I can only remind that Guitar Pro isn't made for mixing, even though it has various tools allowing me to get a decent result. So I tried my best with it to get something that feels genuine and well balanced, and I mastered the output file a bit via Adobe Audition to make it sound better. I've run through multiple edits and EQ tweaking, but it's fine!… I think xD. Yes, I honestly like the result!

The bass was pretty hard to mix, because it was a bit new for me: my transcription of “Kanojo wa Wave” in Guitar Pro was with a sound I polished for TOMO's new signature Fender Jazz Bass, but this time, to be more accurate, I chose to change the Jazz Bass for the Fender Precision bass that TOMO uses in the live version of “NEON TOWN ESCAPE”, which implied changing its mix quite a bit, since it sounds different from the Jazz Bass. The acoustic guitar wasn’t too hard to mix, and the lead guitar as well as the drums already had some settings I created and saved, and I was perfectly fine with them for “Kanojo wa Wave”. I tried to get as close as I could for the synth with the sounds proposed by Guitar Pro.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

Over 2 years ago, in August 2020 if I remember correctly, I posted a guitar cover of the studio version of this song on my YouTube channel (which can be found on my Discord profile, if you'd like to check). I had figured out the song by ear without the use of Audio Strip* back then (because I didn't know it existed), and for that reason, some parts were really hard to hear, and even if I was mostly correct, a few measures weren't totally accurate, for the bridge (measures 75 to 83) especially.

That being said, knowing how to play the song really helped me when tabbing MAMI's part, it made it a lot easier. Also, I had gotten used to the way of writing the particular rhythm of this song, driven by RINA, which I'll explain later. Well, that was the case for the studio part of the song. For the live solo… That was much harder lol. The reason to that is the fact that while the other members mostly did what they played during the rest of the song with some cool fills, MAMI actually completely improvised a solo, with probably some phrases she had in mind when rehearsing to play them here and there. So she was soloing with all the little strumming pattern variations, rhythmic variations and frets/strings different orders she could think of in globally the same region of the neck, keeping her solo interesting but also easy enough to follow when listening to it. The fact that the solo is improvised also explains the heavy presence of dead notes.

For MAMI's part, the studio version goes from measures 9 to 106, and the live version goes from measures 1 to 8, and 107 to 148. I wanted to start tabbing her live solo from measure 107, because it's where it starts being different from the studio version, but this measure is also very similar in both versions, so that was the perfect transition to pick, in my opinion. I thought it would be really helpful to add the strumming pattern for every single measure, because it is quite responsible for the song's feel. Finally, for the sound, it's the same "MAMI Red Strat" sound I created for the previous tabs I made via Guitar Pro (“Tonight”, for which I still have to figure out the drums, and “Kanojo wa Wave”).

*: Audio Strip is an online algorithm that can separate vocals from instrumentals, but also vocals from bass, from drums, from "others" (meaning guitar, and any other instrument that isn't bass, drums or vocals, in the track "others"). It gives impressive results and really makes life easier when tabbing songs! The number of monthly tasks for free is limited though, so you'll need a VPN and to reopen the page (or even your browser, just to make sure haha) to circumvent that!

This part should be fairly easy to play, since it only has 6 chords, one being the minor variation of a chord she plays. It was therefore also very easy to tab. But beware the occasional strumming variations that HARU does at some measures. The song is not just 5 chords (with 1 minor variation of a chord) repeated in the exact same way for 6 minutes; it's a bit more nuanced than this, so make sure to get all the strumming patterns right! That being said, I still wanted to include the synth melodies, which come during four parts in the song, in order to make it more interesting to listen to when watching the tab of HARU's isolated part.

She doesn't play for the live intro (measures 1 to 8), but does keep playing after the end of the studio version (measures 8 to 115), from measures 116 to 148, and that's where some new strumming patterns come. For the sound, I can't really say I tried super hard to match HARU's acoustic guitar sound as much as I did for her Telecaster, TOMO's basses, or MAMI's red Stratocaster's sounds, but I at least tried to make it sound close enough lol.

I have a certain affection for TOMO's bass line in this song ^.^. Her part is pretty pleasant to listen to me. It's her main bass line filled with tons of tasty variations, both rhythmical (verse vs chorus for instance), or melodic (measures 92 to 96 being my favourite example). It was a lot of fun for me to tab it as well, and it was even the first part I tabbed! When doing the partition for RINA's part, I later figured out some rhythmic nuances that TOMO plays, which made her part's transcription even more satisfying to listen to. I hope you will have as much fun learning it and playing it as I had when tabbing it! :D

For TOMO's part, the live version goes from measure 1 to 9 in the tab, and not 1 to 8 like for the other members. The 9th measure is normally where the studio version starts, and she plays a random slide at the end of this measure. Speaking of random slides, there are a few in the tab (slide from fret 1 to 13, or from fret 4 to 16, on the 4th string) but you don't have to play these frets exactly: feel free to slide more approximately! The studio version is then played from measures 10 to 115, and the live version keeps going from measures 116 to 148. For the sound, as mentioned previously, it was pretty hard to get a satisfying result when trying to reproduce her Fender Precision's sound, but now I honestly think I did something nice!

Okay, now… Now that was tough to transcribe. In case you don't know, I'm not a drummer; I do have a certain attention to drums and can recognise globally differentiate the parts of the drums and cymbals, but as a self-taught guitarist who didn't study theory at all, I absolutely don't have the rhythmic knowledge that a drummer must have. I can't always identify time signatures that aren't 4/4, and I of course had no idea what swing time was… But what is swing time? Well, you find it in all the triplets that RINA plays in this song, as well as the ones the other members play. MAMI's main chord progressions are entirely based on swing time, for instance. As I also mentioned earlier, RINA doesn't just play that basic drum beat; she makes it groove with a bit swing time in it. And that's literally the whole purpose of the song's feel, but also a help to make the strumming patterns of MAMI's part more instinctive.

For that, I would like thank hugely once again my friend (who I can't tag here since she's not on this forum) for identifying the swing time in the drums of this song, and sending me a link that explains what it is, and how it's written in music. Without her help, I would've made a wrong, dull, and very off sounding transcription of this song, or maybe I wouldn't even completed done it at all, since before I could understand how this rhythm is used, I could definitely tell something was off compared to the original song, and it was immensely frustrating not to be able to get it solved, at first. Contrarily, it was immensely relieving when I finally got it and made it work. It's really pleasant to listen to this transcription now that it's accurate! :D

For RINA's part, the live version goes from measures 1 to 8 and, from the latter half of measure 115 to measure 148. The studio version goes from measure 9 to the first half of measure 115, since we literally can't hear anything of what she's playing at the end of that measure in the studio version (it's the end of the fade out). Comparatively, we could guess what HARU and TOMO were playing at the end of that measure, and I started tabbing MAMI's live solo from before that measure. That being said, I did include some bits inspired of the live version in the studio version's drums partition: the pre-chorus (measures 34 to 41, and 59 to 66) and the end of the second chorus (measure 74), because I thought it sounded better, and that it didn't distort the studio version. For the sound of the drums, it's the same as the one I created for the bridge part of “Kanojo wa Wave”.