FictionJunction 4th Single - distance/eternal blue

[KP-X]

distance: don't care about it
Eternal Blue: FJ

 

[aki]

I feel like eternal blue should have been the title track...
but I like both songs a lot
ah, I want to hear the live versions...then the songs will have more power in them

 

[Mwhlr]

Re:

etsanarr buruuuuuu: Yet again, it has a pretty pathetic sound. It's like they didn't even try to put any bang to their buck, and it sounds pretty quiet and unimpressive.

Edit: Maybe it's my headphones? But Parallel Hearts and Stone Cold and all the other songs save for Toki no Mukou sound like they've got a lot of wham in the delivery, so idk.

No, I see what you're saying here. It's true that Etonerr Buruuuu is lacking a bit of punch. I think some of the blame is on the drums (They needed Kyoichi Sato!!!!) and bass - when the basic groove is going, the rhythm section sound very flat and far off (Although the fills sound quite good). Compare it directly to Parallel Hearts, where the snare drum really snaps through the mix, and it seems very lackluster. Is it just me or is their also a disconnected sound between the vocals and instruments at times, like the voices aren't in the thick of it? Don't get me wrong, I really like the song, but the sound isn't quite right. Parallel hearts still is and always will be my favourite FJ song.

 

[ninetales]

^ Kyosama isn't the drummer? o_o

Actually, on that note, does anyone have booklet scans yet?

 

[Mwhlr]

Re:

^ Kyosama isn't the drummer? o_o

Actually, on that note, does anyone have booklet scans yet?

I could be totally wrong - Initially, I assumed it wasn't him as he seems to put thumbnails of the recordings he's been involved on his website. He has After Eden up there and one of Yuki Kajiura's solo albums, but nothing else. That's all I'm going on.

 

[sourbrick]

Eternal blue!! Ftw.. :)

 

[Eddie エディ]

Re:

^ Kyosama isn't the drummer? o_o

Actually, on that note, does anyone have booklet scans yet?

Liana posted the scans a few pages ago, it looks like it was Sato Kyoichi that did the drums for both songs

 

[ninetales]

^ Wow, the goldfish completely missed it. Thanx for letting me know ^^;

Anyway, musicians:

Distance:
Guitar: Koichi Korenaga
Drums: Kyoichi Satou
Bass: Tomoharu "Jr" Takahashi
Strings: Hitoshi Konno Strings

Eternal Blue:
Guitar: Koichi Korenaga
Drums: Kyoichi Satou
Bass: Tomoharu "Jr" Takahashi
Violin: Hitoshi Konno

Also, Yuriko looks absolutely horrible in the insert picture. I think she needs some coaching on how to pose properly, and the photographer needs to be more gentle with her...

 

[LianaIlia36]

^lol it's okay, thanks for translating. Is anything cool on the sides of the scans? (And I thought so too with Yuriko, I was like what is that pose? Maybe she was trying something funny, not sure)

 

[george1234]

^ To me all of their poses looked strange (Yuki with closed eyes etv) just how much in a hurry were they ?

thanks for the credits niney!

It feels like this should be a boss single, but listening to it gives me the impression that it's really unpolished. The instruments don't really sound like they're supporting the singers and they sound more like they're trying to goad them into a shouting match to see who's loudest instead. That's probably why the voices don't feel to me like they have a lot of strength to them, even though the singers themselves sound pretty awesome, Wakana and Keiko especially.

Imo its all about bad mixing. Remember that Yuki had said in an interview that each of the singers is recorded alone and then each of their recordings are mixed together (along with the instrumental, which is also recorded separately, I guess) to produce the final song, and adjustment to their voices is done during it for example, if the Manten studio live video was the recording they used for the CD version of the song, then alot of adustment should have taken place because they sound alot different compared to the CD ver, but there's a high possibility it was a different one

 

[alarictay]

Distance
I think that this song is decent It's very FJ-ish, and yes it does sound manten like, mainly the starting verses for a few reason
1.) Violin used
2.) Canon like parts with Keiko as harmony
But i felt that the chorus was delightful
I enjoyed the Kajiuran-part alot (Yuriko's voice makes everything sound soo fluffy and light)

@George: It's a little hard to explain. There are key changes that are "connected" in music - for example, going from A minor to C major, or from A minor to D minor. However, the changes in Distance don't sound like they have that "connection" to me - I'm reasonably sure that the verses are in E minor and the choruses are in G minor, which are technically connected (E minor goes up to G major, so just change major to minor) but they don't "flow" into each other, they just change out of nowhere, especially between verses and choruses. It sounds as though YK said "let's put key changes in" and did it without making it fit well. tbh she seems to be doing that a lot lately - TTB, Manten, and Yane no mukou ni all come to mind

I realised that too, she is most likely pivoting on a note instead of chord, because when one pivots with a chord they need
1.) Establish original chord
2.) Establish pivot chord
3.) Establish new Key signature
4.) Finish off with perfect cadence (5-1) to complete the modulation

While a pivot note is basically just adding accidentals and ignoring step 1-2 which gives it a rather disconnect, sudden feel, also it could be due to after key changing, instead of using (5-1), she uses an interrupted cadence(5-6) which makes even more abrupt. Moreover, when connecting from verse to chorus, normally an imperfect cadence is used (1,2,4,6-5)and normally followed by with a interrupted cadence (5-6), but when a modulation is added at this point, it can the song very "rushed sounding?"
Alot of recent pop-music have been doing these weird key changes for example, Kimi no Shinwa (Aquarion Evol OP1) has these weird key changes at the chorus
Overall: 6.5/10 for it

Eternal Blue
I just love the violin in this song
And the guitar at the end! GOGOGO! Korenaga
Other than that, there is still those key-changes niney mentioned,
but wakana sounds more relaxed in this song, more vibrato XD
Overall: 7/10

does composing music involves Math ?

Kinda
U kinda need math in counting your notes, counting for parallel 5ths and 8ves (correct me if i'm wrong but does this apply for pop-music too?)
Its really not easy to compose XD
It takes me 1-2days to compose a 2-3min piano piece,
and u still need to modify if constantly, making sure it doesnt bore the audience out...well thats only for piano composition...
For music on Kajiura-sama level, you still have synthesizing, arrangement for the other instruments, singers, etc etc etc...
Yes there is math involve, but i think determination is more important
it gets really tiring though...

 

[Mwhlr]

Re:

Drums: Kyoichi Satou

Oh well - In which case, I am disappointed - The mix really doesn't bring out the power of his playing.

Imo its all about bad mixing. Remember that Yuki had said in an interview that each of the singers is recorded alone and then each of their recordings are mixed together (along with the instrumental, which is also recorded separately, I guess) to produce the final song, and adjustment to their voices is done

Yeh, even through my studio monitors (which are very good), the piece still sounds a bit underwhelming and the drums still sound off. It's like they were mixed separately, instead of with the rest of the piece. If they were brought out a bit more, I think it would fix most of the problem. It's something I have noticed in Yuki's mixes - A lot of them have the drums quite far back in the mix. Is this something that's standard for J-pop? Listening to Distance, it's the same. You can't even hear the snare drum half the time.

On a side note, as it just came on, the rhythm section in Destination Unknown sounds great. It's huge.

then alot of adustment should have taken place because they sound alot different compared to the CD ver, but there's a high possibility it was a different one

I think that live studio version was more a performance thing, to be broadcast on TV? That wouldn't have been the actual recording session. I guess it allows the producers/whoever to get a higher quality recording of them.

Not wanting to go off-topic, but as we are talking about mixes and things, what do the majority of you listen to your music on? Do you use earphones, ear buds, computer speakers, Hifi etc? Are there any other audiophiles out there?

 

[ZoaKaizer]

Re: Re:

does composing music involves Math ?

Kinda
U kinda need math in counting your notes, counting for parallel 5ths and 8ves (correct me if i'm wrong but does this apply for pop-music too?)
Its really not easy to compose XD
It takes me 1-2days to compose a 2-3min piano piece,
and u still need to modify if constantly, making sure it doesnt bore the audience out...well thats only for piano composition...
For music on Kajiura-sama level, you still have synthesizing, arrangement for the other instruments, singers, etc etc etc...
Yes there is math involve, but i think determination is more important
it gets really tiring though...

wow !


I thought yuki composed her musics using her feeling trying to imagine a sound that good to hear

well, what i like fom yuki's song is because i feel yuki put more emotion to her song compared to other mainstream musics who dont

i Believe she watched the anime/play the game first to get the emotion of the whole anime/game for deciding that kind of feeling the song will be

 

[ritardando]

Re:

Not impressed at all with Distance. The opening (very beginning till drums segue) was very good despite pinched Wakana, but it went to Manten arrange + Kagayaku composition from there. I won't expound on the subject of the random key changes, or on Keiko's "talking" line in the second verse.

I notice Wakana sounds much more like herself (lol @ my choice of words) in Eternal Blue, likely because it was recorded around a year ago. This is the usual FJ imo, right down to the arrange, but it shows an original that Distance doesn't have. I might have bought this single w/out Distance in it.

Completely agree with ninetales. The best part of distance is Yuriko's final kajiuran part for me
Keiko's line in distance is somewhat forced to be there for me,although I understand why she had to sing it like that (her lines lack 1 syllable than Kaori's line on the same part), buy anyway I love her bridge in eternal blue. Seems like Keiko is our bridge singer in FJ A-sides.

Kajiura should give Yuriko more lines outside of Kajiuran, though. She even didn't have that much lines on the Japanese part of the songs as a chorus.

 

[george1234]

@ Mwhlr: I use my new laptop's built-in speakers which are quite good. I used to listen to songs with ipod until 3 years ago but I stopped when I noticed that it damages hearing.

 

[elcazador]

http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/fj/

 

[ritardando]

^
Yuriko looked so old. Kajiura is somewhat chubbier. Kaori's outfit is so plain.

 

[george1234]

thanks elcazador! The picture is much better than the one that's inside the booklet

 

[ninetales]

Re:

Kinda
U kinda need math in counting your notes, counting for parallel 5ths and 8ves (correct me if i'm wrong but does this apply for pop-music too?)
Its really not easy to compose XD
It takes me 1-2days to compose a 2-3min piano piece,
and u still need to modify if constantly, making sure it doesnt bore the audience out...well thats only for piano composition...
For music on Kajiura-sama level, you still have synthesizing, arrangement for the other instruments, singers, etc etc etc...
Yes there is math involve, but i think determination is more important
it gets really tiring though...

I do it instinctively, lol.
Probably why my compositions are awful, eh?

@ Mwhlr: I use my new laptop's built-in speakers which are quite good. I used to listen to songs with ipod until 3 years ago but I stopped when I noticed that it damages hearing.

IMO there are no good built-in laptop speakers - not enough room for solid bass, and from my experience they tend to distort. Judging by the ones in my laptop, which isn't low-end.
Also, I have it from a reputable medical source that your hearing isn't damaged by headphones unless you're blasting volume - but earbuds are a different story because they're in your ears. I always use Sony headphones myself. They tend to beat my Sennheisers, the irony

 

[Kobalos]

No, I see what you're saying here.

Thank God it's not just me, then!

Nobody had mentioned anything so I wondered if it were just my sound system or something.

You're probably right in what you say about the drums and bass, though.

I don't really know much at all about musical terms or theory, so I can't say anything other than "it sounds weak!" and hope you understand;;

But, saying that, I was always told by my bass teacher than it's the job of both the bassist and the drummer to keep the tempo and carry the song, which fits in with the rest of your post.

Imo its all about bad mixing.

Sounds logical! But, then, why does the similar-sounding Manten pack that punch while Distance doesn't?

I know that I said Hikaru's powerful and harsher voice contrasts really well to Wakana's smoother sounding tragic voice, but that can't be it...

I can hear the drums and the bass clearer in Manten, so maybe it really is that. It's just weird that Kajiura can make Manten sound pretty much awesome but then fall down on a very similar song.

I thought yuki composed her musics using her feeling trying to imagine a sound that good to hear

That's what I always did when I composed for my high school music class, but we had a Mac program to use so I dunno if it's any different from other types. Although I heard that a lot of mainstream artists use that program to compose, so idk.

Not wanting to go off-topic, but as we are talking about mixes and things, what do the majority of you listen to your music on? Do you use earphones, ear buds, computer speakers, Hifi etc? Are there any other audiophiles out there?

I just go into a shop and buy the cheapest non-crappy iPod things I can find, which are usually earbuds. I dunno enough about sound systems to anything but ask the guy who works where I buy them.

but earbuds are a different story because they're in your ears.

...Looks like I'm finally going to have to fork out for some headphones, then.