Jikkenteki

Still a few copies available... We'll probably extend this over the original 25 through Christmas Day as well

Tokyo, and Japan in general, CAN be really expensive, but if you do some research in advance, stay at places like the millions of foreign guest houses (often with kitchens available so you don't have to eat out every night) and such you can actually work a fairly long stay for not so much money. Being smart with your money is the most important thing, as many visitors just assume the first, usually rather expensive, price they see is simply the "norm" when often its not.

Now now kids, fight nice! Some clarification on question 4 (not that we are really being picky but...) We want to know when and where was the first "PAR-2" event was, not the first Jikkenteki event. We've got winners for about half the CDs now, but there are still several copies left.

Some clarification on question 4 (not that we are really being picky but...) We want to know when and where was the first "PAR-2" event was, not the first Jikkenteki event.

I'll send all the winners an email telling that they have won. I just got home from a couple gigs in Tokyo so I haven't gotten arround to checking what's come in the last day and a half yet, but I'll get that taken care of before tonight.

cough..cough.... events page.... cough....

Plenty. Only had three responses so far....

Prosect: Use the same address as in the contest to get ahold of me. CD - So far we have 2 winners from Psy-News. Several more copies are still available. (note: we aren't too terribly strict on how correct the answers are )

All the answers are somewhere on the PAR-2 site.

I already posted this in the label promotion section, but since it isn't exactly a traditional "buy our CD" thread I thought it would fit here where more general readers will see it and can get involved. If there is a problem, moderators feel free to erase this post here. -------------------------------------------------------------------- For the hoilday season, we at PAR-2 Productions are giving away 25 copies of our first compilation, "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden". In order to win, direct your browser to www.par-2.com and hunt for the answers to the following quiz. You'll need to dig through the various pages and maybe even follow a few links on the links page. 1- List the names and locations of four of the artists featured on "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden". 2- What was Katapult's previous DJ name? 3- What is the name of Jikkenteki's upcoming album? 4- When and where was the first PAR-2 event? 5- Where did Katapult and Jikkenteki grow up? 6- Name two pieces of gear pictured on the site from Jikkenteki's studio. Bonus Question: Speculate on what the "PAR" in PAR-2 means. Bonus points given for originality and hardness of induced laughter. Send your answers and address to jikkenteki@par-2.com and the first 25 correct responses will get a free copy of "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden" mailed to their door. Best to everyone, Jikkenteki and PAR-2 Productions

For the hoilday season, we at PAR-2 Productions are giving away 25 copies of our first compilation, "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden". In order to win, direct your browser to www.par-2.com and hunt for the answers to the following quiz. You'll need to dig through the various pages and maybe even follow a few links on the links page. 1- List the names and locations of four of the artists featured on "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden". 2- What was Katapult's previous DJ name? 3- What is the name of Jikkenteki's upcoming album? 4- When and where was the first PAR-2 event? 5- Where did Katapult and Jikkenteki grow up? 6- Name two pieces of gear pictured on the site from Jikkenteki's studio. Bonus Question: Speculate on what the "PAR" in PAR-2 means. Bonus points given for originality and hardness of induced laughter. Send your answers and address to jikkenteki@par-2.com and the first 25 correct responses will get a free copy of "A Walk Through Neptune's Garden" mailed to their door. Best to everyone, Jikkenteki and PAR-2 Productions

This is probably lost on most people but the "hard-gore" thing is basically joke based on the fact that the pronunciation for "goa" and "gore" are almost completely the same in Japanese. Knowing Shuji a bit this kind of humour is right up his alley.

This perhaps? http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=5360 Its been out here in Japan since last summer so I'm a little surprised to see Saiko won't have it till next year, but oh well.

PCI is much much more stable than Firewire and USB cards. If you are using a desktop you should go with PCI whenever possible. If using a laptop, my first choice for stablity would be something that runs through PCMCIA cards, but most of these are rather expensive. After that firewire or usb2, but I wouldn't touch a usb1 card. Regarding M-Audio, I have an older 410 PCI card and have never had any trouble with it, but with the USB and Firewire card by M-Audio I have seen pretty much nothing but trouble with these in a live setting. Maybe they are ok in a home studio, but at live gigs here in Japan they are at almost a 100% ratio for having drop outs and generally screwing up in the gigs I have played at with other artists using them.

Make sure you are exporting your wav at 16/44. and not at 24 bits, etc as media player can't read those. As for the low volume, that's a common problem, especially these days since for a lot of labels mastering seems to equal increasing the volume to unnaturally loud levels and not making the music sound its best.

The full 4 minute samples are working on Saiko Sounds now for those interested in some longer samples.

For free ones I also recommend the Digitalfishphones and Kjaerhus Classic Series compressors mentioned above. I tend to use one of those two for just about everything. I also liked the Akai Quadcomp enough to buy it, but I tend to use it only in certain instances. The Digitalfishphones and Kjaerhus are my workhorses.

I have a bunch of stuff up at http://www.par-2.com

They just got the CD in today so I suspect they don't have the samples actually made yet. You can check out some samples on www.par-2.com though

A quick note here to let you know that Neptune's Garden is now available at Saiko Sounds here.... http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=5297 It is of course also available directly from us at our shop at www.par-2.com. Best, Jikkenteki

A quick note here to let you know that Neptune's Garden is now available at Saiko Sounds here.... http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=5297 It is of course also available directly from us at our shop at www.par-2.com. Best, Jikkenteki

As for them all being "pretty common" it depends. The Japanese Yellow, Orange and White I see on the auctions here all the time. Blue is a less common and took me the longest to get, although since then several more have come up on auctions here. Last year a few copies of Black were up, all of which I bought, but I've been looking for another one for a trade for about 10 months now with no luck at all. I've asked some of the other traders and sellers here in Japan and they all say Black is the hardest to get after Clear (or "Mu" with means "nothing" in Japanese). Usually I can get them for under $20 USD when they do come up, but I think I paid about $30 for Clear as I made an offer to the seller to end the auction right there on the spot.

I've only seen it twice in Japan on Yahoo auctions, once when I bought it and a second time with only the Cd and no cover so even over here in Japan it is pretty rare. Black is pretty hard to come across as well.

I'm quite aware of that. My complaint is that even when changing keys, the key changes chosen are usually the "obvious" ones (major or minor thirds, fifths, etc) since they are safe and things when are used to hearing. This sounds good, but I want some tension/resolution in some mixes as well, which usually isn't a factor in most people's harmonic mixing. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against harmonic mixing at all and being a former music major I'm all for people exploring how music works in more depth. Harmonic mixing has great potential, but I think the ideal end result with harmonic mixing and music theory in general is learn it, use it, internalize it, abandon it. Unfortunately most people never advance beyond "use it" and then in rather simplistic ways. If you are going do harmonic mixing, then do it right and study it in depth (which Basilisk seems to be doing), unfortunately most dj's I have talked to who are mixing harmonically it aren't doing it with any depth of study. The end result is still "use your ears", although a DJ who has done serious harmonic mixing study (which I think will take roughly a year to do well, give or take for individual talent) will have an advantage since their ear is "educated" as it were. BTW I think DJs who came to DJing with a solid background in some other musical instrument pretty much have the same advantage so one's milage in study harmonic mixing might vary

Personally I find the whole harmonic mixing thing kind of overboard for a whole set. I do have some hamonically matched mixes I like to do here and there, but rarely more than 3 tracks in a row. From a purely musical point of view, I don't want to hear 1 or 2 hours of music all in related key sig.s. Its simply musically uninteresting after awhile. Music theory is good and all, but the best comment I ever heard while I was in music school was that "music theory is there to explain why something worked or didn't work. It's NOT there for you to create music with." Basically all the things used in harmonic mixing are in the catagory of info we were taught to "learn and then forget". Basically harmonic mixing to me is just another tool. Its useful sometimes, but it is just one of many tools to be used when it fits. Just use your ears. If it works and sounds good, it is good....