Singing Computers

(Note: Someone told me to space out my paragraphs a bit more, to make them more readable. How's this? Also, sorry for no update last week. I think I've got it under control now, but thanks for your patience.) Here is the YouTube page of a Vocaloid Producer I've gotten into: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHf9og9JlOD7YNYezW_tVew/featured He's much more active on his SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/oddeeoofficial His general style is a mix of 80's synthpop and whatever subgenre Porter Robinson does. Not only do I like that style a lot, another thing I like about him is his attitude towards Vocaloid- as a computer program, an art form, a collection of characters, a  phenomenon  in general. One of his videos is an "interview" with his characterization of the Vocaloid Avanna. Named MON1T0R, this fictional character that he made up was a computer program (presumably the Vocaloid program) that gained sentience through some kind of anomaly. Here was one...

     (It’s time for another one, bois. Prepare yourselves. Also, this was the post that I bit more off of than I could chew. Can you tell? Anyway, let's just jump right in, since you already know what this is.)      Vocalsynth cover artists:       MioDioDaVinci - Turned me into a Kyo fan in the span of an hour when I listened to their covers. Also does a good job with the other ZOLA boys and VY2.       Lanuman - First, their tuning is really realistic. Second, I really like how they use a lot of Vocaloid “underdogs” really well. Third, their manly Piko gives me life.      Vocalsynth Producers:       kyaami/cillia - The absolute goddess of Vocaloid and other synth tuning in general. Show her covers to your friends and they'll think it's a human singing. She used to be in the cover artists section, but recently she released a Vo...

(Um hi, sorry for the late post, I was quite busy. Also, I bit off more than I could chew again. You'll see that post next week. That has happened multiple times, though, hasn't it? I have to figure out what to do about that. Hmm. In the meantime, enjoy this thing I wrote a while ago but never posted. I think I might just like some of Porter Robinson's music, what do you think? This one is less about the music of life and more about, well, music, specifically how it is changing and how it will change and whether that is good or bad or just... the same. Because music never really changes, deep down inside, past the surface.) I hadn’t listened to Fellow Feeling for months. I didn’t remember exactly how it went, but I remembered that the cello part was nice, but there was also an ugly part as well. But recently I reminded myself that all of Porter’s music is good, so I decided to listen again. I didn’t realize… I had goosebumps by the end. I did ...

So. I have mentioned AegisSan as one of the Vocaloid Producers I like. Well. This is a comment thread from about 6 months ago on their song Without You : Click on image for large size- Sorry :( Fast forward to six months later, to yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2izfT3axnI That collab happened and released! It was definitely  a learning experience- I had to find: -A microphone (My dad had one he had bought to record audiobooks with and never used) -Recording software (I eventually decided on Voice Recorder Pro, by Splend Apps) -A metronome system to keep me on the beat (Headphones that are 'broken' in exactly the right way) -A good space for recording (Basement) -A way to convert the files AegisSan sent me into sheet music (Midis and MuseScore) Then I got my two best friends into the project (one of them plays/played viola, the other plays cello) and had them record parts too, so scheduling was also a problem since at the time of writing they are un...

(Note: I wrote this in Google Drive and then copied-and-pasted it here. Apparently Blogger is jealous, because it wreaked havoc on the format and I was only able to fix most of it. Hmm.) This is not actually, as the title suggests, a post on how the violin works. That’s actually really cool, and I suggest you research it on your own if possible, but this is actually about what and what not the violin is capable of. I just didn’t feel like naming it “What can the violin do?” Hopefully this will also be at least mildly interesting to my other readers, but to be honest, the main audience of this post is the people I collaborate with. I record my violin for their melodies. Also, I didn’t mean it like this either, Floppyboi . Hmmph. The open strings of a violin are G3, D4, A4, and E5. If you bow the strings without putting any of your fingers on the strings, those are the notes the violin will emit. They are tuned to perfect fifths, as you will notice if you ...

     This is an essay/account/story/I don't really know about how and why my musical influences are much different than my musical inspirations .      I have listened to classical music all of my life. It is, I very much think, my biggest musical influence. From preschool to fifth grade, I would spend the 20 minute car ride to school listening to WCPE, The Classical Station, and after school, I would be picked up and listen to it again. I went to concerts. I learned to play classical violin. I joined an orchestra. A quartet. Et cetera.      The point is, I’ve been playing music from these classical composers all my life, and I listen to other people playing it too, at concerts. They have influenced  my musical style far more than anyone else. But do these composers and musicians inspire me to make my own music, play my own songs?      Absolutely not.      They were geniuses, legends, prodigies; lived a hund...

     Do you remember my post about UTAU? Well, it was about several related programs to Vocaloid, but it included UTAU. If you don't, here's the post link:       Related Software      Since I now know more about UTAU, I'll remake that description a bit.      UTAU was first released in March 2008. It is shareware, if you know what that is. If you don't, it's basically watered-down open source software. If you don't know what open source software is, shame on you. Um, anyway, some of the differences between it and Vocaloid are: -It is free to download, -.wav files can be imported into the program, so you can make your own voicebank, -The core engine hasn't been worked on since 2013, and -The core engine stinks.      Well, that's a bit of a frank way to put it, but it's honestly accurate. The average UTAU (colloquially UTAUloid) sounds a bit like this:  Sugarvine, sung by Crecia Selestewa . Even with tu...

     I did one of these a while ago, except in two separate posts, so that was weird, and I put my Vocaloid music in an unusual format, and I have more music I like now, so in summary, I'm doing another one. Wow, that was one sentence. Anyway, let's get started.      I like most electronic music in general, although I don’t like songs with nothing going on in them, musically, like this one . It’s just boring and harsh. That’s probably a result of my extremely classical/folk musical ear.      I like the music labels Monstercat (especially Tristam): Disconnected , Saturday Morning Space Ride , Frame of Mind , Bone Dry , Till It's Over      ...and The Arcadium. Luminous , Until We Fall , Sugar High , The New Beginning , Levitation , Delphinium , Ball Bounce , Around You , Flute Gamer , Lights , Awe , Our Last Time , Never Let Me Go , Keystone      I got into JJD and Skylike from The Arcadium. I haven’t listened...

     One of my favorite things to read is called Space Boy. It's a Webtoon, which are hard to explain. Imagine a graphic novel, with a new chapter or "episode" releasing each week, or sometimes multiple times a week, online. That's the basic concept, except the panels are also placed vertically for optimized viewing on phones- although it still works fine on regular computers as well. This particular Webtoon is also becoming a regular graphic novel. Space Boy books 1, 2, and 3 are available to buy on Amazon and other places. I think you can preorder the fourth.      Anyway, once I've explained the concept, I can go on more about Space Boy. The official description is:      "A girl who belongs in a different time. A boy possessed by an emptiness as deep as space. A story about an alien artifact, a mysterious murder, and a love that crosses light years."      That's a bit dramatic, but it'll do. It's a sci-fi drama with main ...