un1ess

Hi everyone! I just finished the true end of the original Steins;Gate visual novel so I'm in a Steins;Gate sort of mood, hence this poll. I wanted to make a double-ballot poll, but that doesn't seem to be possible. My second vote would've gone to Mayuri. My actual vote goes to Faris because I like how wacky she is, plus she has a thoughtful side too. Luka is included because he does spend some time as a girl. Anyway, please vote!

I just finished watching the movie and it's a tearjerker. One question, though.

Thanks for the link, Zidan. I don't have time to look through the channel right now, but I will later!

It's been a while since I listened to the My Neighbor Totoro soundtrack, but I'm doing so now and I feel like I have new ears. Does it sound good because I'm rediscovering instruments that I've forgotten? Or is it because I've never listened to it on this pair of headphones? Either way, I'm going to be rummaging through my old CDs for a while instead of going to bed. Link 4 u

Were any of the drama CDs sponsored by IBM? I'd like to listen to the drama CDs no matter what, but I'm sure that what I was looking for above was sponsored by IBM. Maybe what I was watching were previews for the ONAs that I linked to here.

Ah, licensing restrictions. I keep forgetting about those. Oh well, I'm glad we get Western releases at all.

A while back (years) ago I started watching some Steins;Gate ONAs that were sponsored by IBM. Today I wanted to finish watching them so I searched the web and found The Sagacious Wisdom of Cognitive Computing: However, these aren't the ONAs that I remember. The ones I remember weren't fully animated; they were pretty much only a sequence of still images with voice acting. Does anyone else remember watching them? Or do they not exist on this world line?

Yesterday I was searching the web for reasons why the original Japanese audio of TV anime is almost always stereo. I think that the predominant reason is that households with surround setups are even less common in Japan than they are in the United States. And as you said, the time and production costs of getting each episode out before the deadline are different (different from the constraints present when producing a dub). Wait a minute. If they've made a surround mix for the dub release, wouldn't it only take a minimal amount of work to replace the English voices with the Japanese voices and so include a Japanese surround track? I'd want the original stereo audio on the disc as well, because that's what the Japanese team produced, but I'd listen to the Japanese surround audio too (even though the surround mix isn't by the original team).

I agree that stereo sound is definitely more economical. A six channel system doesn't sound three times as good as a two channel system. That's the law of diminishing returns. About mimicking the realism of the actual audio environment: sometimes there never was an original audio environment. For example in lots of electronic music the instruments were sampled in an anechoic chamber and the performance doesn't exist before it leaves the speakers. In this case your living room is the original audio environment. Even on live albums, having a different speaker for each performer of a quintet for example should sound interesting (I don't have such an album, though, so I could be wrong) even though it doesn't accurately recreate the hall where they were performing. Another thing I like about surround sound is that, with anime, you can turn down the center channel—which has most of the dialogue—and just listen to the music, sound effects and ambience that are in the other channels.

Humans do have only two ears, but our brain can process the signals received from those two ears into a multitude of sounds emanating from different points in 3D space. It does this by taking into account the split second delay between when a sound reaches one ear and the other, the sound intensity difference between the two ears, as well as the difference in frequency response caused by the different positions of the ears. Concerts are great, but they aren't available at the touch of a button. Also, it depends on the concert. For example, at an orchestral concert you're not allowed to stand in the middle of the orchestra, rather the orchestra is on stage and you're sitting dozens of feet away. However, other kinds of concerts have speakers surrounding the audience, I imagine.

Do you guys have any recommendations for anime or music that makes good use of surround sound? I was compelled to start this topic because the Steins;Gate movie sounds nice in 5.1 channels, especially the OP and ED. I wonder why the music industry largely hasn't moved beyond 2 channels.

I'm actually glad that death exists. Death is a curse because things can't stay good forever; but more importantly death is a blessing because it means that things can't stay bad forever. After death I believe that there are two possibilities (similar to what Zalor has posted) - either oblivion or an afterlife. Oblivion doesn't scare me because, even though an eternity will pass after I die, I won't notice the passage of time (or anything at all, for that matter). I sure hope that there is an afterlife, though. But so much of who we are—personality, skills, memories, etc.—can be explained by the human brain. Once the brain is inoperative what is left to proceed to the afterlife? Maybe we aren't meant to take any of that with us, and only our immaterial existence (soul) survives after death. However, if the soul is immaterial, how does it influence our corporeal bodies? Does the soul merely observe during our time in this world? Anyway, I should stop because I'm straying from the topic of death.

Arigatou, Masato! Is your location a desert landscape? I like it!

Uh, thanks Kurisu! Since you're undoubtedly a Steins;Gate fan I'll direct you to a post I made about your namesake (no one has responded yet ;_;). Careful, though, since it contains spoilers for the movie and Steins;Gate 0.

lol I was actually reading your name as PapaRabbit! ^^