The recording room with a ceiling height of 3 m is a place of recording experiments for a wide variety of musical instruments.
At the tender age of 17, the young guitarist who won the Grand Prix at Guitar Magazine’s “1st Magazine Guitar Contest” has produced musical accompaniments for anime such as “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Tokyo Revengers” after 20 years He is very active as a composer . Hiroaki Tsutsumi’s private studio was like a testing ground for recording.
I thought all I needed was a guitar.
Tsutsumi became interested in the guitar after seeing a trend in the baseball club he belonged to when he was in middle school. Less than four years later, he won the Grand Prix and then entered the Department of Music, Culture and Design at Kunitachi College of Music. He has been composing songs since he was in middle school, but back then he was convinced that “a song without a guitar solo isn’t a song at all”.
“When I was in middle and high school, my method for composing music was to create the overall image while playing the guitar, and then refine it by overdubbing it with the BOSS BR-8. I used ZOOM RT-123 for the drums, and then added the bass. So, the guitar is basically a twin or more guitar, and I just want it to be thicker (lol). When I was composing music, I wanted the guitar to stand out as much as the singing. At that time I was learning guitar and composition from guitarist Yoshihisa Suzuki. However, I was given the advice: “If you learn DTM as early as possible, it will bring you good things in the future.” in mind, after I entered music college, I started creating songs using Apple Logic Pro. Since I started playing DTM, I started incorporating sounds of instruments other than guitar more than before. From then on, my production style was one where I was pushing the idea of ”all I need is a guitar”. I think I’ve gradually become more flexible.”
Shortly after entering university, I started playing guitar to the works of Masaru Yokoyama, a final year student in the same department. When Yokoyama joined the music production company Miracle Bus, to which Tsutsumi currently belongs, the company arranged the arrangements for him. receive requests for shows.
“I’m embarrassed to say this, but I didn’t learn the word ‘gekiban’ until I joined Miracle Bus. I loved GLAY and wrote a lot of songs, and even when I did instrumental songs, most of them were bangers. on the guitar. So when I learned about the job description of musical accompaniment, I honestly couldn’t imagine being able to accomplish it. However, the song I submitted to the magazine’s guitar competition was instrumental, and the style was to pursue an ensemble of overdubs. But the fact that I won the prize there made me think that I could also demonstrate my skills in producing theatrical soundtracks.”
As a drama screenwriter, the film “Real Onigokko 3” released in 2012 and series 4 and 5 were his substantial debuts, and in 2013 he worked on “Hyperdimension Neptunia” and “I Couldn’t Become a Hero”. , Reluctantly get a job.” I decided. “Meganebu!” “and he has been dealing with anime works one after another. He is quickly rising to prominence. At the same time, there has been a change in the way he approached composition.
“When I first started producing musical accompaniments, I had a strong tendency to make songs more technical than necessary due to my guitar brain, but this has gradually changed, and now I try to select the necessary elements. .In the past, the My ideas mostly came from the guitar, now I often start from the piano and the rhythm. When it comes to musical expression, I purposely leave the tone wrong or the rhythm is distorted. I started to think that it’s OK, if I can express what I want to I’m aiming, and I can use it if I like. Now I’m a complete composer (lol).
Later, when I asked him about the topic of musical accompaniment in recent years, he said: “Lately I am often asked to do film soundtracks.”
“There are advantages to having a sound director select the songs and soundtrack for the film, but if you can film the soundtrack to important scenes, you can pinpoint your image and your passion. It may be more rigorous than a normal production, but I like working there, thinking it’s a place where a composer can showcase his skills.”
DAW is Avid Pro Tools. For drums, I use TOONTRACK SUPERIOR DRUMMER and keepforest EVOLUTION: DEVASTATOR WARZONE. His favorite bass is the NATIVE INSTRUments SCARBEE MM-BASS because it makes it easy to type ghost notes. For cinematic sounds, the SPECTRASONICS OMNISPHERE Sonic Extensions presets are also recommended. For bows, his favorite is the Chris Hein BEST SERVICE series due to its ease of use. Aside from that, he says, “Output Arcade offers a variety of genres, and the sound quality and ease of use are also good.” The computers used are Apple MacBook Pro (64 GB of RAM) and UNIVERSAL AUDIO UAD-2 Satellite. The keyboard is NATIVE INSTRUMETS Komplete Kontrol S88 MK2
The monitor speaker is ATC SCM25A Pro
I also used earbuds and headphones to check the tone. On the left is SONY MDR-EX800ST, on the right is Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO
Five Genelec 8330A units are installed in the ceiling for 5.1-channel surround monitoring.
The subwoofer is Genelec 7350
The computer keyboard is a Logitech Craft with a dial that allows you to record shortcuts. You can also see the Elgato STREAM DECK XL for shortcuts on the back. On the right is the MERGING ANUBIS audio interface
preamps and effects. In front on the right is DigiTech Whammy, behind is Boot-Leg, on the right is Rock’n Roll Party RRP-1.0, on the left Z.VEX FUZZ FACTORY and further back is the power supply compatible with the API 500 series. RUPERT NEVE DESIGNS R6 box., 551 EQ, 511 microphone preamp and 542 tape simulator. Above is Neural DSP QUADCORTEX. You can see the Thumb Piano in the foreground on the left, the AVALON M5 behind it, the HOLOGRAM INFINITE JETS in the foreground above, and the PIGTRONIX MOTHERSHIP in the back.
From top: Switchcraft patch bay, AVALON DESIGN AD2022 (mic preamp), Empirical Labs Distressor EL8-X x 2 and MEERGING HORUS, a networked AD/DA converter with ANUBIS on RAVENNA. Add modules with a 16-in/16-out configuration. All inputs are equipped with microphone preamps. “You can control it remotely using a dedicated app, so you can adjust the input gain from the recording room,” says Tsutsumi. Below are Cuebox System listening technologies that respond to OCTO Hub. Additionally, the two machines seen below are rubidium clock systems, and the one below is a Sinano GPC-1500 clean power supply.
I want to upgrade my recording
The private studio, completed in 2020, features a recording room and instrument storage on the first floor, and a composing room and control room on the second floor, and was designed and built by Acoustic Engineering. He currently uses Avid Pro Tools as his DAW for everything from typing to waveform editing.
“Thanks to Mr. Yokoyama’s advice, I started using Pro Tools in addition to Logic Pro, and it has become my main DAW. When I record data at an external studio, I take it home and process it myself. I also like this .”
The recording room has a ceiling up to 3 meters high, the floor is divided into concrete areas and dry areas, and the walls are made of brick or soft cedar wood depending on the location, making it suitable for a variety of recordings. was designed as follows. In fact, he records various instruments such as guitar, oud, saz, harp, keyboard harmonica, recorder, cello, violin, mandolin, piano, etc., and uses them as material to accompany the work.
“In the future, I think it would be very fun to have musicians recording and distributing music. Also, I would like to learn more about recording and sound itself while being exposed to various types of instruments, microphones and instruments and I would like to use it in my work output.”
The boy guitar genius grew up to become a writer of musical accompaniments and is now obsessed with recording, continuing to develop his talent. There is no doubt that this study is fertile ground for this.
Some of my favorite stringed instruments. From left: a mandolin, a TMP 5-string bass, an Ohana ukulele, and one of his lead guitars, the Shelton Galaxy Flite, which has low-cut knobs. Further to the right are the same lead instruments: a FURCH acoustic guitar , a banjo guitar from ARIA, a fretted violin from Erde Instruments, a Spanish lute from Jose Ramirez purchased in Spain, and a 12-string acoustic sitar made from TMP.
Top row from left: COLES 4038 x 2, RCA 77-DX, Warm Audio WA-8000, Townsend Labs Sphere L22, MXL V67, AKG C 12 VR. From bottom left: NEUMANN KM 184 x 2, Royer Labs R-122 MKII, Ear Trumpet Labs EDNA, DELPHINA, AKG C 451 B, SHURE SM57, SM58. The SM58 was the first microphone I ever bought.
recording room. You can see the Irish harp, BECHSTEIN piano, cello, VOX AC30 guitar amplifier, TMP electric guitar and the lead guitar, Jose Ramirez. The floor on the piano side is dry, with emphasis on sound, while the floor in front is concrete and is intended to place drums and other objects. The walls are also brick in the back and cedar wood in the front.
Musical instrument storage adjacent to the recording room. In addition to saz, shamisen, TMP 12-string electric sitar, GIBSON ES-335, GIBSON Les Paul Studio that he has been using since middle school, and Takamine acoustic guitar, there are basses, guitars and more. What you can see in the foreground is a drum said to have been imported from America.
The one leaning behind is SUZUKI andes 25F. Before that, he used a bass recorder and played an active role in the television anime “Teasing Master Takagi-san”. On the left is SUZUKI’s W-37 keyboard harmonica and the HAMMOND PRO-24B bass keyboard harmonica equipped with pickups. Tsutsumi says, “I also often use the keyboard harmonica in the soundtrack.”
Martin OOO-28EC, the shield and prize that won the first prize in Guitar Magazine’s first “Magazine Guitar Contest”, which was held in the December 2002 issue and the results were announced in the May 2003 issue. The judges were Hirofumi Tokutake, Katsumi Watanabe, Susumu Osada and Susumu Nishikawa, an extremely luxurious lineup.
What do you do to take a break from work?
In addition to playing and walking my dog, I also started doing muscle training to stay healthy. All I do is move my body home. As for games, I especially love the “FINAL FANTASY” and “BIOHAZARD” series. Lately, baseball has become popular among my fellow musicians and my goal is to one day participate in it and hit a home run.
Profile
Hiroaki Tsutsumi:Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Department of Music Culture Design. While in high school, he won first prize in the “1st Magazine Guitar Contest” sponsored by the monthly magazine Guitar Magazine. He plays many musical instruments and backing vocals himself and is good at creating colorful songs that take advantage of both live performance and songwriting.
Recent work
““My Home Hero” Original Soundtrack on Drama”
Hiroaki Tsutsumi
（Anchor records）
Special Feature｜Private Studio 2024
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