Weekly Roundugh
Urrgh, what a week. Quite beyond the fact that I simply couldn't get terribly enthused about many of the tracks this week, there's also been a lot more tracks rejected this week and a lot of tracks I simply wouldn't have expected to even make the rankings. Add in a dash of feeling like crap, a pinch of possible illness, and all in all it's not a week I'm very proud of, especially where my coverage is concerned. Descriptions may have been slightly phoned in, so please don't kill me if they seem scrappy.
Reminding everyone that we do always love to see other people post! Specifically speaking it'd be great to get more Engloid and UTAU coverage, but we're also always up for whatever theme posts or news you feel like throwing out.
【初音ミク】 ショットガン・ラヴァーズ 【のぼる↑・オリジナル】
Shotgun Lovers (noboru), Miku, Rock
I ... can honestly say that this was not the noboru song I was expecting. Given noboru's history for such songs as Monochro Blue Sky and Chain Girl, I was expecting something a little more towards the pop rock side of the spectrum, but this is considerably harder and more powerful than either of those. It's still recognizably noboru, though - you'll recognize many of his common trademarks, especially in Miku's pitching - and it's climbed up the charts in an instant much like many of his tracks, so give it a try.
【鏡音リンレン】かがPIYO！【オリジナルPV】
KagaPIYO! (jiizasu), Len + Rin, Pop
The twins take one of the top slots this week with this completely ridiculous song, and the video that accompanies it. Maybe I'm just biased because this track came along after a sea of slow tracks and a string of not-very-good ones, but the twins blasted in with their dumb pop song full of dumb birdsong and dumb Len faces and I was instantly charmed. It's a head-nodding, toe-tapping track.
【GUMI】 ウソナキスト 【オリジナル曲】
Crier of Fake Tears (TOKOTOKO), Gumi, Rock
Urrrgh. This is doing well on Nicovideo, but I couldn't get into it at all. Maybe it's the fuzzing of the music, or the way that for at least half of the song Gumi just feels bored and lacking in anything like the emotion the music demands? She shapes up for the second half and it gets a lot more listenable, but it certainly didn't grab me hard. (I also can't figure out the title; usonaki are 'crocodile tears', which certainly fit the video, but I can't get a read on the full title. Anyone?)
【初音ミク】スミレの絵本【オリジナル】PV
Violet Picture Book (kous), Miku, Pop
By rights, I probably shouldn't like this. It's not as weird as some of the stuff kous has put out, but it's a very strange track with a lot of unusual catches and tones, but it all works very well. Some of the distortion might be a little overdone, especially the effect throughout the song that makes it sound as if you're sticking your fingers rapidly in and out of your ears, but it dissolving away into the guitarline was handled superbly.
[初音ミクsweet] モカ [オリジナル曲]
Mocha (mezame), Miku, Pop
Twinkly-soft pop in every sense of the word and a distinctly unique track, with a lot of the melody coming from bells and chiming electronic piano tones and the odd bit of brass band. My usual personal misgivings about the Miku Sweet voice aside, this all comes together into a pleasant drifting few minutes of music
【GUMI】ノーナイデンパ【オリジナル曲PV付き】
Intracerebral Electromagnetic Waves (YM), Gumi, Rock
This is more my kind of Gumi track. Faster and harder-hitting, it sits better on my musical palate. Some great bits of guitar and the fast-paced drumline set Gumi's yells off nicely. Some parts of it still feel a little off, and there's nothing terribly unique and world-shaking about the track as a whole, but even so I liked it a lot more than the one above. It's also one of the few fast songs this update.
【初音ミク】月光食堂【オリジナル】
Moonlit Dining Room (nuu), Miku, Orchestral Electro Pop Ish
Gosh. This is one hell of a debut original for nuu, and has rocketed up the charts in no time at all. Careful violin mixed with light electronic beats and tones, and a bit of piano mixed in, all make for a pretty delightful mix.
【巡音ルカ】 アイネクライネ 【オリジナル曲】
Eine Kleine (temb), Luka, Soft Rock
Luka's feeling a bit left out of this post, so here's TEMB with a slow rock track to drift off to. There's nothing out of the ordinary here - there's some good drums and most of it's piano rather than guitar, but it's all pretty standard - but Luka's voice is excellent in places and it's well worth a listen.
【初音ミク】 ミレニア 【オリジナルPV】
Millennia (kanatajun), Miku, Rock
A solid rock track from Miku. A strong start and a dramatic flair to most of the chords and riffs sets up the song nicely for the slightly angsty piano melody line to kick in. Some of the catches are very good, Miku sounds at least acceptable, and the video could be a whole lot worse. And, again, it's a little oasis of speedy energetic music amidst a sea of slow.
【初音ミク】ホノカ【オリジナル曲PV付】
Faint (arie), Miku, Electro Pop
We're definitely on an electropop kick today. The sheer number of tracks I could describe as 'soft with electronic tones and a gentle beat' is pretty much through the roof. This was one of the better ones of the crop - I think if anything it's because out of all of the soft tracks this week this one has the most arresting and out-there beat.
歌愛ユキオリジナル曲「傀儡師達ノ夜」
Puppeteer's Night (peperon), Yuki, Dark Pop
It's a Yuki song! Not done by kagome! Done by peperon in fact! And it's spooky as hell with an awesome video attached! Why haven't you clicked yet?! So she herself sounds kind of rough, and certainly a lot more wobbly than the track in general, but it's Yuki getting more exposure and that is basically always a good thing.
【初音ミク】 ユメクモ 【オリジナル曲PV】
Dream Cloud (mitani nana), Miku, Pop Rock
For me, the real draw from this song were the guitars and drums. PELIE on guitar belts out some fantastic riffs in this bouncy, jumping track helped along by a set of bass drums so loud and enthusiastically played that I couldn't help but smile and nod along. The actual song itself I could take or leave - Miku's fine at the start but seemed to degrade drastically as the song went on.
KAITOでオリジナル曲「大宗師」
True Meaning of a Great Life (■), Kaito + Meiko, Easy Listening
Kaito croons his way through a slow, sleepy song. There's very little in the way of actual music here aside from slight piano catches and snares, but Kaito manages this mostly vocal track very well; he sounds great, and Meiko jumping in about halfway through makes for an extremely pleasant duet. It may simply be too slow for some, however.
【重音テト】ライアーガーデン【UTAU-PV】
Liar Garden (brother), Teto, Electrogoth Rock
It's nice to see Teto pop up with a gold-bordered track from time to time. A pretty gorgeous 3d video that... might not be MMD (or if it is, it's a new model) and a piercing, rocking track to go with it. Possibly a little too piercing - on some notes, Teto's voice will lance straight through your eardrums - but it's certainly a step above many utau tracks.
【初音ミクAppend】 Specification 【オリジナル曲】
Specification (papiyon), Miku, Piano + Drums
So when does an Append not sound like an Append? When papiyon is using Miku Vivid in a very minimalist vocal track, with little more than a thumping drum line and some rocking piano with the odd scorching solo. I love this because I'm a piano fiend, but at least listen to it to see what the under-used Vivid can sound like.
α/初音ミク
α (lamaze), Miku, Pop
The 'ProjectDIVA-AC楽曲募集2' tag that you might have seen this week and last denotes songs submitted to Sega for inclusion within Project Diva Arcade - unfortunately, there's a lot of chaff in that tag, but α stands out and is currently at the top of the list in terms of views. A purely traditional piece of Vocapop, this really harkens back to over a year ago when this sort of sound encompassed 95% of the songs. Fortunately, Lamaze is a veteran at this kind of thing and the track's perfectly pitched for maximum cheesy pop.
【初音ミク】マンボNo.3939(2525)【オリジナル曲】
Mambo No. 3939 (袖), Miku, MAMBO, MMDPV
This submission, however, is a shining gem for our time, a scintillating sphere that sparkles in the heavens. Truly lifechanging.
MMD:
初音ミク - Sweet Devil MMDPV
Sweet Devil MMDPV (hachioji, PV wakamura), Miku, Electropop, MMDPV
Wakamura continues to spit out amazing quality PVs and returns to hachioji - after his scorching Electric Love video a couple of weeks back, it's straight onto Sweet Devil. And man, I hadn't realised what a massive clusterfuck of engrish Sweet Devil was until now.
【重音テト】テトでブラック★ロックシューターつくってみた【MMD】
Black Rock Shooter (Teto Ver.) (ryo, PV nigamon), Teto, Pop Rock, MMDPV
I'm not sure whether to be more impressed of the cover or the video. Teto's astoundingly clear while singing this song - a little off-key in places but miles ahead of most Utau work. WHOOPS IT'S AN utattemita SORRY On the other hand, the PV featuring Black ★ Giga Drill Breaker taking on a bunch of GitS Tachikomas is also extremely good.
【第３回MMD体育祭】ドリフトの基本【MMD】
Drift Fundamentals, Luka, MMD
Just in case you needed it, Luka and Haku are here to give you a run-down tutorial of drifting and doughnutting, as ably illustrated by an MMD video and - of course - Double Lariat.
To finish off the post, we've got a couple of new Miku models to show off. Early in the week, the MikuXS model appeared. Kind of a cross between Lat and the traditional Miku model, it's a fair bit shinier than the original while not looking twelve years old. As far as I can tell it's also optimised for MikuMikuEffect, and as you can see, it looks pretty good:
【MMD】メタセコイアでミクさん作ってみた【MME】
That wasn't about to stop madly popular and pro model maker Isao from taking the spotlight, though. First, he popped up with a way to fix the original MikuXS's funky hair physics problems, while sneaking in a glimpse of his new (and excellent) model of Iroha...
【MMD】ツインテが引っかからないようにする実験
... and then he y'know just happened to throw out an update to his own high-quality Miku model, though as with most of his works it's not going to be in public distribution. Still, it sure does look good.
【MMD】 MMEでみくみくにしてあげる♪ 【してやんよ】
Reminding everyone that we do always love to see other people post! Specifically speaking it'd be great to get more Engloid and UTAU coverage, but we're also always up for whatever theme posts or news you feel like throwing out.
【初音ミク】 ショットガン・ラヴァーズ 【のぼる↑・オリジナル】
Shotgun Lovers (noboru), Miku, Rock
I ... can honestly say that this was not the noboru song I was expecting. Given noboru's history for such songs as Monochro Blue Sky and Chain Girl, I was expecting something a little more towards the pop rock side of the spectrum, but this is considerably harder and more powerful than either of those. It's still recognizably noboru, though - you'll recognize many of his common trademarks, especially in Miku's pitching - and it's climbed up the charts in an instant much like many of his tracks, so give it a try.
【鏡音リンレン】かがPIYO！【オリジナルPV】
KagaPIYO! (jiizasu), Len + Rin, Pop
The twins take one of the top slots this week with this completely ridiculous song, and the video that accompanies it. Maybe I'm just biased because this track came along after a sea of slow tracks and a string of not-very-good ones, but the twins blasted in with their dumb pop song full of dumb birdsong and dumb Len faces and I was instantly charmed. It's a head-nodding, toe-tapping track.
【GUMI】 ウソナキスト 【オリジナル曲】
Crier of Fake Tears (TOKOTOKO), Gumi, Rock
Urrrgh. This is doing well on Nicovideo, but I couldn't get into it at all. Maybe it's the fuzzing of the music, or the way that for at least half of the song Gumi just feels bored and lacking in anything like the emotion the music demands? She shapes up for the second half and it gets a lot more listenable, but it certainly didn't grab me hard. (I also can't figure out the title; usonaki are 'crocodile tears', which certainly fit the video, but I can't get a read on the full title. Anyone?)
【初音ミク】スミレの絵本【オリジナル】PV
Violet Picture Book (kous), Miku, Pop
By rights, I probably shouldn't like this. It's not as weird as some of the stuff kous has put out, but it's a very strange track with a lot of unusual catches and tones, but it all works very well. Some of the distortion might be a little overdone, especially the effect throughout the song that makes it sound as if you're sticking your fingers rapidly in and out of your ears, but it dissolving away into the guitarline was handled superbly.
[初音ミクsweet] モカ [オリジナル曲]
Mocha (mezame), Miku, Pop
Twinkly-soft pop in every sense of the word and a distinctly unique track, with a lot of the melody coming from bells and chiming electronic piano tones and the odd bit of brass band. My usual personal misgivings about the Miku Sweet voice aside, this all comes together into a pleasant drifting few minutes of music
【GUMI】ノーナイデンパ【オリジナル曲PV付き】
Intracerebral Electromagnetic Waves (YM), Gumi, Rock
This is more my kind of Gumi track. Faster and harder-hitting, it sits better on my musical palate. Some great bits of guitar and the fast-paced drumline set Gumi's yells off nicely. Some parts of it still feel a little off, and there's nothing terribly unique and world-shaking about the track as a whole, but even so I liked it a lot more than the one above. It's also one of the few fast songs this update.
【初音ミク】月光食堂【オリジナル】
Moonlit Dining Room (nuu), Miku, Orchestral Electro Pop Ish
Gosh. This is one hell of a debut original for nuu, and has rocketed up the charts in no time at all. Careful violin mixed with light electronic beats and tones, and a bit of piano mixed in, all make for a pretty delightful mix.
【巡音ルカ】 アイネクライネ 【オリジナル曲】
Eine Kleine (temb), Luka, Soft Rock
Luka's feeling a bit left out of this post, so here's TEMB with a slow rock track to drift off to. There's nothing out of the ordinary here - there's some good drums and most of it's piano rather than guitar, but it's all pretty standard - but Luka's voice is excellent in places and it's well worth a listen.
【初音ミク】 ミレニア 【オリジナルPV】
Millennia (kanatajun), Miku, Rock
A solid rock track from Miku. A strong start and a dramatic flair to most of the chords and riffs sets up the song nicely for the slightly angsty piano melody line to kick in. Some of the catches are very good, Miku sounds at least acceptable, and the video could be a whole lot worse. And, again, it's a little oasis of speedy energetic music amidst a sea of slow.
【初音ミク】ホノカ【オリジナル曲PV付】
Faint (arie), Miku, Electro Pop
We're definitely on an electropop kick today. The sheer number of tracks I could describe as 'soft with electronic tones and a gentle beat' is pretty much through the roof. This was one of the better ones of the crop - I think if anything it's because out of all of the soft tracks this week this one has the most arresting and out-there beat.
歌愛ユキオリジナル曲「傀儡師達ノ夜」
Puppeteer's Night (peperon), Yuki, Dark Pop
It's a Yuki song! Not done by kagome! Done by peperon in fact! And it's spooky as hell with an awesome video attached! Why haven't you clicked yet?! So she herself sounds kind of rough, and certainly a lot more wobbly than the track in general, but it's Yuki getting more exposure and that is basically always a good thing.
【初音ミク】 ユメクモ 【オリジナル曲PV】
Dream Cloud (mitani nana), Miku, Pop Rock
For me, the real draw from this song were the guitars and drums. PELIE on guitar belts out some fantastic riffs in this bouncy, jumping track helped along by a set of bass drums so loud and enthusiastically played that I couldn't help but smile and nod along. The actual song itself I could take or leave - Miku's fine at the start but seemed to degrade drastically as the song went on.
KAITOでオリジナル曲「大宗師」
True Meaning of a Great Life (■), Kaito + Meiko, Easy Listening
Kaito croons his way through a slow, sleepy song. There's very little in the way of actual music here aside from slight piano catches and snares, but Kaito manages this mostly vocal track very well; he sounds great, and Meiko jumping in about halfway through makes for an extremely pleasant duet. It may simply be too slow for some, however.
【重音テト】ライアーガーデン【UTAU-PV】
Liar Garden (brother), Teto, Electrogoth Rock
It's nice to see Teto pop up with a gold-bordered track from time to time. A pretty gorgeous 3d video that... might not be MMD (or if it is, it's a new model) and a piercing, rocking track to go with it. Possibly a little too piercing - on some notes, Teto's voice will lance straight through your eardrums - but it's certainly a step above many utau tracks.
【初音ミクAppend】 Specification 【オリジナル曲】
Specification (papiyon), Miku, Piano + Drums
So when does an Append not sound like an Append? When papiyon is using Miku Vivid in a very minimalist vocal track, with little more than a thumping drum line and some rocking piano with the odd scorching solo. I love this because I'm a piano fiend, but at least listen to it to see what the under-used Vivid can sound like.
α/初音ミク
α (lamaze), Miku, Pop
The 'ProjectDIVA-AC楽曲募集2' tag that you might have seen this week and last denotes songs submitted to Sega for inclusion within Project Diva Arcade - unfortunately, there's a lot of chaff in that tag, but α stands out and is currently at the top of the list in terms of views. A purely traditional piece of Vocapop, this really harkens back to over a year ago when this sort of sound encompassed 95% of the songs. Fortunately, Lamaze is a veteran at this kind of thing and the track's perfectly pitched for maximum cheesy pop.
【初音ミク】マンボNo.3939(2525)【オリジナル曲】
Mambo No. 3939 (袖), Miku, MAMBO, MMDPV
This submission, however, is a shining gem for our time, a scintillating sphere that sparkles in the heavens. Truly lifechanging.
MMD:
初音ミク - Sweet Devil MMDPV
Sweet Devil MMDPV (hachioji, PV wakamura), Miku, Electropop, MMDPV
Wakamura continues to spit out amazing quality PVs and returns to hachioji - after his scorching Electric Love video a couple of weeks back, it's straight onto Sweet Devil. And man, I hadn't realised what a massive clusterfuck of engrish Sweet Devil was until now.
【重音テト】テトでブラック★ロックシューターつくってみた【MMD】
Black Rock Shooter (Teto Ver.) (ryo, PV nigamon), Teto, Pop Rock, MMDPV
I'm not sure whether to be more impressed of the cover or the video. Teto's astoundingly clear while singing this song - a little off-key in places but miles ahead of most Utau work. WHOOPS IT'S AN utattemita SORRY On the other hand, the PV featuring Black ★ Giga Drill Breaker taking on a bunch of GitS Tachikomas is also extremely good.
【第３回MMD体育祭】ドリフトの基本【MMD】
Drift Fundamentals, Luka, MMD
Just in case you needed it, Luka and Haku are here to give you a run-down tutorial of drifting and doughnutting, as ably illustrated by an MMD video and - of course - Double Lariat.
To finish off the post, we've got a couple of new Miku models to show off. Early in the week, the MikuXS model appeared. Kind of a cross between Lat and the traditional Miku model, it's a fair bit shinier than the original while not looking twelve years old. As far as I can tell it's also optimised for MikuMikuEffect, and as you can see, it looks pretty good:
【MMD】メタセコイアでミクさん作ってみた【MME】
That wasn't about to stop madly popular and pro model maker Isao from taking the spotlight, though. First, he popped up with a way to fix the original MikuXS's funky hair physics problems, while sneaking in a glimpse of his new (and excellent) model of Iroha...
【MMD】ツインテが引っかからないようにする実験
... and then he y'know just happened to throw out an update to his own high-quality Miku model, though as with most of his works it's not going to be in public distribution. Still, it sure does look good.
【MMD】 MMEでみくみくにしてあげる♪ 【してやんよ】