PRIMER: Resources

[darknightrain]

A compilation on websites/add-ons and other stuff that might be relevant to anyone in this fandom. Like with our other posts, please feel free to comment with anything you think should be added to this list. ♥

ATTENTION: To watch 90% of the videos linked in this community you will need a Nicovideo account, here is a tutorial on how to register for one.


ON LJ:

• vocaloid: What it says on the tin, general comm for all things Vocaloid on LJ!


• weekly_vocaloid: The Weekly Vocaloid Ranking brought to you by tepes! Includes shiny mp3 downloads.


• utattemita: For all of your Nicosinger needs.


• vocalyric: Self-explanatory.


• vocaloid_log: Where asamidori often posts news and links to videos.


• dokimimi: A rotation for all those obscure songs that rarely make it into the ranking.


• vocaloidressing: All pretendy funtimes, all the time!


• vocaloid_ooc: OOC comm for the aforementioned dressing room.


• fanvocaloid: Utaus, voyakiloids and friends go here.


• singing_robots: YOU ARE HERE. In this comm we rec songs and terrible videos and are fabulous morons. :Dd

EVERYTHING NICO:

• Nicovideo: Nico Nico Douga, better known as Moontube, is the place where all awesome Vocaloid songs and badass videos and terrible memes are originated. We link to it in pretty much every post, so while you can sometimes find mirrors on Youtube, it is recommended that you make an account here for full SR enjoyment. [How to register an account.]
  
  As a note, there are beta versions of Nicovideo available for Taiwan, Spain, and Germany.


• Nicosound: This is where you want to go when P's don't link to mp3 downloads of their songs, or someone makes an awesome cover/remix that you must have in mp3 format. All you have to do is enter the Nicovideo URL in the yellow box, hit enter, and VOILA! You will be magically taken to a page where you can stream the audio for the video and/or download the mp3 rip by simply clicking on パソコンへ転送.


• Nicomimi: Same as the above, basically. This is what I use when Nicosound gets bitchy and doesn't want to work properly. It also works the same as Nicosound except with a couple more features. Insert URL, press button, receive mp3.


• Nicopedia: Useful mostly if you are somewhat fluent in Moonspeak. Whenever you see a red box next to a video tag, you can click on it and be taken to the Nicopedia page for the producer/song/meme where you are likely to find interesting links, meta, explanations, and lengthy discussions on the topic of choice. Really good for when you're curious about where a meme originated or if you want to read people's crazy theories on specific songs.


• Nicosingers Wiki: Also pretty self-explanatory. Super handy for when you want to be a creepy stalker learn more about your favorite singers.


• Nicofox: An awesome Firefox Add-on that not only lets you download videos off Moontube, but also comes with handy shortcuts to Nicosound, Nicorankings, and more!

IN JAPANESE:

• Piapro: The official Vocaloid fansite where people share fanart, songs, and more! I actually hate how slow it gets at times and how messy the fanart navigation has become (not to mention most of the fanart found here is replicated at Pixiv), but a lot of the P's only host their mp3s over here, and like with all other Japanese sites, you need to be a member to access downloads/full pictures. [How to register an account.]


• Vocasearch: Exactly what you think it is, a Vocaloid search engine. It allows you to do super specific Nicovideo searches (producer/song/Vocaloid/genre/etc.), and is the home of the Vocaloid Daily and Ranking watchers!


• Hatsune Miku Wiki: A super extensive Vocaloid lyrics wiki.


• Typenist: YOUR SWEETEST DREAM OR WORST NIGHTMARE, depending on how you want to see it. The objective of the game is to type in the lyrics as the song plays and it is guaranteed to bring you hours of endless amusement/frustration/crying. IMPORTANT: Last I checked, it only works on IE, and it is highly recommended you play it while on a Japanese keyboard setting, because while it recognizes most of the alphabet, it will ignore a lot of the American punctuation and make you lose. :) Also, the romanization for the songs is 100% Japanese with syo's instead of sho's and so on. As with other websites, you need an account to play. [How to register an account.]

IN ENGLISH:

• 
  ofurotaimu: A community dedicated to providing links, news, and recs on everything Vocaloid and utattemita on DW, as well as weekly spotlights so you can become more familiar with both producers and singers.


• 
  eternalsnow: For Vocaloid lyrics and translations!


• Vocaloidism: News, rankings, guides, detailed analysis and a lot of other shinies can be found here.


• Engloids: A blog dedicated solely to bring you news and information on the English-speaking Vocaloids!


• Nico Douga Charts @ Sankaku Complex: Aka that place where you can watch Moontube vids without having an account. An easy way to keep tabs on the rankings if you don't want to get lost amidst a sea of Japanese characters. Just keep in mind that not all the videos will be Vocaloid-related.


• Vocaloid @ Iichan: A super relaxed, slow-moving image board. Let's ignore the part where the server for the Vocaloid section dies every two hours or so.


• Mikuchan: Anything-goes Vocaloid image board where each Vocaloid has their own section and so on. I only link it after Iichan because it moves even slower and not many people seem to hang there.


• Vocaloid Wiki: Self-explanatory. It is sometimes really informative and sometimes... not. Definitely not the most reliable place online to get your facts from, but what can you do.


• Vocaloid @ TV Tropes: OH YES, I DID.

GENERAL:

• Pixiv: The Japanese goldmine of fanart and memes. If you're in any animanga/video game/Japanese fandom, you probably know what this is, so I won't even bother explaining. As with other websites, you need an account to view all the pretties/favorite them/etc. [How to register an account.]


• Rikaichan: Kickass Firefox extension that is a godsend for both people who are fluent in Japanese and n00bs. A popup Japanese-English/German/French/Russian dictionary extension for Firefox that will surely make navigating all those sites linked above a hundred times easier for you.


• Google Translate: Translates webpages into whatever language you want in real time. It auto-detects foreign languages and asks if you want them translated. You can also set it up to auto-translate certain languages or websites.


• Bubble Translate: For when the above fails or there's just a little moonspeak. Translates text in a pop-up bubble.

IMPORTANT:

• TAGS ARE YOUR FRIENDS, EVERYWHERE. The easiest way to navigate through any of the Japanese sites and find what you want is to learn your robots'/P's/singers'/songs' names so you know where to click to be able to find moar.


• IF YOU'RE TAKING SOMEONE'S FANART FOR ICONS, PLEASE CREDIT/LINK BACK. I won't even go into the whole "wah wah stealing fanart is bad" debate, but the least you can do is provide a link to the video/illustration so the artist gets their credit and other people can also see the source. Of course, this is sometimes impossible when you get your images from imageboards, but even the Booru's have artist tags, so. Yeah. :|