I found some videos on Kazane, it is pretty much like hard paper. When people try to promote Kazane I can see they have to give it more playing to make it sound decent most likely to compensate for the lack of sound somewhat. I just want to make the most of my shamisen. But thank you, I just hope it continues evolving as I want people the experience the best sound out of the shamisen without having to go for dog skin.
I don’t understand what you mean by “give it more playing”. Do you mean they’re striking harder?
they give it more effort, yes strike harder.
The thought process on designing Kazane was to achieve high end cat skin sound.
One of the characteristics of high end cat skin is that it’s absurdly thin, at 0.2~0.25mm.
Standard cat skin is 0.4mm, and dog skin is 0.5~0.9mm (thicker for Tsugaru).
Hakuho, which was created originally for drums, is exactly 0.4mm thick on the Shamisen version, and Kazane is 0.22mm (maybe thats why the paper-y sound, not enough mass to reverberate properly).
Hibiki is 0.55mm thick, though the weave causes it to have less mass for the thickness, which helps with the sound profile (it acts like a 0.35~0.4mm thick skin, which is ideal).
Can you tell me what videos you’ve looked at?
I’m curious.
@jonnyfive Is that what your research indicated, or did the Miyabikai folks give you a heads up?
Nice, immediate comparison here.
I’m not sure if I hear an overall volume loss as much as there seems to be some frequency drops (compared to a natural skinning)
Bonus Paper Skinning (thank you, algorithm)
1 Like
Can’t add much but my natural skin just sounds diffent from synthetic.,fir me the time just sounds warmer with natural
This was one of the videos I looked at, I don’t know who the Miyabikai folks are? Have they said something similar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ESPCTqPfcM
It was based on my own research I am not trying to knock someone of but I was just in pursue of a good sound so I started listening and comparing. Seems that you beat me to the video already.
That video has a shamisen actually “skinned” with Japanese rice paper. It is not Kazane
Azuma-ya is the shop which produces Kazane.
https://syamisen-azumaya.repeat.jp/azumaya/三味線人工皮「風音」/
They are affiliated with the Miyabi-kai group. Here is their Youtube.
no wonder it sounded like paper lol
1 Like
Right!!
It’s a little amazing that someone managed to do it though.