Singing Computers

     I was looking for blog post ideas for today, and I decided to look at my old Vocaloid Doc. First, wow, I have improved so much at writing since I last edited that. Second, most of the sections have been posted on my blog already- except the Glossary. That just defined a bit of Vocaloid jargon that I was confused about when I first joined the fandom. I decided to define it for the readers of this blog as well. Enjoy.      Fanloid/Derivative: The official description on the wiki is this: "FANLOID (commonly abbreviated from Fanmade Vocaloid) are VOCALOID inspired characters, created by the Vocaloid fandom." These can range from  IO  to  Yowane Haku  to  Shiteyan'yo . Here's a Wiki page explaining them .      MMD: Standing for MikuMikuDance, MMD is a 3D modeling program specifically focusing on creating music videos for Vocaloid songs (although they're sometimes used for talkloids as well). There are a ton of mode...

     (Note: Sorry for the late release, I'm on vacation. It's worth it for Al though lol) Big Al's official boxart, illustration by Ash Big Al's Taiwan boxart Big Al's original boxart (my morality what is this Elvis monster morph thing)       Big Al Voice donor: Frank S. Engine: V2 Company: Made and sold by PowerFX Release date: December 2009 Updates and/or additional voicebanks: Nope :( Language: English Voice type: Baritone-tenor, American accent Weaknesses: V2 isn’t very inherently realistic, and it’s discontinued. V2 can’t do low notes well either, so he has some distortion in his lower range. He also croaks at the start of words. Strengths: His voice type in general is quite unique. He has the lowest recommended range of all the Vocaloids. Big Al is the clearest English V2 and can even drown out some other Vocaloids sometimes. Examples: Breaking Point , Rinse, Repeat , Viva ...

     I have been reading a lot. If you know me at all, this should not surprise you. As a result, I have a recommendation. Actually several, but this is one of the best:      I highly recommend the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The best phrase to describe the genre is probably historical fantasy. Starting with His Majesty's Dragon , it is an account of the Napoleonic Wars- except everyone has dragons. What, you expected something not about dragons? Anyway, the plot is that Will Laurence, captain of the British ship Reliant, captures a French ship and along with it, a valuable dragon egg. To prevent it going feral, as hatched dragons do without masters, he hatches, harnesses, and raises the dragon, and joins the British Air Force. What follows are his many and exciting adventures with his dragon, Temeraire.      The general mood/vibe of the book is, as a quote on the back of the book from Time magazine says, "Like Jane Austen playing Du...

     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...

     (Note: I have nothing to say except "Wow, I'm so glad I got this done.)      This is an analysis by yours truly on the shifting popularity of Vocaloids throughout the years, from its development to now.      When it was first being developed, Vocaloid was... Hmm. It was certainly groundbreaking technology- LEON and LOLA even won a couple of awards. However, it was really expensive, hard to use, and didn't sound very good. Additionally, LEON and LOLA missed their audience, American DAW Producers, with their British accents, plus the fact that they were sold by a British company. MIRIAM failed because of competition with Cantor, a rival software to Vocaloid at the time. Kaito failed, again, because of a missed audience (I'll elaborate more on Kaito's popularity on his description). Meiko was the first Vocaloid to actually do well.      Then V2, a vastly improved version of the software, released, a bit before the first V2...

     Recently, my younger brother has been making frozen lemonade. The results are... well, this: I had to take a picture, not just for the blog post, but because it looked absolutely beautiful.      It was also delicious. So, of course, we did it again the next day, with raspberry puree instead of strawberry (I helped a bit this time):      It was even more delicious.      Would you like the recipe?      Actually, it doesn't matter, because I'll give it to you anyway. What did you think this blog post was for?      Homemade Frozen Lemonade/Sorbet:      Microwave one cup sugar and one cup lemon juice and stir till the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the syrup into a 1-quart tupperware container* and add water until tupperware is nearly full, then put it in a freezer. When the mixture is mostly frozen, blend it, then put back in freezer and repeat until satisfied with ...

     I was writing an Analysis of Vocaloid Popularity post, but several factors prevented me from posting it today. These factors included but were not limited to: procrastination, Drivers Ed, and books. As a result, I'll post it on Saturday, along with the regular Saturday post.      Writing a blog in summer is surprisingly difficult. Heck, just writing a blog in general is hard. But I am determined to not give up.

     Remember how in Fanart and My Musical Ear I recommended something called a Webtoon to y'all? Well, I'm at it again.     I just finished reading a Webtoon called Live With Yourself! . The official description is:      "An explosive time-space accident leaves happy-go-lucky 20-something Todd living with himself, and himself, and himself. You get to watch the struggle."      That says it all (although I don't know why it uses so many dashes in the process), but I suppose I should elaborate a little bit. The first "himself" he calls Tomo, who is the future Todd from a few hours to a day later. The second "himself" is Oldie, Todd as an old man. The final one is Babs, him as a baby.      It's a light comedy story that I devoured in a few hours. Not only that, but it makes you think of your future self as more of a person- they are you, after all. For example, I was procrastinating on writing this ...

     (I thought this was scheduled for last Friday, but I forgot to push the Publish button. Oops.) SONiKA's boxart SONiKA's Taiwan boxart Some other official boxart? I honestly have no idea. Looks hideous though.       SONiKA      Voice donor: No information except her age, 17, and her description: a “virtual vocalist modeled on the voice of a young girl pop singer.”      Engine: V2      Company: Made and sold by Zero-G      Release date: July 14, 2009      Language: English      Voice type: Young-sounding voice with a British accent. Sounds kind of like a glitchy Olivia, but with her own distinctive tone.      Weaknesses: Ummm… In terms of quality, Sonika is a mess. She mumbles, mispronounces, and in general you can’t understand her. This is mainly because of bad samples.      Strengths: Because of her unique setup, howe...

     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...

     If you feel like my Vocaloid Descriptions and poor attempts at explanations of Vocaloid history, I would like to recommend a good resource for you. There's a YouTube channel called addictedtoheriones , or AtH, which has good, comprehensive videos on the history of Vocaloid and individual descriptions.      My apologies for this disappointing blog post. I am very busy today.      :(

     (Note: I have realized that, ya know what, I don't have to describe Vocaloids I don't like. So there. Oh, and about Gumi vs Megpoid, Megpoid is her product name and Gumi is her character name. I know, it's confusing, but it it what it is.) Gumi has a lot of different boxarts so I just chose this one. Eh. Gum i Voice donor: Megumi Nakajima Engine: V2 Company: Made and sold by Internet Co. Release date: June 2009 Updates and/or additional voicebanks: V3 update, extends, English voicebank, V4x update Language: Japanese, English Voice type: Slightly “scratchy” high-ranged female voice. Sounds about in her late teens to early twenties. Strengths: Gumi honestly has the best English of the Big 8. She is a professional-quality product, with a lot of different voicebanks (the most of any Vocaloid, in fact), each suited to different genres, to choose from. Weaknesses: Her design is… Hmm. She has a slight Japanese accent. Her English especially has a bit of a “percussive”...

     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 ...

     (Note: This felt nice to write. Hio is good Vocaloid.) He is not  Edgy Teen Oliver and you cannot change my mind. I am talking to three specific people here. You know who you are.       YOHIOloid      Voice donor: YOHIO, a professional Swedish singer, 17 years old at time of recording      Engine: V3      Company: Made by VocaTone, sold by PowerFX      Release date: September 10, 2013      Updates and/or additional voicebanks: nope      Language: English, Japanese      Voice type: Mid-range mature male voice      Strengths: Sounds just so amazing and pleasant and smooth, but also has a wide vocal range.      Weaknesses: His Japanese is not preferred by Japanese producers because of its Swedish accent.      Examples: Without Wings , Dream With You , Rolling In the Deep , Sunflowers I...

     I couldn't think of anything to write about, so here's a story about my desk. I promise it'll be interesting.      I have a desk. It looks like this:      You can probably tell that I've had it for a while. And this is after  I took most of the stickers off lol . But anyway, yes, a few years. Five or six? Or seven? I made it with my dad, as a father-daughter project. We made the design, picked out a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood, cut it, screwed it together, sanded it, and then protected it with polyurethane (was that it? I can't remember exactly), because I decided that I liked the natural color of the wood. I colored it with Sharpies, put duct tape on it, taped a piece of acetate on it, decorated it with washi tape, put very nice sparkly stickers on it, doodled on it, wrote on it, put glue on it, used an x-acto knife on it, and did many more things to it. It is a good desk.      However, I grew. The desk is now too ...

(Note: Again, this was hard to write, especially as there is a lot of controversy around them. If you want more intelligent opinions on the Kagamines, AngelEmfrbl's contributions to the comment section on their wiki page should suffice. I think I'll do Gumi next, as I actually like her voice.) Note that this is their V4x boxart, not the original Act 1.      Kagamine Rin/Len      Voice donor: Asami Shimoda, a professional Japanese actress, voiced both of them, although the pitch was almost certainly altered for Len’s samples.      Engine: V2      Company: Made and sold by Crypton Future Media      Release date: December 27, 2007      Updates and/or additional voicebanks: Act 2, three V2 Appends each, V4x update, V4 English      Language: Japanese, English      Voice type: Rin has a pretty high-pitched voice, and so does Len. Len is classified as a female voice ty...

     I am not a gamer. I can say that with complete honesty. One of the games I play is half game, half UN-like roleplay. It's called  NationStates . The second is Beat Saber . The third and last is Minecraft , as you may have gathered from the title. I was going to write a post about Minecraft, but I really couldn't express what I wanted to say properly. I was going for something like the Foreword of the book Block City- How to build incredible worlds in Minecraft , which is an amazing book that features people's amazing Minecraft creations. How amazing?       Air Traffic       Colossal Carving       Dragon Spawn      These are some other majestic builds featured on minecraft.net , which features these kinds of things regularly. I highly encourage you to check out more if you're interested. So, I wanted to write an essay or something... That kinda failed. I think I'll put in instead my favorite quotes f...

     (Note: I know I promised to do the Big 8 first, but their descriptions are actually slightly painful to write. I can't really... appreciate them. They're kind of annoying, honestly. Well, mainly the CV series, and I think it's because people think they're THE BEST Vocaloids EVAH but they really aren't, mainly because they're voice acted. But enough about them! Leon and Lola are awesome, so I'm doing their descriptions this week to take a break from that.) LEON and LOLA      Voice donors: Two anonymous soul singers.      Engine: V1      Company: Made by Yamaha, sold by Zero-G      Release date: January 15, 2004      Updates and/or additional voicebanks: Nope:(      Language: English, although I have seen Leon sing French once.      Voice type: LEON is a tenor with, in my humble opinion at least, awesome falsetto. He has a British accent. LOLA has a de...

     (Note: this was actually a bit difficult to write, as I personally don't like Miku very much. I also hesitate to post it so soon in the blog, as Miku can have a notable negative effect on people's opinions of Vocaloid. However, you can't talk about Vocaloid very much without mentioning Miku, so I figured I might as well explain her, so you don't get any misconceptions... singing anime girl *cough*)      Hatsune Miku      Voice donor: Saki Fujita, a professional Japanese voice actress      Engine: V2      Company: Made and sold by Crypton Future Media      Release date: August 31, 2007      Updates and/or additional voicebanks: Six V2 Appends, V3 update, V3 English, two V3 Appends, eVocaloid voicebank, V4 update, V4 English, V4 Chinese, and an English Vocaloid Neo VB. I think  that's all of them.      Language: Japanese, English, Chinese   ...

     Oops... I may have skipped the last four-or-so blog posts. But I can explain! See, I was very busy doing not-school. I made most of a new desk with my dad, went to Florida, got rear-ended (right before we were supposed to leave for Florida, in the same vehicle we were going to use- that was inconvenient, to say the least), upholstered kitchen chairs with duct tape, drew lots and lots of dragons, found some more good music, weeded our back garden for fun (it's surprisingly relaxing), went to an aquarium, petted rays and sharks at said aquarium, and in general did other spring break stuff. It was fun, and as a bonus, I have more post ideas... *trails off, muttering and pacing around the house*      And now that I've finished this explanation/apology/excuse note, back to your regularly scheduled blog. Oh, and listen to TechniKen and Voice V4 's music, please and thank you- that's the music I found during spring break. I'm going to schedule this to post ...

     The Meta-Notes shall never end! Muahahahaha! No, in all seriousness, I need these to inform you readers what I'll be doing with the blog, and I'm putting them in separate posts instead of mashing them into others because I like to be organized and it's easier to look them up that way.      You may have guessed already that, since I have posted a Meta-Note, I have something to talk about. I do, in fact, as the alternative would be to leave the rest of this post blank. That really wouldn't be interesting, would it?      The first item on my list is the Vocaloid Descriptions. I already have a Google Doc named Vocaloid Descriptions in which I have copy-pasted the format for a description eighty-something times (there are 85 Vocaloids in total, but I've lumped some of them together) and now I'm filling in the information. Some of them are finished, most of them are not, but basically I'll be finishing up one of the descriptions, then pastin...

     (Note: I'm finally starting the Vocaloid Descriptions section after procrastinating for so long. This is the standard format I have for descriptions, with a note like this at the beginning of each one. I think I'll do one description per week, with the other post being something else. I was going to do Miku first but then I decided to rebel against her fame and do Oliver first, so hah Miku, you're not always the first Vocaloid always ever! I should stop.)       Oliver      Voice donor: Anonymous 12-13 year old British choirboy (anonymous because Government says we must protect the smols)      Engine: V3      Company: Oliver was made by VocaTone and sold by PowerFX. VocaTone is the only American Vocaloid company, although in this case "company" is a loose term. They are small and not very professional. However, they did seem to do pretty well on their first Vocaloid.      Release da...

     Note, I am shortening any instance of VOCALOID# into V#. Also, what I call Vocaloid 1 was actually called Vocaloid, but as you can imagine, using that term would be very  confusing. Also note that you probably don't know any of the stories behind these names, that's because I'm doing this before starting the Vocaloid Descriptions section, so you know what I'm talking about when I mention which engine of the software Vocaloid so-and-so runs on.      V1 was the first engine of Vocaloid. The synthesis was not realistic at all, especially with multiple consonants, and it struggled with low notes. It was intended to be more of a prototype engine, however, and there were only 5 Vocaloids released on V1: Leon, Lola, Miriam, Meiko, and Kaito. The Vocaloids "Jodie" and "Ronie," intended to be V1 Vocaloids, were instead released on V2 as Sweet Ann and Big Al- although Al changed design once and voice provider twice during the process!     ...

     Oh, you expected something about Vocaloids? Sorry, today's special is giant flying lizards. It's also gonna be pretty long, but whatever, I have time.      Sorry I added the pictures late, but the process was incredibly  annoying, you wouldn't even believe. It involved downloads, uploads, screenshots, and no fewer than twenty-eight images and Google Drawings in a folder named Temporary. Yeesh.      For as long I can remember (AKA, about Kindergarten after my Mermaid and Pegasus phases ended), I've loved dragons. I read lots of books about them, things like that. So, for my birthday one year, my mom got me this book because it had a dragon on the cover and it looked good:      I devoured the series, and made my first OC, Princess River (sound familiar?) by fourth grade.      Then I tried to draw dragons:   Maroon      That's actually my third attempt, I threw away my first...