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<nowiki>*</nowiki>bzzt* *bzzt* *kssssssssssssshhhhhh* ...llo? *kshhhhhh* ...ou..e.r...e? *brrrrrrrr* Hello? Can you hear me? Great! Hi! I'm Randomatribute20k or Amerimaki. The former name is a double meaning with a callback to how usernames were back then and how I don't really intend to stick to one topic on youtube and the latter is a combination of "Amerimaki" and "Futomaki". Futomaki is a roll you eat it for good luck around New Year and it's one of my favorite rolls of all time. Fuck that artisan "poke" shit. Amerimaki also has a double meaning: my real name is Maki and I'm [half] Japanese American. I'm coming down from a planet called "Los Angeles" and before you tell me I'm revealing too much, LA county is as big as your teeny tiny European country, so if I said I was from LA, it might be Gardena, Lancaster, Burbank or Los Angeles. Even if I say I'm from LA, what part? Not joking, there are cities within the city. My fam is from Hiroshima (most of 'em, anyway) and we love our Carps. Buuut T'be brutally honest, I'm as Japanese as Pepperoni is Italian. Don't get it twisted. Many stereotype me as some political breadtuber/commie sympathizer because I'm from LA, but to be honest, politics bore me and I at least know how to live in a chaotic world whereas these poor fellas afflicted with political brain rot will be hella unprepared when the chaos comes to them. | <nowiki>*</nowiki>bzzt* *bzzt* *kssssssssssssshhhhhh* ...llo? *kshhhhhh* ...ou..e.r...e? *brrrrrrrr* Hello? Can you hear me? Great! Hi! I'm Randomatribute20k or Amerimaki. The former name is a double meaning with a callback to how usernames were back then and how I don't really intend to stick to one topic on youtube and the latter is a combination of "Amerimaki" and "Futomaki". Futomaki is a roll you eat it for good luck around New Year and it's one of my favorite rolls of all time. Fuck that artisan "poke" shit. Amerimaki also has a double meaning: my real name is Maki and I'm [half] Japanese American. I'm coming down from a planet called "Los Angeles" and before you tell me I'm revealing too much, LA county is as big as your teeny tiny European country, so if I said I was from LA, it might be Gardena, Lancaster, Burbank or Los Angeles. Even if I say I'm from LA, what part? Not joking, there are cities within the city. My fam is from Hiroshima (most of 'em, anyway) and we love our Carps. Buuut T'be brutally honest, I'm as Japanese as Pepperoni is Italian. Don't get it twisted. Many stereotype me as some political breadtuber/commie sympathizer because I'm from LA, but to be honest, politics bore me and I at least know how to live in a chaotic world whereas these poor fellas afflicted with political brain rot will be hella unprepared when the chaos comes to them. | ||
I like to call myself the Fred Durst of this community; a total asshole and I usually wear anything nice n baggy, but I make myself to be a nice person (and my ego is paper-thin; HE IS LITERALLY ME). It doesn't help that my patience is immense when dealing with others, but if you keep waste my time by barraging me with your sub-room temp IQ comments, It'd only be a matter of time until I show my true colors. What else is there to write here... Oh yeah, I'm like one of two women who collect this shit and one of only a handful of people over 18 in this hobby, which is pretty sad. I've also been the first to use a dehydrator to dry out tapes in this trade, which is pretty neat. | I like to call myself the Fred Durst of this community; a total asshole and I usually wear anything nice n baggy, but I make myself to be a nice person (and my ego is paper-thin; HE IS LITERALLY ME). It doesn't help that my patience is immense when dealing with others, but if you keep waste my time by barraging me with your sub-room temp IQ comments, It'd only be a matter of time until I show my true colors. What else is there to write here... Oh yeah, I'm like one of two women who collect this shit and one of only a handful of people over 18 in this hobby, which is pretty sad. I've also been the first to use a dehydrator to dry out tapes in this trade, which is pretty neat. One more thing, for some reason I'm the first member in the trade to get boomers to comment on my digi uploads. It happened when I started uploading stuff to my channel, too. No bot buying or anything, the algorithm just loves Americans. USA! USA! | ||
== Tips 4 the Bestie (That's you) == | == Tips 4 the Bestie (That's you) == | ||
The best piece of advice I could ever give is that this is NOT a beginner-friendly hobby. Sure, it's cheaper than my last couple 'a hobbies, but man, this is no walk in the park. The upfront cost is high as there's some overlap with the audiophile community. You can't use a Walkman, Crosley, or some cheap player made of Chinesium for this hobby. Only refurbed, respectable, old ass decks that can go as high as $600 if you're not careful. You need a scanner for your shit that can handle minimum 600 dpi. I've heard talks that entry level might change to double that! Your scanner might wash out the color for your scan, so you might need Photoshop or something similar to change the levels. Audacity is a no-go for audio editing. You need to invest into something like FL Studio or Adobe Audition. Optional, but I always push it: audio headphones matter. So you might need to get only the best headphones like a Sony MDR-7506, not some run-of-the-mill Skullcandy earbuds. It's just to ensure that you aren't missing out on anything while editing. Don't get me started on the silica chambers and other equipment! After you acquire that (which is about a $1k investment at minimum), then you can start acquiring a collection. I've seen many collectors put the cart before the horse and it always pisses me off. | The best piece of advice I could ever give is that this is NOT a beginner-friendly hobby. Sure, it's cheaper than my last couple 'a hobbies, but man, this is no walk in the park. The upfront cost is high as there's some overlap with the audiophile community. You can't use a Walkman, Crosley, or some cheap player made of Chinesium for this hobby. Only refurbed, respectable, old ass decks that can go as high as $600 if you're not careful. You need a scanner for your shit that can handle minimum 600 dpi. I've heard talks that entry level might change to double that! Your scanner might wash out the color for your scan, so you might need Photoshop or something similar to change the levels. Audacity is a no-go for audio editing. You need to invest into something like FL Studio or Adobe Audition. Optional, but I always push it: audio headphones matter. So you might need to get only the best headphones like a Sony MDR-7506, not some run-of-the-mill Skullcandy earbuds. It's just to ensure that you aren't missing out on anything while editing. Don't get me started on the silica chambers and other equipment! After you acquire that (which is about a $1k investment at minimum), then you can start acquiring a collection. I've seen many collectors put the cart before the horse and it always pisses me off. | ||
Before I forget, while I'm not the spokeswoman of the war tape trade, I am the leader of my own community. My motto is the same as one hidden website: Look, do '''''<big>not</big>''''' touch. Found the fb page of some obscure war singer? Awesome, don't bother them. What's that? A war music studio CEO is actively answering questions from randos all over the internet? Cool, but don't dogpile on the poor guy by asking more questions. He's probably being nice, but deep down inside he wants to be left alone. Seriously, some kid ended up getting a channel deleted because he wouldn't shut up. Don't sweat about getting intel, I got a team that'll divide 'n conquer for you. Seasoned veterans will pick 'n choose who asks who, but we get the intel we need and give the interviewee a chance to disclose if it's confidential info or not. Sure, the process can be slow and disappointing, but do you want to learn more about these figures or nah? That's what I thought. | |||
== Tha D33ts == | == Tha D33ts == | ||
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Now I wouldn't call myself gifted by any means, but I inherited a special gift from my mom: looking back into the past and go down their respective rabbit holes. At the time, that gift went towards my journey into game collecting, but it would diversify over time. It went to cartoons I watched as a kid like Shaolin Showdown, Teen Titans, Courage, He-Man... And it was thanks to the infamy of 4kids. Kinda sad how good we had it back then. In 2020, peak pandemic, I became interested in old audio formats. After looking at my mom's collection and hearing her reminisce of the collection she used to have, cassettes were my main mission. She was also the reason why I gave vinyl another chance, so thank you, mom. Uh right, cassettes! With my mission set, I nabbed a Sports Walkman as my medium of choice and bought a sealed Stone Temple Pilots Core cassette. While I admittedly had no clue on how to prevent sticky shed or "warp" as I call it, I was infatuated with the format and at least knew a thing or two on how these work. | Now I wouldn't call myself gifted by any means, but I inherited a special gift from my mom: looking back into the past and go down their respective rabbit holes. At the time, that gift went towards my journey into game collecting, but it would diversify over time. It went to cartoons I watched as a kid like Shaolin Showdown, Teen Titans, Courage, He-Man... And it was thanks to the infamy of 4kids. Kinda sad how good we had it back then. In 2020, peak pandemic, I became interested in old audio formats. After looking at my mom's collection and hearing her reminisce of the collection she used to have, cassettes were my main mission. She was also the reason why I gave vinyl another chance, so thank you, mom. Uh right, cassettes! With my mission set, I nabbed a Sports Walkman as my medium of choice and bought a sealed Stone Temple Pilots Core cassette. While I admittedly had no clue on how to prevent sticky shed or "warp" as I call it, I was infatuated with the format and at least knew a thing or two on how these work. | ||
[[File:Sequence 15 1.gif|thumb|The post that got me into this mess...]] | [[File:Sequence 15 1.gif|thumb|The post that got me into this mess...]] | ||
The next year, I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw this account I really liked. It was a page that would get an image of a plush toy of Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion and they would just photoshop stuff on it. One post I couldn't stop thinking about was one where the Rei had a šajkača, a Serb flag, and rakija. Why? 'Cause the music on that post was a banger (also they eventually apologized for it)! The music in that Instagram post I initially thought was just some random disco Balkan song that was probably played at some point or another. When I looked it up, however, it was a completely different story! This was music made during wartime, which kinda wasn't new because of the anti-Bush/anti-war-in-the-Middle-East stuff I listened to as a kid. And would ya look at that, music for a war I never learned about in school (and when I did, I thought it was buried because of the ME wars). Unlike what these terminally online 4chan wannabes, I'd say that learning about the war beforehand would have been a detriment. I hated school and would look up anything controversial to share to friends. We're talking actual war crime denier stuff. Naša Srpska Arhiva was where I had my real entry point. | The next year, I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw this account I really liked. It was a page that would get an image of a plush toy of Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion and they would just photoshop stuff on it. One post I couldn't stop thinking about was one where the Rei had a šajkača, a Serb flag, and rakija. Why? 'Cause the music on that post was a banger (also they eventually apologized for it)! The music in that Instagram post I initially thought was just some random disco Balkan song that was probably played at some point or another. When I looked it up, however, it was a completely different story! This was music made during wartime, which kinda wasn't new because of the anti-Bush/anti-war-in-the-Middle-East stuff I listened to as a kid. And would ya look at that, music for a war I never learned about in school (and when I did, I thought it was buried because of the ME wars). Unlike what these terminally online 4chan wannabes think, I'd say that learning about the war beforehand would have been a detriment. Honest to God, I hated school and would look up anything controversial to share to friends. We're talking actual war crime denier stuff. | ||
Naša Srpska Arhiva was where I had my real entry point. I found that song, Panteri and a slew of other war songs via his channel and I realized that these were mostly on cassette. Unlike most kids (and regrettably my own generation), it wasn't a surprise to me considering how Europe and Japan treated certain formats. Now my own mission had a goal; start acquiring and archiving. While my video making-skills are stuck in 2008, my scanner wack and my audio-restoring skills are average, I'm doing my best to get this history saved. | |||
TL;DR: Super Smash Bros. Brawl helped me tap into a special gift I never knew I had and Neon Genesis Evangelion is what made me discover Yugoslavian War music. | TL;DR: Super Smash Bros. Brawl helped me tap into a special gift I never knew I had and Neon Genesis Evangelion is what made me discover Yugoslavian War music. | ||
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=== <big>In conclusion:</big> === | === <big>In conclusion:</big> === | ||
[[File:872.jpg|center|thumb|310x310px]] | [[File:872.jpg|center|thumb|310x310px]] | ||
== A lesson learned (Epilogue) == | |||
[Please play Show Me What You Got by Limp Bizkit on another tab when reading this. I don't think I'm allowed to upload it here for copyright reasons.] | |||
So now we're here. I've learned a lot over the past couple of years. I've learned so much about the war. I've learned aspects that my own friends who were taught this in High School don't really know about. Doing this shit is honestly super fun and this became not only my entry point into learning about the war, but also discovering Yugoslavian folk (albeit Serbian for the most part). I'm not bullshitting people when I say that I keep my collection focused to one side because of collection size limitations. However, I've made some sort of unintentional alliance with my fellow Asians and they seem to be taking up the latter two sides of war music, so either way, that side is occupied. | |||
I have the absolute privilege to meet actual Serbs, though some are unfortunately kinda... '''''retarded'''''. Sorry :(. My words can be harsh, but hey, "don't meet your heroes" is a saying for a reason. Ironically, I've come to love the love songs more than I do the war songs. Especially since they tend to be so creative and unique to my ears. Hell, one of my favorite songs is Zbog izgubljene ljubavi and those lyrics are SAPPY AF. I wonder if it's because it's my own demographic? | |||
I've been trying to acquire books about the war, though most are in Serbian. Those are notoriously hard to buy because most sellers don't ship outside of Serbia. I'm determined to get them 'cause it'll help me practice reading Cyrillic and get to know the language more. Unfortunately, learning the language here is pretty difficult since I'm more of an in-person kind of learner. One book I'm currently on-and-off about is Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad and thankfully, it's in English. Simple premise, but chock full of information you might want to consider. I'm always challenging what I believe and it's good brain food to do so, so you should do it to. | |||
I know a lot of people complain about sellers pricing up the ass, but I'm a veteran in this shit so I'm more sympathetic. I'm talking to you, Dejka! Your prices are crazy, not gonna lie. Compared to what I've spent on soundtracks to video games and other memorabilia, tho, your prices are good for the foreign market. I respect the grind, not only to you, but to tha other crazy mofo sellers I've encountered in this hobby! Y'all do so much for us, it's insane! | |||
Special thanks to the foos from around the world, to my uncle and to mom! Hold your heads up high, we're saving history, babey! | |||
[Open Your Heard by Crush40 starts playing with credits rolling] | |||
== FAQ == | == FAQ == | ||
=== What is your current set-up? === | |||
Current Digi Loadout: | |||
Audacity (initial recording) | |||
Sony TC-WE475 (deck of choice) | |||
Izotope RX (noise reduction, eq, etc) | |||
FL Studio (noise reduction) | |||
=== What are your top 3 favorite albums? === | === What are your top 3 favorite albums? === | ||
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Fuck no. Why do you think Komunjare is a song that speaks to me? | Fuck no. Why do you think Komunjare is a song that speaks to me? | ||
Most of 'em preach about giving money away to the poor even though they're nepo babies. Hey, you snobby little grifting shithead! Pay my motherfucking bills and put me in your dad's trust fund! It's hard making ends meet with my current job! | Most of 'em preach about giving money away to the poor even though they're all nepo babies. Hey, you snobby little grifting shithead! Pay my motherfucking bills and put me in your dad's trust fund! It's hard making ends meet with my current job! | ||
=== Which side do you root for in the Yugoslav conflict? === | === Which side do you root for in the Yugoslav conflict? === | ||
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=== How do you get contacts to buy tapes? === | === How do you get contacts to buy tapes? === | ||
Well first, you need to dump loads of cash into this hobby. Then you'll get a plug. | Well first, you need to dump loads of cash into this hobby. Then you'll get a plug. I got a good amount of plugs, but I don't proxy buy on behalf of others because I need to girlboss, gaslight, and gatekeep, so tough luck! | ||
=== Do you beef with anyone in the community? === | === Do you beef with anyone in the community? === | ||
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=== Who is the character in your YouTube pfp and why won't you change it to your self insert? === | === Who is the character in your YouTube pfp and why won't you change it to your self insert? === | ||
Um... for legal reasons I can't say where she's from. Besides, why would I change it? What, you want me to power level because information needs to be spoon-fed to you? | Um... for legal reasons I can't say where she's from. Besides, why would I change it? What, you want me to power level because information needs to be spoon-fed to you? | ||
=== What is your self insert and why does it not look like you? === | |||
Ah-ha! I knew this was gonna be asked at some point! It's a stain from the past that I decided that I can't truly get rid of. It all started back in middle school. I always loved to draw 'n let the imagination go wild! I also was into- oh right, can't say it. Even though I'm [half] Japanese!? Can someone call up HR for a racial discrimination complaint? Thanks. | |||
A-anyways, I was into... ''cartoons'', we'll say (and video games of course, but that story is for another day). It affected the way I drew myself. The first time I drew myself, it's like my current self-insert, just a little more rectangle-y, the "no eyes showing" design and no shark fin on the hair with a cigarette in hand. Yes, I really saw myself like that. It keeps me up at night. | |||
I would then go a little closer to the style and added that shark fin because I thought it was cool. I think it was something to the affect of being influenced by Silver from Pokémon Silver/SoulSilver, but at the time I really didn't know where the idea came from. When I was making videos some time in high school (these are not online btw, so don't go looking for them), I needed something to fill in dead air. That's right, the versions you see now aren't the first iterations believe-it-or-not. The first ones I ever did was back in freshman year in high school (I'll see if I can dig them up from my old HDD). When I got into the swing of uploading things on YouTube a couple years ago, I redid the character stand-in and made it black and white because coloring in stuff is my kryptonite. I used MS Paint and a base I labeled the "artboard" and I use the spray can brush because I love the pattern. And that's how my self-insert came to be. I was planning to make RA20k the self-insert and my live action appearances to be Amerimaki, but I ultimately scrapped the idea because it was very stupid. | |||
=== Do people copying you/being inspired by you bother you? === | |||
Nope. I notice and poke fun at it with friends. I'm more bothered by National Radio clones since they tend to oversaturate uploading war stuff and if one of them uses badly worded information or just misinformation, it'll spread tenfold. My genuine response to those fakers are [03 Counterfeit.flac]. Wait... why is that not working? Uh.... How about this? [03 Gimmie The Mic.flac] dammit! Do your own research and look into these songs. Let the songs speak directly to your sorry ass! | |||
=== Will you ever do a war edit video? === | |||
No, I find that it commodifies tragedy and spreads conflicting messages on my channel anyways. The only exception is if someone dropped $10k on my ko-fi. Not cumulative, I'm talking one all-in-one-go payment that doesn't bounce. | |||
=== Why do you not do digi requests? === | |||
Because I know if I did it for one person, they'd spread false gospel on how I'm kind enough to do it for a thousand more. Besides, what if the tape I have turns out to be not liked by the artist because of shame? I would never live down disrespecting someone's wishes. | |||
=== Why are you inactive on YouTube? === | === Why are you inactive on YouTube? === | ||
I'm not. If I'm not making videos, I'm scanning stuff and acquiring more tapes. I've been dedicating my time here too and lemme tell ya it's time consuming. I'm always chatting with someone on the 'cord and I'll make occasional appearances in my server's voice chat room. Either that or I'm watching YouTube on shit no one cares about. | I'm not. If I'm not making videos, I'm scanning stuff and acquiring more tapes. I've been dedicating my time here too and lemme tell ya it's time consuming. I'm always chatting with someone on the 'cord and I'll make occasional appearances in my server's voice chat room. Either that or I'm watching YouTube on shit no one cares about. | ||
=== Are you trans/non-binary? === | |||
Lemme guess, it's because of my appearance? Nope. Not doing any of that shit. I'm a tomboy through and through. My voice is like that because genetics and I don't really like it because it sounds like I'm a teenage boy when in reality, I'm in my 20's. My style is unconventional and comfortable and I wanna keep it that way. | |||
=== Do you LARP? === | |||
No. I love to sing, talk about my hobby to my close irl circle, I love to wear milsurp because it's comfy, and making videos is a great pastime, but actively LARP online and/or irl? Not really. The pic of me with the VRS get-up was for silly costume reasons and living in LA, I just got people looking at me weird. It only happened once and I don't really plan on doing it again. | |||
=== Do you collect anything else other than old things? === | === Do you collect anything else other than old things? === | ||
Yes! I love itemlabel merch. You see their newest drop? I want 'em all! I love streetwear too. Empyre's gotta be one of my favorite clothing brands. I also occasionally collect patches and rarely VRS camo (tiger stripe FTW!). I also I like researching conspiracy theories in my spare time because I like to see what crazy merits they stand on. | Yes! I love itemlabel merch. You see their newest drop? I want 'em all! I love streetwear too. Empyre's gotta be one of my favorite clothing brands. I also occasionally collect patches and rarely VRS camo (tiger stripe FTW!). I also I like researching conspiracy theories in my spare time because I like to see what crazy merits they stand on. I also enjoy trying new food products corporations release. Yeah, all sludge tastes the same, but I still want to try it. | ||