Hello! This is the first installation of On the Same Page, hopefully the first part of many more. Let's not delay this any further and get this thing up and running!
Featured Vocaloid
This week's featured Vocaloid is Meiko, though you'll see her official name is capitalized as MEIKO. For my inner spellcheck's sake we'll call her Meiko. Her voice provider is Meiko Haigou, though you'll never hear that much about her. Meiko was the first Japanese Vocaloid for the Vocaloid 1 engine, by Crypton Future Media. Her most well-known roles are the First Alice in Alice Human Sacrifice, Conchita in Conchita, the Epicurean Daughter of Evil (also known as Evil Food Eater Conchita), and the leader of the revolution in the Story of Evil (Daughter of Evil, Servant of Evil, etc.). She is a generally assertive, dominant personality and voice. She is also a Tsundere, which, in layman's terms, means that when she's in tsuntsun mode she's harsh and such but when she's in deredere mode she's all nice and emotional and stuff. Bad description, just go google it. Anyways. Her character item is Sake, a kind of alcoholic drink made from rice. There is a minor shipping war on whether to pair her with Kaito or Kaito with Miku. I am a staunch KaiMei shipper. She and Kaito were made to complement each other's voice, with Meiko the dominant voice, with Kaito the harmony. I can go on and on about how their voices/personalities balance each other out but this is already too long. Anyways, Meiko is a wholly unappreciated Vocaloid with a tendency to sing flat, but when the right producer comes along she has amazing potential.
Featured Producer
A producer is someone who makes Vocaloid songs and generally posts them to NicoNicoDouga (Japanese Youtube, basically). If well known, they will generally be called after their most popular song with a P after their name, for example, shigotoshiteP's actual username is Hinayukki. Anyways, shigotoshiteP is this edition's Featured Producer. She is well known in her skill with Kaito and Meiko. Her name actually comes from a cover of one of her songs, where Kaito sings about her laziness instead of Singing Earth. Singing Earth can be found here, and the cover is here. The first work of hers to appear on NND is Progeny of the Wings- flying child featuring Kaito. Another notable shigotoshiteP work is Shine, pushing Kaito to the bottom of his range and with a wonderful instrumental. She has also made a Talkoid- a video of the Vocaloids speaking instead of singing- with a bit of Shine to it, called Playing a Trick on Kaito. As you can see, she favors Kaito, but Meiko can be found chiming in, like in the end of The Song of Swift Wind and the Sky.
Vocaloid Vocabulary of the Week
This week's word is "Append". An "Append" is basically a fixed-up, smoothed out, improved version of a voicebank. It often makes the singer sound more human. The first Append was Miku Hatsune's, when Crypton responded to user complaints that her chipper voice didn't fit with other "moods" of songs. Miku's Append was sixfold, with "Soft", "Sweet", "Light", "Vivid", "Dark", and "Solid" voicebanks. Rin and Len Kagamine also received Appends with different moods of voicebanks, Power, Warm, and Sweet for Rin and Power, Cold, and Serious for Len. Gumi has received an "Extend", which is basically the same thing. Kaito, Meiko, and Luka have all been confirmed to receive Appends at some point, and Kaito is confirmed to get an English voicebank like Miku did and that Luka already has. Here is one of Kaito's Append demos, a Luka Append demo, and a Meiko Append demo. Contrary to expectations, most Appends are not used frequently. However, when they are, they are usually impressive.
What's on Spaz's iPod?
Monochrome Dream-Eater, by Nem and sung by Len Kagamine! Don't be fooled, Len can actually sing in the bass octave! He's singing this song delightfully low for a change, backed by an awesome jazzy instrumental. His outfit is cool too. This song tells the story of a Dream Eater, who makes a contract with a young lady who looks like Miku. Oh yeah, and he squeaks. Or maybe that's gasping in an effeminate manner. I don't know. Great song, though.
The Classics
This first edition's classic is fittingly, the classic of all classics, Ievan Polkka. This song shot to meme-level popularity on NND and brought Vocaloid into focus, also naming the leek/spring onion/negi as Miku's character item. And now it is stuck in your head. You're welcome.
Crowning Music of Awesome
Double Lariat by Ago-anikiP, sung by Luka Megurine. This particular video has the lyrics changed from "spinning" to "singing". This song is ridiculously motivating and, coincidentally, one of the first songs that got the author of this email into Vocaloid.
Crowning Music of Sad
Campanella sung by Gumi, produced by sasakure.UK. It's... It's just... hold on a sec, I got something- there's something in my eye, it's just- ah screw it *cries all over the place*
Crowning Music of Funny
Not technically music, but referring to Daughter of Evil. Go watch it if you haven't yet. Anyways, this very fast summary of the song is HILARIOUS.
Spotlight Cover
Amazing Grace. Sung by Meiko. Yes, that Amazing Grace. No, not her Append. Yes, it is amazing. This is an amazing cover, brilliantly tuned so that Meiko's accent isn't too thick, while she's backed by Miku, Rin, Len, and Kaito. One of the few songs where I'll allow Meiko to sing that high. And it is glorious.
Spotlight Duet
The Pair Tree Wither-er, sung by Kaito and Meiko, a shigotoshiteP masterpiece. A classic in traditional Japanese style about the coming of autumn.
Random Recommendation (this is where you recommend stuff to me)
Smiling, recommended by Anna. NND's theme song, I guess, sung by... fourteen? Or so Vocaloids, counting two of Miku's Appends. Len raps. So does Kaito.
Recent News
Nothing much, though the newest Weekly Vocaloid Ranking can be found at Vocaloidism.com~!
End Note
Well, this took a good hour to type up and find the songs, but it was worth it! Hope you guys enjoy, and show me songs you've found so I can slap that up on the Random Recommendation! (also make sure your links work. XD )
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