With the possibility of a shamisen metal (or “Shmetal”) band slowly coming to reality, it’s time to finally try out some pedals! With Grant’s Mugen21 dou (made by Shamisen Katoh) connected to a cheap Level 1 shamisen sao, we head out to Sylvan Music, where our bass player (Mason) helps us get our rock on!
Also, some scenes from the final days in Sapporo!
Dude, that throat singing sound was through the roof (and the mountains of Mongolia)!!! Definately use that stuff and people will say the concert was worth it just for that.
Great stuff!
PS. I think that dancer got hooked up with the leggings spammer on the forum!
Wow man, I really am excited to see how that photoshoot came out for the album! You guys look great! I’ve been really wanting to get my own kimono like that. It looks like now I might even be able to get one with our own mon too! 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look more Japanese style Kyle, haha.
I agree, the Tuvan bit at the end sounded really cool! Definitely needs to be included in the Shmetal band.
Yeah man the throat singing sounded epic, like some kind of god
great and I am wondering does this require the mugen for performances or would the effects pedals also work with a regular shamisen and a regular mic?
great and I am wondering does this require the mugen for performances or would the effects pedals also work with a regular shamisen and a regular mic?
You might be able to get some cool sound if you tweak around a bit. Kyle will have to answer how much tweaking they did.
I have Guitar Rig on my computer. It takes a clean guitar signal and then uses the computer to simulate real guitar gear like amps, effects etc. While it is nowhere near hardware, it sounds really good.
The thing is though, that what is picked up by the pick-ups does not sound the same as if you recorded your electric guitar with an ordinary microphone. Thus everything is optimized for another sound than the acoustic one you can hear with your ear.
I tried putting Guitar Rig on a recording of me playing shamisen but it sounded worse than playing guitar.
If you’re looking at that zvex 2-in-1, you should also look into their mastotron (not as an alternative, but as an addition). I don’t know how it’ll sound with a shamisen, but it gives some pretty thick metal fuzz.
Agree with everything said about the throat singing.
Tuvan throat singing with effects?! Heads-will-EXPLODE!!! YYEAH, BABY! That’s Rock-n-F’N-Roll, man!
[Ahem]
Cool video all around. I’m digging the song you’re all doing in Sapporo. Looks like you had a great time. (I have got to get to Japan sooner than later!)
(I have got to get to Japan sooner than later!)
I second that!
ho god yes this throat singing sounded awesome with the pog ! You should definitely use it on recording ! I use to do the same with my ex bandmates , for one song’s intro the bassist would record multitrack throat singing , just like tibetan monks , not really the typical tuvan way i guess , you can hear it in the intro of the song :