"Retribution for Eternal Night ~ Imperishable Night" Roland TTS-1 Remake

Описание: Remake number six! It's the Stage 4 theme from Imperishable Night, "Retribution for Eternal Night ~ Imperishable Night"; the perfect song for flying around a bamboo forest at blistering speeds at night while fighting off scores of fairies.

Production notes in the annotations, but if you are unable to read the annotations, there is a transcript below the links to the original versions. For the short version, I played around with some production techniques, and at this point, I think it would be more productive looking up the mixing techniques ZUN uses instead of instruments.

For this particular mix, I tried a few new techniques I picked up on Bobby Owsinki's "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Second Edition)". If you've got a library, music store, or book store nearby, give it a quick read; it's sections on Balance, Equalization, Mastering, and DAWs are worth the price alone.

Here is the original midi:    • [IN] Retribution for the Eternal Night ~ I...  
Here is the game version:    • IN Stage 4 Theme - Imperishable Night  


Annotation Transcript (if you want more transcripts, post a comment on the video you want transcripts for):

The following remake was made in an attempt to recreate ZUN's synth sounds with the Roland TTS-1, which allows careful editing of its midi patches. No other instruments were used.

The following patches were used (with channel numbers):
1. Piano 1 st.
2. FingerJBass
3. Steel Guitar (part of the bass)
4. Piano 2
5. Piano 2 st.
6. Harpsichord
7. Orchestra (replacing strings)
8. Slow Strings
9. Shamisen
10. Standard Set
11. Trumpet (-35 cutoff, 11 resonance, 3 attack, variable vibrato rate/depth automated by midi controllers)
12. Trumpet (-20 cutoff, 5 resonance, 2 attack, 11 vibrato depth, 8 vibrate delay)
13. Space Voice (for the opening synth with 77 portmanteau rate.
14. Room Set (for snare)
15. Laughing (for the youkai laugh)
16. Choir Aahs

The opening diving synth was a tad much for me (a dive down and then rise back up with increasing vibrato and cutoff), so I settled for a simplified version of it by only having the rising part. Cutoff and vibrato were both automated by midi controllers.

This section (0:21-0:36) mixes a shamisen with a harpsichord, compensating for eachother's missing frequencies.

This section (0:37-0:45) is where I discovered the missing choir section. If you listen closely to the original version, you'll hear a subtle choir in the background.

In the original midi, the snare is much quieter and the crashes are much louder. I dropped the crashes down to roughly 80 velocity while upping the snare to 110.

I recently got to play with the Romantic Tp's newest incarnation, the Mariachi Tp, on the Roland Fantom, and it turns out that theres actually a late attack, so I adjusted the attack for a smoother sound. Also, the Romantic/Mariachi Tp's vibrato increases with pitch, so I increased the vibrato rate with each octave.

The Laughing patch actually produces several laughs of various pitches. To match the laughs of the original, I only played the first laugh multiple times with descending velocities.

For this next [music] loop, I'd like to talk about mixing notes.

For this song, I've changed the mastering chain to...
1. Equilizer (lowpass at 36 hz)
2. Perfectspace Reverb (Performance Hall - Up Close at -9.0 db for extra reverb)
3. Vintage Channel 64 (Master Mix with more subtle compression)
4. UpStereo (Stereo enhancer, which I normally put before the compressor, but I'm trying it post-compression)
5. Boost11 (peak limiter with 9.0 db boost, peaking at -1.1 db)

With more subtle compression settings, I was able to up the recording volume from -20 db to -10 db without losing the punch.

I've noticed that in the original, ZUN uses heavy compression on the drums, so I may try experimenting with multiple outputs for a future song. (The TTS-1 can handle four outputs.)

Another thing to note is equalization of the different instruments, which I picked up on by reading Bobby Owsinki's "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Second Edition)": instruments on similar frequencies tend to "fight" eachother for attention, cancelling eachother out and confusing the listener's ears. In the originals, every sound tends to pop out with clarity. In some of my mixes (particularly my "Scarlet Beyond A Crimson Dream" remake), they tend to mesh together. Here, with so many instruments on similar frequencies, I had a good chance to start practicing this technique.

At this point, I'm less concerned about what instruments ZUN is using and more what mixing plugins he's using, his compression settings, and so on.

And before I forget, the image is by Yomogi Opa (Safebooru search yomogi_opa). Very few images, but the ones that are there feature some feirce danmaku battles.

Thanks for listening!

Youmu: And next week, you'll be hearing my Stage 5 theme, "Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple".

End Transcript