Blaster Master (NES) - Area 2 Theme (All Instrument Cover)

It's been a bit over a year since I last played a tune from the Blaster Master soundtrack, so I decided to revisit it by playing the Area 2 theme! This is a tightly composed tune that has an intro, and then just cycles between two sections. The 1st section, despite having only two phrases, heavily features counterpoint similar to the main melodic line in the Area 1 theme from the same soundtrack. This song, featuring a shuffle in 3 feel, is also relatively similar to the Stage 3 song from Batman on the NES, another classic Sunsoft game with a great soundtrack.

For this arrangement, I added a harmony to the intro melody, but didn't add counterpoint since I didn't want to overwhelm the original melody. I arranged the main melodies on guitar, but also added a keyboard squarewave part to try and maintain more of an NES feel to the arrangement. For the drums, rather than go with a pure shuffle, I wanted to keep the fat kick and snare groove of the original game locked into the bass line, but I went with a mostly straight ahead feel on top.

The recording was my usual production with guitars double tracked thru a mic'd up Fender Cybertwin, bass and keyboard direct in, and drums mic'd with my usual configuration. It's very interesting to listen to this mix compared to my cover of the Area 1 theme as both had similar production, but I think the mix is better overall in this one, particularly the drums.

Anyway, hopefully you're enjoying the evolution of production on this channel! If you liked what you heard, comment below and subscribe to the channel!

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