I couldn't be more happier with this direction, though I still fucking hate Wwise because it's SO COMPLEX. :D
> 
> The whole world of game music has changed and simple background tunes just don't cut it anymore if you actually want to make immersive and quality game music and audio- you have to actually design the whole thing from start to finish, not to even mention the adaptiveness in the music which is an _absolute must_ for us in any mid+ sized projects. Not many mobile- oriented game companies use adaptive stuff, positional audio and Wwise for example, so we actually treat our audio basically like any triple A company would do, haha!
> But to be completely honest, that's actually one thing that keeps me excited- the constant learning and the possibility to challenge yourself in almost every new project. It's really not about the platform but more about how you approach it.


That sounds like a dream job - particularly in how there seems to be a lot of trust/freedom in your company to explore "next level" solutions. I'm sure that's a much better long term strategy for the company's sustainability than short term corner cutting.

I saw on your soundcloud that you roll in some bands too. Like dude, all that +family... You must be a master juggler. Maximum respect to you sir - makes me think I can do a lot more with the time I've got!


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

EgM said:


> Orchestral Fantasy (Andrew Thompson) has tons of videos in which he remakes Final Fantasy/CT with other players. This guy plays everything
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ7uHvfPDJH1xrD2sVViWqg


Ohhhhh this is so good. It makes me think of fleet foxes, so beautiful. If/when I get any kind of following I wanna do a collab with him

Thanks so much for the reccomendation, EgM! I was about to ask for a link but I just saw it hidden all the way to the right of your signature lol


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## EgM (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> Ohhhhh this is so good. It makes me think of fleet foxes, so beautiful. If/when I get any kind of following I wanna do a collab with him
> 
> Thanks so much for the reccomendation, EgM! I was about to ask for a link but I just saw it hidden all the way to the right of your signature lol


Oh, the links in my signature are my songs... I wasn't going for that. Maybe something went wrong where the link I shared didn't know, What I shared was Andrew Thompson's channel called "Orchestral Fantasy" which you can search within Youtube


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

EgM said:


> Oh, the links in my signature are my songs... I wasn't going for that. Maybe something went wrong where the link I shared didn't know, What I shared was Andrew Thompson's channel called "Orchestral Fantasy" which you can search within Youtube


No you sent the right link! I checked out Andrew's page too. I should have clarified I was asking for yours but then I saw yours in the corner


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## EgM (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> No you sent the right link! I checked out Andrew's page too. I should have clarified I was asking for yours but then I saw yours in the corner


Haha, cool! Reading on a smartphone while doing other things is the reason for so many misunderstandings


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

EgM said:


> Haha, cool! Reading on a smartphone while doing other things is the reason for so many misunderstandings


S'all good haha. I've had infinity on in the background. It makes for surprisingly good typing music, totally dig it.


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## dariusofwest (Jun 18, 2021)

One of my favorite VGM cover channels is- https://www.youtube.com/user/Marcpapeghin
(Great arrangements and performances)

Another one is insaneintherain- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_OtnV-9QZmBj6oWBelMoZw
(Loved his Video Game Jazz Medleys)


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## EgM (Jun 18, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> S'all good haha. I've had infinity on in the background. It makes for surprisingly good typing music, totally dig it.


Psst, kickstarter in one month! :D (gfx of my avatar is Infinity)


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

EgM said:


> Psst, kickstarter in one month! :D (gfx of my avatar is Infinity)


Dope! Congrats on that, man. And I'm sure that's just the start of a lot more to come


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## dhmusic (Jun 18, 2021)

dariusofwest said:


> One of my favorite VGM cover channels is- https://www.youtube.com/user/Marcpapeghin
> (Great arrangements and performances)
> 
> Another one is insaneintherain- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_OtnV-9QZmBj6oWBelMoZw
> (Loved his Video Game Jazz Medleys)


Thanks for the links! Can't wait to check em out.

I hit you up on soundcloud. Really nice stuff (I hope some other folks take a listen too). Don't be shocked by my human avatar, I assure you I am an anime character IRL.


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## Henu (Jun 19, 2021)

dhmusic said:


> Like dude, all that +family... You must be a master juggler.


ADHD helps a bit. :D Well, that and a super-understanding wife when needed. My wife is the best!!!!!


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## dhmusic (Jun 19, 2021)

Henu said:


> ADHD helps a bit. :D Well, that and a super-understanding wife when needed. My wife is the best!!!!!


Omg same - that explains why we post the way we do haha. I tend to gravitate towards people who throw out like 12 ideas at once. No partner to help regulate though, so I have to go on a lot of long walks between writing.

But man that sounds like an awesome relationship, I'm happy for you  I wish everyone had that kind of support.


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## dhmusic (Jun 19, 2021)

nyxl said:


> Would be curious to hear your rendition of that piece using the score


Here's where it was at before I ditched it. The scope of it just kept growing and I had to put it aside.

Edit: "RECYCLYING PROCESS INITIATED..."


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## Celestial Aeon (Jun 23, 2021)

Henu said:


> @Celestial Aeon Project would most likely be one the best to check out!


Thank you @Henu <3

@dhmusic I have a few live streams of my cover productions if you are interested, here I worked on Shenmue Sedge Tree with Spitfire BBC: 

you can admire my completely inane and child level Cubase skills which mainly revolve around mouse and.... mouse clicks :D


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## JRokujuushi (Jun 23, 2021)

I'd like to give a shout out to Pixel Mixers, if I may.

https://pixel-mixers.com/


https://www.youtube.com/c/PixelMixers










r/PixelMixers


r/PixelMixers: The Pixel Mixers community subreddit is a place where VGM (Video Game Music) Cover artists can come together to celebrate their …




www.reddit.com





It's a community of musicians that cover game music (of which I am an occasional contributor). Such a wide variety of styles and instruments are covered that you never really know what you might get. The big draw is their community albums, each focused on a specific game, series, or theme. 

There's also the subreddit where members post individual covers, and there are monthly contests where the tracks covered have to follow a set theme.


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## Crowe (Jun 23, 2021)

I'm seconding PPF and gotta mention dr. Pez (and especially the following track):


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## dhmusic (Jul 1, 2021)

Celestial Aeon said:


> Thank you @Henu <3
> 
> @dhmusic I have a few live streams of my cover productions if you are interested, here I worked on Shenmue Sedge Tree with Spitfire BBC:
> 
> you can admire my completely inane and child level Cubase skills which mainly revolve around mouse and.... mouse clicks :D



That sounds really nice man! The brass is beautiful (and the rest of it of course, I love those mellow horns though).

You've got a lot of stuff on your channel to check out. I'll give you a sub.


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## dhmusic (Jul 1, 2021)

JRokujuushi said:


> I'd like to give a shout out to Pixel Mixers, if I may.
> 
> https://pixel-mixers.com/
> 
> ...


I might just have to join reddit for this sort of thing. Thanks for the recommendation!


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## Foxdie (Sep 5, 2021)

Been listening to some of them in the past, it feels nice to hear them again. A video game composer creates intriguing musical compositions for video games, with separate themes for each main character. To do so, he or she will watch the game to see what's going on and compose music that evokes the appropriate emotions in response to what's going on. I like the LoL music a lot, didn't play it for a while because my account was blocked, but I got a new one from lolfinity and can enjoy it again now.


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## Terry93D (Sep 5, 2021)

Here's a few favorites of mine. TandA has been transcribing and arranging music. For the past few years he's been embarking on a big project seemingly to orchestrate every single piece of music in _Golden Sun_ and _Golden Sun: The Lost Age_. I don't always adore his arrangements - those especially that call for say two panpipes or flutes to mimick the delay effect Sakuraba used in the original pieces seem to be a little beside the point - but his stuff's very impressive. He did this arrangement of "Prologue (Book One" performed by the Virtual Video Game Orchestra.

The Second Narrator practically recomposes as much as he arranges. He's done the entirety of _The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening_, and they're impressive arrangements, often doubling or tripling the length of the original track. In my opinion they wouldn't work in game, they're perhaps a little _too_ dynamic to work, but they're great arrangements.

The Noble Demon is highly prolific and, while she doesn't focus on any specific game, they draw from a much wider range of games than the other two, and within familiar franchises (TLoZ comes to mind) she'll arrange lesser-known tracks. I don't think they're as qualitatively consistent as the other two I've mentioned, but there is nevertheless a high baseline quality level, and the prolificity with which she releases and range of games from which they draw nevertheless means she might be my favorite vgm arranger.


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