We hear from the engineers who took on the challenge of remixing it
Published on Phile Web, December 25, 2024. See the original article here.
Yamato Sound Almanac, 50th Premium Symphonic Suite Space Battleship Yamato 2024 Mix was released by Nippon Columbia in CD, LP, high-resolution, and spatial audio formats December 25th.
Using the latest technology, this is a remix of Symphonic Suite Space Battleship Yamato (released in 1977), which was an orchestral re-arrangement and re-composition of the score for the 1974 TV anime Space Battleship Yamato. The sound material originally used multi-track tape (16 channel), which presented an unprecedented challenge.
Phile Web conducted an interview with Hitoshi Yagi, who was in charge of planning the 2024 Mix, and Toshiyazu Shiozawa and Eri Kushimoto Eri of the Nippon Columbia Studio Technology Department, who were in charge of mixing. They talked about the appeal of the original Symphonic Suite album, the circumstances that led to the new departure of the 2024 Mix, and the challenges involved.
Mixing engineer Toshiyasu Shiozawa (left) and product planner Hitoshi Yagi (right)
“Should we really do this?” The journey to the creation of the remix album and its significance
Interviewer: Could you tell us about the process that led to the creation of 2024 Mix as a commemorative item for the 50th anniversary of the series’ broadcast?
Yagi: Since last year, various initiatives have been underway to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Bandai Namco Music Live is in charge of the music for the current REBEL 3199, and we at Columbia are in charge of the music for the older works. However, we had done everything we could with the Sound Almanac series that was released from 2012 to 2014, the 40th anniversary of the broadcast, so we started by coming up with ideas for what to do next.
Since we couldn’t let the 50th anniversary of the first series go by without releasing a commemorative title, we set our sights on the original 16-channel multi-track tape of Symphonic Suite Yamato released in 1977. Since there’s a business trend of releasing remix albums of old sound sources, the idea for 2024 Mix came from the idea of “why not try this with the Symphonic Suite?”
However, we had some conflicts about “remixing.” The recent remix albums that inspired the idea are also done by the original artists. Hiroshi Miyagawa, who composed the original score and arranged it for the Symphonic Suite, has passed away, so we wondered if it was okay for us to do it. After discussing these concerns with Yamato staff, other companies, and his son, Akira Miyagawa, who composes the music for the current series, we received their approval, and so we decided to move forward with this project.
Yagi also took great care in the jacket design,
which will be described later.
Another important element of this project was the archiving of the original material. The multi-track tapes we used were magnetic tapes from that time, so they will deteriorate even if they are properly stored. At some point, the sound source will need to be digitized, so we archived the recording materials from that time in conjunction with the commercialization of the product.
To mark the 50th anniversary, the process involved digitizing the existing multis using the latest technology. They were remixed and released as an “anniversary work” in a lineup that includes CDs, LP records, regular distribution, high-resolution distribution, and spatial audio. Also, the CDs released as part of the Sound Almanac project are still in circulation, so we hope you enjoy the difference between the original sound and the 2024 Mix.
Interviewer: Symphonic Suite Yamato has been released on CD many times, but could you briefly tell us about the journey that led to the Sound Almanac recording, which could be considered a culmination of all of these efforts?
Yagi: It was first released as a CD in 1985, then remastered as the Eternal Edition in 2004, the 30th anniversary of the series. Then in 2012, it was remastered again as the first release of the Sound Almanac series.
Yamato Sound Almanac1977-I, Symphonic Suite Yamato (2012)
The Sound Almanac series was created with the aim of “covering all existing mixes of the original Yamato,” something that has not been possible in previous anniversary projects. It was completed with 30 titles, including the special editions made for the original Yamato. Even now, ten years after its release, that understanding and significance has not changed. If there are any unreleased recordings, we may make more, and we will continue to develop it as a complete music collection.
In fact, the full title of this remix version is Yamato Sound Almanac, 50th Premium Symphonic Suite Space Battleship Yamato 2024 Mix with the hope that you will add the 2024 Mix to the Sound Almanac catalog. So, rather than 2024 Mix being the latest version of Symphonic Suite, we would be happy if you receive it as a separate work that presents a “new form of the old sound source” made from the original material.
Interviewer: By the way, the 16ch multi-track tape used as material this time was not newly unearthed was it?
Yagi: We were already aware of it. Originally, multi-track tapes are sometimes used to extract only the tracks necessary for a live performance, or as other performance materials, but in the case of Yamato, the screening of Final Yamato ended in 1983, and we had already exhausted the old material, so the idea of using multi-track tapes hadn’t occurred to us until now.
16-channel multi-track tape, the source material for the 2024 Mix
When it came to remixing using this multi-track material, the key point was “spatial audio.” I think there are cases where stereo is made to sound like 5.1ch for films, but that’s completely different musically from creating something from a multi-track tape. If that’s the case, then I thought it would be a good idea to try something musically on the 50th anniversary, and that’s how the spatial audio version came about. I think Mr. Shiozawa will tell you about the difficulties of this unprecedented approach. (Laughs)
The joys and difficulties of buying your first LP; getting to the heart of the 2024 Mix approach
Interviewer: Can you tell us about the challenges you faced in creating a remix sound source from a 16ch multi-track tape?
Shiozawa: This is a very personal story, but the original Symphonic Suite Yamato was actually the first LP record I ever bought with my pocket money when I was in elementary school. That’s why I have a special attachment to it. When I was asked to do the 2024 Mix project, I was filled with great joy. I took the plunge, thinking, “I really want to create a new sound!” But I’ve been listening to it for a long time, so I can’t seem to break away from the feeling of the LP sound source, and it’s ingrained in me. It was a real struggle to start with that realization.
Shiozawa has been highly praised for his work, including
receiving the Best Sound Award and Best Engineer Award
at the 30th Japan Professional Music Recording Awards.
Just like me, those who have been exposed to Symphonic Suite Yamato have a standard of, “this is the Yamato sound.” Therefore, even if you want to create something new, you can’t deviate too much from that standard. So for this remix, I approached it with the goal of “seeking new clarity.” Therefore, I never changed the fundamental sense of balance or positioning.
Even if you try to respect the mix done by the previous engineer as much as possible, a new engineer will still bring their own sensibilities to it. In that respect, I worked with Mr. Yagi, who was in charge of production, to listen to the mix over and over again, and we had many discussions about how it might be different from the original.
Again, since it was my original experience, I still have a strong image of Symphonic Suite Yamato. If I listen to it again carefully, I’m sure I’ll realize that it wasn’t like that, but I tried to mix it without destroying the sound I had in my mind when I listened to the record back then.
The concept we had in mind was to “make it clearer,” but it wasn’t as simple as that. For example, even if you simply increase the resolution of old footage, it will still look old, and if it looks too clear, it will be a problem. We didn’t want to make it too clear and move away from the image of Symphonic Suite Yamato, so we created it while retaining the good old sound.
Interviewer: Could you tell us about the process of digitizing from multi-track tape?
Shiozawa: First of all, the material is digital data imported from 16-channel multi-track tape, so I’d like to ask Mr. Kushimoto, who was in charge of that, to explain it.
Kushimoto: As Mr. Yagi mentioned earlier, the multi-track tape has never been used, and has been stored in a warehouse as archival material. It’s a 16-channel multi-track tape, so it’s very large in size, and if you keep something like this rolled up for a long time, the adhesive of the tape will seep out and deteriorate. If you play the tape in this state, it may peel apart, so we started by heat-treating the tape at a low temperature for about six hours.
Eri Kushimoto, a recording and mixing engineer at
Nippon Columbia. Kushimoto’s work won the 30th
Japan Professional Music Recording Award.
After heating and drying the tape, we check that the tape recorder is running at the specified speed and import it to be transformed into digital data. Also, the tape we used did not contain a front-end signal to adjust the frequency characteristics, etc. For this, we first adjusted it according to the regulations by using an MRL calibration tape that only records the adjustment signal for a tape recorder.
After that, when comparing it with the original sound source, for example, if there was a part that sounded like “a little bit of bass is missing,” we made some adjustments and tried to reproduce the sound of the time of recording at the import stage. By the way, the Studer A-80 tape recorder used in the production of 2024 Mix is the same equipment that recorded Symphonic Suite Yamato at the time. I has been maintained and is still in operation up to this day, not just for this occasion. The data was digitized in the form of a 96kHz/24bit wav file using AVID Pro Tools.
LEFT: The Studer A-80 tape recorder used for the recording at the time is still in use at Nippon Columbia.
RIGHT: On the day of the interview, we were able to listen to the raw sound of the tape. It is truly a gem that can be called a “resource,” containing the realism of the time, such as signals from conductor Hiroshi Miyagawa, that are not included in the finished product.
The tape audio was digitized using AVID Pro Tools
Interviewer: Please tell us about the technical aspects of the “clarification” that was done on the digital sound source.
Kushimoto: First, we organized the digitized sound sources. Each tape contained several songs, and some songs had multiple takes. First, we had to find out which take was the OK take.
Some songs had “OK take” handwritten by the person at the time on the leader tape connecting the songs, but when we listened to them, we wondered, “Is this really an OK take…?” We compared those parts with the original version and repeatedly judged, “Even though it says ‘OK,’ they must have included a different take,” and completed the work.
Shiozawa: When selecting the “OK takes,” we consulted with outside Yamato experts and had a lot of discussions about what was different about them.
Kushimoto: For the process of clarifying the sound, we used Pro Tools to mute the parts of each track where the instruments were not playing, and reduced the tape hiss and crosstalk as much as possible. I think that in the past, this was prevented by lowering the fader, but this time we took the hiss noise, the noise of the performance, and the transfer that occurs with the tape medium, and thoroughly processed them on the digital side.
The box that holds the multi-track tape has a track sheet on it. It will also be published in the CD/LP booklet, but this article is the only one to show it in color! The recording of multiple takes and the tentative titles for the arrangements, such as “Scarlet Scarf,” are also very interesting.
Shiozawa: I checked every track thoroughly for sounds that were recorded but were not included in the original product. Although I made the sound clearer, I wanted to keep the song faithful to the original, so I cut out those sounds.
Interviewer: Speaking of making the sound clearer, I was very surprised that the “scat performance noise” on Track 1, which was included in the original version we listened to in the studio, and the 2012 version, was also gone.
Shiozawa: I thought it would be easier to immerse yourself in the music if unnecessary noise was removed as much as possible, so I worked in the direction of erasing all noise other than the music. However, since it was impossible to mix on a computer at the time, I had to control each fader in real time. Just lining up the sounds and balancing them would not achieve the same level of perfection as the original. As I worked on it, I was reminded of the greatness of the work in each situation.
Looking at the original material, I was surprised to see how the sounds were arranged within the limited number of 16 tracks, and although I don’t think the mixer had in mind that the track would be remixed, the way the instruments were arranged in each track was as if it had been done with a future mixing process in mind.
In 2024 Mix, even if the instruments were put together on one track to make the sound clearer, the instruments that were played in completely separate parts were put on separate tracks. This makes it easier to balance them. However, if multiple instruments are played simultaneously on the same track, although it is possible to separate them with modern technology, the sound quality is not good as if they are separated, so they are left as is. In order to avoid deterioration of the sound as much as possible, we did not separate such tracks.
2024 Mix spatial audio version that meets the expectations of fans who “will expect it”
Interviewer: What did you think about creating “spatial audio,” which has no correct answer in the sense that it has no precedent?
Shiozawa: The main focus of this project is the digitizing of multi-track tapes and the remixing of the original material. So spatial audio is more of an appendix, but it’s also one of the trends in music content these days, so we tried it.
On the other hand, because the material was 16 channels, it was difficult to go in the direction of creating an immersive sound source like modern pop songs with a composition of over 100 channels. Adding an arrangement that was conscious of that was also different. The first thing we grappled with was, “what kind of spatial audio concept should we create?”
If the sound is spread out in an unnatural way, it’s not good. If it’s too different from the original positioning, that’s also a problem. In the midst of all this, I came up with the idea of “a sense of realism like you’re listening to a studio recording.” You can feel the studio ambience, and it’s the kind of nuance that makes you think, “I wonder if this is the kind of sound Miyagawa-sensei heard when he was conducting? I talked a lot with Mr. Yagi about how it should sound.
LEFT: Monitoring of the spatial audio version along with the stereo sound source at Nippon Columbia Studio.
RIGHT: Sound information mapping of the spatial audio version. Various sounds are also assigned to the height channel, allowing you to enjoy a sense of presence.
Yagi: The sound of the tracks is clearer, so I thought it would be good to create it as if you were listening in a wider space compared to stereo. Like the jacket design, it feels like Starsha is deep in the vast universe, and the sound image expands outward.
Interviewer: It’s like an appendix, but there is a sense of immersion that you should definitely listen to with the right environment.
Shiozawa: Yes. It’s like Starsha’s voice coming from space. We’ve included things that everyone would expect, such as scat singing from a height channel, so I hope you’ll check it out!
Symphonic Suite Yamato 2024 Mix CD jacket
The jacket art is as detailed as the sound. As with the sound, there is also a mechanism for enjoying a comparison of the old and new versions
Interviewer: 2024 Mix will be released not only digitally but also physically on CD and LP. Are there any points you were particular about in terms of the jacket design, etc.?
Yagi: As with the sound, we are trying to make this clearer. The layout was done with three elements: space, Yamato, and Starsha. For Starsha, we rescanned the original art. For space, we used the highest resolution positive image from the time. And for Yamato, we re-scanned a paper print as large as possible.
In particular, for Starsha and Yamato, the original original art and the paper print themselves have deteriorated, so instead of using the scan data as is, we have modified it with an approach more like repairing a work of art than retouching. We had detailed discussions with the CG graphic staff and designers about how we wanted to do this carefully without destroying the original image as much as possible.
For Starsha, we left a lot of texture in, with the intention that the colors would have been more vivid around the nose, mouth, and eyes. As for Yamato, in addition to being a paper print, the colors are also unique. It’s different from the color specifications for the anime and is not a cel drawing. We retouched it while imagining how it would have been drawn in those colors at the time.
Also, although the illustration material for Yamato is not large, we scanned each part in 8K. Since the materials are small, they become blurred when digitized, but we enlarged them and added lines to everything. We tried to preserve the details by doing detailed work like “inking” for plastic models.
We had them process the image while expanding depth and width, knowing that the album will also be released as spatial audio. We added stars to the original material and designed it with a similar image. The title lettering also follows the original shape as much as possible, with a touch of 2024 Mix.
Comparing the jacket of 2024 Mix (left) and Symphonic Suite Yamato (right), released in 1977. There is some glare from the lighting, but “restoration” has been done, such as adding the blue color of the universe, the twinkling stars, and the detailed expression of Starsha.
It’s difficult to say that it’s as clear as the sound, but there’s also a concept of preparing each element of the jacket so that it can be stored in a neat manner, in response to demands that change over time.
In addition, the booklet that comes with the physical version contains related materials that were not included in the original, such as photos from the press conference held at the time of the Symphonic Suite release, and ads published in newspapers. It also includes a track list for the multi-track tape used this time. The content is the same for both CD and LP records, but the LP version is larger and can be enjoyed more clearly.
Interviewer: It’s also available online, but this is a case where you really want people to buy the physical version.
Yagi: That’s right. But I think you’ll notice something if you listen to both. Even though the physical version was cut from the same master, the sound is completely different between the LP record and the CD.
Shiozawa: I was really impressed by the difference between the two formats, even though I created it myself. (Laughs) With vinyl, the overtone resonance and the way it starts up are really good. Especially when the rhythm section comes in, you can really feel the strong nuance of the way it starts up.
LEFT: If you own the original Symphonic Suite Yamato LP, a comparison is highly recommended to enjoy the difference in the 2024 Mix LP.
RIGHT: The LP version of the 2024 Mix was cut using the Neumann VMS70 at the Columbia Studio. It was handled by Shigeru Takezawa, who has released numerous LPs to the world.
Yagi: I think the best way to understand the fun of this remix is to compare the original Symphonic Suite Yamato analog record with the 2024 Mix analog record. As expected, the manufacturer does not have any stock, but since it was a big hit, there are many copies in the market and it isn’t that difficult to obtain. I would like those who love the LP records of that time to compare them.
Of course, the “goodness of the difference” is reflected in each version released this time. I would be happy if you can enjoy listening to it according to your own environment.
Interviewer: Thank you for today!
