Thriller (VRC6 Cover)

Posted by virt on August 19th, 2004 filed in Chiptunes, Other Arrangements

Best pop song of all time, hands down. I figured it had to be the one song I’d allow myself to use vrc6 sounds to cover, since doing it with the normal 2A03 channels would have been much more simplistic and arpeggiated. If all that is greek to you: This is a cover of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, NES style, with a few extra harmony voices courtesy of a special add-in chip used in such games as Castlevania 3 (japanese version only). It sounds thicker than a normal nintendo chiptune, if only by a little.

Download file:





39 Responses to “Thriller (VRC6 Cover)”

  1. Ektopia » Virt’s Console Tunes Says:

    [...] Virt’s Console Tunes Filed under: Music  - Posted by Reevo Virt is another musician that uses consoles to make many of his his tunes. This time it’s the Nintendo [...]

  2. bora bora Says:

    i hope that you have seen the video. it will probably be the basis of my nightmares tonight. :’(

  3. mad mott: beyond thunderdome Says:

    what do you mean you havent hearned nsf yet?!?!?!

    also, you should have done an extended “video mix” as well, but i suppose this is ok.

  4. you Says:

    You think Zelda would be a good game to remake the video using the cover?

  5. Twinbee Says:

    -It’s like listening to an extended Prost8’s theme! Rock!

  6. Kaminari Says:

    Virt, this is huge stuff! Wish I could do the same on the PC Engine ;_;

  7. Mike Moore Says:

    Superb job! Even goes right along with the singing exceptionally well!

  8. Jacob Carpenter .com Says:

    mmmmm… videogame music

  9. Jacob Carpenter .com Says:

    mmmmm… videogame music

  10. Tommy Walker Says:

    amazing. perfect in fact

  11. jay Says:

    Bravo! Maestro, virt. Excellent work.

  12. jay is Says:

    got game music?
    Jake Kaufman is amazing with a 6-bit sound chip, the Konami VRCVI chip to be precise. The chip contained sounds that were used in Konami games for the Famicom such as Castlevania and Madara. Jake has used the same sounds…

  13. RushJet1 Says:

    6-bit what?!

  14. midee Says:

    i love swedish dicks

  15. Pien Says:

    So when is your new stuff coming on Nectarine? ;P

  16. virt Says:

    uhh i don’t know. you tell me! all of my stuff that’s there was submitted without my permission by somebody else. i don’t really care, but i never would have put up half the stuff that’s there, and a lot of information/conjecture is incorrect (like what’s tracked/sequenced, and one guy accuses me of “ripping” various things that are clearly marked as covers on my site.)

    i’m happiest when my music is taken in all at once here, instead of bits and pieces of joke tunes at a euro-scener site. it’s irritating when people judge things out of context.

  17. Wilfred Castillo Says:

    Tight NES cover song! I’m very impressed!

  18. Jesse Says:

    This is terrifyingly good.

  19. Jason Artman Says:

    Extremely well done, as always! I’d have to make a case for “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel as the best pop song of all time, though. ;-)

  20. Elrinth Says:

    Oi, how bout u do cover o’… errm, lezze see. Megaman 2 – Airman (xm-style or sumthin) OR Golden Axe½! Yeah, no one’s done a great Golden axe remix!

  21. mergedandsplurged Says:

    this is the product of talent gone haywire.

  22. DOACleric Says:

    Wow, this is simply awesome. Now all someone needs to do is make the entire Thriller video in flash with little NES sprites dancing around to this music. How awesome would that be? :)

  23. Aeroflot Says:

    Great! I admire your skills! You must Be a MASTER! And I don’t really speaked Engrihs! A great song, just like always. ;)

  24. Nicholas Gregory Turco (BEEJ) Says:

    virt you got it wrong again. Billie Jean is obviously the best pop song ever

  25. Adam Says:

    Wow. That’s really impressive… your previous pop-to-chip conversions were really amusing, but certainly not what I’d call *good* music. They were jokes, really. But this one, if I didn’t know the original, I wouldn’t have any trouble believing this came from a game. And yet, knowing the original, it also sounds pretty much like the same song. That’s an impressive feat, and I hope to see more like it in the future!

  26. LiquidNasty Says:

    My brother burned this to a CD and plays it frequently in the café where he works. People generally love it in a ‘what the fuck?’ kind of way.

  27. dead sea blogs Says:

    [...] purists like me (s3m is ultra small and plays in winamp.. 125k) or the mp3 version if you prefer .. Link Two links for the Halo fans in the crowd.. Details of a movie theatre converting their screens into [...]

  28. John Says:

    Have a cover of thriller I did on a motif 6

    http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=117764652

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    Boy Smooth

  31. Andres Says:

    how i can download it?? i press free download mp3 and it send me to a internet page with a quik time aplication, but i can download it to my computer

  32. DJ Bouche Says:

    This has to be the best Thriller cover… and also the best chiptune cover I’ve ever heard.

    It’s so amazingly accurate from the music being pretty much note for note perfect, envelopes, use of timbre, melody is spot on up to the Michael Jackson gasps and vocal effects, the howling of the wolves and the delay, the door slam, it’s all there. Just wow.

  33. FlozaxRollins Says:

    Excellent work! I lol’d at the ending, so great! A fitting tribute to the song, AND the time period!

  34. Thriller (NES-Version) | Superlevel Says:

    [...] (mehr / via Nerd Music) von Fabu in Audio Tags: chiptune michael jackson musik nes « Another Perfect World [...]

  35. supersly.com » Blog Archive » 8-bit Thriller… Says:

    [...] …and other good stuff, here. [...]

  36. richtaur / Blog / Michael Jackson in the Geek World Says:

    [...] the music so far? Then be sure to check out the perfect Thriller chiptune cover by the ridiculously talented Jake Kaufman. It’s an incredibly faithful version of the [...]

  37. Game Retail Store » Sound Current: Andy Baio on Kickstarting ‘Kind of Bloop’ Says:

    [...] to all of his compositions for at least five years, since around the time he came out with the Michael Jackson cover. He was a friend of a friend, and I decided to ask him pretty much out of the blue if he would join [...]

  38. Covers Says:

    [...] next is a tribute to the late King of Pop, who we recently discovered was murdered by drugs. This one is done with [...]

  39. Game Retail Store » Not Like The Other Mixes: Saitone’s 8Bit ‘Thriller’ Jam Says:

    [...] far from the first chiptune cover of “Thriller” — Jake “Virt” Kaufman released an excellent mix five years ago, and SeanBad’s more recent version is also worth a listen — but Saitone [...]

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