"HACHION" is a project that aims to blend traditional Japanese musical instruments such as the koto, shamisen, shinobue, shakuhachi, and taiko with contemporary sounds of today.

The shamisen or samisen (meaning "three strings”), is a plucked three-stringed instrument. Its construction follows a model similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, with a neck and strings stretched across a resonating body. It is is played with a plectrum, called a bachi.

The sound of a shamisen is similar in some respects to that of the American banjo. As in the clawhammer style of American banjo playing, the bachi is often used to strike both string and skin, creating a highly percussive sound.

The lowest string is purposefully laid lower at the nut of the instrument, so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic timbre known as sawari (somewhat reminiscent of the "buzzing" of a sitar, which is called jivan).

The construction of the shamisen varies in shape, depending on the genre in which it is used. This product uses the most traditional and common type called “Tsugaru-Shamisen”

Features:

Sound source obtained by sampling the Japanese traditional musical instrument SHAMISEN, played by master player Asako Mochizuki.

 Three patterns are recorded, in order to respond to the different needs: Short sounds + Loop materials + Processed FX materials

• Short sound material (contains the whole scale of the koto)
• Loop material (contains traditional phrases)
• FX processing material (contains FX sounds that match with modern day sounds
• All sounds were recorded at a professional recording studio in Japan and recorded using 2 microphones (Tube & Capacitor) at 24bit 96khz.