I don’t know how well the final song turned out, but at least it will serve as a nice reminder of my visit and our time hanging out together.

Link: “Still in Love”
Release Date: Oct 29, 2012
Original Name: Still in Love
Songwriter/Performer: Brian McKnight

Equipment Used: I can’t remember!

Lyrics:

I did a quick cover tonight, giving it a bit of an R&B ballad spin, complete with layers of background vocals. I took some liberties with the melody, changed the key, and did some chord substitution, but outside of that I stayed pretty true to the original. I also tried to keep it “pretty” in keeping with the original, though I don’t know successful I was at that.

Link: “Everything’s Alright (Short Steps Mix)”
Release Date: June 15, 2012
Original Name: Everything’s Alright
Game: To The Moon, PC, 2012
Composer: Laura Shigihara
Links: To The Moon official website
Equipment Used: Korg Kronos (internal sounds only, no plugins!), Done solely on a MacBook Air!, ME-1NV Great River preamp, Neumann TLM-49 mic

Lyrics:

Short steps, deep breath
Everything’s alright
chin up, I can’t
step into the spotlight

she said…

I took the theme jingle, arranged it, wrote new lyrics for the vocals, and recorded it all. Think of it as a spiritual successor to my previous Shenmue mix, “Come to Bob’s Pizza,” which also had vocals.

Link: “Tomato Tomahtoh”
Release Date: January, 2012
Original Name: Tomato Convenience Store
Game: Shenmue, Sega Dreamcast, 2000
Composer: Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
Links: Tomato Tomahtoh music video!
Equipment Used: Logic 9, Korg Kronos, Neumann TLM-49

Lyrics:

Need some food for your cat
some capsule toys or some other shit?
I know just the place
It’s just up the road in the bad part of town, babe

The owner’s a freak
but that’s okay because they have
the greatest jingle that you ever heard

[Group]
Come on in, shop at Tomato!

They got some snacks and batteries
doors automatic, doors automatic, automatic
They got the finest brand of cat food
Come on in, shop at Tomato!

Notes: I used a Neumann TLM-49 mic through a Great River ME-1NV preamp and FMR Audio RNC 1773 compressor into Logic Pro for the main vocal. I was super sick from having a sore throat for about a week, so sorry about the roughness.

Arrangement: Straight up, here’s how it went. I bought myself a Korg Kronos for Christmas and I was dying to use it for something. I pulled up one of the lovely EP patches, tweaked it, heard a sappy “White Christmas” in that, and went to town. No metronomes or quantizing or any of that. Just free…and kind of messy.

Link: “White Christmas 2011”
Release Date: December 22, 2011
Original Name: “White Christmas”
Equipment Used: Korg Kronos, baby!

Notes: see above

For Destructoid’s 2011 PAX “Destructoid Live” Panel I was asked to write a song. I wrote this song, “Every Blog,” for our readership. The goal was to write an ultra-cheesy love song, and I think I succeeded. The second verse is less about love and more about randomness. It covers everything from corgis to Persona 3. I laugh and/or cover my face every time I hear the background vocals in the second verse.

Link: “Every Blog”
Release Date: PAX 2011
Equipment Used: Logic 9, TLM-49

Notes: see above

Notes: I used a Neumann TLM-49 mic through a Great River ME-1NV preamp and FMR Audio RNC 1773 compressor into Logic Pro for the main vocal, and then compressed it on the other end with Waves RComp. It ran through an old Lexicon MPX-500 for some nice Christmas-y concert hall sound. Too bad I was sick this week. Sorry about the hoarseness. I would have done thicker background vocals too.

Arrangement: As for the arrangement, I wanted to do something in 6 with a kind of modern feel. I used my favorite trashy Yamaha piano sample (terrible decays on this one!) with heavy EQ. The guitars are some quick fingered (and messy) keyboard emulations running through Omnisphere. Great sound, terrible playing. They sounded bad enough to turn down and pan way to the left. The strings are patches of my own creation. I heavily treated the sleigh bells in the chorus and added some timpani rolls for cheese.

Enjoy.

Link: “Oh Holy Night 2010”
Release Date: December 20, 2010
Original Name: “Oh Holy Night”
Equipment Used: Logic 9, TLM-49

Notes: see above

The trouble with covering a Stevie Wonder song is that one of the best performers that ever lived did it before you. I’m saying not to expect much. Also, sorry that the piano is sloppy — it was one take.

Link: “Lately”
Release Date: April 12, 2010
Original Name: “Lately”
Composer: Stevie Wonder
Equipment Used: Logic 9.11, Great River Me-1NV, Neumann TLM 49, Motif ES-8, Logic’s Steinway Grand Piano 
Notes: I love that part when you bang on the piano with the G/A chord!

Link: “Wind Nocture — The Boat Song”
Release Date: April 2, 2010
Original Name: “Wind’s Nocturne”
Game: Lunar: Silver Star Story, Sega CD
Composer: Noriyuki Iwadare
Equipment Used: Logic 9.1, AT 4047, Motif ES-8
Notes: A little chord substitution never hurt anyone!

Lyrics:
Wishing on a dream that seems far off
Hoping it will come today
Into the starlit night
Foolish dreamers turn their gaze
Waiting on a shooting star
But

What if that star is not to come
Will their dreams fade to nothing?
When the horizon darkens most
We all need to believe there is hope

Is an angel watching closely over me?
Can there be a guiding light I’ve yet to see?
I know my heart should guide me but
There’s a hole within my soul
What will fill this emptiness inside of me

Am I to be satisfied without knowing
I wish then for a chance to see
Now all I need,
Is my star to come…

I *tried* to cover one of Brian McKnight’s first hits, “One Last Cry.” I’m afraid I didn’t do a very good job. My version has its high points, but it has its low points too, and that’s mostly because the song has…well, high (pitch) points. I think the second verse and the bridge sound the best. Sorry, Brian. If anything, it was a good way to learn how to play the song.

Link: “One Last Cry”
Release Date: December 4, 2009
Original Name: “One Last Cry”
Equipment Used: Logic 9 Pro, Motif ES8, Shure SM7B, ME-NV1, Bosendorfer 290

Notes: I’m sure I’ll redo this someday. Probably in a better key for me.

I do at least one Christmas arrangement every year, and this year I’ve started with the classic, Silent Night. I was inspired after watching a documentary that talked about how old the song really is. I did a really simple piano and strings arrangement.

Link: “Silent Night”
Release Date: December 2, 2009
Original Name: “Silent Night”
Composer: ???
Equipment Used: Logic 9 Pro, Kontakt, AT4047, ME-1NV
Notes:

I imagined the song being about a boy in love with his lab partner in science class, taking a cue from the game’s visuals. Aside from singing the melody (poorly), I’m also performing all six harmony parts.

Link: “Love Potion”
Release Date: April 27, 2009
Original Name: 恋の実験室
Game: Rhythm Heaven, Nintendo DS, 2009
Composer: Tsunku
Links: Love Potion music video!
Equipment Used: Samplitude 10, Motif ES8, AT 4047 mic

Lyrics:

I think I might possibly
be in love
love with the girl
from my science class (she’s so fine)

I know her and I
make a love potion so fine
that hearts float up above us
all the time (all the time)

I want her to do that funky dance we always do
I hope she likes my safety goggles
because the chemistry between us two
is made by throwing little bottles

Lab girl with green hair
throwing flasks up in the air
mixing love up just for me
while keeping perfect time
you’ll bag up these hearts of mine
with your rhythmic shaking motion
let’s mix up more of our love potion

Link: “Dale of the Wind LIVE”
Release Date: Unknown
Original Name: “Valley of the Wind”
Game: Xenogears, PlayStation, 1998
Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda
Links: My Original Arrangement
Notes: Credits: Piano (R. Toung), Cello (D. Pinkham), Violin (S. Goto).

Link: “Inori/You Raise Me Up”
Release Date: May 8, 2008
Original Name: “You Raise Me Up”
Composer: Rolf Løvland
Equipment Used: Sonar 7, Motif ES8, ME-NV1, Kontakt 3, and some cheap Chinese condenser mic

Notes: I quickly threw this song together to test out the new features of Sonar 7. I used to be a long-time Sonar user, but have been using Samplitude for a few years now. This song was a way for me to test Sonar’s newest version out. The short of it is that Sonar 7 performed poorly, and I’m very disappointed in how this song came out in the end.

Link: “Merry Little Christmas ’07”
Release Date: December 2007
Original Name: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Equipment Used: Samplitude 10, Motif ES8, AT 4047, ME-NV1

Notes: How many times can I cover this song?

Link: “Last Christmas ’07”
Release Date: December 2007
Original Name: “Last Christmas”
Equipment Used: Samplitude 10, Motif ES8, AT 4047, ME-NV1

Notes: Last Christmas, I gave you my heart. But the very next day, you gave it away.

Link: “Home Again”
Release Date: October 2005
Original Name: “Pollyanna”
Game: Earthbound, Super Nintendo, 1994
Composer: Hirokazu Tanaka
Links: Overclocked Remix
Equipment Used: Sonar 4

Notes: “Home Again” is something I slapped together at the last minute for Joe Cam’s Bound Together. “Pollyanna” is a song I never wanted to tackle. Anyway, this was fun. I threw in a surprise and made sure it was loud as hell for surprise effect.

Link: “Perfectly Strange”
Release Date: November, 2004
Equipment Used: Sonar, Native Instruments Kompakt, Motif ES8

Notes: I think I made it worse!

Link: “Beautiful Fall Afternoon”
Release Date: October, 2004
Equipment Used: Sonar, Motif ES8

Notes: I started writing something to test how cleanly I could record the ES8′s analog output. I used only tis synth as a sound source, and this song was the end result.

Link: “Close Your Eyes”
Release Date: October 2004
Original Name: various
Anime: Witch Hunter Robin, 2002
Composer: Iwasaki Taku
Links: Anime Remix
Equipment Used: Sonar

Notes: This arrangement is my takes on several of the great songs from Iwasaki Taku’s score from this highly stylized but decidedly mediocre anime.

Link: “Venus’ Lullaby”
Release Date: January 18, 2004
Original Name: “Venus Lighthouse”
Game: Golden Sun, Game Boy Advance, 2001
Composer: Motoi Sakuraba
Links:
Equipment Used: Roland String Collection

Notes: After spending some quality time with Golden Sun, I took notice of the Venus Lighthouse theme and thought that the melody would make a nice lullaby. It took some major reworking of the rhythms to make this work. The strings in this song are all from Roland’s String sample library.