ReMix:Vampire Killer "Wicked Chip" 3:15

Chipsylvania! Jorito (Jorrith Schaap) & drummer Erik Vreven take on the MSX's intuitively-titled Vampire Killer (because that's what you DO), Japanese cousin to the original NES Castlevania, with a sweet chiptune/d'n'b jam:

"My drummer friend Erik wanted to create a drum 'n bass-ish groove for Vampire Killer's "Wicked Child" song by using the original game song and adding live drums and some sub bass to it. I thought we could do better and started remixing the song from scratch. As always, things got out of hand and it turned into a groovy chiptune DnB combo with live drums and vocoded voices.

This track took a looooong time to finish; we started it in July 2014 and it was finished only in March 2015. I guess that's what happens when real life catches up with you and puts you out of composing business for 6 months. Still, the track benefited a lot from this seasoning and the helpful feedback in the Workshop forums and, for a first try at something chiptune-y, I'm rather proud of it.

Took me a while, but here's a resub. Mostly did production stuff like EQ and volume balancing, but I also re-recorded most of the vocoded vocals and changed the drum samples. I liked Emunator's idea of having the song break wide open after the intro, so the intro is deliberately dry, mono chiptune instruments and drums."

I personally love the vocoded element that Jorito has been incorporating recently - adds something different, sounds cool & musical, and enhances the arrangement. Works well again here, even if it's a bit more minimal & involves approx. 100% less Rick Astley. Straight chip intros before things take off; the aesthetic stays very grounded in chiptune elements, but things widen out, FX are added, vocoder comes in, and of course dem drums kick the beat up. And what's this? A badass breakdown and synth solo? Yes, thank you. Sir_NutS pretty much sums it up:

"I liked the usage of chip sounds, and you managed to use different pulse width settings on the different leads to keep things interesting. I of course loved the vocoding as I have a huge bias towards them. Still the usage here was on point to accentuate certain sections. The arrangement is strong here as we've come to expect from Jorito, with extensive interpretation and additions to the original melody. You did a great job keeping familiarity without falling into repetition."

Well said; VERY fun chip'n'b romp of a version of a familiar classic from a less familiar entry in the franchise - enjoy! Kill vampire!