Surprise, surprise!

Well, I guess I did have some time to spare. Go figure. Hope you have iTunes installed and ten dollars to give to Apple, since you need to download this entire album. Like, now:

I guess "Palmar Blue" sounds a lot better than calling it "The Blue Palms of the Hand" in English.

One of the reasons why I'm telling you to get this now even though this is the most expensive album on iTunes I've referred to you guys so far is that some of the songs have been fixed to sound better for this release. How much better, you ask? Well, compare the original to the iTunes one on the composer's piapro account which came out a few days after this went up on Apple's store, and you should notice that the former sounds too fast and more MIDI-like. You can also check out the original versions of the 2nd and 5th tracks of this album, and after you're done doing so, hit the preview button on the same tracks in iTunes to see how much better they sound.

The other highlight of this album is the fact it has the first original Gumi song I've heard that made me go, "Ohsnap." Seriously, it's really that hard for me to find a composer who can use her well. You want to know how bad it is? This is 1 out of 2 posts songs I can find of someone using Gumi on the HG101 blog iTunes.

Oh, did I also mention that the rest of this album is very, very good?
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhikAxi2i-IAKYAeh_AsagPhsRGBasaT_BMcFDPN_SBXJ4w6A6frhHGO9-C6avVoadLYTssJ_f3XSoZ6uXu4Qy80N65WwCVPhpjwsl9YM_-VcXmuHxZ28Bfjs4Gpr49exJxX7CZS_8baFU/s128/Dobato.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhikAxi2i-IAKYAeh_AsagPhsRGBasaT_BMcFDPN_SBXJ4w6A6frhHGO9-C6avVoadLYTssJ_f3XSoZ6uXu4Qy80N65WwCVPhpjwsl9YM_-VcXmuHxZ28Bfjs4Gpr49exJxX7CZS_8baFU/s128/Dobato.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 128px;" /></a>Well, I guess I did have some time to spare. Go figure. Hope you have iTunes installed and ten dollars to give to Apple, since you need to download this entire album. Like, now:<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu99TR3fguZrTdqOAPmdcsgdkJ2ZUjb4ziN2p1WijuFHrnarHDCtH960ReISGWmAs1J61PgMERBGHybZVsuxMoE6ecWoqG7EP3y_oY9VFvRpxjf1Zr-ZbrGKcA18LwhODh5iZXYyxzPhMJ/s1600/Palmar+Blue.bmp" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5460295804235038130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu99TR3fguZrTdqOAPmdcsgdkJ2ZUjb4ziN2p1WijuFHrnarHDCtH960ReISGWmAs1J61PgMERBGHybZVsuxMoE6ecWoqG7EP3y_oY9VFvRpxjf1Zr-ZbrGKcA18LwhODh5iZXYyxzPhMJ/s320/Palmar+Blue.bmp" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 150px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:67%;" >I guess <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/palmar-blue/id364203709" target="_blank">"Palmar Blue"</a> sounds a lot better than calling it "The Blue Palms of the Hand" in English. </span><br /><br /></div>One of the reasons why I'm telling you to get this now even though this is the most expensive album on iTunes I've referred to you guys so far is that some of the songs have been fixed to sound better for this release. How much better, you ask? Well, compare <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3cyT31mPyI" target="_blank">the original</a> to the iTunes one on the composer's <a href="http://piapro.jp/content/fv6bb47vw1dxh0n8" target="_blank">piapro account</a> which came out a few days after this went up on Apple's store, and you should notice that the former sounds too fast and more MIDI-like. You can also check out the original versions of the <a href="http://piapro.jp/content/9hvjyppgu1unjyds" target="_blank">2nd</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpi4Xp_Q7hw" target="_blank">5th</a> tracks of this album, and after you're done doing so, hit the preview button on the same tracks in iTunes to see how much better they sound.<br /><br />The other highlight of this album is the fact it has the first original Gumi song I've heard that made me go, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THxcSXEyqx8" target="_blank">"Ohsnap."</a> Seriously, it's really that hard for me to find a composer who can use her well. You want to know how bad it is? This is 1 out of 2 <s><a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/search/label/Megpoid" target="_blank"> posts</a></s> songs I can find of someone using Gumi on <s><a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/" target="_blank">the HG101 blog</a></s> iTunes.<br /><br />Oh, did I also mention that the rest of this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EfRrcDixBk" target="_blank">album</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6wEEnJB7M" target="_blank">is</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q8Lsv8zU5Y" target="_blank">very,</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Oc5iwJdxc" target="_blank">very</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEhM3uHxk94" target="_blank">good?</a>

A tasty appetizer

As promised earlier, here's one interesting Vocaloid album found on the iTunes store:



Minato's album called Delicious can be summed up pretty much by what this reviewer said about it. So how prominent is this person, you ask? The third track to this album is found in Project Diva. You won't find this song in the Free Play list as it's one of the unused ones, but it can be played as background music in Miku's Room or can be used to create an original music video using the Rhythm Game Edit interface.

The rest of the album is a pretty good combination of fast and slow pop songs with various instruments that use either Miku or the Kagamine twins for each track. Its weakest link for me is like with a lot of Vocaloid songs I've heard, the singers at times sound a little bit too soft and tend to blend into the music. That, and the 6th track has a prominent beat in it that never really goes away and nearly drove me up a wall the first time I heard it (well, I felt compelled to drive my car into one anyway). Don't let that deter you from checking it out though. Well, don't drive while listening to this album for the first time.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOXui4fDf5WKGt26p-iMmiDU5V4AijPQhSMd9qEPT95W-QOwt7ZIR-gZU7yGDlSgrGfc2RV1V8vlCTWoHvq4dfU5UhYIclRGIFKQnqxpCJbwTC0dwyE9Lf4ClvPy_RjepAPwNCxV8gvY/s128/2009%20calander%20extra%20copy.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDOXui4fDf5WKGt26p-iMmiDU5V4AijPQhSMd9qEPT95W-QOwt7ZIR-gZU7yGDlSgrGfc2RV1V8vlCTWoHvq4dfU5UhYIclRGIFKQnqxpCJbwTC0dwyE9Lf4ClvPy_RjepAPwNCxV8gvY/s128/2009%20calander%20extra%20copy.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 128px;" /></a><br /><br />As promised earlier, here's one interesting Vocaloid album found on the iTunes store:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnoBHCA4xMEeikYkU-qjvgYvWirvDqas1Yj_sjc94x-IPai6mbA-Ch-2SXA95_BZpaJbwI3Hgy1Y7fEmW34xAS90wJA5RLK1jAjq_grHLbrKFTek4w3TumOQUH4dyM0bh0XnlFibpDRA/s512/Delicious%203.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnoBHCA4xMEeikYkU-qjvgYvWirvDqas1Yj_sjc94x-IPai6mbA-Ch-2SXA95_BZpaJbwI3Hgy1Y7fEmW34xAS90wJA5RLK1jAjq_grHLbrKFTek4w3TumOQUH4dyM0bh0XnlFibpDRA/s512/Delicious%203.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 295px; height: 295px;" /></a><br /><br />Minato's album called <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/delicious/id308811477" target="_blank">Delicious</a> can be summed up pretty much by what this reviewer <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAtjqhmuWCmSPIfkpq9KgqWs_1IgU67PLsLx8bEhDpeK8R85SczncXCh7bN_BcUYDuVw5cAbCO6mpgkYs5T4zKriQNtc2oL2qbvFaX26GD50J5U221sMZVeWI0TlRPQ2-MeNVZAHiLaRQ/" target="_blank">said about it.</a> So how prominent is this person, you ask? The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCnMBkzCysg" target="_blank">third track to this album</a> is found in <a href="http://hardcoregaming101.net/projectdiva/projectdiva.htm" target="_blank">Project Diva.</a> You won't find this song in the Free Play list as it's one of the unused ones, but it can be played as background music in Miku's Room or can be used to create an original music video using the Rhythm Game Edit interface. <br /><br />The rest of the album is a pretty good combination of fast and slow pop songs with various instruments that use either Miku or the Kagamine twins for each track. Its weakest link for me is like with a lot of Vocaloid songs I've heard, the singers at times sound a little bit too soft and tend to blend into the music. That, and the 6th track has a prominent beat in it that never really goes away and nearly drove me up a wall the first time I heard it (well, I felt compelled to drive my car into one anyway). Don't let that deter you from checking it out though. Well, don't drive while listening to this album for the first time.

Not quite the MADWorld I was expecting...

A MAD is essentially a music video that either attempts to juxtapose characters from a completely different series into an existing opening video from another or use a song that was meant for something else and make a completely "original" music video with it using characters from a random series.

... Maybe it's better if I just showed you an example of a MAD instead. THE iDOLM@STER has festivals dedicated to this stuff on Nicovideo, and a lot of them are pretty amazing:



And if you're wondering, yes, they literally recorded those animations from the 360 port of the game, somehow pulled them out from the background stage, and did lots of clever tricks to make it look like that. And since Project Diva has been released into the wild, someone decided that maybe it was a good idea to apply this technique using Sega's 3D models of Crypton's Vocaloids. Hopefully events dedicated to this will start popping up more so I can talk about it later:



And with this post, I officially declare Vocaloid Week to be over. Hope you enjoyed my random discoveries.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOY8N4GOMY1SdTkogG1jKRAgYo04y9rQD9lqTRkhSd2LJjS01ElGANwp59EhNML5wzsXJ4ABZiRXJhU4ehL-qzktqK2lhi-KZa_OzQGsnKGzr2eOTHRPg3N8S6REzIhtDOatpw0QJINo/s128/04.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOY8N4GOMY1SdTkogG1jKRAgYo04y9rQD9lqTRkhSd2LJjS01ElGANwp59EhNML5wzsXJ4ABZiRXJhU4ehL-qzktqK2lhi-KZa_OzQGsnKGzr2eOTHRPg3N8S6REzIhtDOatpw0QJINo/s128/04.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 127px;" /></a><br />A MAD is essentially a music video that either attempts to juxtapose characters from a completely different series into an existing opening video from another or use a song that was meant for something else and make a completely "original" music video with it using characters from a random series.<br /><br />... Maybe it's better if I just showed you an example of a MAD instead. THE iDOLM@STER <a href="http://idolmaster.tdiary.net/" t="" target="_blank">has festivals dedicated to this stuff on Nicovideo,</a> and a lot of them are pretty amazing:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZSMGZCPlY3M&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZSMGZCPlY3M&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And if you're wondering, yes, they literally recorded those animations from the 360 port of the game, somehow pulled them out from the background stage, and did lots of clever tricks to make it look like that. And since Project Diva has been released into the wild, someone decided that maybe it was a good idea to apply this technique using Sega's 3D models of Crypton's Vocaloids. Hopefully events dedicated to this will start popping up more so I can talk about it later:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WlCZEBH4-Q&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5WlCZEBH4-Q&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />And with this post, I officially declare Vocaloid Week to be over. Hope you enjoyed my random discoveries.

Happy love as groovy sound indeed

Aliced Twilightz is a group primarily consisting of two people: KTG and Linco. In terms of musical style, they're very similar to kz of livetune fame and tend to work with a wide variety of people when making music. Unlike kz however, not all of their works use Vocaloids as the singers, but one of their most ambitious songs uses Miku as the vocals with Rin and Len Kagamine as the chorus, and it sounds pretty awesome:



Sometime later in 2008, it turned into a full music video and could be easily mistaken for an opening sequence to a shoujo Vocaloid anime:



What's even more interesting though is that the art style is not that much different from Hideyuki Takenami's designs for Sega's re-imagining of the Puyo Puyo universe after they acquired the rights from Compile. I'd be somewhat surprised if these renditions of the Vocaloids appear as exclusive extra characters in the PSP version of Puyo Puyo 7.

You can download the Karaoke version of this song from their website, and the direct link to it can be found here.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4T8zt-CBidzVU-bQguK-MjXVX0Dj2v-LK0aT9L9ppzEmkKbHosKaDAI8TCcr8YQSzNIyyUApoLNo3dTc2p8muKP5yNkPbPf0w4ziutMtriACLC-HGttQIn3646KXxe1weI167EFhdEd8/s128/03.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4T8zt-CBidzVU-bQguK-MjXVX0Dj2v-LK0aT9L9ppzEmkKbHosKaDAI8TCcr8YQSzNIyyUApoLNo3dTc2p8muKP5yNkPbPf0w4ziutMtriACLC-HGttQIn3646KXxe1weI167EFhdEd8/s128/03.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 128px; height: 128px;" /></a><br /><a href="http://twilightz.net/">Aliced Twilightz</a> is a group primarily consisting of two people: <a href="http://twilightz.net/profile/ktg/">KTG</a> and <a href="http://twilightz.net/profile/linco/">Linco.</a> In terms of musical style, they're very similar to kz of livetune fame and tend to work with a wide variety of people when making music. Unlike kz however, not all of their works use Vocaloids as the singers, but one of their most ambitious songs uses Miku as the vocals with Rin and Len Kagamine as the chorus, and it sounds pretty awesome:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oiMZuT5zUYk&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oiMZuT5zUYk&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Sometime later in 2008, it turned into a full music video and could be easily mistaken for an opening sequence to a shoujo Vocaloid anime:<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rBfSXrrQV68&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rBfSXrrQV68&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />What's even more interesting though is that the art style is not that much different from Hideyuki Takenami's designs for <a href="http://hardcoregaming101.net/puyo/fevrchar.jpg" target="_blank">Sega's re-imagining of the Puyo Puyo universe</a> after they acquired the rights from Compile. I'd be somewhat surprised if these renditions of the Vocaloids appear as exclusive extra characters in the PSP version of Puyo Puyo 7.<br /><br />You can download the Karaoke version of this song from their website, and the direct link to it can be found <a href="http://twilightz.net/mp3/gara399a2vols.mp3">here.</a>