Analyzing "Metal Armored Crab" Blue Archive OST | Basterd's LFA (Layman-Friendly Analysis)

[00:00:00]Next up, we have metal armored crab from the Blue Archive soundtrack number 343.

[00:00:08]Once again, everybody, this is Sebastian Zulfi, a layman friendly analysis. I'm a professionally trained musician and composer, and my objective here is to explain things in a way so that you don't have to be one to understand what is happening here musically. So, if you like the sound of that, make sure you're following the channel, subscribe to the channel, whatever the need to use, like the video, share the comment, turn on notifications, become a member. Once again, everybody, don't forget to join the Discord server. Join the Patreon, subscribe to the gaming channel, subscribe to the reacts channel. How to request songs you're not on the live stream members, getting early access to the content. I have a spiel for this, I have a bunch of other things to say down this video, so stick around for that.

[00:00:39]Disclaimers showing on your screen right now, so go ahead and pause the video to read them in full. I forgot to play click the uh button. So, uh yeah, there you go. I forgot to click down, so yeah.

[00:00:46]Otherwise, please keep in mind I am acoustic and guitar nerd, so please give me that. Yeah, I got distracted because you had to tell me Path of Exile 2 1.0 is expected to release by the end of 2026.

[00:00:57]I can't. I cannot.

[00:00:59]I cannot do that.

[00:01:01]Okay?

[00:01:03]I cannot do that.

[00:01:04]I already did too much Path of Exile.

[00:01:06]With that, let's do this. Metal armored crab, let's go.

[00:01:16]>> [music] >> Okay, so we start with some percussion over there no no children in Limbus Ace. We are literally doing a chapter in Limbus where we were talking about children.

[00:01:33]Now, but they were flashbacks.

[00:01:35]But they were children. Anyway, so we're having um we're having this, we're having the um we're having the uh the the drums giving us the initial drum beat, and then we are having this very um stereotypical type of um of brass, which is a combination of a tuba and trombones, right? So, we're having some orchestral elements with this. Uh the tuba being the big one over here, the trombones the ones with the slide, and we are getting that initial melody containing what I believe could be our initial motif. Motif being the smallest version of a musical idea, the seed, the essence from which everything else comes from. They're all adults now. Yeah, but we saw the flashbacks of them with their child designs. I I don't even know what y'all are talking about. Anyway, uh so, we're having that and um we are having this phrase using some chromaticism.

[00:02:26]Chromaticism is when you borrow from the chromatic scale. The chromatic scale is all 12 tones of Western music. Uh so, that is going to be all the white and black keys in the keyboard, right?

[00:02:42]Basically, the way music works is that you take from those notes or from those tones, you make a combination, which is going to be your scale. In this case, we're dealing with a minor scale. Let's do A minor, right?

[00:02:55]Cuz it's the white keys in the keyboard starting and ending on A. And basically, we're having >> [music] >> Basically, that would be the phrase, but then we are taking one of the um notes we're not using.

[00:03:11]We're engaging some chromaticism to borrow this over here.

[00:03:17]Instead. [music] Uh what would the non-chromatic scale be? Well, it would be no scale at all.

[00:03:23]Like chromaticism like the chromatic scale is just the spectrum of Western music.

[00:03:29]So, if you if you wanted something that is not in the chromatic scale, you would need it I mean, a non-chromatic scale, it would be a micro uh microtonal scale.

[00:03:39]Microtonal scale would be that it's not using the same measurements that we use on Western music, and instead we are using microtones. So, yeah, the microtonal um kind of stuff like Toby Fox not more like uh India. Like Indians and the Chinese, Japanese, uh Turkish, um Middle Eastern music, they use actual um microtones, not just detuning an instrument, but actually using For example, between B [music] and C in Western music, this is just a tone, but there are a lot of smaller microtones in between, which um especially like Indian music uses those tones in between.

[00:04:20]So, yeah, no, he does not like Toby Fox doesn't fully use microtonal music. He engages some microtones here and there.

[00:04:28]But yeah, if you want um like full-on microtonal music, um Arab music, Indian music, like Middle Eastern in general, they have a lot of instruments that have that. And yes. All right, so we're having that, and of course, we're bringing this initial phrase. Let's see where this goes.

[00:04:49]Violins jumping in, drums, drum beat.

[00:04:56]Okay, so we then take the phrase, and instead of uh we take the second half, the part that we did a chromatics the chromatism with, and we now flip it upside down. We do a sort of inversion, right? So, inversion in melody is when you play something an upside-down reflection of it. Uh so, for example, if we have this phrase over here, if we invert it, then we're going to play an upside-down basically going the opposite way.

[00:05:24]So, in this case, we [music] had something like this, we take this moment, and we then instead uh bring it the opposite way. So, instead of this kind of thing, right? We use it for a build-up instead. We are continuing the drums. Let's see where this goes.

[00:05:51]Mhm. Oh, okay.

[00:05:54]Dropping the beat.

[00:05:57]>> [music] >> Okay, we dropped the beat, but we continue the motif as is. Hang on, I need to refill my water bottle. I'm getting thirsty over here. So, um yeah, as in I need more water. Yeah. No, for those of you curious, yes, I am probably one of the like four streamers uh four people in these channels that actually drinks water without anything. And instead of having to go back to the kitchen every time, I just decided to get a 5-L bottle from um like a 5-L bottle and I just refill it at the start of every stream because over here in Hungary, you can just drink the tap water and it's just fine. Anyway, so yeah.

[00:06:45]Oh, there you go. I'm getting my my my voice was trying to do dry out. So, yeah. Uh then >> [laughter] >> if this track reminds you of uh 433, I mean just 343. That's just the number of the soundtrack. Uh the only way to drink, baby, it's not baby oil.

[00:07:00]You can drink the tap water in Hungary, yeah. I mean, there are towns where you can't, but usually the towns that are next like the places that are near the Danube, it's a super clean water source, so yeah, you can just drink the tap water.

[00:07:12]Anyway, anyway, so we're having this. We dropped the beat. We're bringing some like woop woop elements uh that you would see in like dubstep and whatnot, but on top of that, we are keeping the motif playing.

[00:07:25]And I kind of Daniel No, the Danube.

[00:07:28]Danube. Uh Duna. Aduna for you. Adun- Aduna for you. The bass make. So, yeah, we're having um this kind of stuff. Uh you have to boil the tap I know yeah I know. I I to live in Guatemala where um like water filters is one of the greatest businesses that that you have.

[00:07:46]Like back in Guatemala, you have like Agua Pura Salvavidas, where you have like these massive garrafones.

[00:07:53]Agua Pura Salvavidas, garrafon.

[00:07:59]Garrafon. So, the garrafon, how many liters is in a garrafon? Okay, so 20 Guatemalan Guatemalan Qs.

[00:08:08]How many liters in a garrafon? So, yeah, you get one of these and like we're talking like this this does not this image does not do it justice. This thing el garrafon niquel en base, it does it's not it doesn't say how many.

[00:08:23]It doesn't say how much.

[00:08:28]The website has white on white. This Okay, this is not the this is not the this is not the store.

[00:08:37]This is the store. It's worse.

[00:08:43]How is your official website worse?

[00:08:46]Okay, here we go.

[00:08:48]5 gallons.

[00:08:50]So, yeah, for 20 Qs, you can buy 5 gallons or nearly 19 liters of water and they just deliver them to your door.

[00:09:00]Yeah, there you go. There you go and you can get extra fill. Oh, yeah, they can filtered water and that kind of stuff.

[00:09:05]So, yeah, no, this is the kind of thing like if you know somebody in Guatemala, chances are like every other house has like four of these in reserve. Like one or two or four of these in reserve. So, [snorts] yeah, no, there you go. It's got to be like how you doing? Yeah, it's been a while. So, yeah, we're um We're having that anyway. We're having Are those for water coolers? No.

[00:09:25]I mean, they can use they can use them for water coolers. Like offices use them for water coolers, but like for example, my mom has like three of them at at her house. And most of like most of the people I know because the infrastructure is so unreliable in Guatemala and you can't drink the tap water that sometimes the water just cuts off for no reason. So, you better just have one of those so you have water to wash your hands with and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, no.

[00:09:51]Yeah, I know like those are the type of thing like more civilized areas use them for like water for your offices, but everybody else just doesn't.

[00:10:00]Yeah, yeah, and and on valid showing off that Costa Rica actually has infrastructure. Pause big. Anyway, let's see where this goes.

[00:10:10]>> [music] >> So, we're having this in there for the drop. Okay, nice.

[00:10:15]It's a good contrast between the two.

[00:10:19]There's the inversion.

[00:10:22]The held note, cadence, and And no, it's not Damn it. Now I have to explain it in the video. It's not baby oil. And no, this has nothing to do with Diddy. This meme started in this channel before the whole Diddy thing. Now, you saw how the bottle has a pink cap.

[00:10:40]That's because in Hungary pink cap means regular water. They have these kinds of bottles as well and they just happen to look like baby oil bottles from Johnson & Johnson. Szentkirályi did me extra dirty cuz they have Szentkirályi Baby Mama. Let me let me show you over here.

[00:10:56]Szentkirályi Baby Mama. This is not baby oil. This is baby water because it is You know how babies don't have the full gut uh microbes developed. So, this is extra filtered water so you can make like baby formula with it.

[00:11:11]And yeah, so the whole reason I bought this is because it pissed me off. So, yeah, no. Uh >> [laughter] >> rage meter successful? Yes, there you go. Anyway, so we're having here the contrast um between the dropping of the beat plus the motif at the same time.

[00:11:26]Usually, you would see this done like higher and lower so you have a melody that is higher than what is happening and then you contrast it with the dropping of the beat. But in this case, because of the nature of brass instruments, they can pierce through this kind of of music. And you know what else can pierce through that kind of music?

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[00:12:56]patreon.com/jamesrbastard Become a member today. All right, back we go.

[00:13:00]Yes, that wasn't the greatest segment.

[00:13:02]Look, I don't have a script. I take my chance when I can. So, there you go.

[00:13:08]Actually, I don't think we're going to do a hater.

[00:13:10]As a man of the universe, that says more about everybody else than it does about me. Let's Let's just pan over to the kitchen, see what Kiko's reaction is.

[00:13:19]Okay. Yep, she's got that smack aimed at me. So, uh there you [snorts] go.

[00:13:25]There you go. There you go. Anyway, I speak at two uh 2.3 x. Not really, no.

[00:13:30]No, I could, but do I have um I have curly hair. My hair My hair is naturally curly.

[00:13:36]Yeah, no. My um my my hair like if like if I if I bring um this over here, you can see how curly my like look at that.

[00:13:43]Look at that. Yeah, my hair is actually curly. I just have um I just have a lot of hair. [laughter] Yeah, I know. My hair is naturally like it's not curly, it's wavy.

[00:13:52]It's wavy. Anyway, back to what we were doing. Let's continue the centric.

[00:14:00]Okay, continuing the drop. This time is the full drop.

[00:14:05]So, we first do the motif, then we do the motif with the drop, and now we're doing just the drop. Usually, it would be the other way. Number one. So, music is usually done in threes, right? So, it's going to be I you we or one two three, where you're going to have part number one, part number two, and then part number one plus two, or part number one, part number two, part number three.

[00:14:31]Evolutions of one another. In this case, we ended up swapping this. I we you.

[00:14:39]Risky, but it can happen. So, there you go. So, I have some Tinder. Don't use Tinder, it's cringe. Let's see where it goes.

[00:14:48]But now we can hear the whole drop.

[00:14:51]Okay, mind the texture.

[00:14:53]So, yeah, we bring in the drop. Of course, when you're making music, you want to keep a careful balance between what is familiar and what is new. Too much familiarity, too much repetition, too much of the same thing, you risk boring the listener, they tune out. Too much new material too quickly, you risk overwhelming the listener, they tune out. There is one universal exception, no matter the style or genre, which is solos. And then you have an additional exception electronic music, which is dropping the beat. You bring in a solo, you drop the beat.

[00:15:18]As long as it sounds cool enough and it fits enough, you can get away with almost anything. Meaning the principal familiarity and new material become more relaxed. Just means you're not going to be able to get away with everything. You will be able to get away with quite a bit. You're going to be able to take more risks and most likely get away with it as we are hearing over here.

[00:15:35]>> Mixing it in guys how much I hated experimenting with the rhythm and texture mainly and >> And off the ramp we went. I did hear the snare there. Off the ramp of course being a colloquial term that I use.

[00:15:50]Colloquial by that I mean there is no official academic definition for this or at least I'm choosing not to use it for the sake of simplicity. And off the ramp is what I like to call it any type of transition that makes your listener feel suspended up in the air at the mercy of inertia waiting to see where you land.

[00:16:04]Kind of like going off a ramp. How do you do this? Remove the drums, maybe the bass as well. As we are hearing over here. Let's see where this goes.

[00:16:16]Kind of dropping the beat.

[00:16:19]Focusing Okay, so we bring a new drop but this time we have another synth in between that is giving us what sounds like a variation of the original motif. This time however, it's in a synth a little bit higher and the synth itself is not as aggressive or as loud. So it's a little bit difficult to tell but it is there. So technically this is still the motif. Let's see where it goes.

[00:16:50]Build up synth.

[00:16:58]Where are you going to take us? Okay, so it wasn't a build up synth. It was just like a siren kind of thing just giving us that initial uh thing over there. So it's kind of like a siren. Yeah, so when it comes to music and repeating something either a concept or a phrase, you have to be wary of the concept of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns means that the more you repeat something, the more each subsequent iteration becomes less effective. In this case, this is our third drop in a row. No build-up sections, no nothing.

[00:17:32]We had the initial motif, and this is the third drop in a row. By now, the third drop is losing effect the effectiveness that you can have with dropping the beat because there was no build-up. At no point did we have build-up for this one. So, now it's starting to get less effective. It is a risk, and it risks the music getting boring. Let's see where this goes.

[00:18:02]All right, we finally arrived somewhere.

[00:18:04]>> [music] >> There we go, finally. And right as it's about to get boring, we bring back the material that we had before. This time around, we are bringing another synth.

[00:18:15]We're having the trombones playing higher, and we're just playing the same material higher up to the new drum beat.

[00:18:22]With some violins. With some violins, yes.

[00:18:26]New drum beat. This kind of This kind of sounds cool, though.

[00:18:30]>> [music] >> Same material as we had before.

[00:18:34]And this time we are doing an elongation of it. It's a little bit slower, right?

[00:18:37]So, elongation is a way to that you can develop your material in which you do a slower version of something you've done before. In this case, a little bit slower than the first time around, but it is slower. So, yeah.

[00:18:52]Building up, and we land.

[00:18:57]Okay, so we land, we build up, we land that uh that low note, we let the sound dissipate, and with that, there you have it.

[00:19:06]That was surprisingly badly made.

[00:19:11]Like, I can I I don't think it's made on purpose. I think the composer tried experimenting with um with the structure over here, but didn't quite get it.

[00:19:22]Cuz it's all over the place. We had initial motif, drop with motif, drop, drop, drop motif.

[00:19:35]I I think we needed to shuffle these around a little bit.

[00:19:39]I think shuffling these around a little bit would have made this a lot better.

[00:19:42]So, we had what? We had motif one, we had drop uh plus motif one, then we had drop uh drop number one, so we had drop one motif one, uh drop two, drop three, and then motif, let's call it motif two.

[00:20:01]In order to make this more effective without changing the whole thing, swap these two uh swap these two around, swap the first drop for this so that this so you have motif one, drop, then motif with melody.

[00:20:18]Drops two and three, I would have put motif number two between drops two and three, maybe even um over here between drops two and three and between drops here. We could have even even added motif number one. So, either adding motif number two back over here after the first um drop, taking over for the second uh for the second drop, putting the motif two over here and ending it with a drop. I think that would have worked a lot better. So, this one wasn't so much that the individual components were badly made, is the um the form that was used. So, the the structure of the music just was not that well made.

[00:21:02]The rest of it, pretty okay. Not great, but pretty okay.

[00:21:06]Well, that, there you have it, metal armored crab from the Blue Archive soundtrack, the number number 343.

[00:21:15]Once again, everybody, this has been a bastard's LFA, a layman-friendly analysis of a professionally trained musician composer. And my objective here has been to explain things in a way so that you don't have to be one to understand what's happened here musically. So, if you're watching this on the YouTube video archive, thank you for watching.

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[00:23:15]There you have it. Metal armored crab blue archive number 343.

[00:23:24]It shows how important your structure really is. Just swapping it around a little bit would have gone a lot long a lot better. There you go. There you go.

[00:23:33]Lessons learned, you know. Good stuff.

[00:23:35]Yeah, let's move on. Let's move on.