Happy Halloween!

The process behind making this video was intense. I am no video editing pro, or iMovie expert, so the process was prolonged.

I got the idea in the midnight of 27th before I sleep, and quickly got up from my bed to my laptop and PC. KAITO's always there waiting for me to give him something to sing, thank goodness for that.
I finished the song on 29th at 2am, took a nap, then got up before dawn and tried to draw but was unhappy with it so I went to DeviantArt to search for KAITO's recent fanart. I feel the need to collaborate with some artists.
I found hzeo's still picture of her Halloween KAITO model and thought it looks perfect for the song. (Look at this blog, she has amazing models http://nonbirimattari721.blog.fc2.com/)
Then I search for other artists who is using hzeo's model as well to make cool pose and atmosphere. I sent out all the notes to them individually and hope, with all my might, that they reply me before the end of 30th. It was a short notice but I've gotten their replies on 30th! I'm so grateful and thankful for their support and friendly attitude. And thus, I am able to insert their great artworks into this Halloween song of mine.

Then, the next part of headache, putting them together. I've started a little at the introduction using iMovie (since I have all my songs in my MacBook, might as well use it), the subtitles and syncing took me a while. Later, I received my best friend, CresAya's translation of the lyric.

Initially I have one of the Piapro artist's drawing, but when Lizzy (black-neko21.deviantart.com) posted up the one with a skeleton, that matches the lyric perfectly, so I replaced it.

iMovie crashed multiple times during the editing, and I was a little unsure if I could make it before 31st passes in Southeast Asia. Exporting the movie took me a few hours because there is an error so I exported a smaller/lower quality video. I didn't get this error usually for my songs but I think it's because I use so many artworks and transitions that the program can't take it. *shrugs*

Finally, at 1am  in the morning, I was able to upload it on Youtube. NND requires a smaller size and I got a video converter to compress for a smaller size.

Even during all this rushing and hustling, I really enjoyed the making of it. And the warm comfort that the artist community of Vocaloid are very supportive puts a smile on my face. Thank you very much!



Night at the Castle.

Enjoy!


The Glass Tomb

I've uploaded The Glass Tomb on NND and Youtube after some improvement on the overall mix.
Kurisuto is going to record the guitar part for the Vism online Vocaloid album release version.  It will be a little different.





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I have an idea for the next song. It's hard to know if Kaito will fit in it. It's an adventurous RPG type opening theme.

I will try.

Acapella Eversmile Con.

Continuing my exploration in Vocaloid 3 Editor.
Aside from bird calls, mimicking whistling seems possible, although I would not call it whistling. High range is a lot of fun to play around with, but if one is not careful, it could lead to temporary deafness (jk :P but close enough). I tested various note length as well, and gender, brightness, openness, etc. If you don't simply just look at KAITO as a singer, but as a synthesizer, many things can be done.
I compose without thinking much with these pieces. You might find it a bit more cliché than my other stuff, but who knows, maybe that's good.

Result of my experiment:
I am also going to give this series a name, Eversmile.




Here, have a happy KAITO :D


Acapella Kaito making interesting effect

So, I finally gave in and bought the full Vocaloid 3 Editor.  I can do multi-tracks, unlimited bars, create new space within the same track, etc. Definitely a lot more versatile than the Tiny version.

What better way to go on an adventure in a full editor than making an acapella piece? While I faff about, I discovered something that brings sparkles into my ears. Kaito can make bird sounds, a good bird sound at that! :D Also, "ta ta" "ka ka" "kick kick" "pu" "shoo" became the percussion in the piece.
Kaito in high range with low gender value is very "chipmunk"-ish so I made it more natural by raising the gender value. His voice is smooth in the high register too, that is good. And even in high register, it maintains a unique characteristic (what the community calls as Kaiko), which I am really pleased about.

The bird sound comes from me trying to break my monitors by putting really high notes and a quick jump down.

Starting the Chidori Score

Hello! I am pretty excited to say that I am starting to write the Chidori full orchestra score. I've talked to Robin about it last Thursday during the weekly rehearsal. It's not 100% confirmed but at least there might be a chance that the piece will be performed.

I've also been looking into some information about video games audio implementation and borrowed some books from the library. Even though DirectAudio is not as prominent as it was few years back, there are still some interesting points that are relevant to my studies.

About the song, The Glass Tomb, I did not realize how bad the mix was when I was mixing with my headphones back in Malaysia. Now, with my monitors, it sounded so confined and unbalanced. The bass frequencies were low and the mid does not have enough volume. It really shows that the headphones has a lot of boost in certain frequencies. I've decided not to trust my headphones anymore but only for checking and casual listening.

We've been learning about electronic music in the class. The one that really stood out was the Manifesto of Futurist Musicians. The extreme views and requirements were actually quite understandable, even though at first it sounded outrageous. One thing though, we should never forget our roots in music. It is because of the constant evolution and development from the ancient times that we are where we are today.
Another point was noteworthy. The introduction of machines influenced the creation and growth of music because people's ears get used to the sounds which were not born into the world before that. So musicians seek a different way to stimuli the ears and emotions of the audience.

Which brings me to conclude that we, in this day and age, tend to listen to louder music than people back in the days. The size of orchestra is bigger and the speakers play louder. Young people like to go clubbing listening to deafeningly loud (at least to me) music to stimulate and elevate their emotions.