Month: December 2016

Milestones, Turning Points, and Activity Updates – December 2016 + 2016 in Review

Welp, it’s been quite a year, indeed. A bunch would say that it sucked, and a bunch would say that it rocked, but if you ask me, it both sucked and rocked, and since it rocked, I’d still keep on living, yo~

So yeah, I’ve been through a lot this year…like making some strange friendships with peeps at the Professor Arc Forum, managing to get through two semesters of uni, uploading a bunch of music stuff, starting a multi-chapter RWBY fanfic, getting my heart shaken by “Kimi no Na wa.”/”Your Name.,” writing stories, trying to hammer in a better routine into my head, attempting comedy vids, translating stuff from one language to another, starting this monthly update habit, and a bunch of other stuff that you’d learn more about if you’re that enthusiastic about knowing what the freaking nuts I was doing this year…but that sort of enthusiasm would probably creep me out, now that I think about it…

Anyway, what a year, indeed. As usual, I’m looking forward to good things in the coming year, and I’m gonna keep on doing my best!

Now, here are the posts that I managed to put up during December 2016:

Hmm…I’ve been doing a lot of music stuff lately during December 2016…but still, I wanna work on writing stories some more. Also, I’m going to focus on collab covers in the near future. That, and I’ll probably upload a solo arrangement + vocal cover and/or a solo original too.

And agh, I should really cut down on the impulsiveness, indeed…

Oh, and before I completely forget about it, I mixed another cover by Shiriru. He tried to sing Chouchou-P’s “Kokoronashi,” yo~ And hey, before that, I mixed a cover by Nyusan, who tried to sing Jin’s “Outer Science” with my instrumental arrangement of it!

And now, considering the time…well, Happy New Year, dear peeps! \(^o^)

A Dream Within A Dream (Lyrics + English Translation Transcript)

夢のまた夢 / Yume no Mata Yume / A Dream Within A Dream

Niconico Upload | YouTube Upload

Singing and Music Production: Mafumafu [Niconico MyList, YouTube Channel, Twitter]

Drawings and Video: Ryuusee [Niconico MyList, Portfolio Website, Twitter]

Romaji Transliteration and English Translation: The Overlord Bear

Translation Quality Check: Myo/Forgetfulsubs [YouTube Channel, Tumblr]

Continue reading “A Dream Within A Dream (Lyrics + English Translation Transcript)” →

Wandering Weiss – Chapter 8

Wandering Weiss

a RWBY fanfiction by The Overlord Bear

Summary: Were it not for a wandering musician’s cynical words, Weiss Schnee would have continued on the path to becoming a Huntress. Now, a disinherited Weiss lives as a wandering singer, trying to be a hero in a different manner, with that wandering musician named Jaune Arc as a companion…

Previous Chapter: Patches and Nightshades

First Chapter: A Change of Path

Chapter 8: Remembering Boundaries

Continue reading “Wandering Weiss – Chapter 8” →

Christmas Reflection (2016)

Hours ago, I went to Mass with my family. It was a Christmas Eve Mass, and yet again, I felt more at peace at the church. On one hand, it was a strange feeling, as I was born and am living in imperfection. On the other hand, it was a welcome feeling, as a lot of stuff had gotten me believing in God more lately.

And hey, perhaps it’s weird to be a believer in God these days. Why believe in some being that a bunch of people fantasize about, right? Well, speaking of fantasizing, I’ve been thinking about that recently. I’ve been thinking about what makes true faith in God different from blind belief, and now, I think that the difference between the two is that the former focuses on balance, while the latter focuses on extremes.

See, I’ve been observing others and myself when it comes to spreading what we believe in. I see a lot of zeal, something that’s encouraged a lot these days when it comes to living life, I think. Zeal’s good, yes, though sometimes, we go overboard with it, and going out of control isn’t a good thing. And hey, in today’s society, where pluralism and postmodernism are prevalent, zeal is very high on all sides, and people’s hearts blaze for their respective beliefs. I like living zealously, too, and I don’t want to live lazily. Still, I found it strange that the zeal I wanted to have led to unnecessary conflict, and with that, I ended up thinking that living lazily feels much better, though I tended to think of it as something along the lines of “toning it down” most of the time.

I guess I can say that I need to learn a lot more about self-control. I’ve seen my overzealous self and my lazy self in a bunch of people, and in being like those people, I found myself out of my depth. My confidence would crash, and when it goes up, it tends to come with me thinking that self-deprecation is something that can grant me true happiness. My self-deprecation mixes with my overzealousness, and then what follows is a crazier spiral of chaos within me, who’s teetering back and forth, very much unbalanced.

Really, I think I’ve been living my life with the thought that extremes held the key to true happiness. I wanted the true ultimate happiness quickly, and in my rushing, I failed to notice the things I should be watching out for. Then, with that same overzealousness, failure hit me very hard, and then I attempted chilling out to the extreme, leading me towards more stupidity. A cycle of abuse happens again and again, and I fall into further sin the more I hold on to that rushing.

Even now, I wish that this struggle which I found myself stuck in would end quickly. Still, I’ve been realizing that extremes would do me no good. I need to keep myself balanced, looking at things critically and from different perspectives. I need to push down the desire to rush and kick out the desire to laze, because they’ve been hurting me more than I thought. I need other people, but I don’t need to force them, nor do I need to just let them be selfish. My senses aren’t as great as the senses of God, who helped me so many times in my life, and I can’t say that I know everything, nor can I say that I know nothing.

I’m an imperfect human, yes, but I can learn, and I am learning. Fantasizing, which I now consider wishing for extremes, isn’t as impressive as it used to be to me, and now, I want to live in reality, trying to find true happiness within it.

And today, I think I’m really having a merry Christmas. As usual, this world still has conflict, yes, and my future will come with a rocky road, but still, I can see the light…the light of God.

So yeah…Happy Birthday, Jesus. I pray that you continue to show me where the right path is.

And hey, Merry Christmas and more strength to you all as well, dear readers. 🙂

Loser’s Anthem – Vocal Arrangement Cover

It’s late at night right now, and as of this post’s writing, I’m currently at a friend’s house, hanging out with a bunch of friends. Although I don’t know how effective it’s being, I feel some relief in this hangout where I cut myself loose and go nuts with fellow nuts.

Anyway, yo, it’s me, The Overlord Bear, here to promote a cover I made with the help of ippotsk, who composed, arranged, mixed, and illustrated for the music I added lyrics and vocals to. Originally, the track was just an instrumental that was posted on her SoundCloud, and when I found it one day, I considered adding lyrics and vocals to it, and so I asked for permission to do so. I eventually got some enthusiastically given permission, and after some more time, I managed to whip up the lyrics and vocals. Then, after presenting an earlier version of my cover (which had a vocal mix that I worked on) to ippotsk, rearrangements and further mixing were done, and along the way, I also whipped up a video via AviUtl and the Advanced Editing plugin with an illustration by ippotsk herself as well! Oh, and finally, I managed to learn how to deal with that audio-video sync problem during encoding…though there’s the slowness problem with my comp trying to work with AviUtl, especially when certain effects are applied (for example, a certain blur effect I used)…Oh well, my comp’s the best I have right now and for a while, so I gotta deal with it for a while…Also, I’m enjoying how the video turned out! I’m certainly gonna use AviUtl more in the future, yo.

Now, more about the lyrics and vocals, well, I think they’re somewhat childish, and recently, I’ve been feeling like dissing, including self-deprecation, isn’t really my style. Still, at the same time, I’m glad that there are people, including and most especially the composer, who find it enjoyable, and I feel more relief along with being able to express my complex self. It’s quite strange, really, though it makes me want to live more and live better. Also, I really like ippotsk’s rearrangement and further mixing. The arrangement in the cover still has the melancholic feel, but with more grooviness, I think. I think that her mixing also made the vocals more emphasized while not being overpowering, too. Yeah, I’m fine with working with her again in the future, alright. 🙂

And hey, now that I think about it, I don’t have much more to say now, especially since I’m now feeling the need for sleep more. With that, I ask for honest constructive feedback from you peeps.

Now, see you again in the den, then, yo. And hopefully, I’ll be posting a fanfiction chapter or a short story or something in the near future…

Tobby tried to sing “Headphone Actor”

So, after waiting for a number of days and going trial-and-error with deleting some browsing data, I’ve finally stopped delaying the upload of this song cover which was supposed to be uploaded on my birthday! Plus, I can’t go back in time, so yeah, I’ll deal with what I can deal with.

Anyway, about how I worked on this, well, I think I spent a day or two with recording and mixing vocals for this. I had already prepared the instrumental some time before, lowering the pitch and mastering the sound, the latter being something that I was doing along with a bunch of other offvocal tracks. As for singing the song, there was difficulty, even with the lowered pitch, particularly during the last hook, as I needed to make sure that I didn’t run out of breath while trying to stay on-key. Working on the harmonies also made me think about what can I manage and how I can improve there, especially considering how I hit the ceiling of my range while reaching the end of the high-range harmony track.

Also, I’ve been reminiscing about how “Headphone Actor” was one of the songs which really hooked me into Vocaloid. I think it was during 2012, back when I was just looking at example songs for various Vocaloids while sating my curiosity about the software that I found being referenced by anime and manga fans. IA was one of the Vocaloids I was checking, with Lia’s involvement attracting more of my interest towards IA, and “Headphone Actor,” an IA demo song, was one of the songs I checked out early on. Back then, I wasn’t quite attentive when it came to which musician produced which Vocaloid song and all that, but still, what made “Headphone Actor” so attractive to me was the combination of story and song. Eventually, while I searched for more Vocaloid songs, I found out about Jin, a.k.a. Shizen no Teki-P, and I became a fan of his works, especially the Kagerou Project. The interesting story + song combinations really got me, you know, and although I listen to other musicians more lately, Jin’s works still have a special place in my heart. Also, there’s a ton of other producers and works that kept me a fan of Vocaloid. I guess I can say that them song cover peeps helped out a lot there, too.

Well, that’s that for now, I guess. I’m not up for rambling around too much, see. Also, I managed to get through a semester of classes again, I’m on break from school right now, and I’m gonna go back to it on January. I should take the opportunity to spend more time on sleep and other important things right now, alright…that, and stories, collabs, and more…but first, more sleep…

Also, mp3, yo. And see you again in the den as well. And before I further forget, honest constructive feedback is highly encouraged and will be highly appreciated.

Dappou Rock – TOB English Cover

Okay, now that the upload delay has been stopped, hi, I’m The Overlord Bear, and here’s my first uploaded cover with English translyrics…and I don’t count that “Yoake to Hotaru” cover I did but took down once ’cause I did an unauthorized upload of the video for Mes’s cover.

Okay, so, this was started some time ago this year, probably during June, the month when “Dappou Rock” was uploaded, or maybe July, managing to make a full translyrics draft and even a translation quality check from Emma, but I didn’t really push forward with recording for a while because of various stuff. I started recording and mixing vocals during November, I think, a time when I, who had been humbled by better translators, had also gotten help from Myo, a.k.a. Forgetfulsubs.

Now, it’s uploaded, and I’d like to thank those who helped me out in the making of this. Also, special mention to Myo, her quality-checking, and her subtitling! Do check out her translation of “Dappou Rock” as well! And by the way, you’ll probably notice a few lines in the subtitling of my cover being parts of her translation of “Dappou Rock,” which I decided to keep in to mess around with you peeps a little…well, a little more, considering how crazy Ryuusee’s video is.

As for my thoughts on the audio production here, trying to sing like Araki is something I’m not confident in, and there’s this annoying and hard-to-remove clicking sound near the end of the first hook. Still, they’re not as big as my liking for my lower voice range, the harmonizing, and the effects I used, yo~

As for my thoughts on the song and how I translated it, I decided to translate it that way ’cause I wanted to be as close as I can get to the original feel of the song, which feels more held back and self-contradicting than in-your-face and straight-up “Fxxk the law!” Also, I consider this cover a part of what I consider more creative ways to express my rage, sadness, and stuff. I don’t like doing stuff like wildly ranting, see, even though such stuff seems so appealing at times.

And hey, here’s this cover’s mp3. Also, if you wanna cover this song with my translyrics, then here’s the lyrics sheet. Please credit and link to me, TOB/The Overlord Bear, if you’re gonna use them, okay?

And again, honest constructive feedback is highly encouraged and will be highly appreciated. 🙂