Vampire Killer music contest - Update: The results

Who doesn't know Banjo Guy Ollie? He's the guy responsible for the MSX Mansion series and lots of game covers on a variety of traditional instruments. One of the MSX related games he covered is the well known Konami game Vampire Killer of which he made several covers in his Castlevania playlist.

During the years people have asked him to release stripped down versions of his covers. Probably with the goal of playing the lead on their own instrument along with it. As of now he did and attached a contest to it. The idea is to download the backing track from his dropbox, get an instrument you own or can get your hands on and play along with it. Any instrument goes. It doesn't matter if you're comfortable with it or not. But that's not it.
You have to play the lead, record a video while doing so and mix it with the provided track and release it as a public video on youtube before the deadline of december 2nd 11:59pm.

Watch the maestro himself explain the rules and provide you with the link to the backing track in his The Banjo Guy Ollie Castlevania Challenge video

Good luck to all contenders.

The updates are in. Check the video of the review or have a look at all the entries in the playlist.

Comments (36)

By Vampier

Prophet (2415)

24-11-2017, 00:24

Dusting off my triangle .... get ready for some furious shredding!!

By meits

Scribe (6576)

24-11-2017, 01:52

I am praticing a bit and aim to participate with some instruments, but damn this demand of a camera. I understand he wants prove that it's being played manually, but I am too ugly for that and therefore quite cam-shy

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10135)

24-11-2017, 08:09

Maybe you can use a pov-cam, worn on your forehead, looking at your instrument?

By ro

Scribe (5063)

24-11-2017, 12:57

I'm not gonna look at your instrument! The horror.

Great initiative, see what peeps come up with.

By Grauw

Ascended (10821)

24-11-2017, 14:37

What, Meits, I would love to see your mug on camera every day of the week.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5684)

24-11-2017, 23:59

I've seen some really ugly youtubers, Meits. Even worse than you and I. Sometimes I even avoid eating when watching videos of them. I think you'll do allright.

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

27-11-2017, 16:55

Ok, stop eating!

By meits

Scribe (6576)

27-11-2017, 23:43

Breaking cups and glasses

By Louthrax

Prophet (2497)

28-11-2017, 00:29

OMG, both of you guys made my day!

@Hamlet: your composition is so inspired! Even if the melody can be recognized, it sounds so different (that's what I prefer in covers) and a bit melancholic compared to the original... Accordeon can sound so nice, that reminds me of bit of Amelie Poulain's sound track. That's simply great...

@Meits: Just can't stop laughing while watching your video :)

[EDIT]: Now waiting for live versions of both in Nijmegen 2018!

By evulopah

Paladin (669)

28-11-2017, 09:15

@Meits: LMAO - your creativity is endless, too bad you hate drawing pixels otherwise you presented every half year a music disk to the community

By olonguet

Resident (46)

28-11-2017, 10:22

gotta say these are the most creative entries so far for sure

By ren

Paragon (1947)

28-11-2017, 16:55

Very cool guys!

Btw that's not acutally Meits himself in that video or is it? (In that case he's looking way different compared to some pics I've seen him 'tagged' on here in the gallery )

@Hamlet: very nice! Gonna mix it with the official backing track as well?

For accordion lovers, I've been enjoying this one recently as well: Sound Sepher - Scarlet Rose (from the album Megalomachia2) (not related to this contest or VK, but cool tune if you don't know it already ;))

-edit: Listening to it.. - could actually fit the Castlevania series :)

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

28-11-2017, 22:36

Well Meits, as a good father, I always hoped my daughter want to learn a instrument. If it isn´t accordeon than piano. No. She denied flute and tambourine. But after watching your video, she wants to get a glass player.
Thanks for that!

@ren
I´m afraid you can´t mix that piece with the original backtrack. I´d played it in a different pitch and without listening to the backtrack. The headphones I´m wearing are only for show, to look more professional. (Saw that on a Anastasia video in 2002 and sworn to myself to to that also if I ever will do a music video.)

By meits

Scribe (6576)

28-11-2017, 23:18

Now I'm done...
In the discription I added a few notes which are quite important:

I had recorder flute lessons in 1986. I bought one just to have one in 2004 and picked it up just this week to do this.
Because some grip transitions are too fast for my unpracticed hands I used the keys of my synthesizers to fill up those gaps.
I am no star in keeping a spot on timing.
My Sony Vegas (in which I edited the video) skills are below freezing point.
The fun I had with the cups and glasses was not present now because I wanted to be serious and that took some patience and energy.

If you take these notes in concideration and don't watch too sharp and listen too closely, I hope you don't mind I uploaded this video.

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

28-11-2017, 23:25

Great one!
And serious!

By Louthrax

Prophet (2497)

01-12-2017, 15:34

Those videos deserved a little MSX conversion (in screen 4 + Music Module). Hamlet and Meits, let me know if you're OK with that, or want messages or links added in the video description.

Meits: your super-accurate beats made me realize there's a lag my video player :)

By meits

Scribe (6576)

01-12-2017, 15:52

Louthrax: Please use this one if you want to play around. I redid it a bit. I fixed some timing errors. I later found out that I only fixed the errors in the audio so the video is not 100% accurate in the first flute part (anymore). The second flute part has been recorded on half the speed and is played back on the normal speed. This might have affected the video. Some time stretching was involved since my older, unpracticed fingers couldn't do anymore what they learned 31 years ago.

By syn

Prophet (2135)

01-12-2017, 15:56

I had a kickass idea for this contest, inspired by all your cool awesome entries. Unfortunately I didn't have time. Perhaps I will upload a video later. Anyway I truly enjoyed your vids, my favourite was meits water cup cover.

By meits

Scribe (6576)

01-12-2017, 17:18

And so you see that with the least amount of effort the biggest amount of joy can be achieved. In the time I needed to record the flute in the second video, the whole glasses and cups video was recorded and rendered.
I must admit I did have a lot more fun in the glasses and cups video as well, since it's just so silly to begin with. Especially the one detuned cup which turned out to be just utterly false after one night of sleep. Keep it in, it adds fun

This cups and glasses vid only exists because I wasn't sure how ambitious a serious entry would be and I am very cam-shy... Flute faces tend to look quite silly. So actually the first vid was some kind of ice breaker for myseld

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

01-12-2017, 17:52

Yes, I can feel the fun you had when making the cups vid. The serious one is a-ok, please don´t misunderstood, but it is really a pleasure to watch the first one!
And Louthrax, of course, you´re welcome!

By meits

Scribe (6576)

01-12-2017, 18:05

I mean, hey

By Louthrax

Prophet (2497)

01-12-2017, 18:37

Meits wrote:

I mean, hey

Best "making-of" I've seen recently :)

By Pac

Scribe (7108)

01-12-2017, 19:58

I've just started to follow the reactions here and I find these great videos! Meits, one more!

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

01-12-2017, 20:42

This is really great stuff Meits. I know you are to shy to recognize, but watching that makes a lot of people happy!

By yzi

Champion (444)

02-12-2017, 22:33

Aaargh. Too late. Can we have a deadline extension?

By ren

Paragon (1947)

02-12-2017, 22:56

In a recent YT comment he responded to someone mentioning the deadline is not that tight, and Sunday/Monday is fine too. Not sure after that

By syn

Prophet (2135)

03-12-2017, 00:03

hopefully i can cook up something tomorrow then!

By yzi

Champion (444)

03-12-2017, 00:45

The tune was too fast for me, so I slowed down the backing track and played some bluesy pop stuff on top of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQoUrQsJzyE

Maybe tomorrow I'll try with the proper tempo.
I have no idea what the original melody is like, and didn't want to know, sorry. :) I thought it would be a better contribution to the contest this way.

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

03-12-2017, 09:13

Like that! This is a complete new interpretation and that makes a good cover.

By olonguet

Resident (46)

03-12-2017, 11:56

syn, the deadline's not super hard set in stone so it's ok if you submit sth a bit late too
I prob won't get a chance to work on the results before monday/tuesday anyway

By Metalion

Paragon (1628)