Vocaloidism

Weekly Vocaloid Ranking #123

Holocauxt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:06:49 +0000

(Image Source: ムギ)

Vocaloid NND Weekly Ranking: LINK HERE
Weekly Vocaloid Ranking #122 “Unselected”: LINK HERE

Yep, no witty subtitle for this week. Ah, the wonders of being jaded in the office does to a young post-grad. Not to worry though, as this is just a phase I’m going through right now. We’ll get back to the wackiness of random subtitling once I get all my stuff sorted out. Besides, the episode number is already quirky enough without me adding an extra “A-B-C” and insulting our dearly departed “King of Pop.”

Also, we’ve been missing red2’s statistical analysis for a while now. While he has informed me that he’s also busy with life, this was a couple of months ago and now he’s completely MIA from the V-ism blog staff. Hopefully he gets his stuff worked out, too… so for now let’s just enjoy the rankings sans statistics and predictions.

NAHO’s OPENING STATEMENT:
It’s time for this week’s VocaRan. The Sapporo Snow Festival is still going on, but… for the present, a big thanks to everyone who participated in WonFes and the Voc@loid M@ster events!

Both events had a lot of people. Somehow I had a cosplay of me… it’s kind of nice. Having said that, the songs that had attention drawn to them because of Vom@s are here, and lots of new songs came up too!

I wonder how things will turn out in the rankings for this eventful week…?

NOTES:
History:
-Editors: Holocauxt, DTKel, Joe Mello, deztora, redemtion2, Tari, GreenSage
-Song Stats: Rank-Up, Rank-Down, Unmoved, Unranked, NEW

#30: 歌愛ユキ – スケルツォーネ (NEW) –

#29: 初音ミクオリジナル曲　「初音ミクの消失（LONG VERSION）」 (Unmoved) –

#28: 【神威がくぽ KAITO 鏡音レン】「刹月華」オリジナル曲【PV付】 (Down from 13) –

#27: [鏡音リン】少女と黒い猫【オリジナル] (Unranked) –

#26: [初音ミク] ボーカロイドのうた [オリジナル] (Up from 35) –

#25: [鏡音レン】パラジクロロベンゼン【破壊系洗脳ソング] (Down from 22) –

#24: 「ロミオとシンデレラ」　オリジナル曲　vo.初音ミク (Up from 28) –

#23: magnet【初音ミク・巡音ルカオリジナル】 (Up from 24) –

#22: [ミクmikiユキ】プラチナロマンス【オリジナルPV付] (Down from 20) –

#21: [歌愛ユキ】でぃすこ☆しょこらてっく【オリジナル曲PV付] (NEW) –

#20: [鏡音リン・レン】送墓唄【オリジナル] (Down from 3) –

#19: 巡音ルカ「ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー」【オリジナル曲】 (Down from 16) –

#18: [弱音ハク】白ノ娘【中世物語風オリジナル] (Up from 21) –

#17: [GUMI】ヒネクレタシンプル【オリジナル曲] (Unranked) –

#16: [KAITO】What's COLOR?【オリジナル] (Down from 7) –

#15: [巡音ルカ】ダブルラリアット【オリジナル] (Up from 17) –

#14: [初音ミク巡音ルカ】合鍵ガンマンと合鍵忍者【オリジナル] (Up from 100) –

#13: [初音ミク】クソゲー実況プレイ【オリジナル] (Down from 1) –

#12: [鏡音リン] 迷子ライフ [オリジナル曲] (NEW) –

#11: [VOCALOID】修羅ノ庭【オリジナル] (NEW) –

THIS WEEK’S PICK-UP: [初音ミクさん】目からビーム【オリジナル曲] (NEW) –

#10: 【巡音ルカ】Just Be Friends【オリジナルPV】 (Up from 11) –

#9: 初音ミクが歌うオリジナル曲→「二人の虹」 (Down from 2) –

#8: 初音ミク　オリジナル曲　「裏表ラバーズ」 (Up from 18) –

#7: [ミク×KAITO】罪ノ月【オリジナル曲] (NEW) –

#6: [初音ミク】「キミとボクのはんぶんこ」【オリジナル] (Up from 55) –

#5: 【巡音ルカ】 Child’s Garden [オリジナル曲PV付] (Up from 8) –

#4: 初音ミクオリジナル曲「Pierrot」 (NEW) –

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

#3: 巡音ルカオリジナル DYE (NEW) –

#2: [初音ミク(40㍍)] ジェンガ [オリジナル] (Up from 19) –

#1: 【オリジナル曲PV】WORLD’S END UMBRELLA【初音ミク】 (NEW) –

ED Song: [miki】　Twilight　【オリジナル曲] –

IN OTHER VOCALOID NEWS:
“Next One” by Re:nG feat. Hatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku DVD ~impacts~ ands ~memories~ will be released on February 10.
Oh, and Valentine’s Day is next week. This is srs bsns, so don’t forget. :|

FINAL THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS:

Hoo boy, when we need red2 the most…

Seriously, I get that the video was deleted and re-uploaded. I understand that. But why, if they’re going to count it in the ranking, are they playing the song but not allowing the video?? It doesn’t make any sense.

Aside from that, a depressingly low-scoring week. At least we saw two Yuki songs break into the countdown, both of which definitely deserve it (un chocolat, due chocolat). Now that they’ve all had songs on the countdown, maybe we’ll see more of the AHSloids in the coming weeks? As a huge fan of Kyotel and Miki (and a pretty good fan of Yuki-chan), I think that would be nice. =)

The New VocaRan, 28 Days Later

Joe Mello — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:31:26 +0000

ポテチの手 by Mizushiro Kazuya

It’s been 4 weeks since the Weekly Vocaloid Ranking entered its 2010 Season and implemented new changes, namely the MyList Modifer. As you can see, results were mixed. Four out of five like that there was change, but half didn’t like this specific change.

Our Vocaloidism number monkeys have now had time to figure out what’s what and to see how Modifier B has shaped the VocaRan landscape. Prepare to be dazzled with math!

In order to properly analyze the B-Mod, we first have to determine why it’s there in the first place. My personal hypothesis was that it was to emphasize new songs and to push the Melts and the RomiShins of the world out of the spotlight. It makes sense in theory; viral videos (which is what these are) truly do spread in a rampant fashion before reaching a certain threshold after which it dies off.

Part of LOL's nicochart with translated column headers

I’ll use “LOL” as an example, since that was the song I used on my paper on viral videos :3 The ratio of MyLists-to-views are immediately quite high, 1 in 4 for the first day, but then drop over the course of the following days and weeks. This is true for most any other song, and the B-Mod amplifies that.

So does the new Modifier do what it’s supposed to do? Short answer, yes.

Since the B-Mod, the number of songs older than 2 weeks have generally decreased while the amount of new songs have increased. An interesting note is that the songs 1- and 2-weeks old stay about the same.

This is all well and good, but it’s not without its side effects. For example, take a look at overall scoring.

The above is a look at how many songs scored a certain amount of points. The number of 30k+ and 50k+ scores have noticeably decreased. In the last 10 weeks of 2009, there was an average of 41 songs of at least 30k and 17 of at least 50k. Those numbers have dropped to 30 and 14 since. This is partially attributed to the above notion that the B-mod rewards the newest of new songs, but it can also be chalked up to what is most likely the B-Mod’s biggest criticism.

Because the B-Modifier encourages high MyList scores without repercussion (the 40 pt cap isn’t much of a penalty), MyList spamming is a real possibility. I’m sure you remember Meltdown, right? Well, we may have a repeat performance, as indicated by taking the average B Modifier from the Top 30 songs. I can only hope that the increase in B-Mod average coincides with the number of new songs in the Top 30 (the dip in last week’s average sure seems to imply that).

So in conclusion, the new MyList modifier does what it set out to do, but it’s by no means perfect. By fixing one issue, it opens itself up to another, but for now it doesn’t appear to be that bad. Let’s hope it doesn’t get worse.

Vocaloids at Ohayocon: Part 1

Joe Mello — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:12:27 +0000

Vism Press Hat Mk.II

As a veteran of anime fandom, conventions are nothing new to me. However, conventions that coincide with important dates are. This year’s Ohayocon fell on Megurine Luka’s birthday, so as a Vocaloidism editor with a camera, I just had to volunteer myself for duty.

After the break is Day 1 in pics. Two notes, though. First, I am not an expert photographer. My weapon of choice is a Polaroid i634 from 2007 I got for $72. If my pics look bad, that’s why. Also, if you want me to take down a photo of you, contact me in private, whether through e-mail, or PM through Vocaforum, Vocaloid Otaku or Ohayocon’s boards.

Ohayocon is Ohio’s largest anime convention, with attendees in the thousands, possibly tens of thousands. I attended the previous year, and there was a decent contingent of Vocaloid cosplayers. This year, like the con itself, it was going to be even bigger.

Hi Five!

One thing that was evident this year was the love of fan-made Vocaloids. I didn’t see fan-mades last year, so the influx of them was a bit of a surprise.

If only this were scratch 'n' sniff...wait, ice cream has no smell.

Volume on Friday was relatively low, but slowly gained leading up to the Vocaloid photoshoot that night. It had all the precision of a mob, but the cosplay moms and the KoiSen Kaito (I’m totally not kidding) helped organize things and fun was had by all.

One of these subjects was spinning as I approached. Can you guess who?

I did not cover the dance portion of the shoot, partially because there was no musical accompaniment (though I must admit it was an admirable attempt to sing “Love & Joy” from memory) but mainly because I didn’t have a camcorder >: However, I did take more than enough pics at the shoot, all of which up on my photobucket with minor edits (for size, red eye, and brightness).

For Part 2, I tackle the rest of the convention and some other stuff.

Weekend Spotlight – The World is Watching

Joe Mello — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:00:12 +0000

The Winter Olympics begin this week. Kaito’s ready; are you?

If you prefer the other global sporting event going on this week, here’s Big Al to tell you who to bet on.

Incidentally, “that number” is currently Colts -2.5 (says ESPN’s inLine). My best guess is Indianapolis by 2 TD’s or more, but I digress. Moving to the rankings front, Ted joins Miku for a Super production.

Now, I’m still not as up on the numbers(or eligibilities) as I am on the Senior Circuit, but 36,000 points seems like a big number. Speaking of the Senior Circuit, Luka’s already finding success after turning 20 again.

I probably will have better luck understanding a recent episode of Lost, but it’s hard to argue with 130,000 points.

Next week, a holiday I won’t participate in, and I don’t mean that one (for once).

Interview With Zero-G’s Dom Keefe (Vocaloid Production)

DT — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:28:02 +0000

Image source: 豆柴

Earlier on Engloids’ Blog was able to carry out an interview with a staff from Zero-G as they talk about the development of Sonika, what plans they have for their older Vocaloids and a bit about Tonio as well. Read up on the interview right after the jump!

1) How did you and your company get involved with making Vocaloids?

We were approached by Yamaha. When they first decided to create Vocaloid they asked 3 or 4 companies to make voices for it and Crypton and ourselves were the only ones that actually went through the whole process to create end-products.

2) Would you mind telling me about the development of Vocaloid Sonika?

Prior to Sonika we’d really recorded quite serious professional artists. So for Sonika we decided to something quite frivolous. A young girl who could sing but was not a professional artist. We wanted her to have a freshness and innocence that you do’t get with a professional singer. We found someone who fitted the bill and recorded her over a number of months. Then it was the usual months of tedious programming before we ended up with finished product.

3) Anyone with with eyes can see that Zero-G has been getting more active with the Vocaloid fanbase. Please tell me your thoughts on what you think about the Vocaloid Fandom so far?

I think they are great. They are obviously passionate about their Vocaloid and I love people who have passion. They are very knowledgeable but also very critical. We’ve been stung a few times!! But it’s good that they don’t hold back – we need to learn where we’ve gone wrong as well as what we have done well so we can get better and improve our Vocaloid products.

4) Zero-G seems to be putting a lot of effort into promoting Sonika. Do you and your company plan on doing the same for the Vocaloids you have produced in the past?

We have started selling the old Vocaloids Lola, Leon and Miriam online at www.zero-g.co.uk and there may be some new artwork for them in the future!

5) How do you feel about the negative feedback that was received from the Vocaloid community about Sonika’s new look?

There’s been some positive feedback as well, but we can understand that the Vocaloid community hold all the Vocaloids dear to them and feel that they own them in some respect so we expected some negative feedback. When we saw the new image by Mario we were so overwhelmed by how beautiful it was that we felt it had to be the new box art for Sonika. Besides the old box-art was never that popular.

6) Do you plan on changing the box-art of any of your other Vocaloids?

As I said before, we may do for the old Vocaloids but not for Prima. She will always be who she is and Tonio (the new male classical singer to be released in February) will have similar box-art to Prima as he is a kind of partner product to Prima.

7) There have been several complaints about Sonika’s English in the community. As such, a lot of people have been asking for a Act. 2/upgrade version of Sonika’s voice bank. Does the company plan on updating Sonika’s voice bank anytime soon?

That would be very difficult to implement unfortunately. There is no way to update the voice bank without completely re-doing the whole database which would take months and would then be very difficult to distribute.

8) Vocaloid Miriam’s voice was given to her by famous singer Miriam Stockley. In the future, do you plan on using more British artists voices to help create Zero-G’s Vocaloids?

We’d really like to create a Vocaloid of someone very famous. We have some names in mind but we’ll have to wait and find out if they are interested in collaborating with us. We’ll let you know first if we can pursuade them.

9) Speaking about voice actors, do you mind giving us the names of the people who contribute their voices to help created the company’s earlier Vocaloids?

I’m sorry we are not allowed to contractually.

10) Do you have any Vocaloid news or plans in the future that you would like to discuss now?

As I mentioned before Vocaloid2 Tonio will be released in February. He is a male classical singer with a range from Baritone to Tenor. He has a lot of character and I think the Vocaloid community will be pleased with the clarity of his voice. But he’s not a typical Vocaloid voice – he’s a partner to Prima and he’ll be popular with Prima users who on the whole are more into classical music. After Tonio there will be another voice this year but we are still in discussions about who that will be. Also, we would love the Vocaloid community to give us their suggestions for voices they would like in the future, just email us at contact@sonika-vocaloid.com

Thank you for taken the time to doing this interview. I’m pretty sure most of the people who view this blog really appreciate it.

That’s okay. Thanks for your interest in our work!

So it seems we can look forward to even more Vocaloid goodness from Zero-G after Tonio who will be released later this month, even though it’s still in the discussion phase for now. But still, for those who would like to give suggestions on the voices do remember to e-mail Zero-G to let yourself be heard.

Info source: Engloids’ Blog

Weekly UTAU Ranking #64 – Getting in shape

deztora — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:54:24 +0000

Cute girls make everything better. (image source: pixiv)

Well, here we are at week two of ‘project get more people to care about UTAU through blog posts’– er, I mean, the Weekly UTAU Ranking. First, one note: since the UtaRan and the VocaRan are normally uploaded at around the same time, to avoid messy overlap, UtaRan posts will always be made on sometime on Tuesday (EST). Today it was later than it should have been, but we’re still working out the kinks and trying to find our groove.

The title is a pun in two ways: we’re still working on getting our “article-posting” in shape, and the latest prank UTAUloid, Namine Ritsu, got an append! Ritsu’s “strong” voice is proving to be pretty popular so far. Wonder how the new version of Ritsu will do in the rankings? Read on to find out!

NOTES:
History:
-Editors: deztora, chibikarla, Aster Selene, Holocauxt, GreenSage
-Song Stats: Rank Up, Rank Down, Unmoved, Previously Unranked, NEW

NAMI’s OPENING STATEMENT:
Sorry for the wait! It’s time for this week’s UTAU Ranking.

Up until now, we’ve covered things like birthdays in our sections. We want to give you proper information, but it’s difficult. We’ll do it like before for this time, but in the future information except for new voice banks or important announcements, information will be on the uploader’s blog.

For this and other changes, thank you for bearing with us.

OP Song: 【ももねもも】なみだうた【おりじなる】 – Softie. For some reason the opening line gets to me… it sounds so wistful.

#20: 【重音テト】モノクロ【オリジナル曲】 (Down from 11) – Surprised to see this didn’t go lower than 20. I still like the melody of this tune.

#19: 【UTAU】　Song of WING（紙芝居PV付）　【重音テトオリジナル曲】 (Up from 29) – Huh, it went up? That’s what the “pick up” is for, after all. I’m not too crazy about the song itself, though.

#18: 【重音テッド】Pane dhiria【KAIKO】 (NEW) – The classic genderbender move. Already so many covers… It’s a cool song and all, but damn.

#17: 【UTAU童謡】ライぶらり旅(第貮版)～鐵道唱歌前篇～【UTAUオールスター】 (NEW) – A continuation of last week’s video that placed 17? Weird..Maybe a refresh of our memories about these voices.

#16: 【ルコxリツxテト】 ieee【オリジナル】 (NEW) – I like this trio too. Their voices blend in nice.

#15: Hello, world! (NEW) – Weird song. Wish I knew what it was about.

#14: 【重音テト】重音テトのヤッターマンのうた【UTAU連続音】 (NEW) – Sounds epic, yet hilarious! Yatterman~ ah, nostalgia attack~

#13: 【穂歌ソラ】追憶【UTAUオリジナル】 (Down from 6) – Yay! It didn’t drop that much! But it still fell. ;_;

#12: 【UTAU】和音マコ：オリジナル曲：デリュージョン・ガール (NEW) – My gosh this is such a pleasant song! Mako sounds realistic and can hold long notes very well here.

#11: 【波音リツ／”強”連続音】鳥の詩【UTAUカバー】 (NEW) – Good cover.

THIS WEEK’S PICK-UPS:

【蟹音ぱん。連続音】咲かない夢【UTAUオリジナル曲】 (NEW) –

【UTAU】オリジナル曲「春歌終灯」【春歌ナナ】 (NEW) – Sounds very colorful and cute to me. Should have placed higher, it was her birthday after all. I know, right? This is a nice song, too…

【紫苑ヨワ】うｐぬしのつぶやき【UTAU・オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – Cute original. …I guess she does have a nice voice, even if she’s a bit of a Yufu-clone.

【UTAU/有屋ギィ】おんなじ (NEW) – Very classical.

【ＵＴＡＵ】 Y=I,td…I=Y,dslk.【根音ネネ】 (NEW) – Distorted song, but with a good reason. Very mysterious character, hope to know more of her. The title… the music… what is this I don’t even…

#10: 【重音テト】Go to UTAU paradise【オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – Rock out Teto!

#9: 【波音リツ／”強”連続音】only my railgun【UTAUカバー】 (NEW) – Man, Ritsu is really good at anime openings! I think people are just really experienced at making UTAU sing anime openings (Yukkuri notwithstanding).

#8: 【MMD】別に遅刻したから悔しいんじゃないからﾈｯ【杯に間に合わない】 (NEW) – Cute nendoroid models rule any day! …Am I hearing things? Is that The Offspring??

#7: ゆっくりが歌う『LEVEL5-Judgelight-』【とある科学の超電磁砲OP2】 (Down from 4) – Still there? …Yep.

#6: 【波音リツ“強”連続音音源】twinkle【UTAUオリジナル】 (NEW) – Lovely and spunky original. I enjoy it lots. Finally, some more Ritsu originals. Was beginning to think his voicebank was just going to be used for covers (good covers, but still).

#5: 【波音リツ／”強”連続音】Bad Apple!!【UTAUカバー】 (NEW) – Deja vu much?

#4: 【UTAU】UTAU三人娘で「エレクトロワールド」【MMD】 (Up from 5) – Woo! It stayed. Whoo! It went up! 8D

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: – Yay! 2 Nana videos! Very cute and I like the epic song #4. Wow, Popipo has been there a while.

#3: 【UTAU】Pane dhiria【重音テト】 (NEW) – Pulled it off. Sounds pretty good, actually.

#2: 初音ミク×雪歌ユフ／向こう（オリジナル） (Unmoved) – I’m happy to see this song stay, very good. Still wish Yufu had a bigger role in the song itself, but it’s still a great song. Yufu and Append Miku’s voices sound really good together.

#1: 【UTAU】波音リツ” 強”連続音配布／ラビリンス（鏡音リン曲カバー） (NEW) – Sounds more solid and louder. Accomplished task, song very much liked. I like the makeover I suppose. Ritsu’s “strong” append proves to be a success! Now, where’s the soft, dark, cute, etc.?

ED Song: 【UTAU雪歌ユフ】ぽかぽか【オリジナル曲】 – Relaxing.

THIS WEEK’S UTAU TOPIC:
Here’s this week’s information corner. First is existing voicebank news. This week we have appends, new releases, updates…

Voicebank appends:
Namine Ritsu
Baka Maro

Re-distribution:
Wawon Wichico

Re-record/re-distribution:
Todoroki Eiichi
Sutora (link N/A at this time)
Shinomoto Karin

New distribution:
AT2_f1b (AquesTalk2)
Shokune Hina
Kuroboshi

Like before, see their respective videos.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

It seems that this week, Namine Ritsu and Kasane Teto dominated the rankings. I was looking forward for Eiichi to make it to the 20’s, but I’m glad Mako did. Haruka Nana should have had more videos. I’m glad that Sora’s original still stayed, considering that doesn’t happen too often. I wonder what’s in store for Defoko’s birthday and Valentine’s day though… Needs more group songs I think…

You’re not the only one who was looking for some Eiichi. C’mon people, where’s the love for A1?

Also, I’d like to formally apologize for leaving out the “new UTAU” section, even though someone DID request it. I promise it will be covered in the future. m(_ _)m

Weekly Vocaloid Ranking #122 – I’m With MiMi

Holocauxt — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:32:59 +0000

(Image Source: peony)

Vocaloid NND Weekly Ranking: LINK HERE
Weekly Vocaloid Ranking #121 “Unselected”: LINK HERE

First off, let me apologize for the lateness of this week’s ranking review. I’ve been experiencing some 502 Bad Gateway errors for the past week that prevented me from logging in up until yesterday evening (though I still don’t know if I can log in from my home computer, since I’m doing this article now on my office PC, at the risk of getting caught by my supervisors).

Anyway, I really haven’t been watching/listening much of Vocaloid as of late. In fact, I haven’t been able to watch last week’s WVR. Yeah, that’s how busy I’ve been. So hopefully I can rely on the rest of the V-ism staff to do finish up the rest of the article (like adding the opening image, since I can’t go to potentially NSFW ’sites in my office).

BTW, just in case you’re wondering where I got the subtitle for this week’s review, it’s originally “I’m with CoCo.”

NOTES:

History:

-Editors: Holocauxt, DTKel, Joe Mello, deztora, redemtion2, Tari, GreenSage
-Song Stats: Rank-Up, Rank-Down, Unmoved, Unranked, NEW

NAHO’s OPENING STATEMENT:
(I apologize for the lateness. I had a lot of other things going on in the background, but I won’t bore you with details. Let’s get started!)

It’s time again for this week’s VocaRan!

Happy birthday, Luka-sama!! I hope your beauty will continue to flourish from now on!

Having said that, this week Luka should rule the rankings. As a result, I wonder how things will turn out…?

#30: 【巡音ルカ】いいこわるいこ【オリジナル】PV (NEW) –

#29: 初音ミクオリジナル曲　「初音ミクの消失（LONG VERSION）」 (Up from 34) –

#28: 「ロミオとシンデレラ」　オリジナル曲　vo.初音ミク (Up from 29) –

#27: 【初音ミク】　スリープウォーク　【オリジナル】 (NEW) –

#26: 【巡音ルカ】ボーイズドントクライ (NEW) – Gorgeous and relaxing music, another good song from FatmanP.

#25: 【ハクミクリンレン】 to RACE with YOU【オリジナル】 (NEW) –

#24: magnet【初音ミク・巡音ルカオリジナル】 (Down from 19) –

#23: 【ミクオリジナル曲】ヘイトフルワンダーランド【憎悪の遊園地】 (NEW) – MachigeritaP is at it again doing what he does best, another favorite horror song for me.

#22: 【鏡音レン】パラジクロロベンゼン【破壊系洗脳ソング】 (Down from 16) – …Uh-oh. Stop falling please. =( And this is despite the song actually gaining points…although not by much. Well at least it had its time on the rankings~

#21: 【弱音ハク】白ノ娘【中世物語風オリジナル】 (Down from 11) –

#20: 【ミクmikiユキ】プラチナロマンス【オリジナルPV付】 (NEW) – Yuki-chan snuck her way onto the countdown! Hurray! Wait… sneaked…? Love the illustration as much as the song, it’s pretty enjoyable.

#19: 【初音ミク(40㍍)】ジェンガ【オリジナル】 (NEW) – And people said it was impossible… I knew it was only a matter of time. Hardly surprising there. Some songs were already close to hitting that magical barrier before this.

#18: 初音ミク　オリジナル曲　「裏表ラバーズ」 (Up from 23) –

#17: 【巡音ルカ】ダブルラリアット【オリジナル】 (Up from 21) –

#16: 巡音ルカ「ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー」【オリジナル曲】 (Down from 15) –

#15: 【巡音ルカ】「指結い。」【オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – The rhythm is what got to me.

#14: 【KAITO】月雪花【オリジナル】 (Down from 12) –

#13: 【神威がくぽ KAITO 鏡音レン】「刹月華」オリジナル曲【PV付】 (Down from 2) –

#12: 【KAITO】Pane dhiria【オリジナル】 (Down from 1) –

#11: 【巡音ルカ】Just Be Friends【オリジナルPV】 (Up from 13) –

THIS WEEK’S PICK-UP: 【初音ミク】 Lonesome cat 3【オリジナル】 (NEW) –

#10: 【巡音ルカ】ディスコミュニケーション (Down from 7) – Honestly? I can’t hear a lot of difference between the two versions. I think one has softer piano or something…?

#9: 【Vocaloidオリジナル】iDOLLA【GUMI・Appendミク】 (Down from 6) –

#8: 【巡音ルカ】 Child’s Garden 【オリジナル曲PV付】 (NEW) - Amazing visuals~

#7: 【KAITO】 What’s COLOR?【オリジナル】 (NEW) – Another good Kaito song! I’m glad people are using Kaito more and more. I am having this together with other Kaito songs from ShinjouP on loop lately. <3

#6: 初音ミクのちょっとアレな曲15 幸運のツボ -Full ver.- (NEW) –

#5: 【巡音ルカ】 MEGANE【オリジナル】 (Up from 10) – Have the commentators decided on a nickname yet? I like メガ音P personally. A Luka song which has grown on me after more listening, loved it now. It took 2 weeks but I am glad it has made it this high!

#4: 【初音ミク】アルビノ【オリジナルPV付！】 (Up from 28) –

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: –

#3: 【鏡音リン・レン】送墓唄【オリジナル】 (Up from 8) – Mayuko-san made top three?! Awesome! But really, it was about time for mayuko-san to have a hit. :3 I agree after so many songs, Mayuko-san deserves a spot.

#2: 初音ミクが歌うオリジナル曲→「二人の虹」 (NEW) – A nice and smoothing Miku song, although what got me noticed about this song was the illustration actually. (The same illustrator as for “LINK -Full Version-“)

#1: 【初音ミク】クソゲー実況プレイ【オリジナル】 (NEW) – Vid’s cool and all, but why is it number one?

ED Song: 【初音ミクオリジナル曲】粉雪の空 –

IN OTHER VOCALOID NEWS:

February has lots of release news. The initial release of “Exit Tunes Presents Stardom 3″ will, for some reason, come with a デP-tan figure set. The release date is February 3rd.

Also, another long-awaited Vocaloid only doujin event is coming. On February 7th, “Voc@loid M@ster 11″ will be in the Tokyo-Ootakusangyo plaza PiO, opening at 13:00. You might even get a chance to meet the creators…!

Once February has passed, it’ll almost be spring… I say that, but February has just begun, heh.

FINAL THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS:

Reservations For Toeto Figure Now Up!

DT — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:32:15 +0000

Earlier this week Mikatan updated her blog with preview images of the upcoming soft vinyl figure of “Toeto” by Good Smile Company which is scheduled to be released in April 2010. This figure comes from the popular Luka song “Toeto” by ToraborutaP which has got close to 600K views on Nico Nico Douga and you can watch the video together with more information on the figure after the break~

This Toeto figure is about 25 cm in height and is set to be priced at 3,500 yen each. Reservations are currently open at Hobby Search and AmiAmi for those of you interested in getting it.

Weekend Spotlight – They say it’s your birthday

Joe Mello — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:00:10 +0000

♪♪♪ by こみね

We’re gonna have a good time this week. Well I will, at least, because by the time you read this, I’ll be well-entrenched in Ohio otaku craziness. So in honor of Megurine Luka’s retcon, we’ll look back on her first year of Age 20 by counting down her top hits like you (probably) have never seen before!

From the incredibly creative mind of sasakureP comes our #5 song. From the fertile pen of MieNoHito (forgive me if my translation is wrong) comes the Wanderlust Wanderlast PV.

For #4, hop into your AE86 and rip the knob off the car stereo. Then, hop on the roof and dance your pants off* like these MMD models did for MMDCup 3.

*-Vocaloidism does not condone the act of literally dancing one’s pants off. Please dance responsibly.

Our 3rd Luka song happens to be one of the favorites in the Vocaloid community. Now what would make it different? Hm….how about a remix of the piano version by Jero Gero?

Narrowly eking out JBF for #2 (I used views to-date; leave me alone) is “RIP=RELEASE”. And now, a special guest performance by Kaito!

Finally, it would be in poor taste to say that our #1 Luka song spun circles around the competition…but I said it anyway.

Two final notes: If you’re wondering where magnet is, well a) Miku’s there and b) we’ve already covered it ad nauseum. Second, “Toeto” just missed out, but that’s okay. We’ll feature this song about a shy girl by using an Utatte Mita chorus, because that makes perfect sense.

No Ranking watch this week, since I’m writing this on a Wednesday. See you next week.

Weekly UTAU Ranking #63 – New kids on the block

deztora — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:59:19 +0000

John, Paul, and... the other one. (image source: pixiv)

Hello everyone! deztora reporting in on the UTAU front for what will hopefully become another regular spot on Vocaloidism: reviewing the Weekly UTAU Ranking. Here we will review the ranking every week, following which songs go up and which ones go down, and keep up with the latest UTAU news during the “This week’s UTAU topic” section.

It is also my pleasure to introduce a fellow UTAU fan who will be working with me in this endeavor: chibikarla! *cue applause*

*curtsies* Thank you! Thank you! >w<

Hey everybody! Nice to see you and nice to be on this blog! I swear, it happened really quickly, but I wanted to be a part-time UTAU blogger by starting to rank the UTAU rankings! I’ve really been a fan of them ever since I got into Vocaloid (the December of the year before last year). I think UTAU has potential to be just as good as Vocaloid, yet still be part of this big, happy community. From all the voicebanks, character designs and personalities, UTAU lured me in rapidly. I’m very happy to be a fan of Vocaloid, UTAU and other voice synthesizers out there. I’m proud to be a part of Vocaloidism and I will try my best to keep up the good work. I might not be an experienced blogger or writer, but I sure am a hardcore UTAU fan. I just love these characters. I would also like to thank deztora, for helping me start up this collaboration, since I was really lost without knowing much of Japanese, HTML codes and much more. I’d also like to thank the staff here for helping me as well, and all my online friends here that I like to talk to about Vocaloid and skip across the meadows with, fangirling all the time. X3

Well, that’s all for the moment. Thank you very much for reading.

Although slightly different, the UTAU ranking works pretty much just like the Vocaloid ranking. With that having been said, let’s begin, shall we?

NAMI’s OPENING STATEMENT: (Nami is very, er, what’s a nice way to say wordy… she’s just like me! 8D Anyway. Due to that, these segments, for your sanity and mine, will be slightly abridged. Hopefully nothing of value is lost.)

Sorry for the wait. It’s time for week’s UTAU ranking!

The number of UTAU voicebanks is growing rapidly. Because of that, searching for the totaling of UTAU voicebanks became more difficult. That’s why we’re considering changing the current search keywords and the like. If we decide to make the changes, we’ll announce it beforehand; thanks for bearing with us.

NOTES:

History:

-Editors: Violet = dez, Teal = karla, Crimson = DK

-Song Stats: Rank Up, Rank Down, Unmoved, Previously Unranked, NEW

OP Song: 【UTAUｵﾘｼﾞﾅﾙ曲】夏華-natsunoca-【大和内庵・白鐘ヒヨリ】- Awww. A sad ballad, sung by a guy. Hmm, haven’t heard much of males singing ballad.

#20: 【カバー】計画都市【重音テト連続音】 (Down from 12) – Owwweee. Harsh fall. Catchy song nevertheless. I think I like this more than the original, actually.

#19: ハモリでつられる自分のための（←）magnet。カラオケ練習用【ＵＴＡＵ】 (Up from 21) – Magnet, still to this day? Their voices are OK together.

#18: 【UTAU】初音ミクの消失-DEAD END-【桃音モモ】【ミクカバー】(修正版) (NEW) – I like this song when Momo sings it. This is great! And I had the original Momo cover mylisted, so I LOVE this.

#17: 【UTAU童謡】ライぶらり旅～鐵道唱歌前篇～【UTAUオールスター】 (NEW) – That’s a whole lot of UTAUs singing only one song. reminds me of some of the songs I used to sing on the elementary bus 8D. Neverending.

#16: 【駒音クウ】空への約束【UTAUオリジナル】 (NEW) – Sounds like a heartfelt song. I like Kuu’s vibrato very much. Whoa! Meiko, where’d you come from?? But seriously, what a nice voice.

#15: 【橙屋オリジナル】シンデレラ・メランコリック (NEW) – Snazzy song. Her voice needs more recognition, it’s very realistic to me. Short song though… Catchy.

#14: 【UTAU】GO MY WAY!!【紫苑ヨワ】【アイマスカバー】 (NEW) – She’s been popping out in these past rankings. Must be her moe voice and look.

#13: 【テニミュ】テトで鎬を削る者たちよ【UTAU】 (Up from 15) – JAPAN’S OBSESSION WITH PRINCE OF TENNIS. XD this deserved lower though… What the– this went UP??

#12: 【重音テト】ＢＬＡＣＫ／ ∃ＴＩＨＷ【オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – A Teto Rock song. Love the guitar and her soft parts. GUITAR SOLOOOOOO.

#11: 【重音テト】モノクロ【オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – Another Teto songs, it sure is a trend 8O. But this one is different. I like it very much. Well she’s their flagship character, like Miku to Vocaloid. It’s to be expected.

THIS WEEK’S PICK-UPS:

[重音テト]アネモネの涙[オリジナル] (NEW) – Lots of vibrato and high tone.

【UTAU】　Song of WING（紙芝居PV付）　【重音テトオリジナル曲】 (NEW) – A chimera song I suppose. i can see it now, Teto flying, flying… WEEE.

【ていら】夜空を翔ける子どもたち【オリジナル】) (NEW) – Reminds me a little of Animal crossing. Very calm.

【UTAU Camila Melodía】Deja Atrás la Espada【オリジナル】 (NEW) – Not bad for a second original. But it is hard at some parts to hear the spanish pronunciation. I do enjoy the meaning of the song. =w= We need more Spanish orignals. Camila original? Awesome! Finally! Now if she had a diphone voicebank, she’d officially be my favorite non-Japanese UTAUloid.

【UTAUオリジナル曲】言の葉の森で【歌十言葉・歌金魚・猫歌スキ】 (NEW) – Ah, a good piano original. It seemed difficult to pull of different voices at a time.

#10: 【波音リツ連続音】炉心融解【UTAUカバー】 (NEW) – I like this cover of the song. Ritsu seems to pull it off. It’s a rule: every UTAU must cover this song. No exceptions.

#9: 【MMD+UTAU】まっすぐ【紫苑ヨワ】 (NEW) – It’s her again, dominating the rankings. How does she attracts so many views? Two words: schoolgirl fetish.

#8: 【重音テト】　Dreaming　Leaf　‐ユメミルコトノハ‐　【カバー】 (NEW) – Bawww. Cute.

#7: 【カステロイド音源配布】サイレントバラエティ【オリジナル曲】 (NEW) – YES. AN ORIGINAL UTAU CREEPY SONG. Hasn’t been one for a looong time. Very good beat.

#6: 【穂歌ソラ】追憶【UTAUオリジナル】 (NEW) – SHOULD’VE PLACED A WEE BIT HIGHER. Haha, very romantic of Sora. His voice gets to me. Ikemen Sora! This song’s already on my Sansa.

#5: 【UTAU】UTAU三人娘で「エレクトロワールド」【MMD】 (NEW) – Classic trio. Classic song. I like the remake, choreography and special effect. The video is really nice. 8D

#4: ゆっくりが歌う『LEVEL5-Judgelight-』【とある科学の超電磁砲OP2】 (NEW) – LOLWUT. I never understood the whole Yukkuri craze…

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: – THREE. IN A ROW. Holy crap, Teto Meltdown overload.

#3: 水底　vo.初音ミク・根音ネネ (NEW) – Sounds like a ballet song. Don’t know why. I’m glad a lesser known UTAU like Nene sang with Miku. They sound really good together.

#2: 初音ミク×雪歌ユフ／向こう（オリジナル） (NEW) – I love mia子’s songs. They feel so flowy and calming and stuff. Great use of Miku Append. Miku+Yufu=Win. Also, this placed 63 on the latest Vocaloid Ranking #121! 8D Yufu-chan! Beautiful song, but I wish she sung more in this. Although the use of Miku Append is nice…

#1: 【重音テト】a day in the loop. 【オリジナル】 (Unmoved) – Nice use of castanets and bongos in the beginning. I love fusion of instruments. Soft rock is nice. Surprised that this didn’t drop, yet. I’m not, although I’ve been following this song since I still love it. Also, playing the “if this were allowed on the VocaRan” game: it would have been #13.

ED Song: 【UTAU】　ヒトリタビ　【桃音モモ】-
A good song, could’ve been a little bit better. Maybe one more instrument in the background.

THIS WEEK’S UTAU TOPIC:

Here’s this week’s information corner. To start off with, in February we welcome the birthdays of many voicebanks. On February 5th, 2008, the first video using Defoko was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga. Defoko’s birthday is listed as March 6th, but in this corner we welcome both dates.

This year’s Defoko birthday celebration is planned to be from February 5th through March 6th. Anyone interested in participating should by all means check it out!

Also, February brings the arrivals of sixteen other UTAU on Nico Nico Douga. If any of them are UTAU you like, be sure to celebrate their birthdays~♪

Next is voicebank update news. There’s the beginning of distribution of new voicebanks, and one now has uar support.

Distribution:

uar support:

For details, see their respective videos.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

It was mentioned in a previous “this week’s UTAU topic” that a new version of the UTAU program was released; however, I noticed while checking to see exactly what “uar” meant that there was a problem with the latest version (having to do with the “.uar installation”, whatever that means?). So it was pulled, and the site’s back to only the older versions being available. If you downloaded the new version before it got pulled, be aware of this.

The UTAU ranking has a few more segments that weren’t covered in this post: there’s an “extras” ranking, featuring videos that would have made the top twenty but were barred for whatever reason. There’s also a “new UTAU” section which lists and shows clips of videos from brand new UTAUloids. While these were omitted in this post for various reasons, we might include coverage of these sections at a later time. If you want them included, please comment and say so. ^_^;