electro-music.org -> General Discussion https://files.electro-music.com/forum/ Stick Walkmans as cheap reference players - reading Japanese used listings https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459688#459688 A small detour from synths: a few people here have asked about cheap, distraction-free players for checking bounces away from the studio monitors - car, earbuds, walk around the block. The old Sony flash Walkmans keep coming up, and most of the supply ... RenSynthJp Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:06:05 -0700 Which microphone and which bowl are best for harmonics? https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459546#459546 :welcome:

My experience may not be typical, but I have many microphones, condensers and dynamic. While careful listening will show up differences, they a very subtile. Aside from being an electro-musician I'm a radio amateur. In both worlds ther ... mosc Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:40:15 -0700 Reading a Japanese city-pop vinyl listing: pressing, obi and condition https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459541#459541 City pop has become easy to discover and surprisingly hard to buy intelligently. The same album may appear as an original Japanese pressing, a later domestic reissue, a recent repress, a 7-inch single, or a listing assembled from a stock photo. Before ... RenSynthJp Sat, 03 Oct 2026 15:05:26 -0700 Panasonic RP-HZ47: why a cheap clip-on became the Persona 3 headphone https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459534#459534 The Panasonic RP-HZ47 is an ordinary wired clip-on headphone, but it keeps turning up in Persona 3 cosplay and collecting discussions because its silhouette is close to the headphones worn by the game's protagonist. That connection is fan-made: the RP ... RenSynthJp Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:04:34 -0700 Buying Japanese domestic studio gear: five checks before the voltage converter https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459522#459522 Japanese used-audio listings are full of equipment that is familiar by brand but unfamiliar in its domestic-market version. The obvious warning is 100 V mains power, yet voltage is only one of several checks that matter before importing a recorder, mo ... RenSynthJp Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:10:18 -0700 Why the shō needs a heater: practical notes on Japan's 17-pipe mouth organ https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459518#459518 The shō is one of those instruments that makes much more sense once you stop thinking of it as a set of bamboo pipes and start thinking of it as a small free-reed system with a moisture-management problem.

What is happening inside it

A standard s ... RenSynthJp Tue, 29 Sep 2026 15:03:18 -0700 Otamatone (Maywa Denki) as an actual synth voice - Deluxe line-out vs Neo/Techno app models, and what each one costs on the Japanese market right now (Sept 2026) https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459408#459408 A lighter one after the guitar-factory thread, but it belongs here: the Otamatone is a ribbon-controlled monophonic electronic instrument with a pressure-articulated "mouth" filter, it has been in continuous production since 2009, and the Deluxe versi ... RenSynthJp Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:18:44 -0700 Who actually built your Japanese guitar (FujiGen, Deviser, Tokai...) - the Roland GR-500 connection, and what the Japanese used market asks right now (Sept 2026) https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459402#459402 Following on from the Walkman thread - this one is for the guitar-and-synth people, because the factory that built the world's first commercial guitar synthesiser is the same factory behind half the "Made in Japan" guitars on the used market, and almo ... RenSynthJp Wed, 16 Sep 2026 06:20:41 -0700 Cassette and MD Walkmans as tape tools: what the Japanese used market is asking right now (Sept 2026), and how to read the model numbers https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459400#459400 A slightly different one from me - not synths this time, but the portable Sony stuff a lot of us use as sound sources and cheap tape machines: cassette Walkmans for loops and dubbing, MD recorders as field recorders. I went through the Japanese listin ... RenSynthJp Tue, 15 Sep 2026 21:21:59 -0700 Buying synths and pedals out of the Japanese domestic market in 2026 - Digimart, the 100V question, and what the listings actually say https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459337#459337 Following on from the thread I posted a while back about vintage hi-fi out of Japan. Several people asked the obvious next question - what about instruments - so I spent a while actually working through it rather than guessing. Posting the useful part ... RenSynthJp Sun, 06 Sep 2026 19:47:27 -0700 Japanese FM-synth home computers in 2026 - what the X68000 / PC-88 / MSX music software actually costs out of Japan, and the three format walls https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459331#459331 If you care about FM synthesis, the Japanese home-computer market of 1985-1995 is an odd blind spot: those machines were sound-hardware platforms first and computers second, and almost none of them were sold outside Japan. I spent this morning pricing ... RenSynthJp Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:04:59 -0700 Importing vintage Japanese gear direct from Japan in 2026 - the 100V question, and what the freight actually costs https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459326#459326 Japan's domestic secondhand market is the deepest source of 1970s-1990s amps and direct-drive decks anywhere, and domestic prices are a fraction of what the same units fetch through Western specialist dealers. I quoted the whole chain on 29 August 202 ... RenSynthJp Wed, 02 Sep 2026 03:25:47 -0700 Price check, 2 September 2026: Japanese hardware is thinning out, the media around it is not https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459325#459325 Following on from the Hard Off / Yahoo Auctions / Digimart notes, here is a straight price check I ran this morning across six Japanese marketplaces. It is not synth-specific, but the shape of it is the same shape our gear market has, and the numbers ... RenSynthJp Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:05:50 -0700 Two things nobody warns you about importing Japanese hi-fi: the 50/60Hz motor question, and why a turntable ships worse than a heavier amp https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459313#459313 Following on from the Hard Off and shipping-limits threads I posted earlier this month - I went and priced a couple of real parcels this week and hit two things that I had not seen written down anywhere, so here they are.

1. Voltage is the famous pr ... RenSynthJp Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:00:37 -0700 neural note https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459275#459275 https://github.com/DamRsn/NeuralNote

NeuralNote is the audio plugin that brings state-of-the-art Audio to MIDI conversion into your favorite Digital Audio Workstation.

Works with any tonal instrument (voice included)
Supports polyphoni ... blue hell Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:31:09 -0700 Getting it home: the three limits that decide whether a Japanese synth can ship to you at all https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459262#459262 Four threads back I went through the ways to actually find gear in Japan — the Hard Off junk corner , Digimart , Yahoo! Auctions and then Mercari plus the 100V question . Sourcing and power are the two halves people argue about. The half nobody ... RenSynthJp Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:14:07 -0700 The 100V question, and the fourth door (Mercari) — follow-up to the Hard Off / Digimart / Yahoo Auctions threads https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459258#459258 Three threads back I walked through the three ways to find Japanese gear: the Hard Off junk corner, Digimart shop stock, and Yahoo! Auctions private sellers. The same reply kept coming back in one form or another, and I dodged it every time because I ... RenSynthJp Sat, 15 Aug 2026 19:42:28 -0700 Yahoo! Auctions Japan for synths: the third door, after the Hard Off junk corner and Digimart shop stock https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459219#459219 Closing out the set. Thread one was Hard Off, where untested gear washes up in a corner of a second-hand chain. Thread two was Digimart, where the actual instrument shops list their graded, tested stock online. Both threads had the same hole in them, ... RenSynthJp Mon, 10 Aug 2026 06:37:21 -0700 Field notes: digging used synths and gear out of Japan (Hard Off junk corners, and what it costs to get it home) https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459211#459211 Howard - thank you, that is a genuinely kind welcome for a first post.

Fair warning that I am mostly on the buying-and-hauling side rather than the serious procurement side myself; I just got tired of watching gear I could not read the listing for. S ... RenSynthJp Sat, 08 Aug 2026 12:08:25 -0700 Digimart: the other half of the Japanese used-gear market (how to read the listings, and what it really costs to get a synth home) https://files.electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=459210#459210 Following up on my Hard Off thread, because a junk corner is only half the story and the half I left out is the one you can actually shop from a laptop.

Hard Off is where the untested stuff washes up. The clean, graded, "the shop plugged it in and wr ... RenSynthJp Sat, 08 Aug 2026 12:06:00 -0700