Nier Replicant (PS3) - Song of the Ancients Devola (All Instrument Cover)

Here's a cover of Song of the Ancients from PS3's 2010 game, Nier (later re-released as Nier Replicant and Nier Automata). This is the Devola version which is played in the first town in the game and is one of several standout tracks from the game, most of which heavily feature acoustic guitar, vocals, and general melancholy!
For this cover, I arranged the vocals for lead guitar. For drums, I recorded two acoustic drum parts. One was recorded at double the tempo of the song, then slowed to the correct tempo to create a janky feel and artifacts on the slowed down elements in the kit. This drum kit was recorded with close mics only. A 2nd drum part was recorded playing a more traditional backbeat and groove with fills and accents, however, this kit was recorded only with overheads and a room mic. Recording the two kits this way allowed them to blend together. I comped a bass line after recording the acoustic guitars to compliment the original arrangement and balance out the acoustic guitars. Finally, I improvised a keyboard part using a clean piano sound run through distortion, blended with a synth later in the track.
This was a fun tune to put together with some experimental production, hopefully you enjoyed it!
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[@doggtown]

Clean

[@WilliamEly]

I don't know if I have the mental fortitude to play the Nier games again 😂 Thank you for another great cover. I like the level of detail you put in the description. I'm not a musician but it's interesting to read about your process.

[@thesosomusician]

Nier was rough with the random item drops, but it wasn't as rough as the Drakengard 3 final boss! I'm glad to hear you enjoy the descriptions, I rarely get feedback on them! I'm definitely big into hearing how songs and records were tracked.

[@doggtown]

Let's face it, it's the outfits all the way.

[@thesosomusician]

Ha! I thought it was a good game, story got a bit abstract but was still good!