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...

Happy Teto Day

The first day of April is known as 'Teto Day' to fans of the 'joke' UTAU who became so popular that the lady is now a permanent member of the female Vocaloid/UTAUloid sisterhood.

I don't tend to play April Fools' jokes, and prefer instead to find something more positive if I can. Here, then, is Teto with the powerful but sad Yoshiwara Lament in a very classy performance from last year's NicoNico Mega-Party, complete with English subtitles...

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

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...

Teto at the Airport

The song is Tricolore Airline (sounds like a kind of fusilli pasta, but there you go) and is actually sung by Miku, but three models of the UTAUloid Teto – all created by one Reyama, with whom I am as yet unfamiliar – perform the dance in the various settings, or 'stages'.

There's the standard Teto model, an Append model, and a School model, and they are all really lovely with what seem to be excellent physics and allied here with a very good motion. I think the School model  (complete with GUMI-style garter!) has to be my personal favourite...

Everybody Jam!

Teto sings the old 'Scatman' song by John Larkin and Antonio Nunzio Catania in this short video by Catman-P (ahem!). The English subtitles remind us of the story of how Louis Armstrong (Satchmo) brought the blues to Scatman John and how a new music genre was born.

With Miku Uta Utane (also known as Defoko) on trumpet and a gathering of other well-known characters joining in, this is a bright and upbeat little number. I am grateful for my error regarding the trumpet-player being pointed out:  it was difficult with the non-coloured image for my limited eyesight to get that right unaided...

Yoshiwara Lament

This is Teto's song from the Nico Nico Cho Party that I featured here a few weeks ago, and here it is by itself, now with English subtitles. I'd say this song belongs to Teto, and no other UTAU or Vocaloid should be tried with it. It's well deserved.

With the translated lyrics, the full significance of the cage becomes evident, along with her situation as being 'for sale', and we can perhaps more fully understand her lament...

Love Words – For Five

I featured Love Words (Ai Kotoba) not so long ago; but this version, featuring five Lat-designed models, is I think very good so warrants a spot here, even without the English words on this occasion.

Personally, I do like the outfits: the classic high-waisted, plain light-coloured, virtually sleeveless, medium-length, boat neckline summer dress that is just so lightweight and feminine. I much prefer it to (but can live with) the shorter fashions that have become the norm – especially for stage performances – in recent decades.

Now, look closely at our five artistes. From right to left, they are: Luka, Teto, Miku, Akita Neru, and...who? Apparently this fifth lady might be Kiku, about whom I know next to nothing. Checking Google Images, I find that this could be correct, though Kiku doesn't usually have a Teto-like 'double drill' hairstyle...

NicoNico Party 2013

Six months ago, almost to the day, I brought you last year's so-called MMD multi-Vocaloid concert, (the 'MMD' standing for MikuMikuDance, the famous character animation software).

This year's has been up on YouTube for over two months, so there appears to be no problem with having it there, and embedding is allowed. Therefore I feel I can safely place it here.

It is much the same concept as last year's such event, and its full title is NicoNico Cho Party – by now you can no doubt suss out where the 'NicoNico' part originates, as I've mentioned that website a few times in recent months.

The very start is slightly unorthodox(!) but leads onto the trade mark (for these partyicular events) Miku sitting on a crescent moon supported on two ropes, like a swing. The sixteen songs this time come one immediately after another in most cases, and we have twelve Vocaloids and UTAUloids this year – one up on last year's eleven. Alphabetically they are: Gakupo, GUMI, IA, Len, Lily, Luka, Meiko, Miku, Ritsu, Teto and two others I haven't yet been able to identify, though I am fairly sure that one of them is the UTAUloid Yowane Haku.

There are good solos for Teto and IA (and watch the latter's eyes, by the way) and an interesting version of World's End Dancehall, with different choreography and some other variations, by the Kagamine duo.

As before, because the character motions are produced in MMD, which is designed for display on computer screens and PlayStations rather than for life-size projection, the quality isn't as good as the SEGA in-house professional software used for the what are usually referred to as the 'official' concerts. It's still good, though, and some is very good indeed, including the motion quality (which is variable, but never poor). The stage is superb too!

Anyway, this is a good way to spend forty minutes, probably best once the sun has gone down...

Motion Capture

I have written before of the importance of good motion capture (MoCap for short) for live performances by Vocaloid characters (or 'avatars' as some call them), and here is an example of just how well this can work. Even at home, with relatively modest kit, nowadays very accurate and smooth motion can be recorded from a human performer and translated to a Vocaloid or other 3-D model.

I feel there is really no excuse for failing to achieve this standard at all times, even at fan-based events (as distinct from the much more generously resourced official events) as it is, I understand, far from being difficult to do nowadays, whereas just a few years ago it was nowhere near as simple for anyone smaller than a video production company..

Notice, for example, that although the human performer casts no significant shadow behind her – there is a faint shadow to the scene's right of her – Teto has her own shadow on the same scene (which was obviously recorded as a 'blank' five-minute chunk, i.e. with nothing happening, or perhaps as a single frame reproduced as many times as needed).

For a concert performance, of course, the performer would be indoors and in front of a strongly single-coloured backdrop that would be mapped to 'transparent' in much the same way as the long-established chroma-key (or 'colour separation overlay' in the BBC's terminology) – often known as 'green screen' or 'blue screen' in popular parlance – has done for decades: I first saw a demo of this at the BBC in 1967.

In this video, the song is Heart Beats and the human performer is known as Apricot* (yes, the asterisk is part of her nickname!). Note that the performances aren't quite identical, as Apricot*'s actions here are separate from those recorded with the special pads attached – which explains why her necktie in particular behaves somewhat differently in the outdoors breeze from how it was originally recorded and faithfully reproduced on Teto...

Kawaii in Hawaii

This short Vocaloid concert, held between 15 and 17 March this year at 'Kawaii-Kon 2013' in Hawaii, features seven songs (two of which were new to me) and was brought into being by a fan group from Japan.

The animation looks to be done by an up-to-date version of ReVB's AniMiku software (I recognise a few new features) and is actually very good overall, though inevitably not always quite as good as fully motion captured live performances would be.

A technical error I have seen at other events has been repeated here, which is to have the ambient lighting too dark. When the performers wear dark-coloured thigh-highs or similar, most of their lower halves becomes invisible. There's a reason why the big Japanese events have lighter stages, and it's not just where the live musicians are either. This event, by the way, had recorded backing music, as is normal for fan-based events, though it's not always the case.

It's good that both new and established songs have been included in this approx 25-minute concert, including the always-entertaining Poker Face, here mimed to GUMI who isn't one of the four on-stage performers.

The models were great, especially the Append models, and were (unsurprisingly!) by Lat, Tda and Mamama, including the Lat 'Taco Luka' who put in a couple of appearances...

Yoshiwara Lament

We haven't had any Teto for a little while, so here's Yoshiwara Lament. Sadly there are no English words provided, but it is an enjoyable musical experience despite that omission.

Also, Teto's rather splendid traditional-style off-the-shoulders print dress is quite spectacular, especially the hanging sleeves. The sakura colour scheme complements the falling cherry blossoms (which are a common Japanese motif, by the way).

Overall, this is a good use of Teto's voice style and has a strong, powerful underlying feel to it...

Say Ta-ta to Teto

...at least for a little while. As the day of her fifth anniversary draws to a close, here's a very high quality representation of the lady in a short (two minute) video – no song, just an instrumental track. It's something worth seeing at least once in a lifetime...

The reference to '0401' is because of the number tattooed on her upper left arm, where the Crypton CV series have their numbers. The 'Twin Drill' reference relates to Teto's hair, which looks like a pair of drills at the sides(!)

This video seems to have been produced in advance of her voicebank being released last year, as far as I can determine...

Bespectacled Teto

Happy birthday Teto!

To celebrate a bit more than I have already done, here is a very good (as one would expect, with its creator's reputation) model by Lat of Teto in a song whose title I cannot work out. If I find out later I'll add it here.

Similarly, I have no English words to offer, as sometimes happens however hard I search, but as always with what I select (at least I hope it's always!) the material is enjoyable enough anyway.

I think the glasses suit her quite well – which isn't always the case with Vocaloid and Utauloid characters – but you can judge for yourself right now...

April Fool and Teto Day

I have already seen a few April Fool jokes appear on-line, including Google Nose (don't ask!) but perhaps more significantly in some ways, it is also the anniversary of the release ('birth') of Utauloid Teto Kasane as a joke character.

Teto became so popular that her creators were effectively compelled to keep her going, including providing a proper voicebank for her...and here we are five years later, and it's all still going just as strongly.

Here's a kind of signature song, "Kasane Territory (Always Teto's Turn)" which is a bit of fun and nonsense with cartoon-style graphics and guest appearances from a few characters of whom everyone should by now recognise at least two. It seems entirely appropriate, and makes a lot more sense than some of the things I have been reading since midnight...

Teto's Odds and Ends

Well, Odds and Ends is apparently the title of this song, which I think shows a lot of character in and from Teto Kasane (the 'joke' lady with this spiralling red hair I once featured a few weeks ago) despite the slight technical issues with her voice, especially evident in the first part of this song.

I gather this is from the UTAU system rather than Yamaha's Vocaloid software, which I had not realised before (though I have been aware of UTAU for a short while now), which no doubt explains the vocal differences – though it is still very good, regardless of the system's less catchy name(!)

For ease of searching, I shall continue to apply the Vocaloid tag to anything of this nature that I post, whatever actual system is behind it, simply because visitors will probably have bookmarked the search URL I have posted to Twitter and elsewhere and would otherwise miss some relevant posts.

Anyway, I thought this was quite good and a little bit different from much of what I have showcased here recently, so here is Teto...

Yellow Song, Red Hair

This (new here) Vocaloid is Teto Kasane, with crazily-styled red hair – and red eyes too! – plus a tail, who was created on April Fools Day as a prank but became so popular that the creator(s) had to keep her going.

This is Miku Hatsune's famous song Yellow, done correctly including the moves/poses at beginning and end, though not while dressed in yellow as Miku dramatically does via an instant change at the live concerts...