So I finally used Iroha! After seeing some helpful tips on Vocaloid tuning I suddenly found the process a whole lot easier, which led to this:
It's another MiYABi song, I really do love his works with Luka, I hope he continues with Luka V4X now that she's out. This song is especially lovely since I can sing along to it without losing breath! His other stuff I kinda have a hard time with. Not to mention I'm a sucker for Latin Jazz.
Anyway, I've already given my full thoughts on MiYABi in my last post, so I'll leave it here for now. However be sure to expect maybe one more MiYABi song in the future with a new UTAU VB I've come to like.
Well, I'm back after a long time off from making covers. Blame school for taking up my time; it was my final year so I've been under a bit more pressure to do well.
However, it's all finished and I'm off to Uni this year, so I'll likely be more flexible time-wise, leaving me to start getting down to re-recording my UTAU and making more covers/original stuff.
And speaking of covers....
I've not uploaded the last two ones I made. So, here's 'Fower of the Plateau' by mothy, originally featuring Miku Solid and covered with Sukone Tei.
Next is one that has managed to get over 1,000 views on YouTube: My Słowianie (English version is titled 'Slavic Girls') by Donatan and Cleo, covered using Namine Ritsu Eve.
Finally, here's one I've just finished and uploaded: 'Ageha' (Japanese name for the Swallowtail Butterfly) by MiYABi, originally featuring Luka and covered with Sukone Tei.
About the Songs/Producers
Flower of the Plateau
I discovered this on a re-ignited passion for mothy's Evillious Chronicles. There was a lot of plot I had missed by not listening to many of the non-central songs or reading the novels or manga. This one was an exception to mothy's usual sub-par tuning. I really loved Miku Solid's tone, but I thought I might change it up with Tei, since she sounds more sarcastic sometimes and I wanted to see how that would work with the song itself.
My Słowianie
This was Poland's representative song for the Eurovision Song Contest last year, and at first I found it tasteless (the music video is really just cleavage for 3 minutes), but eventually I hooked on the beat and Cleo's powerful, soulful voice. The song finished 13th overall in the final, but 5th in the televote alone.
I took some requests for Eurovision covers and one of my friends requested it in all it's Polish glory, which I accepted despite not knowing if an off vocal existed for the original polish version. Luckily the song is so huge over there that a karaoke was made for it, and I seized the opportunity to use Ritsu Eve's CVVC capabilities, as well as her sharp, powerful tone to fit the song. Creating Polish with a Japanese VB is hard work, and I'm pretty sure my limited knowledge of Polish meant there were one or two errors in pronunciation, but overall I'm extremely happy I managed to get this done.
Ageha
MiYABi is a producer who I've admired for a while. While relatively unknown, his works are always of superb quality and helped breathe some fresh air into my current playlist with a genre I had never known I wanted. Most of his songs feature Luka as the vocalist and are a combination of Jazz, House and DnB. He's branched out into a few other genres, but his best stuff, in my opinion, is still his jazzstep. Relaxing, yet interesting and engaging at the same time.
'Ageha' is one of his most viewed songs, and Tei's voice yet again fit with the song. I'm gradually getting better at tuning pitchbends and getting her to sound as realistic as possible, and this cover I think is an example of this progress.
I plan on covering another of his songs with Iroha, who I bought on a whim a few months ago when AHS had a big sale on for most of their products. I'm a little annoyed now that Iroha's getting a V4 bank soon, since now I'll most likely want to get that.
But not before Luka V4x!!! *trembles with excitement*
So, I downloaded the free trial of Tōhoku Zunko the other week and have already made 2 videos with her!
Unfortunately, the first is blocked worldwide on YT, but I was able to get it up on NicoNicoDouga.
The second, I did manage to upload to YT without any drama, so here it is:
About the Songs/Producers
I've been wanting to cover both songs for a while now. Zunko fit both really well in terms of voice type, so I went for both!
Initation:
Initiation is a collaboration between composer Keiichiro Shibuya and cultural critic Hiroki Azuma and is one of my personal favourite songs with Miku. I was introduced to it via a page about the Vocaloid Opera 'THE END', which has all music composed by Shibuya. Shibuya's music is very interesting and out-there to the common listener, as you can hear in THE END. But with this song he goes for a more conventional approach, with a kind of electro/pop/rock style that is really catchy.
The melody to this song can also be found in the 'Aria for Voices and Words' from the opera. Shibuya is not actually a Vocaloid producer, and had the help of Pinocchio-P with the tuning of Miku in both this song and THE END, which is why both Mikus sound identical in tone; very cute and whispery that sometimes borders on a bit too high-pitched.
Common World Domination:
Speaking of Pinnochio-P, I first Common World Domination during the Magical Mirai 2013 concert. The song stood out for me and eventually i got around to checking the non-concert version out. I have to say, an autotuned Miku Dark possibly has to be the best idea ever. She sounds so mature and smooth yet has that autouned sound that always works wonders on Miku. Plus the song is such a pleasure to listen to, with all those seemingly randomised electronic sounds and then vocal mash-up, spoken section and pretty much everything else is perfect too.
However, I'm not really a fan of many of his other works, it's really a one off thing for me. I do love his tuning of Miku throughout everything he does, though.
Sorry I never got around to doing that Eurovision thing, long story short almost everything that I was going to gush about didn't make the finals, and no-one had seen Austria winning until the 2nd semi-final. Conchita blew the roof off and you could hear the crowd screaming 'AUS-TRI-A' just before they announced them as the last act through to the final. After that, Armenia and Sweden didn't really have a chance (especially after we all found out Aram MP3 couldn't sing for shit live).
Anyway Albania, Estonia, Moldova and Lithuania didn't make it so I'm quite pissed. Oh well, on to (most likely) Vienna 2015!
The Cuckoo Bird's Beautiful Youth (Midori Youyou) feat. Sukone Tei and Sekka Yufu
About the song:
After hearing it once before somewhere and sort of liking it, plus knowing it was composed by iroha (sasaki), I decided to have another listen. I was glad I did, as (coincidentally) exactly like Meltdown I fell in love with this song on the 2nd listen. I have never enjoyed VY1's voice that much, but it seemed to fit perfectly for this song. At first I did not hear Rin, but soon realised she was singing the solo bridge. The beginning and chorus particularly are my favourite parts, with a very climatic opening as the stylised title appears. The chorus' harmonies are gorgeous as wel, and over the whole song had me hooked.
I do like to note that the title can be translated different ways, I'm using the one translated by Occasional Subs, but usually I call the song 'Midori Youyou', which is how iroha (sasaki) has stated it should be read as in Japanese （三鳥夭夭）.
About the cover:
A few months ago a VOCALOID/UTAU song contest popped up on VocaloidOtaku, asking if anyone was interested in making originals or covers for a little friendly competition. Me, obviously not wanting to stress myself out with trying to make an original, but still wanting to participate, went for the latter option.
The rules stated that the song had to be made from scratch; no WIPs, no using MIDI files or base USTs/VSQs.
Luckily, at the time I had just rediscovered this song.
I initially started with an idea of Namine Ritsu Kire on melody and Megurine Luka with harmonies. I began searching for other voices, namely Tei, who I remembered had a VCV that I really enjoyed. Her voice was just what I was looking for; calm and smooth, with still a little bit of streghth (I was worrying the Ritsu would be too strong for this song). That left it as a Tei/Luka duet.
Unfortunately, I soon discovered my skill with Luka was not what I thought it was; she sounded reeeeally bad with this particular song. So, with the melody pretty much complete, I set out looking for another UTAU to add to my collection. Rin was quite soft in the bridge, so I wanted a vocal that matched that, and eventually setteled on Sekka Yufu's 'Funwari' voicebank. To even out the parts, I transferred Tei's harmonies over to Yufu; the original song has VY1 on all parts.
Now, after a few months of hard work and tuning and mixing constantly to get the best sound, I have completed it, and I think it's worked out really well! Of course, I'd love feedback to help me get even better!
Next time I update, I'll be giving my lowdown on all things Eurovision 2014.
I've been slack again, so I'm straight up posting this first for you all.
This was a cover of Heart Democracy by Mikito-P, using the free trial of IA's currently alpha stage 'Type_C' voicebank. Shes quite a bit stronger, more solid and has a more nasal tone than what I hear from her normal VB, and while I first liked this new bank more, after wrking with it I'm undecided, as I think she may be too nasal for me now...
Anyway, I've got one more video that I'll ABSOLUTELY PROMISE TO POST THIS WEEK. To date I think it's the best cover I've made, not to mention all from scratch; no midi, no base UST, nothing but my own hands and the angelic voice of Sukone Tei. With a bit of Sekka Yufu.
In the news...
I have been a little busy with schoool starting up again and this being my final year, but the holidays are a week away and I should be able to come up with something else for you all.
I've also gotten myself back into the Evillious Chronicles, and once again I have learnt so much more I didn't know about the plot and characters, plus I discovered some of the new-ish Project MA songs which add to the start of the timeline, and have listened to some of the ones I at first deemed irrelevant to the plot or couldn't be stuffed watching.
Let me tell you clicking on 'Flower of the Plateau' was the best decision I made this term.
But in more important news...
The Eurovision Song Contest is almost here!!! About another month or so and I'll be sitting on my couch eagerly watching the action taking place in Copenhagen.
After my next post, I want to share my passion for Eurovision and give a rundown on how this year's crop stacks up, plus my picks for both semifinals and the final top 10. I hope you'll stick around for that, I don't wanna bore anyone who's here to read about VOCALOID.
And as the old (and quite cringe-worthy) pun goes, SeeU for now!
So I downloaded Meiko's POWER V3 trial a few weeks ago and made this, if you haven't seen it already. In just a few weeks it became my most viewed video, which is something I'm pretty happy about. Although I believe the popularity was helped by the whole frenzy of attention the trial covers were getting and because it was a VERY good VSQx courtesy of Circus-P.
Also maybe very much due to the song itself which may or may not be one of the most popular Vocaloid songs of all time...
Also big news it just recently hit 1000 views!! WOOO ACHIEVEMENT FOR RIV!!
Anyway I guess I should post the video now:
ohmygoshineverrealisedyoucoulddothat
So I guess I'll go edit all my other posts with proper video embedding now:)
I don't feel like saying much on the song or producer because frankly I don't have much to say. I don't like much of Ryo's stuff and his tuning for his old songs was pretty bad. I do like ODDS&ENDS, however.
I actually first heard World is Mine through a Len cover I think, then heard the Miku original but didn't like it because I found her very harsh on my ears. The song is okay though, I chose it for this cover because it was a powerful pop/rock song that Meiko POWER could handle well, and I can say it was going to take a lot of time and effort that I didn't have to get her to sing softer or more restrained for other songs, so this remained my only cover with her. I did experiment with Lineart, Heart Democracy and Pink Diva but all fell short.
And in other news:
I'm planning to buy Merli's box version when it is released!! So that's something to look forward to, another VB to cover more songs with.
As for Shou, like usual I procrastinated these holidays and didn't do a thing about him. I would however love to start recording in this last week before school with my own LQ mic or hopefully with my friends new mic, just to have him at some point past 0% complete.
Tadaa late
I guess it's doomed to be that way for me and this blog...
Moving on. About the Producer: wowaka has been one of my oldest favourite producers, and an unusual one at that, since I enjoy his fast rock compositions a lot. Maybe it's because of his Miku tuning, or maybe it's the usage of other synths that are sometimes heard in his songs, or maybe it's the sound of the piano. Whatever the reason, wowaka has given me an appreciation for harder sounding stuff, in a period where I was looking for niches as I was completely over the pop and techno music of mainstream 2011-2012. It still isn't my most preferred genre, but wowaka does it well, so I appreciate his stuff.
About the song: I started off knowing all the big wowaka hits like Rolling Girl and Two Faced Lovers. I think I'd heard Boku no Sainou once before in an album cross-fade and I remember that I really enjoyed it. However I'd forgotten what it was called.
Then came my Japan trip and I eneded up spending over $100 on Vocaloid-related merchandise. The last proper Voclaoid CD I bought (excluding Piko CD that I thought was Utatane Piko) was in Kyoto, and it was wowaka's Unhappy Refrain. I decided on it due to it having more songs that I knew and liked compared to ones I didn't know at all. Boku no Sainou was one song that fell into the former category, albeit me calling it the 'unknown song that I liked'. When I returned to Australia, I put it on and was pleasantly surprised. the album included album-exclusive versions of wowaka's popular singles, some of which I liked, and some of which I didn't.
I found myself getting into Boku no Sainou, Tsumiki no Ningyou and reversible Doll; stuff I had overlooked unitl now. The single version of BnS isn't as good, as the Miku tuning is really screechy and yuck. But I thought that if I could cover this with Ritsu Kire, it might save it for me, since the instrumental is slightly better/more synthy than the album version.
Currently I'm working on an UTAU/VOCALOID cover with Sukone Tei ad Megurine Luka for a contest on VocaloidOtaku. Hope it turns it out ok, and I'll post it up here when I'm done.
