VOL.83／84 第 2 回 Hitoshi Okamoto／第 3 回 Hirohito Furui

From music freak magazine Vol.83 / Vol.84

word scope in M.F.M — Episode 2

GARNET CROW are reportedly buried in work as production enters its final stage. It should be over by the time this issue appears, but guitarist Hitoshi Okamoto seems to be having trouble concentrating on his own interests. This time he tells us about his recent life.

*call my name* / GZCA-2005

Hitoshi Okamoto

Hello, everyone. It has become completely cool lately, which is nice. I am Hitoshi Okamoto, GARNET CROW’s guitarist. This is my first time writing something like this for M.F. magazine, so nice to meet you. I thought I would write about my everyday life.

Well, I recently changed my mobile phone. Then what? That is probably what you are asking. My previous phone did not have email, had a monochrome screen, and downloading ringtones was out of the question. The battery also ran out extremely quickly, and people around me kept complaining because they could not contact me by email. So I finally decided to replace it.

I went straight to the shop. Personally, I have never liked the “click” and “snap” sounds of opening and closing a clamshell phone. So I chose a straight phone, the ordinary kind without a lid, and it had a camera too.

I had been seeing them in advertisements a lot lately. Since childhood I have been easily attracted to this kind of extra feature. I opened the box and... wow. What is this manual? It is basically a dictionary. It is even thoughtfully divided into two volumes, “Basics” and “WEB & MAIL.” After a moderate cultural shock, I picked up the manual and tried sending an email.

It is so hard to type. I see... perhaps a clamshell phone would have been better. Still, it can do an incredible number of things.

As a result, I spent the whole day desperately trying to catch up with civilization, which had progressed without my noticing. My previous phone was practically an antique, after all.

But now I only make phone calls and occasionally send email. I do not need anything else. I used the camera enthusiastically for about two or three days after buying it.

Ah, I am going to fall behind the times again.

word scope in M.F.M — Episode 3

This month we asked Hirohito Furui, busy with recording, to take a moment and write about something that interests him lately.

Hirohito Furui

Recently I have been watching films and concerts on DVD. The picture is beautiful and the sound is good too. It is difficult to find time to watch slowly, but laptops can play them now, so you can watch anywhere, including while traveling. A car or train can become a movie theater or a concert venue.

Although they are still gradually increasing, works with sound quality higher than CDs are also beginning to appear. People familiar with them know that this means higher bit depth and sampling rates—in simple terms, sound quality better than CD. The same change is happening when we make music and record sound into a computer. As computer processing speeds improve rapidly, sound quality is improving day by day too.

As for channels, stereo used to mean two left-right channels, but that will probably change before long as well.

That does not mean I am interested only in the most cutting-edge work. I of course pay attention to popular things, but I also look at work by musicians I have always liked. I remember those times and the version of myself who was single-mindedly working toward becoming a professional musician, so that I do not forget my original feelings (laughs).

I hope there will be more and more works like this. Mixing in 5.1 channels is difficult and time-consuming, but it expands the range of sound and may inspire us to create more interesting and better work.

GARNET CROW news

“Timeless Sleep,” which has been airing as the ending theme for the TV Tokyo network anime *PROJECT ARMS* since October, will be released as a new single on November 21. This is another comfortable work filled with the GARNET CROW flavor. See feature p.4 for details.