Donkey Kong Country 3 - Frosty Frolics Synth Cover (Nil's Kawai K1v VST, Renoise Tracker)

Trying something different with this one! I usually stick with using hardware synths but I wanted to try to use Renoise with a couple VST plugins and see how it comes out. This seemed like a good song for it since it has a lot of loops throughout, and I really like how it turned out!
I have been using Daichi's Synth 1 VST for years (20?!) and it's a very "no BS" kind of synth plugin but it always is easy to use and sounds great! I guess it's based on the Nord Lead 2??? Either way, I used it for the main loops and basslines for this track.
I also used a really cool plugin that is an emulation of the Kawai K1 called "Nil's K1v". It has that lo-fi "crunchy" sample quality that a lot of 90s ROMplers and synths are known for and I think it works perfectly to get the plinky sounds that the original song has.
It was also nice just doing all the mixing in Renoise instead of doing a bunch of different tracks in Audacity and spendings tons of time getting the mix right. I'll admit, using a tracker for loops and drums is pretty straight forward but I found it pretty tedious to do melodies in the tracker format, especially compared to just manually playing them or using something like the Circuit. I really wanted to use the K1v though, so it was worth the extra effort !
I also did the video differently for this one, showing what I did in Renoise while the song is playing. And it features everybody’s (not!) favorite, Kiddy Kong!! Hopefully you guys like it and I might continue to do videos like this or similar in the future!
Thanks for checking it out and the support!
Original song by Eveline Fischer.
Cover sequenced in Renoise tracker and performed by MT. No midi rips or sound fonts used. Recorded in Audacity for Windows 11.

[@synthjazzwithlopiano]

Great job on this and I'm very pro switching back and forth between vsts and hardware. I think they both have something to teach.