Concert at SkeCon

This is the video of the concert by Synthesized reality Productions (SRP) at the recent SkeCon event in Sweden. It's a single fixed camera, which could have benefited from being zoomed in a little, but it will do. It isn't shaky, unfocused, distorted or any of the other audience-recorded efforts' failings, and is of high video quality.

The event starts off with SRP's Yume introducing the show, in English, followed by Miku and 'Viva Happy'. Later, Gumi, Rin and Len appear – all three at once for one item – also Luka for 'Just Be Friends'; and near the end we also have Miku's now famous 'Senbonzakura' in her correct outfit for this song. The show is rounded out with Yume re-appearing to dance with SkeCon's own mascot Rosu to dance to 'Happy Synthesizer'. Plenty of goodness is in there for just about any fan!

The whole video is almost an hour long, but I found it better to view in three or four 'chunks', simply because of that fixed, slightly distant viewpoint from which I needed to take an occasional break...

NicoNico Mega Party 2014

This year's Chokaigi (Mega Party) event was really good much of the time, with some very good and audience-grabbing DJ-ing. It was, though, the Vocaloid concert that was the highlight for many, myself included – and then I forgot to post it here!

Well, thanks to a memory jog a few minutes ago, that is remedied now. This year's concert was just half an hour long, but with so much (thirteen songs) crammed into its almost non-stop format that there is plenty for everyone, including original staging, new band arrangements, and Luka playing the harp (very accurately!)

Lots of vocaloids were featured, as is the norm at this event, including the four Crypton Character Vocals (Miku, Luka, Len and Rin), IA, Gumi, Gakupo, Lily, Teto and more.

This is best viewed full screen, and listened to via headphones if possible...

Sing and Smile

It's about time I posted another nice video with good motion, so here's something new: Sing and Smile by Re:nG, featuring an 'all-star' cast of the six Cryptonloids (including the Sakine version of Meiko) along with Teto, Haku Yowane and Neru Akita, all of whom appear in Project DIVA Arcade future tone, from which this derives.

The motion is really good, and Rin's outfit in her initial appearance in the video – starting at 1 minute in – though simple in design is particularly appealing, I thought.

By the way: I have been spending so much time on social media and domestic matters that I haven't been able to keep up with other matters (in case anyone was wondering) – though I have been monitoring a lot of things going on, especially in the local and national political spheres. I shall no doubt comment on at least one or two of those in due course, but for now let's stay with the lighter and more enjoyable world of Vocaloid/Utau...

The Wizardry of OS-TER

If you liked OSTER project's Alice In Musicland, which I featured here a few months ago, you'll go for this similarly-presented version of Music Wizard of Oz, again with the Crypton 'Vocaloid All-Stars' playing all the parts and providing the voices, this time with the addition of Gumi..

It will help to know the original story, as no English words have yet been provided – hardly surprising, as it has only just appeared. No doubt a translation in the form of subtitles or captions will appear one day, and I shall then showcase that here.

In the meantime, it is again a mini-masterpiece, longer than the Alice production at just over twenty minutes..

Dream Fighter – Times Nine

Just for fun, here's an ensemble of no fewer than nine Vocaloids and Utauloids performing Dream Fighter with (much of the time) individual movements. It must have taken a long time to produce this!

The base (Lat) model is identical, simply having different head details to suit each character; and three of them have solo spots within the song – although they are miming to the actual singers who are a human group called Perfume. The song comes from that group's 2009 album titled Triangle.

The performers are (identified by hair colour and style)...

• Blue (twin tail) : Hatsune Miku
• Yellow (short) : Kagamine Rin
• Yellow (side tail) : Akita Neru
• Red (twin 'drill') : Kasane Teto
• Pink (shoulder length) : Momone Momo (桃音モモ)
  Purple (short) : Defoko a.k.a. 'Utane Uta'
• Purple (long) : Utane Oto (Defoko's younger sister)
• Green (long) : Marine Rimo
  Brown (twin tail) : Eika Sachi

Decorator

This is the intro song for the imminent (but delayed for three weeks for quality improvements to be made) Project Diva F 2nd game. The song, by kz (livetune), features all six Crypton Vocaloids who also appear in the game – which will now appear (all being well) in late March, at least in Japan.

Meanwhile, we can enjoy Decorator, in a typical setting and style of video for this series of games...

Teto and the Bicycle

...and the wasp, and a rafflesia flower, and Akita Neru (who has Len's undies with her!) and several other ingredients as well. Not a song this time, just a fun scenario of what some of the Vocaloid/UTAU characters might get up to if they were doing everyday stuff that the rest of us could perhaps be seen doing.

This short (just over four minutes) clip was produced by one Doronuma-P...

Happy Birthday, Rin and Len

Yes, today (27 December 2013) marks the fifth anniversary of the release of the Kagamine duo, often thought of as brother and sister, though they can of course be considered and used as other male/female pairing types.

Here is an interview with their voice provider, the delightful Asami Shimoda (with slightly 'Engrish' subtitles!), including excerpts from a few of the duo's songs – especially Asami's own favourite Rin Rin Signal...

Voc-Xmas 2013 – Merry Christmas To The World

This is a really nice seasonal song by Rin, who seems here to be the perfect choice to perform Merry Christmas To The World in a delightful arrangement.

It doesn't get much better than this, although it is true that the full English words (some of it is already in English) would have been welcome...

Promise, by Miku and Rin

I featured this once before, ten months ago now (where did all that time go?) but in that video the same duo were wearing their standard outfits.

This time, Miku and Rin are wearing their ultra-cute puffball dresses that we saw in Colorful Melody; and even without the English words, this now quite famous song – Promise by Samfree – is a delight to watch and enjoy.

For the enquirer who asked me about the specific modules from Project Diva for these outfits, they are Colorful Drop (for Miku) and Cheerful Candy (for Rin)...

A Flavour of Magic

Here is a video of a couple of very short snippets from each of the songs performed at the recent Magical Mirai 2013 concert, featuring all six Crypton Vocaloids in solos, duets and one trio.

It gives an idea of what the event was like, a lot more broadly than just one song – even though the one I featured here a few weeks ago was the jaw-dropping staging of Ryo's Odds and Ends. Here we have the lot, sampled, and topped & tailed with the aid of some nifty graphics.

It comes as no surprise that the range of models, costumes and some new (to me at least) songs raised the bar yet again, along with the extra-wide screen (just how wide is that thing?) and some completely new motions even for established songs.

On top of that, we once again get to realise, however briefly, just how good the Vocaloid composer/producers are, their material easily up there with the best in the conventional music arena, more often than not. Remember: it hasn't been tampered with by publishing agents, session musicians (though the live band here won't be quite the same as the original released version), recording engineer, studio acoustics and effects, or a human lead performer (or two, or three).

These works are essentially straight from the composer's thoughts and intentions for his or her creation to the audience – which is perhaps the single strongest reason why the fan community is so dedicated without (except in a few cases!) too 'fannish'. Here we go...

Miku and Friends at Gateshead

This is all but the first few songs of the Gateshead concert put on by MikuUK (or 'UK39' as they now prefer to be called), video-ed from within the (somewhat chatty at times) audience. Yes, the focus drifts from time to time, but it gives a good idea of how it went.

Actually, for a fan-based vocaloid concert, it's quite good, and some is really good. Rin and Len at the start are rendered extremely clearly, brightly, and do have a three-dimensional appearance that is getting on for as good as one gets at the official events.

The motion is generally good quality, if a little unambitious much of the time (these aren't the 'official' motions for these songs) and in a couple of numbers Miku appears to be rollerblading (that 'sliding feet syndrome' I have discussed before), but overall it's a good effort. More motion capture would make a world of difference, rather than trying to create motions by bone manipulation(!)

The live band is welcome, and are quite good, though unsurprisingly not in the league of the now-legendary 39s who performed at several of the big concerts in Japan in 2011 and (I think) early 2012. The sound mix is nearly always excellent, unusually well done, I'd say. It is clear that the whole team has put a lot of hard and dedicated work into their events, in fact, breaking new ground for us here in the UK.

Anyway, here's 35 minutes of the Gateshead event, which I hope you'll enjoy despite the technical issues of focus and audience chat in places...

Trick AND Treat

This creepy song reminds me of why I have never been keen on trickery – which is why I detest this American idea of the similarly-named 'trick or treat' activity that we seem to have permanently imported into Britain in recent years, especially for this particular day of the year.

As in this item, there is always the threat ('treat' with an 'h' added, notice!) of something nasty being done by someone who has temporary power over you, whether on your doorstep or having drugged and then blindfolded you deep in the forest. Follow the subtitles to see what I mean.

I am reminded by this kind of scenario of the advice that the lady who jointly ran Byker Grove youth club with Geoff would say to her female charges: "Never let anyone put you in a position where your choices are taken away from you".

This jolly-sounding but actually quite ominous song is a good showcase for the Kagamine duo in its own right, so can be enjoyed on that level. Just don't forget the underlying message carried within it...

Iroha Song – With English Subtitles

As I have promised to do, once I find a version of something I posted which didn't then have English words provided appears with the translation, I re-post it. So it now is with Rin's performance of Iroha Song at the Kansai concert earlier this year, as such a version was recently uploaded, and here it is.

I always think Rin looks so nice in this outfit, and the catchy song also suits her very well. It's an irresistible combination, even if the song's lyrics turn out to be a little 'odd'...

Rin's New Friend

Meet Rin's new kitty. By the way, I gather the bones had been taken out of the fish and the two halves put back together, though I don't know how that is possible...

It's So Hopeless for Gakupo!

On Samurai Gakupo's 'birthday', it seems appropriate to post this funny cartoon-illustrated tale of woe, set to the tune of Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca.

It was done by OwataP some four years ago, but there is an important message for mobile 'phone (a.k.a. 'cellphone') users everywhere that is just as valid today. Read the English captions and enjoy the story...

Backing vocals are by Miku and Rin, and it all works rather nicely, in a fun if slightly tragic way, and with a neat twist in the tale...

Tora-Con 2013

This is the official Tora-Con AniMiku event, uploaded by Re:Vb himself (creator of the software) and with embedding enabled, so there is clearly no problem with my posting it here. The event was on 23 March of this year. I thought I posted this before – I certainly intended to, but it wasn't already on the 'blog when I checked. I've now sussed it out: this is very similar to the NekoCon event I posted previously, but quite a bit better in several respects. The other event had only Leaving Donna by SeeU, and the shading didn't work as well throughout, so this video is definitely a worthwhile view!

The AniMiku animation and rendering engine has really come along in the past year or so, and this is an ideal showcase for the quality of its rendering in particular. I have to admit I am impressed with the clarity for stage projection, the shading, and other characteristics of what was by this time version 3.9 (beta) of the software. It has been carefully designed to simulate a holographic projection, and it does seem to at least partly achieve that – in fact, probably just about as well as can be done with non-holo systems.

It lasts just over an hour in total, and features (alphabetically) CUL, GUMI, Miku, Rin and SeeU, performing songs from nine producers/composers. The Rin model looks a little sad, and I must admit I'd have chosen a different one myself.

Even if all you watch is the opening number, I think you'll be pleased you did; but I hope that many visitors here will go further than that, especially for SeeU's choreography and animation (both by tourbux, no less, which explains the top-notch standard) and CUL's song...

A Pair of Wintery Winds

Well, that's how it's been written at the video's YouTube page, though I'd have opted for 'Wintry' myself. The Japanese title is Tsugai Kogarashi, it was written and arranged by Shigotoshite-P, and was originally performed by Meiko and Kaito.

Anyway, this is a traditional style of Japanese song, well performed by the Kagamine duo in a very appropriate setting with some delightful action and scenery.

Although the up-loader has not provided English words, a link to them has been supplied, and it is worth following that link sometime to get the flavour of the song. It doesn't need it at first viewing, but is probably useful before a subsequent view...

Meltdown

I think we've all felt somewhat melted down in the recent heatwave, but Rin has to take it a stage further, and think about diving into a fusion reactor(!)

This live performance of Meltdown has English subtitles, so it's easy to follow the story of this potentially tragic tale. Thankfully much of it turns out to have been only dreams.

Notable here are the audience's immediate recognition of the upcoming song from the piano prelude, and – after a lengthy intro – the almost wild enthusiasm when Rin appears. They have excellent taste, those Japanese...

Innocence

Although we have seen this 'stage' (as it is called) before, with the little sliding block patterns hovering near the walls, that was for a different performance.

This is Innocence (not 'Innocent' as it says on the YouTube player), composed by kazu-p and performed by Rin, and is quite attractive, even without English words provided, as here (unfortunately). It is also, by the way, well suited to Lapis' voice, so I might well feature that version one day.

Rin is very fetching as always when in her 'puffball' dress with the big front bow and complementary (though not quite matching in colour) flower-like hair adornment, and her gentle swaying motion is very feminine. It's a worthwhile addition to this Rin series I am compiling during these few days...