Hitachi Lo-D Plaza
日立ローディープラザ | |
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 BOWOW performing at Lo-D Plaza on 1980/01/16 | |
 Interactive map of Hitachi Lo-D Plaza | |
| Address | Ginza INZ 1F, 2-2 Ginza-Nishi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104 |
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| Coordinates | 35°40′29″N 139°45′51″E / 35.6746237°N 139.7641008°E |
| Type | Live House |
| Seating type | Mixing Desk & Standing |
| Construction | |
| Years active | 1975-1982 |
Hitachi Lo-D Plaza was an audio showroom and live house located on the first floor of the Yuraku Food Centre (有楽フードセンター), now called Ginza INZ (銀座インズ), in Yurakucho, Tokyo. The showroom operated between 1975 and May of 1982, whereafter it would cease operations as a live venue. The name ‘Lo-D Plaza’ is derived from Hitachi’s at-the-time line of high-end audio products branded as ‘Lo-D’, which is an abbreviated version of the phrase “Low Distortion”.
Overview
The mid-seventies in Japan saw a trend of most major audio manufacturers (incl. Victor, Sansui, Sony, Technics, Toshiba and Hitachi) establishing their own individual showrooms at locations across Tokyo to showcase their newest additions and advancements to their lineup of audio products, offering product testing and various listening experiences to members of the public. As part of the experience, most showrooms would additionally host live performances of popular local artists as a means to showcase the ability of their audio equipment, and further drive customers to the venues in a form of mutual advertisement. All concerts and events that took place at Hitachi Lo-D Plaza were completely free of charge, as was the case for most of these audio maker showrooms.
Unlike the other audio showrooms, Hitachi's Lo-D Plaza had employed a special gimmick in that it actually allowed attendees to operate their own personal 16 channel mixing desk during live performances, recording the concert directly through the soundboard to cassette tape. Prior to recording, all cassette tapes were applied a JASRAC sticker seal (Japan's musical copyright agency) for certification, after which it could then be brought home by the attendee. By extent, all recordings made at Hitachi Lo-D Plaza can be considered official live recordings. Fans were free to bring along their own cassette tapes for recording, or were able to purchase Lo-D branded cassettes at the venue. All other equipment used in the recording process is Lo-D brand Hi-Fi. A custom Lo-D Plaza J-Card was given out to record the details of the live recording on the cassette.
Hitachi Lo-D Plaza operated in a two-stage format in order to allow a greater number of fans to experience the personal 16 channel mixing session. Each 16 channel live concert would have 10 separate mixing desks available for recording, granting a possibility of 20 separate fans to record across the two stages. It is extremely rare for one attendee to have been chosen to record both stages of a concert. Alongside the 16 channel mixing sessions, Lo-D Plaza also offered a ‘16ch→2ch Mixdown Session’, where a 16 channel master tape from a past live performance would be played back so fans can then mix the recording to their liking onto cassette tape. In this format, the mixing desk could accommodate up to 20 fans for one session. These Mixdown Sessions would often take place during the intermission of two live concert stages.
Upon release of the schedule for upcoming shows at Lo-D Plaza, fans were able to mail in a postcard up to one week in advance of the concert, expressing their interest in their preferred date(s) and stage(s) for recording.If the number of applications exceeded the total number of available desks, fans were selected at random via a lottery system to attend, as was most often the case. If chosen, fans are allocated a number between 1-10, signifying which desk they are to sit at. Each fan is presented with a custom 16 track mixer that records directly to a Lo-D branded cassette deck, often being interchanged as new models release. Each channel of the mixer is wired to a separate microphone on the stage, so fans can change the volume, left-right balance, reverb and equalization for each instrument mic at their own will. The microphones are clearly labelled 1 to 16 on the stage for ease of access. When it is time for the performance to start, a light will come on at each desk saying ‘Now Recording’.
Notable Artists
Hitachi Lo-D Plaza played host to a great majority of popular Japanese bands and artists throughout the 70s and early 80s, featuring artists from Jazz, Fusion, Pop, Rock, Punk Rock and Electronic genres. Popular Jazz Fusion artists to have performed at Lo-D Plaza include Casiopea, Prism, T-Square, Space Circus, Crosswind, Kazumi Watanabe, Katsutoshi Morizono, and many others.
Lo-D Plaza also hosted resident performer Hideto Kitamura (saxophone), who would often play several times a month with his band in multiple different styles of genres, sometimes accompanying solo artists as the backup band when necessary.
