Breaking the Music Charts with Vocaloid

Photo credits to Moetron.com. Visit their site for more Vocaloid info.

I had introduced Vocaloid in a previous post of mine. For those who doesn't know, Vocaloid is a voice synthesizer program from Japan. Seriously, who would have thought that a voice from a machine would be that big of a hit? I mean, really, you'd definitely see at least one version of the same Vocaloid song. And their songs had also made it big in the music charts of Japan.

First popularized in Nico Nico Douga, Japan's version of the YouTube, it has also been home to the freshest Vocaloid entries. (But you'd have to get past registration first before you can even watch one. Lame for me and others who doesn't understand Japanese and their other available languages.) So how does it work? Beats me, I haven't got a Vocaloid program for myself. But Wikipedia managed to explain most of it.

Originally, there was the voice of Hatsune Miku. Characterized as a green haired girl in pigtails, the data for the voice was created by actually sampling the voice of Saki Fujita, a Japanese voice actress. Personally, I think that Miku's voice is best for the Asian/Oriental songs. One of her internet debuts was the Ievan Polkka, gaining 2 million plus votes as of today. Miku's personality is that of a young girl, kind and a bit gullible. And yes, she likes to twirl that onion leek around too.

My favorite twins came after Miku, Rin and Len Kagamine. This tandem is my favorite among them ever since I watched the Evil and the Kokoro Series of Vocaloid where these two star.


For me, Rin (the female twin) has a really good little girl's voice. As for Len (the male twin), I immediately noticed the "machine-quality" of his voice. Just like a little boy, he stumbles with his letters, specifically with his "S" and sometimes, his voice tends to sound really hollow. But together, these two can make up a perfect duet. I just love these two together. (And from their songs, they seem to be utterly dedicated with each other.) I recommend their voice for just about anything that needs that child-like quality, no matter how evil it must be.

The voice I definitely fell for was Kaito's. He was the more mature older guy with blue hair (from the Evil series, he was the love interest of Miku. On the parody, he was a playboy that was serenading Meiko, the other older Vocaloid.)


His voice is cool and well developed. Definitely best for those serenades. And I wouldn't mind being serenaded by him either. X3

Finally, we have Meiko, the mature young woman of the 5. Appearing as a strong woman in both form and character, her voice complements her personality well. Of the five, I think she ranks as the 4th of the most popular/used Vocaloid since she was fairly new. (5th will be my poor poor Kaito. T_T)


As I said, I haven't heard much from Meiko. Hell, I even had a hard time trying to find that picture above. But as the first voice in the Alice in Wonderland Horror version, she really did quite well. I'd say we give Meiko and Kaito a bit more lovin from now on.

Well, there are others more, but I will leave it to these five for the moment. My next posts will discuss the best Vocaloid songs and vids I found over YouTube. :)

Human Calendar

So you want a calendar that is out of the ordinary? Check out the Human Calendar.

Human Calendar is just like any ordinary calendar that shows the date in the famous grid format of Roman Calendars. What sets it apart from others is that it uses people to hold the names/numbers of the date. Also, it automatically changes every day, so expect a new face to appear (except perhaps if you have been using it for a year and seen all the faces!). I first found it at StumbleUpon, not knowing that it can also be used as an add-on widget for your blogs until I saw it on Sound of a Soft Breath approximately two months later. (Shame on me!)

If you want to get your own Human Calendar widget, just go to their homepage and click on the calendar that shows up to be directed to the website itself. There you will see a brief history of Human Calendars, and get your own free portable calendar as well.

Human Calendar is available for websites and blog platforms like Blogger and Wordpress. It's also available for Chumby ~ a digital radio, photo album and alarm clock all in one. Says there that you can click on the people to change who they are looking at. Also, if you shake your Chumby, they will panic. (Which is a lot more fun for me!). Go check it out for yourself!

Kawaii Toyaa Pig Clocks

Found this Toyaa Pig from The Fab and the Furious. It was so kawaii (cute) that I decided to adopt him.


Isn't he just the cutest?

There are four other designs you can choose from. Codes are available at their home site: 飛行豬 托芽 TOYAA PIG - Category: 托芽小時鐘: (Don't ask me to translate, coz I dunno what it means myself.)

Rockin Out Loud on Anime Tunes!

The Princess from the Land of Green:
Hatsune Miku from Vocaloid! Kawaii!

Yes, yes.... I've been a very lazy girl and hadn't updated in weeks. I was busy (yes, of course, that old reason of being busy again.) with work and life as well... But I was also busy listening to showtunes. Anime showtunes.

You know you're a true anime fan or otaku when all the music that runs in your head is either something from your favorite series, J-rock/J-pop band or another one of Vocaloid's newest songs. But if you live outside Japan, you probably have had a hard time trying to find that song, didn't you?

Well, look no further. Gendou.com is here.


Gendou.com offers a lot of anime MP3's for FREE. Yes... You read it right... FREE. You can download up to 100 songs, organized by anime, title, or artist. I only came about this recently through a friend. And yes, I, who have been an anime fan for around 10 years and counting, am ashamed to admit that I did not know about Gendou before that.

Anyway...

To finally get downloading, all you have to do is simply register. You would also need a good and fast Internet connection so those downloads can just keep coming in.

On the plus side, Gendou not only offers music, but also radio streaming and anime series download as well. I haven't tried both services though, so I can't actually review that part of Gendou. They also have forums as well, where you can chat about anything to any otaku lurking nearby. And you can drop a donation if you are feeling wealthy.

There are several negatives too. Though Gendou offers free music, not all of them is entirely free. New arrivals can cost you, but give it a little time (at least a week) and your music will be free again. Another thing is that Gendou sometimes conduct serious maintenance that disables the sites features for that day, including downloads. So it's nice to get an RSS feed to see what features are disabled for the day.

Also, there is a limit of 100 songs per account. Though it says there in their FAQ that you can download up to 100 songs per day, I never saw my download count reset anytime in the past.

Lastly, Gendou doesn't carry all the songs. So don't be surprised if you can't find the Namimori Anthem in there. But frankly, I'm quite satisfied with my Sakura Addiction.

How Much Are You Addicted to Stumble Upon?

73%

This quizz was provided by - Match Special

Lazy Bloggers

OMFG! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread... You would not believe how heavy that rock really is. Seriously!.

I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with waiting for a fine young gentleman to propose, selling my soul to Google, just generally being Snow White to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day is passing in a blur from the light through yonder window breaks to I feel like going to bed. I am plotting and planning. but this damned rock is heavy.

I go, my lords and ladies; just I will write something that makes sense soon. Seriously! Until my paycheck dawneth..

A sample of a blog post you can create using The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator. Make a wacky post today!

Manga Madness

Call me a tard but I'm a real sucker for a good manga. Hell, my friends know just how much I rave about them. Usually before I do watch a certain anime series not shown or to be shown locally (and sometimes dubbed horribly *coughBleachcough*), I read up on the manga, then judge if it's worth my viewing time or not. And then, annoy my friends until they give up and begin to read it too.

Here's a short list of my favorite manga sites where you can freely read or download them. Note: Once a manga is licensed, the manga scans is usually removed from the site. As a tip, if you really love it, download yourself a copy, so you can still read it. Yes, I am evil. But frankly, licensed manga doesn't really reach our side of the world as fast as yours. And sometimes, even when licensed, the new volumes are horribly slow in coming.

Anyway, enough of the rant. Ladies and gentlement, geeks and nerds and tards, I bring thee, the list.

1. Spectrum Nexus

~ My first manga scanlation read online would probably Deathnote. I was looking for a free manga scans site when I found this. Instantly I got hooked on Deathnote, even before others here in our country realized about it. Of course I spread the good old Deathnote love and infected at least two people to read it. Anyway, a lot of good, even licensed manga, are available here. You can read them for free, but not all volumes will be available in one day. They use a rotation system which only releases at least 5 chapters a week. Example, this week, they would have vol. 1-5 of Deathnote up. Next week will be vol. 6-10 and so on. You click through each page to view the next. I really love it, but they do not host manga that isn't too popular. For this, I give this site:






2. Manga Volume

~The second site I went to was Manga Volume. It has a good list of scans of manga that is unavailable at Spectrum Nexus. I read A Girls here (surprisingly, I can't find it anywhere else). Click through manga to get to the next page. The only difficulty I had with Manga Volume is that it takes eons to load. But I don't know about that now. It's been two years since I returned to their site...

For the not-so-popular manga, I give them:






3. One Manga
~ After Manga Volume, I found myself in One Manga. A much better counterpart for Manga Volume, not only does One Manga host the not-so-popular manga, the site is pretty easy to navigate as well. One Manga separates its scans per genre, so it's easy to look for a new manga to jump into that is very similar to your interests. Also, you can read a plot summary so you know before hand if you like the story or not. I'm currently really happy with One Manga, especially since they are hosting my current manga obsession: Katekyo Hitman Reborn (TO THE EXTREEMEE!!!!!!!). Same as with every one, click through each page to move on to the next. Downside? It's blocked in my work computer. T_T. And if you are looking for some slash manga (ecchi, shoujo-ai, shonen-ai, yaoi, yuri, etc.), they don't host too many of them. But that aside, I rate One Manga:



hell yeah! five onions!



4. Manga Fox

~ So you want a bit more ecchi do you? You naughty naughty person. *grin*

For the want to read manga at work (shh! don't tell my bosses!), I found Manga Fox. Not only do they have practically every manga like One Manga, they also have "it". Yes. Teh slash mangas!

They don't host every slash there is, but here, you can freely read them online. Like A Love Song in a Nameless Country (a shoujo-ai), which can be downloaded for free at Lililicious, can be read at Manga Fox. No downloads required. Like the above sites, click through each page to move to the next. The only thing that I don't like about Manga Fox is that it updates uber slow. Example: One Manga releases a new chapter every week. If your manga updates every Saturday, you can expect to read the next chapter the following Thursday, right? In Manga Fox, the updates takes even up to a week longer. So if it was released on a Thursday, it will appear in Manga Fox as much as two weeks.

Because of the long wait (and also since I am not that very patient with waiting for new chapters), I rate this:


aww... only two onions...



5. Storm In Heaven

~It was love at first download.

I became a fan of Yuana Kazumi when I found her manga, The Flower of Deep Sleep, while browsing over an anime stand that was moving out. Being a manga fan who delights in new discoveries, (and since Yuana isn't a popular manga artist here) I immediately used my salary from our Class Corporation to buy the first volume of The Flower of Deep Sleep. (To my delight, TFDS is only two volumes, and I was able to ask a good friend of mine, draconianangel, to buy me the second volume as a coming home gift for me. Thanks, Iwi. XD)

Of course, I wanted more Yuana Kazumi. But none of the local stores have it. Of course, they had Deathnote, Naruto, Loveless and even Land of the Blindfolded. But they just don't have a Yuana Kazumi. So I turned to the Net for answers.

Thanks to Google, I found Storm in Heaven.

Don't be amazed with the site's cool layout. They change it frequently, each one cooler than the first. Storm in Heaven is a wonderful wonderful site where you can freely download manga scanlations to your delight. And yes they have Yuana Kazumi! (Hooray! Hooray!) They used to host three of Yuana Kazumi's works: A Million Tears, Skydream Song, and Haru Hana. But since A Million Tears had been licensed earlier this year, it was put down by the site. T_T.

That aside, Storm in Heaven also has a lot of other wonderful manga, my favorites being Vitamin and Kobatotei Ibun. Before they only allow downloads, nowadays, you can also read manga online from them as well. Storm in heaven keeps on giving something new to the palette and for this I rate Storm in Heaven:


hell yeah! five onions!



Discover new manga today! Visit these sites now!

~ Thanks to Anikaos for the onions. They amuse me endlessly. :) ~