Japan Sound Effects Collection Kickstarter
The Japan Sound Effects Collection is a series of field recordings from the Kansai, Kanto, Tohoku, and Hokkaido regions in Japan. This was a solo project that I began in 2013 while I was studying Japanese at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture.
In March of 2015, I managed a successful kickstarter campaign to fund a 3-month solo backpacking trip back to Japan to collect more material for the collection. At the time, it was the highest grossest Kickstarter for a sound library, raising $8,000 ($2,000 over the original funding goal). You can look at the project's official website Here.
In addition to it's commercial value, the collection acts as a sonic time capsule of contemporary Japan. With that in mind, the library features a greater depth of metadata about recording technique and location.
A screenshot from the Kickstarter Campaign page.
The three libraries in the collection center around:
Trains & Subways
Japan has an impressive rail infrastructure that, between the national and private lines, reaches practically every part of the country. Each region has different kinds of bullet trains, subways and local lines, all in varying states of repair and age.
This library's focus: train passbys, station ambiences, interior/exterior start/running/stop and every click, clack and horn that bullet trains, subways, and normal trains make.
Crowds & Urban Ambiences
Some of the largest cities in the world have formed in Japan because over 2/3rds of the country is too mountainous to inhabit. The rise of these megalopoleis means that people, and the sounds they make, are in high supply.
This library's focus: small to large groups of people in settings as varied as shopping malls, city streets, and cafeterias as well as urban soundscapes.
Nature & Cultural Sounds
Japan, much like every country, has sounds that are inherently native to it which are woven into the cultural fabric, whether it be the peculiar crow cahs (ah-ho, ah-ho), the evening chorus of insects or even sounds as simple as the ones programmed into the microwave.
This library's focus: Half nature and rural ambiences. Half grab bag.
Production Photos
