Tetora

Yo, I saw the panel at ACen in 2013 and just now got around to checking out the site haha.  Anyway greetings all!

Hi, guys!
 
I'd Like To ask a Few Questions here if anyone knows about the SPAM Prevention System

Since from now, there are new members often and the post count is increasing, some users might spam or post some kinds of nonsense in thread. So, right now, we're going to have a SPAM Prevention System to avoid SPAM posts in future if its possible. 

Also those who will be seen with the intention of spamming to increase their post, doing stuffs like posting in every thread in a section with nonsense posts, or saying "thank you" in every thread even though there is already a thanks button available. We will be deleting all posts that was done and give proper punishment.

So here is how it will go....

If one of the staffs see a spam considered post like this one for example (click spoiler)...
 

I thought this was pretty cool to look at. Best of 2013 lists from artists that are on and associated with the subenoana label (which is a fantastic record label I might add)
 
http://subenoana.net/best2013/
 
I'm somehow not surprised to see Eminem on DOTAMA's list, ha.
 
 

Are there sites out there where you can trade with japanese people for rarez? I'm really confused and have been for about 7 years on how certain people get rare releases, and the voodoo vault guy had some rare releases but mostly just old jazz or blues japanese stuff.(Which btw anyone can get by going to any various japanese music site so not that rare just old like 60's old.) So anyway how do people get these rarez and more importantly why are only a few people able to? Friends, connections, moving to japan? Is that the only option to get rarez and why is it from time to time no information can even be found about bands (ex. Sugahara kouta since1889) like his band before usagi appearently that band had at least one release but only one person has it. Now for my last question; if you have these releases and no one else can get them and you can buy them yourself because you don't know where to get them then why not just share, I always do even though I've only got my hands on a handful of rarez.

Reminds me of the guy who uploaded a single in 98kbps and stated "perfection" as the bitrate lmao.

Damn. I never realized how long I've been away from the vk fandom. I remember the good old days of Tainted World...
 
I'm injectcandy. carouselcues. aciid_cl0bb3r. lawren.
maybe you've seen me around, maybe you havent.
 
Been listening to VK for pretty much 10 years now~
I cant believe what has happened over the span of this time.
 
I'm looking to get back into the fandom and listen more actively.
 
So hello again!
 
And shout out to my Canadian vk fans

As for credits, it can be a form of thank you, or recognition in a community.
 
Say you brought cookies to work for everyone, and while you aren`t looking, someone else grabs your plate of your desk and puts it on his... Then everyone starts eating the cookies and telling him how amazing he is, and thanking him... It would make you pretty angry, and stop you from even thinking about the people enjoying the cookies etc... It would just make you mad...
 
I don`t care about credits, but can see why other people do. If you do something and someone else gets the credit, it may ruin it for you.
 
As for file types... I am of the camp that any format is fine for people to try the band... A good band in low quality is still recognizable as being worth it, and you can buy the cd to get the full quality...
 
I also don`t like iTunes because the quality is pretty much never good enough for me if I am paying for it. I would only use it for exclusives....
 
With anything I like, 320 is not enough, I need FLAC to satisfy me, so if I wasn`t someone that bought already, I would be driven to purchase for full quality on my headphones.
 
Just my opinions, I understand why people feel differently! Good discussion here.

Well said, I don't really care much for credits for the same reasons.
 
On the bitrates, its actually pretty hard to distinguish 128 to 320 MP3, especially with a genre of rock where there is a lot of distortion in the music. The differences can be much more obvious with none electrical instruments and you have the ear to hear for the notes played. The main reasons for obvious bad 128 is the encoding by ones like Windows Media Player or other suspect software that does weird stuff such as lowering volumes and reducing dynamic range to reduce file size.
 
I have done my fair share of ABX with 128, 192, VBR V0, 320 and FLAC as well as MP3 vs AAC. From my findings, VBR V0 and up is pretty much transparent to CD quality but it is pretty hard to ABX 320 MP3 and lower bitrates especially VBR ones. I suggest people test it themselves and see their limits of audible difference between the various bitrates. I use LAME encoder and have settled with VBR V0 if I were to compress to MP3 but still understand that the lower bitrates are still hard to distinguish from each other.

I usually only share stuff that I really like myself. I guess the most satisfying aspect is to find more potential fans for the bands that I like by sharing, even though I know perfectly well it can be counterproductive.
 
Honestly I've never really given much thought when uploading, nor am I too calculative about the whole thing, since I believe reciprocity is key when it comes to a community like this. Although I must admit that it still pisses me off when people silently sneak into the forums and take everything without bothering to even take a few seconds to show their appreciation.

Your write-ups are awesome, for the introduction of the artist especially while listening to a sampler at the same time. 

For me, I mainly tend to share things that I'm very enthusiastic about myself.  I really enjoy doing little writeups to accompany my uploads.  If that actually helps to persuade someone to try something new, then that's awesome!
My favorite thing about uploading (it doesn't happen THAT often unfortunately, haha) is when people post a bit more than "thanks" and actually share their thoughts on a release.  It's always nice to hear what others think about a particular release; a few downloaders have left some really thoughtful comments/opinions in the past and I always enjoy reading them.

I had most of my first Japanese music collection downloaded from various sites but I was an avid CD/DVD buyer ever since I was able to work when I was younger. I wasn't much of a downloader since I didn't have to and anything I downloaded was free such as mixtapes. Since a credit card was needed for overseas purchase, I couldn't really do anything about downloading until I had to turn of age when the bank could finally accept me. So now I upload as a sort of repayment to the community? as way to give thanks back as well as let something happen to some person what has happened to me which is discover new wonderful music to listen to.
 
Special shout out to those that upload such unobtainium amazing stuff that I would never have probably discovered them myself.
 
CAT5, how come you didn't answer your own question?

I've had three girlfriends, yet I think I've only gone on one date ever. I think that means I'm broken XD
 
To me though, "going on a date" seems like what you'd do to get to know someone, yet with all of my girlfriends I had already known them well beforehand. I guess the idea of a date doesn't really mean much to me either. If I want to go out to the movies or a restaurant with my girlfriend or a potential girlfriend, I don't really think I'd make a big ordeal out of it. I vastly prefer just hanging out with someone at home, since I think that if anything, you'd get to know them better that way then during some movie or when you're both stuffin' food into your faces. I guess I'm lucky that my girlfriend is boring like me and prefers to just stay in instead of going out and doing things together XD

this is the theme again if personality of artist plays any role in the music you like. and like 90% of people i am sure they would say to you :NO i only care about music. i have seen it so many times.
excuse me but i care about personality too.at least i notice it. like it or not you can't avoid it. the art was made by a person, not by itself.
so i say if you feel someones personality is so terrible you can not stand it or it goes against your believes. you should feel free to stop listening to him or stop loving his art so much or even boycotting.but of course you should boycott something only if your reasons are indeed noble or righteous !! (otherwise you are shitty personality too)  you can stop listening though personally for whatever reason you want. music is for your own pleasure. you can even be superficial imo.
on the other hand if you feel he has so great talent and you adore his art to the point you can not stop listening .then keep listening to it. but keep saying i don't support his attitude.
music is about your own pleasure so if it bothers you stop listening to it. if it doesn't ,don't stop.

 also there is a limit in the opposite way.
would you support an artist you hate his music because he has a nice personality? that's crazy too.

a lot of people say you should be loyal to a band nomatter what. that's stupid. even in marriage you can get divorced.
even in frienships if you do not have any connection anymore,how are you going to keep it. WHY would you want to keep it?
what is the reason?
 

one of the best songs of the album! I wanna see At traction S furitsuke soon! the song is epicccc

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Question for the uploaders in this forum or other site, what is the most downloads you have for a single release? Assuming you have a way of keeping track. I am genuinely curious.
 
Mine is Light Bringer - Scenes of Infinity MP3 ver with about 1100 DLs so far. I didn't expect so many, I thought it would be something like 300-500.
 
Interestingly things I noticed go through my uploads, most of the comments I get in 4shared are those that are Spanish. And none of my lossless uploads get past 20 DLs which is why lossless is now a request only for me to do.

oh wow, I guess you have the record so far and I didn't expect that band to have that many interests...well I am not much of a fan of Oshare Kei but that is interesting.
 
I don't think youtube view count = popularity necessarily. A better, although minimally, away to assess popularity is the relation between view count AND likes ratio. There are many indie artists that have like ratios of 1000:1 with maybe 10k views while other more "popular" artists have large view count and terrible like ratios. So I don't think view count really equates being liked for their music.
 
I noticed that Russia has many sites with flac uploaders as well, the download speed is pretty slow in comparison to servers closer to me but no sense to cry over it.

That's true. Artists don't get much from CD sales. When the CD is imported since a lot of us like Japanese music, a lot of what you pay goes into shipping and stuff.
 
As to live gigs, you are paying for your one time enjoyment of the show. Your money is exchanged for their work of playing the music. It's fair trade unless you think the ticket price is not worth it. Of course, people can stop liking certain music for various reasons. If you are not happy with how the artists spend the money they earn, or if you don't like the music they make anymore, you will just stop paying for songs and gig tickets. No matter whatever you have paid for in the past, you have enjoyed the benefit so I think it was worth it.

I buy CDs (or any other band merchanside) mostly for myself. Because I like to have it. Supporting the band, however little of it actually reaches them, is just an added bonus (and what they do with their money is really up to them - I'm not too much in the business of judging other people's lifestyle.)
 
 
And if the music of a band I used to like suddenly turned bad - well, I'll stop buying it. In this day and age nobody has to buy bad music anymore. There is usually more than one way, legal or illegal, to listen to something before buying, if you are unsure. 
 
 
I think it would have to be something REALLY serious for me to stop buying music I like (or any other band stuff) just to prevent the few cents of my purchase from reaching the artist - like, I dunno, them turning into completely fucked-up nazi assholes or child rapists or whatever. Then maybe I would think "Yeah.... maybe I'll just keep my money". But them spending "my" money on useless stuff? Hardly.
 
Suffice to say, that hasn't happened to me so far.

I don't really care about an artists personal life. But if I were to look at it that way, it is just a basic question of morals I guess. A very weak one at that since if you look at people in general, a great majority of which will also spend money on stupid shit but that stupid shit would be a matter of opinion. So should we stop paying people money and leave them jobless too??
 
People will look for contentment differently, to some it maybe spending money on expensive materials, consuming illegal substance or obtaining sex and to some ice cream is plenty.
 
 
Music wise, I pay for the music first and foremost and other merchandise second. I am currently in a falling out with Hizaki and camp. It's disappointing personally since he one of the first artist I have grown to love for the work and I have to ultimately stop supporting after so long, I just can't dump my money on a shitty sounding band.
 
Note:
 
I don't think artists gain much from CD sales though, I was under the impression live gigs generate more revenue. 

DIV - 夏の行方 (natsu no yukue)

 
Reason: Not sure what it means or if it's just random, but I simply love the composition.  Who knew goldfish and marbles (?) would be a winning combination?  Plus, the black background also makes the colors pop intensely.

 
戸川純 (Jun Togawa) - 玉姫様 (Tamahime sama)

 
Reason: It's mysterious and creepy in a subtle way.  I can easily imagine this being a still from an 80s horror movie, like The Fly - or in this case, The Dragonfly.

 
Ehpion - Re:union

 
Reason: Once again, simple, yet stark imagery.  It's gorgeous and reminds me of an old Dutch still life painting.

 
the god and death stars - addle apple

 
Reason: So simple, yet so iconic!  It definitely makes an impression. I'll never forget this album cover.


I think I've learned that I tend to like the following in my album art
a. simple
b. mysterious
c. black backgrounds with bursts of color
d. any combination of the above

Of the albums that were already posted, I'm also enjoying Boris' and FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT's.

Topic is simple. Show a picture of an album cover you really like (album and artist name would be helpful too!) and briefly explain why you like it.


陰陽座 - 鳳翼麟瞳


 
 
Reason: If there was ever a mysterious album cover that conveyed the mysterious, ethereal nature of an album without having to listen to it, Houyoku-Rindou would be that album cover. Also, it has Kuroneko on it and everyone that knows me should know that I fancy myself some Kuroneko.
 

UnsraW - GUILTY
 

 
Reason: UnsraW always tried to be a band with unsettling visuals, but this is the only album cover of theirs I find remotely unsettling. It's also one of the only album covers I feel like they put effort into. Too bad I can't say the rest about the mini-album.
 
Versailles - Ascendead Master

 
Reason: To me, this is Versailles best attempt at mixing their concept with an album cover. I generally don't like seeing band members on album covers, I think the Holy Grail album cover is very simple and the Versailles album cover bland. JUBILEE is take it or leave it. Plus, it's hand drawn and that's pretty boss.

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