Which part of Deity needs the B string? I can play I just fine in E standard.
Our Dir guys play in E standard as well when live (the only exception(s) being Ghoul 2013 and/or Uroboros 2010 where it looks like they play in the same key but with drop tunings). However, when you listen to the studio version and especially this part carefully:
(after that monk intro, obviously)
0:03-0:04 and onwards, the repeating ādu-dun dunā part after they slide from A#5 to two āstrongā E5s.
You can tell that live-wise those strong E5s sound less ābeefed upā unlike how theyād play the studio take on it. I think there is a loose, kind of audible low B-string being played at times, thus making it plausible one of them (Kaoru, maybe) is not playing E5 but E5/B instead. It used to be tabbed like that in the past though until fans that covered the song later decided to stay loyal to how theyād do it live instead, without any loose B string magic.
You might also notice it when observing which guitars Kaoru and Die are using during their Mode of MACABRE performance here (pay attention to those E5s):
Even so, please do take what I said with a grain of salt, and Iād hope that one of us happens to have a Macabre tab book that confirms/debunks this observation.
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From what Iāve tried to attempt, aie generally plays in half-step down from standard. Iām sure he also plays in standard too, just havenāt sussed out which is which yet. Iāll probably start to work on a deadman guitar/bass inventory once I get my shit together (and better at music).
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Didnāt he do drop half-step down too (C#G#C#F#A#D#) at some point too?
I happen to have found the next best thing.
I found this from an eBay listing that has the first pages of most songs pictured.
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I never noticed this post before!
The band scores arenāt 100% accurate btw - look at withering to death (the final 
) for eg. I think unless theyāre supervised by the members, they tend to just be transcribed at a basic level.
That being said the tunings always seemed right.
The kagrra ones felt pretty accurate ācause they were supervised and accounted for all parts in their songs - Akiya played a 7 string infrequently for Shizuku (Hakai) and the b side to Utakata (Ano Saka wo Noboreba) - I think itās standard B tuning.
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Thank you @zeus and @RED99 for your solid points (and also for a band score snippet)!
Perhaps I should stop reading things from Ameblo blogs without proper sources as well, not to mention that itād be too good to be true if Dir introduced 7 string guitars much earlier than around the times of Kisou and Vulgar (Obscure).
I will also correct my earlier post regarding VANITAS and point out that they used acoustic drop D guitars for background effects (not BEADGBE) though it is all the same knowing their ADADGBE tuning.
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Actually, donāt count it out just yet, I watched this video a while back
And around 4:15 when Deity starts playing, thereās footage of Kaoru using a 7 string, but Iām not sure if the live footage matches the song being played. Judging from Kyoās outfit, that puts this footage around Not Afraid to Dieās release?
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Youāre spot on - that snippet is apparently from their 00-01 Macabre tour. Kaoru just up and decided to use a 7 string but I wonder if itās for another song??
You can use audacity to split Kaoru and Dies channels and then mute Dies channel (right hand side). I tried to play it unplugged on standard tuning and I felt the record sounds like a standard tuning (might try it whilst on the DAW); both channels have unique tones to them; kaorus is muddier, so when you marry them together in stereo, it sounds hella confusing.
(Not sure if Iām allowed to post samples on here from the record so I wont unless allowed).
This recent recording from mode of macabre sounds like standard too - maybe Iām wrong but I was able to isolate Kaorus channel and sort of play the same thing back on standard tuning. (It also sounds like they were deviating from whatās played on the record)
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You got to do you, friend. Sometimes these blogs/youtube channels get things right more often than the āofficialā releases. Rereading the Kagrra score for Core and after playing it, I noticed a guitar part that was omitted for one song + what I think is an error in another.
One song that really threw me off was Luna Seaās Feel. I thought Sugizo was on Drop C or something but then I discovered he was using a 7 stringā¦ and naturally thats why I couldnāt emulate the same damn sound. Took me a long time too 
There was a magazine release with Kaoru and Die in it - they tabbed some songs for the magazine and it really shows you how bad the official score is 
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I was also going to suggest you can use this - it turns songs into instrumentals (by isolating the middle channel yet somehow keeping the bass and drums intact). It looks like Diruās catalogue can be listened as instrumentals on Apple Music; I know it doesnāt work for all bandsā catalogues but might be an exception for them. Even works for Jealous and their remixes.
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