Wow, this video must have beeen a labour of love! Fascinating to learn the history of Japanese poetry and find out just how many of these trainer devices exist. I own the relatively simple Suiko ST-20, which sounds incredible through a reverb guitar pedal. It's an instrument I can happily mess around with for hours.
I had a random memory pop up and googled "Japanese poetry practice synth" and this is the first thing that popped up. Not only are these EXACTLY, what I meant, but I get essentially a feature length documentary about them! I can not tell you how JUICED I am to watch this!
lmao too late, Hainbach already found one of these things on Reverb (that said now i also REALLY want a poetry synthesizer, those seiko models are *gorgeous* )
found this video while searching for Japanese 80s Synth music to listen to. such a great and interesting video! Not my focus of hobby but as a collector of Japanese retro gaming and retro computers for more then 20 years, this video rises my mood. and I can really relate to the fascination these devices have!
Very happy to introduce you to these! Fascination is dangerous sometimes haha. I also see the parallels to retro computers and can totally understand that hobby.
@@zecchouband Trying to come up with more constructive feedback... I think there are some improvements that can be made to the audio quality. There's a lot of background hiss that could be addressed with physical isolation and/or gates and lo-pass eq. Then, with less noise, you can turn up your preamp gain to get more vocal presence, possibly adding mild compression. Another trick I've found helpful is to place a stuffed animal or other object on the desk and speak to their face as if it's an audience, "rubber ducking". This can help the vocals to have more "place" IMO even with mono recording. HTH
@@luserdroog agreed. This was one of my earlier videos. Was still figuring out audio video mixing and recording. Hopefully things have been getting better haha. Thanks for the feedback.
This is the most esoteric/strange/weird vid I have watched on TH-cam in many years... and I am totally fine with that! I am fairly new to synths (playing with) though partial to non western scales ie tuvan throat singing etc. These machines and the culture around them was unknown to me. A lot of these, to my ears, sound less than optimal, warped 8 bit chip tune, doorbell simulator, Casio on acid... BUT the ST20, ST50 and a few others, yep I get it. The cost of these is eye watering and the language barrier is offputting, though I am glad you put this together. 😊👍🖖
Note to self: doorbell simulator episode... Glad you enjoyed :) And yeah, totally get it. The info and language barrier is high. My hope is that my channel can forever break that barrier, but we'll see haha. May your journey bring you to more dark deep niches in the future!
You are very welcome. I'm also very happy to hear you're learning shigin. I'm sure I could learn things from you as well. Let me know if you ever have questions, requests, or corrections.
Wish Heinbach hadn't done a story on teh ST0. Price are through the roof! Might get an ST60 or Suzuki TES70. Both have MIDI! But I want the pitch wheel version!
Thanks very much for posting this. This kind of content, is the reason for the internet, in my opinion. I love quirky musical instruments, and these are that 🎶🌎☮❤
Its just a very beautiful work of art ! Maybe you could upload a "mastered" version with better audio, for all the people that actually care about that, and well the rest of the people or I may even say the most of the viewers that dont have any care for stuff like that, can enjoy the original upload here, so your impressive viewcount doesnt get a hit in the face :) Great work and dedication !
Thanks for the kind words :) I think that's a great idea. Working on another documentary and learning from that, as well as still finding things out about these device (hence the corrections and amendments in the notes). I promise there will come a time when I release a V2 for all the lovely commenters and subscribers like yourself!
@@zecchouband Hey there ! Thanks for replying so quick :) Well work like this has to be honored, its never easy to do something out of the box, that takes energy to get it happening. As a creating person I can really appreciate that. Thanks for sharing your work :) And a lot of fresh drive for the new project ! Learning through doing, the only way possible.
Awesome video :) I've spent a bunch of time in the last 48 hours watching this in various pieces and purchased my first "conductor" (waiting for it to arrive) as I keep googling I find myself having a question.... I see there are different "scales" on different units - but short of buying 10 different koto synths I'm wondering about musical scale by synth/poetry type? So relative to tonic note on various "conductor" or "Suiko" key layout "types" - what notes do the buttons represent? Do any of them play the "Black Key" / "Yo" scale.... or have bottom row as a yo scale? (I'm listening waiting for it to click but can't "hear" scales yet watching the video.). I'm trying to figure out if I can use it to improvise with a limited note vocabulary "in tune" relative to musical keys...Great work - much appreciated :)
Tough to answer in a comment, but as a starting place, check out 01:02:45 for the hougaku conductor. Those lines from button to button are showcasing the scale path, but you'll see there are differing scales. You will also see there is a switch on the left side to switch between scale layouts. Short answer is yes you can, but a long answer would take a video on explaining japanese music theory as it relates to western. I'll put it on the todo list :) Thanks For being interested.
@@zecchouband Wow - thanks. I figured it was a long answer - and I know there are different Japanese Scales... My curiosity is if any of the Japanese Scales are (say in "key" of C) some reduced combination of notes from the western chromatic scale and if so which ones... it seems many of them are (say the YO scale which is the black keys or in "C") is C,D,F,G,A or root, second, fourth, fifth and sixth scale tones - which means it would be really handy to solo in C (or A minor) with no "wrong" notes :). Would be super interested to hear - and to create a "key" for which poetry synths are in which scale (relative to Western Chromaticism). Love, love, LOVED your video - coolest thing I've seen in quite some time and I think I know what my next 3-4 purchases now need to be :). Thanks again - RK
This explains a lot about that Suiko ST-50 that Hainbach showed. It's also interesting that the older devices are not that interesting from synth nerd perspective - just a square wave oscillator with japanese-scale-tuned keyboard. But at time progress these devices are more interesting.
Agreed. These are not necessarily crazy configurable pieces. A couple analog ones and some sample based. Their magic lies in the scales to me. Throw a Japanese instrument on top of the scales it was designed to use, and it's a new way of thinking.
This is crazy, how did you find these, I need get one, as I understand this is like one mand band for Peom recital. So instead of hiring musician, you could just program this according to the framework of different types of poem. Thank you for your effort, SUbbed.
Thanks for this vid, this is really interesting stuff. The ST-60 is really alluring to me since it has midi support, but it seems fetch a high price on auction sites. How much did you get yours for?
Much appreciated! I picked mine up completely broken, so not a great reference. I am a big believer in people pay what it's worth to them, so don't be too afraid of the price. Very fun device :)
They look very cool. I do love old hymn players, though it seems like this is quite the deep dive. I'll make a video if I ever come up with something useful :) Thanks for the suggestion.
Well there is at least a lot of info on them. namu.wiki/w/%EB%AF%B8%EA%B0%80%EC%97%98%20%EC%97%B0%EC%A3%BC%EA%B8%B0 That has basically the entire history. Unfortunately not a lot of detective work for me to do here though I'm sure circuit bending them is very fun.
Have you seen the Michael video on my channel? I have the M9191 which seems to be one of the only models with a supposed MIDI port but no matter which pins I use it doesn't output proper data. Trying to find out more info on these!@@zecchouband
I jumped to the "What is a poetry synthesizer" section at 5:58 and I still don't know what it is because you showed an example of something that isn't one and now until i have the time to watch a movie-length doc on what they are I simply shall never know ha!! Ah well! I skimmed through and it seems like obscure bleep-bloop gadgets so I'll just assume they're some sort of synthesizer + meaningful Japanese notion / purpose attached to them and perhaps consult the goog :P
Sorry you weren't feeling it :( I still love you though. At the end of that 2 minute section you started aka 07:50, there is a pretty nice summary. It's a device that follows the classic poetry scales and has enough buttons to easily play them. You make a solid point that I should actually have led with the conclusion there to maintain interest. Still plenty to learn in storytelling. I appreciate the feedback.
AN ASIAN MUSICIAN, JUST RECENTLY DROPPED A SOUND KIT @NATIVE INSTRUMENTS. YOU MY FRIEND NEED TO CONTACT BOTH OF THEM. I TRULY THINK, THAT THEY WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED, IN WHAT YOU HAVE GOING ON HERE. 👑 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
!["ซี - เอมี่ " ย้อนความรัก 19 ปี ที่ต้องทนกันและกัน... | แฉ 22 ต.ค. 67 [2/3] | GMM25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ykv9ILzatHM/mqdefault.jpg)
ok lads we have found a new youtube hidden algorithm gem. i was here before 10000 billion views and stuff like that
Let’s gooo
Wow I didn’t know Japan had a history with compact music machines like these. Makes me think of the Sonicware Liven series
I am Japanese, but this is the first time I have heard of such an electronic instrument.
Thank you:)
Wow, this video must have beeen a labour of love! Fascinating to learn the history of Japanese poetry and find out just how many of these trainer devices exist. I own the relatively simple Suiko ST-20, which sounds incredible through a reverb guitar pedal. It's an instrument I can happily mess around with for hours.
I had a random memory pop up and googled "Japanese poetry practice synth" and this is the first thing that popped up. Not only are these EXACTLY, what I meant, but I get essentially a feature length documentary about them! I can not tell you how JUICED I am to watch this!
If Berlin hipsters find this video no pub visit will ever be save.
If I ever go into a pub and see everyone playing 六段の調べ on their poetry synthesizers, I think I can die happy.
lmao too late, Hainbach already found one of these things on Reverb
(that said now i also REALLY want a poetry synthesizer, those seiko models are *gorgeous* )
This is like finding an awesome hidden shop down a pissy dark alley. YES! What a gem!
found this video while searching for Japanese 80s Synth music to listen to.
such a great and interesting video! Not my focus of hobby but as a collector of Japanese retro gaming and retro computers for more then 20 years, this video rises my mood.
and I can really relate to the fascination these devices have!
Very happy to introduce you to these! Fascination is dangerous sometimes haha. I also see the parallels to retro computers and can totally understand that hobby.
fwiw, I found this video easier to watch at 90% speed. So many unfamiliar words that my brain couldn't quite chew on at full blast.
Totally get that. I aim to help demystify, so let me know if I can clear anything up or if something in particular is confusing.
@@zecchouband Trying to come up with more constructive feedback... I think there are some improvements that can be made to the audio quality. There's a lot of background hiss that could be addressed with physical isolation and/or gates and lo-pass eq. Then, with less noise, you can turn up your preamp gain to get more vocal presence, possibly adding mild compression. Another trick I've found helpful is to place a stuffed animal or other object on the desk and speak to their face as if it's an audience, "rubber ducking". This can help the vocals to have more "place" IMO even with mono recording. HTH
@@luserdroog agreed. This was one of my earlier videos. Was still figuring out audio video mixing and recording. Hopefully things have been getting better haha. Thanks for the feedback.
Hello, this is Hamburg calling. Very interesting video
Been waiting for someone to dig deep on the beautiful intersection of poetry and sound. Nice work! 👏👏👏
Saw a ST-20 on ebay and wondered what the hell that was. :P
Thanks for the video!
Thank you sir! for opening my eyes to these instruments, different from anything I've seen or played.
This is the most esoteric/strange/weird vid I have watched on TH-cam in many years... and I am totally fine with that! I am fairly new to synths (playing with) though partial to non western scales ie tuvan throat singing etc. These machines and the culture around them was unknown to me.
A lot of these, to my ears, sound less than optimal, warped 8 bit chip tune, doorbell simulator, Casio on acid... BUT the ST20, ST50 and a few others, yep I get it.
The cost of these is eye watering and the language barrier is offputting, though I am glad you put this together. 😊👍🖖
Note to self: doorbell simulator episode...
Glad you enjoyed :) And yeah, totally get it. The info and language barrier is high. My hope is that my channel can forever break that barrier, but we'll see haha. May your journey bring you to more dark deep niches in the future!
Really excellent history of synthesizers there's very little coverage about. Thank you!
i have st-10 and vs-1 (previously had two st-20's in my time alas) but damn the st-50 is a masterpiece... amazing video arigato!
Wow as a poet and a synth nerd, I enjoyed this immensely
Thank you so much for making this! I know the woman who runs one of these companies. I'm looking to buy one for my own shigin practice.
You are very welcome. I'm also very happy to hear you're learning shigin. I'm sure I could learn things from you as well. Let me know if you ever have questions, requests, or corrections.
@@zecchouband Where, may I ask are you based? Are you in Japan?
@@theshigingaijin1985 Nope, Seattle, WA.
Wish Heinbach hadn't done a story on teh ST0. Price are through the roof!
Might get an ST60 or Suzuki TES70. Both have MIDI!
But I want the pitch wheel version!
Instantly one is transported to a poetic locale inside a Goemon, Kage, Mystic Defender (Peacock King) or other cart for Famicom or Megadrive...!
Thanks very much for posting this.
This kind of content, is the reason for the internet, in my opinion.
I love quirky musical instruments, and these are that 🎶🌎☮❤
I, too, like things that go bleep and bloop
Ma man!
45:20 This machine is one of the best, because in addition to a wide variety of melodic timbres, it also has Taiko percussion!
I also love the percussion! Also a fan of the percussion on the st-100
Hi! How do you access the taiko percussion? Thanks
very cool video. Quite interesting that the Roland SH4D has a similar keyboard on the unit. Wonder if it was a nod to these
so beautiful
Hamburg is calling.
Its just a very beautiful work of art ! Maybe you could upload a "mastered" version with better audio, for all the people that actually care about that, and well the rest of the people or I may even say the most of the viewers that dont have any care for stuff like that, can enjoy the original upload here, so your impressive viewcount doesnt get a hit in the face :)
Great work and dedication !
Thanks for the kind words :) I think that's a great idea. Working on another documentary and learning from that, as well as still finding things out about these device (hence the corrections and amendments in the notes). I promise there will come a time when I release a V2 for all the lovely commenters and subscribers like yourself!
@@zecchouband Hey there ! Thanks for replying so quick :) Well work like this has to be honored, its never easy to do something out of the box, that takes energy to get it happening. As a creating person I can really appreciate that.
Thanks for sharing your work :)
And a lot of fresh drive for the new project !
Learning through doing, the only way possible.
This is great :)
Awesome video :) I've spent a bunch of time in the last 48 hours watching this in various pieces and purchased my first "conductor" (waiting for it to arrive) as I keep googling I find myself having a question.... I see there are different "scales" on different units - but short of buying 10 different koto synths I'm wondering about musical scale by synth/poetry type? So relative to tonic note on various "conductor" or "Suiko" key layout "types" - what notes do the buttons represent? Do any of them play the "Black Key" / "Yo" scale.... or have bottom row as a yo scale? (I'm listening waiting for it to click but can't "hear" scales yet watching the video.). I'm trying to figure out if I can use it to improvise with a limited note vocabulary "in tune" relative to musical keys...Great work - much appreciated :)
Tough to answer in a comment, but as a starting place, check out 01:02:45 for the hougaku conductor. Those lines from button to button are showcasing the scale path, but you'll see there are differing scales. You will also see there is a switch on the left side to switch between scale layouts. Short answer is yes you can, but a long answer would take a video on explaining japanese music theory as it relates to western. I'll put it on the todo list :) Thanks For being interested.
@@zecchouband Wow - thanks. I figured it was a long answer - and I know there are different Japanese Scales... My curiosity is if any of the Japanese Scales are (say in "key" of C) some reduced combination of notes from the western chromatic scale and if so which ones... it seems many of them are (say the YO scale which is the black keys or in "C") is C,D,F,G,A or root, second, fourth, fifth and sixth scale tones - which means it would be really handy to solo in C (or A minor) with no "wrong" notes :). Would be super interested to hear - and to create a "key" for which poetry synths are in which scale (relative to Western Chromaticism). Love, love, LOVED your video - coolest thing I've seen in quite some time and I think I know what my next 3-4 purchases now need to be :). Thanks again - RK
Neeeeerd (PS am too) ;)
So cool to see these in action
cool - I never knew about these little fun machines 👍
Good stuff, thanks. One suggestion: your audio level is quite low, you might want to remix the levels.
I hear ya :) definitely still a novice to video editing, but only way to go is up. Thanks for the advice and watching!
Awesome resource !
recently found a 6 button like the one on 10:51 what a good find at the abyssal marketplace
I tried and it is installed thank u very much anda
Super dope man
Seriously thank you for making this video. This series of instruments are so amazing, I will be buying some.
Effin awesome, dude
This is soo cool!
wow a video made for me, thanks!
Awesome stuff :)
Any chance of getting a link to the Shigin Trainer software you mention starting at 22:23?
Happily. Here's a link to the play store. Unsure if it's on Apple.
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.kyu_mu.shigintrainer
Why do these things look so old but sound so good amazing sound
very cool man, thanks for putting this one together, subbed! :D
Amazing!!! I never listened about these.
I want one of these to make acid breakcore with
Awesome video !
great job
does vs one have midi in ? or only st60 has it?
reddit brought me here, this is amazing
Wonderful work!
This explains a lot about that Suiko ST-50 that Hainbach showed.
It's also interesting that the older devices are not that interesting from synth nerd perspective - just a square wave oscillator with japanese-scale-tuned keyboard. But at time progress these devices are more interesting.
Agreed. These are not necessarily crazy configurable pieces. A couple analog ones and some sample based. Their magic lies in the scales to me. Throw a Japanese instrument on top of the scales it was designed to use, and it's a new way of thinking.
This is crazy, how did you find these, I need get one, as I understand this is like one mand band for Peom recital. So instead of hiring musician, you could just program this according to the framework of different types of poem. Thank you for your effort, SUbbed.
Thanks for this vid, this is really interesting stuff. The ST-60 is really alluring to me since it has midi support, but it seems fetch a high price on auction sites. How much did you get yours for?
Much appreciated! I picked mine up completely broken, so not a great reference. I am a big believer in people pay what it's worth to them, so don't be too afraid of the price. Very fun device :)
good video man
I, personally... have no idea how I got here... This is interesting though.
Ok great now do Korean hymn player machines like the Michael M9191
They look very cool. I do love old hymn players, though it seems like this is quite the deep dive. I'll make a video if I ever come up with something useful :) Thanks for the suggestion.
Well there is at least a lot of info on them.
namu.wiki/w/%EB%AF%B8%EA%B0%80%EC%97%98%20%EC%97%B0%EC%A3%BC%EA%B8%B0
That has basically the entire history. Unfortunately not a lot of detective work for me to do here though I'm sure circuit bending them is very fun.
Have you seen the Michael video on my channel? I have the M9191 which seems to be one of the only models with a supposed MIDI port but no matter which pins I use it doesn't output proper data. Trying to find out more info on these!@@zecchouband
What's poetry?
That ST 50 is heavenly
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😊
I jumped to the "What is a poetry synthesizer" section at 5:58 and I still don't know what it is because you showed an example of something that isn't one and now until i have the time to watch a movie-length doc on what they are I simply shall never know ha!! Ah well! I skimmed through and it seems like obscure bleep-bloop gadgets so I'll just assume they're some sort of synthesizer + meaningful Japanese notion / purpose attached to them and perhaps consult the goog :P
Sorry you weren't feeling it :( I still love you though.
At the end of that 2 minute section you started aka 07:50, there is a pretty nice summary. It's a device that follows the classic poetry scales and has enough buttons to easily play them.
You make a solid point that I should actually have led with the conclusion there to maintain interest. Still plenty to learn in storytelling. I appreciate the feedback.
@@zecchouband I was hoping they were devices that could synthesise Japanese poetry, a bit like a cultured PO-35 Speak.
I can't hear this.
Just sine wave generators.
@57:20 that one sounds real good
しらんかっとんてんちんとんしゃん
What am I watching.
Well you see, when a man and a synth love each other very much.
@48:00 thats the one!
what
AN ASIAN MUSICIAN, JUST RECENTLY DROPPED A SOUND KIT @NATIVE INSTRUMENTS. YOU MY FRIEND NEED TO CONTACT BOTH OF THEM. I TRULY THINK, THAT THEY WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED, IN WHAT YOU HAVE GOING ON HERE. 👑 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐