ARM Backup/Ar Portal translation/Firefly Alley Citizen's BBS/Issue 9

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土屋さん連続での会報お疲れ様でした。
さて、アルトネリコには１２曲もの詩が効果的に使われています。これまで、土屋さんにご紹介頂きました志方さん・霜月さん・みとせさん・石橋さん４人の歌姫の皆さんの、見事な歌声を高い完成度で聞くことができます。さて私からはそんな詩の収録現場でのお話をしてみましょう。
開発が進むある日、私は、詩の収録に立ち会っていました。アルトネリコの詩は独特で、ひとつひとつ違った音色を積み重ね歌い重ねて、少しづつ完成された音を紡いでいきます。ほんの１小節を完成させるのに、歌い手さんだけでは無くいろいろな人の手を通して組みあがっていく様に、私はたいへん感動を覚えたものでした。そんな時、ディレクターの土屋さんの声が・・・「１曲、沢山の人でコーラスを録りたいので参加してください」ええっ！　突然の参加要請に仰天しました。今まで見ていた詩の収録に、突然参加することになったのです。
あんな繊細な作業が出きるのかしらん・・・と焦っていると何のことは無く、中央に置いたマイクのまわりに集まりリズムに合わせて歌うって、誰にでも参加可能な収録だったのです。（まあ素人にあんな難しい歌い方を望むワケないですからね）勘違いの恥ずかしさも含めて、いよいよマイクの周りに集まります。沢山の人のコーラスを集めるって事で、その日、同じく立会いをしていた作詞の先生をはじめ、隣のスタジオで全然別の収録していた声優さん。たまたま顔を出した広報の担当者など、いろいろな人が集まって急造のコーラス隊となり、収録をしました。歌い手・作詞者・作曲者・プロデューサーにディレクター、広報からスタジオ関係者＆非関係者とあらゆる人が集まり、その詩のコーラス隊が出来上がりました。やっているうちにテレも何も無くなっていきアドリブでガヤのような芝居もやって、一同、段々とハイな気分で大騒ぎとなりました。そんなゴタゴタな状態のコーラス隊が参加して仕上がった詩はあの状況を想像できないくらいに見事な出来で、アルトネリコの世界にひとつの華を添えています。
様々な人の想いが、この曲に限らず、ゲーム全体にこめられています。ぜひプレイして楽しんでいただけたらと思っています。	
Tsuchiya-san has done an splendid work by writing all of these previous issues in succession.
Well then, all of the twelve songs in Ar tonelico are going to be used very effectively. So far, Tsuchiya-san has introduced to you all every one of the four singers that are cooperating with us: Shikata-san, Shimotsuki-san, Mitose-san and Ishibashi-san, so you will be able to hear their magnificent singing voices in the best way possible. And now, I will tell you all about when we were recording one of these songs.
During a certain day in which we were going deeper into the development, I witnessed how one of these songs was recorded. The uniqueness that the Ar tonelico songs have are that each one of them are made by separate and different tones, which, when they all are sung in unison, slowly create a perfected sound. By merging themselves into a single bar, it's like the 
singers weren't the only ones singing, but more like a great number of people were helping them to turn these songs into reality, which is an experience that has deeply moved me. And at that time, I heard the voice of the Director, Tsuchiya-san... [I want to make a song were many people record the choruses together, so please, help us with it], ahh! I was amazed by that sudden request. Until now, I just was a spectator when the songs were recorded, and now, all of a sudden, I ended taking part into such a recording.
I wondered if I would be able to do correctly such a delicate work... but that fear suddenly disappeared when everyone, who all gathered in a circle around the microphones, began singing together with the rhythm of the song, and saw that it would be possible for all of us to partake in this recording. (Though that doesn't mean that we wished to sing in such a difficult way, since we all were still amateurs). Though we misunderstood this initially as an embarrassing experience, we gradually got closer and closer to the microphone. The fact that were uniting the choruses of so many people in that day, was similar to when I witnessed the lyricists at work for the first time, and when I saw the voice actors recording at a different studio. Unexpectedly, I saw the PR director raising his head, and like that, many other people did the same, constructing an improvised a chorus which we ultimately recorded. The singers, the composers, the arrangers, the producer, the director, the PR and studio employees, even unauthorized people came and joined us, and in the end, completed the choruses for that song. While we were doing it, the embarrassment ended vanishing away, and we even chattered at the end of the song, though we all together gradually gave away the feeling of a great clamor. That improvised chorus was what ended giving the finishing touches to the song, and while it isn't really possible to imagine it, it's really beautiful, like a flower we attached to the world of Ar tonelico.
The feelings of these many people aren't just limited to this song, since they are contained in the entirety of the game. I think you'll be really looking forward to feeling them as you play the game.