A Sensational City/Miscreant’s Melody

Track 2-15: A Sensational City (Day/Night)

This is one of the soundtrack’s showcase tracks, making it viscerally clear how far the world of OCTOPATH TRAVELER II has come. That sleek, metropolitan vibe really conveys the sense of a civilization ready and raring to go.

In terms of genre, it seems fair to group it with jazz, but there are a few classical elements—for example, the string ensemble is the foundation of the sound. George Gershwin was one point of reference here.

There are a few elements that make music like this feel jazzy, but one of the most important is the distinctive rhythm called swing. Essentially, this means structuring the music so that notes that would usually be played evenly are played with a bouncy triplet rhythm instead.

That swing rhythm runs through the whole piece, providing a basic groove on which jazzy instruments like vibraphone and trumpet play the melody to build the overall sound.

In the night version, the trumpet’s tone is altered with a sound-dampening device called a mute. Attaching a mute to a trumpet not only lowers the volume, it also changes the timbre. I asked the trumpeter to attach the mute because that altered timbre was what I wanted to capture.

There are actually several different kinds of mute—straight, plunger, and so on—and each one changes the sound in different ways. When recording, I ask trumpeters to use the mute that gives the sound I want.

Also, the swinging drums in the night version of the piece are played with brushes instead of sticks, conjuring up the mysterious, moody streets of an after-hours metropolis.

Track 2-17: Miscreant’s Melody

The world of OCTOPATH TRAVELER is home to great evils, but there are also lesser baddies with a slightly inept air to them. This piece plays when these—yes—miscreants make their appearance. I wrote it to accompany dastardly plots and dirty deeds, but without much of a sense of terror.

The finger snaps in the piece were also recorded live. You can record this kind of sound with a single performer, by overdubbing (recording multiple times and overlaying the sound, so that it sounds like multiple people are performing at once), but the sound of a finger snap varies wildly from person to person, and it’s that blend of sounds that makes for an effective finger snap sound, right? So, the whole staff trooped down to the studio—including me, of course!—to be recorded. I hope you’ll agree that this minor inconvenience was worth it, haha!

Translation: Matt Treyvaud