Album Blog Vol.1

As I mentioned last month, I want to take a bit to talk about the songs I produced for the recent hololive album.

Considering the news we got today about Fauna's graduation I want to start with her's, just as I did for the album. Here's what I wrote when I sent the song over:

-The tempo was our primary issue! As I mentioned, I found a way to make the tempo work by doubling the time from 97bpm to 194bpm, and then lowering said bpm to around the eurobeat range. I ended up at 174bpm this time, as I feel it strikes a good balance between the original, and the lower tempo that fits the arrangement style of the genre. I think it ended up working brilliantly well. I can also make a demo as initially agreed, trying to increase the bpm from 97 directly, however it'll start becoming unpleasantly busy around the 120 range, which is still a fair bit off from the optimal range, which tends to be around 150-170, with 140 to 180 being still very workable.

-Given just how silly the initial idea of making a high energy dance track out of an ASMR-like calm bossa nova song, the arrange itself of course doesn't take itself very seriously, but I did my best to make a somewhat cohesive work, even if it did inevitably end up being quite funny just by its nature. -Due to the still relatively high bpm, the arrangement itself is very heavy on the offbeat and 8th notes, as opposed to focusing more on incorporating 16th notes, as those quickly became a blur given the tempo, and I didn't really like how much it clashed with the vocals both musically and thematically.

-For the vocals, I ended up bringing them quite far up front, though even then, given their very "round" character, and quiet and breathy nature, maybe they might still not be present enough, considering how busy and bright the arrangement itself is? I'm happy to work on this more, especially given that the focus of the project will be the talents themselves, of course.

-Being a Touhou arranger myself, I'm a big fan of Shibayan Records' works so I wanted to pay homage to their bossa nova style by starting the intro off with an acoustic guitar, as well as incorporating the bossa nova rhythm and chord structure to the riff itself, which this time focuses on steadily paced, large and lush chord stacks as opposed to faster more driving styles of monophonic riffs. I also opted to add a calmer acoustic guitar solo in the style in place of the usual high gain rock solo,, but I think it fits the song better, though I feel like I'll need to ultimately look for a better sound source for the part. I think it'll also be something that people who are fans of Fauna's calmer and soothing side will quite like, which is something i wanted to pay close attention to when making choices for the arrangement.

I have an urgent deadline to catch, so I'll be expanding this post soon, but in the meanwhile I would also like to use this post to answer any questions you might have about anything concerning the production! About sound design, arrange choices, anything you might be curious about, I'll try to answer to the best of my ability!