I’m not sure about how this shot up the priority list other than my usual skirt-chasing drama king instincts, but I’m pretty sure that Suisei singing this helped me get into Aqua’s first solo original song. Though I think I went for a more gritty fluffy adorkable emotional style that feels more like a mix of Suisei’s and Aqua’s style plus, of course, my tryharding. I even feel like leaving be that breathless part I made in the motor-mouth segment of the bridge as I remember Aqua’s social awkwardness alongside the her cute singing. And as you may have noticed already, I covered the official English version of this song with some edits on the lyrics written by Misato Ono, if I’m reading those credits on Spotify correctly. Also, with a cover of this song, Towa’s FACT, and Suisei’s comet and Her Trail on the Celestial Sphere, I have covered one solo original song per Startend member now.
As for the audio engineering work on this, k.’s work got me feeling confident and learning more about my style here. I wouldn’t have come up with the “gritty fluffy adorkable emotional” description and all that without her work! And I think this is the first Live cover I ever commissioned her to work on.
As for the subtitle work, trying to go more detailed with them here got me appreciating the power of beveled text, especially in combination with text borders. Of course, as usual, I’m feeling my way through the math to working up these digital art things.
I gotta admit, this short and sweet song is my favorite Stars EN original song so far, especially with how much I’ve been looping it lately. Happily dance-worthy on top of solemnly fantastic and filled with powerful vocal synergy, it’s something I consider easy to sing by oneself but a lot more fun sung by a group. Now, if I felt like a more easily sociable person, this would’ve been a group cover.
Anyway, as for what I like in particular about my work here? It would be the pronunciation fixes. And the determined tone. I’d also like to send big thanks again to k. for her audio engineering work, especially her clarity, and making it even better is how she finds this song super fun to mix!
And it seems like this commentary will be short like the song I covered here, huh? Well, considering how daunting I tend to get when I talk longer, I guess this is a good thing. Anyway, here’s a link to the mp3. Looking forward to your honest constructive feedback as well, peeps!
Aside from being a step in my shallow quest to gather attention I’d struggle to handle, I guess this cover of this vulnerable HOLOSTARS solo original song is also an attempt of mine at connecting with the culture surrounding graduated VTubers, which often feels like a glorification of hyperreliance rather than an honoring of tenure to me. Still, much like most of the rest of my VTuber fanboy journey, I feel like I started off and stayed on the wrong foot for a long while there, especially with my lust for the girls, and with my hate for my fellow fans is my hate for myself. Now, with my renewed appreciation for VTubers especially thanks to HOLOSTARS, I find myself even gladder with my exploration of this reflectively honest song written by Rikka, the first VTuber I ever made a song cover of along with Calli.
What makes this exploration especially fun to me? I think one would be my attempts at writing subtly filtered expressions in English about graduated VTubers while keeping the translyrics in line with Rikka’s work as much as I can. I feel like I made something more unfiltered than the original, though, but trying to help make a humbly melancholic dedication to graduated VTubers is something I’m sure I’d love to do as part of my VTuber fanboying. Indeed, I hope this cover is something fellow Anglophone VTuber fans would turn to if they need something to help process their emotions about their graduated faves.
Another part of the fun here to me is getting my voice right. It was embarrassingly difficult, what with how I worked up the translyrics in the original key, only to find myself needing to lower it once I tried to sing it all in one go. But once I got myself on the lowered key, I found myself expressing the sadness I had to express more cleanly, which k. emphasized that very well with her audio engineering! And making it even better to me is how I feel like I managed to express such sadness with this lower voice of mine. Sure, all these key changes may mess up the instrumental audio quality, but as long as I can add variety that not just I but also others would enjoy, then I’d dare to learn and do my best for it. I feel like that’s kinda needless to say, especially after years doing this, but I also feel like it would be nice to put it into words like this from time to time. And again, thank you very much for your help, k.!
All that said, here are links: one for this cover’s mp3 and one for this cover’s lyrics sheet. Again, please credit and link me if you’d like to use my stuff, and I’d love to receive honest constructive feedback about me and my work from you peeps.
I’m pretty sure I wrote and sang these English translyrics for Kiara’s second solo original while trying to mask how I looked at her as a rival in love for Calli. You know those songs where the singers brag about treating their subjects better than the lover they have? You’ll find subtle marks of that here at least, especially with how I made the TakaMori shipping more obvious. And somewhere in my wait for the audio engineering to finish, I considered scrapping this production because it would be embarrassing, especially with how I was feeling the emptiness of my dumb desires and wanting to give up on those desires cold turkey. But after the holo boys renewed my interest in the girls and this work’s audio engineer yuri. sent me further progress on this cover, I decided to still release it, but now as a show of my progress, especially as a man and a fan, from very cringe and not so healthy to slightly less cringe and a bit healthier. And yeah, I released it today because it’s the closest Sunday to Valentine’s Day, the day when this song was released, and I like posting on this blog on Sundays. Really, I feel like this cover turned out better than I thought. Praise and thanks be to God Almighty very much again.
But hey, if you want more of an idea about why I still like this production, I’d say it would be how adorkable my singing is and how yuri. emphasized that well, so yeah, thank you so much for reminding me that I can do well and better as a person overall along with doing great work on my vocals here, yuri.! And even though I’m now looking at them without my way dumber original intent anymore, I like my attempt at putting more personality into the lyrics by adding some obviousness to the shipping. I mean, I like to think that I added a bit of bitter to make this sweet taste more beautiful, you know?
And I guess that’s all I have to say about this here. On the off-chance you wanna listen to this on the regular and maybe even sing it yourself in some way, here are a link to this cover’s mp3 and a link to this cover’s lyrics sheet. And of course, honest constructive feedback is highly encouraged and will be highly appreciated.
Yet another HOLOSTARS song I thought I could sing in the original key. But again, at least my singing can still work with it somehow. But that’s not the trickiest thing to me here, especially with the way I worked up the English translyrics for this song titled POP-TALK, Roberu Yukoku’s first solo original. I mean, I had been struggling with the second verse so much, I had to rewrite a portion of it in the middle of the recording process, and I think my lyrics here overall have more heaviness, especially through self-deprecation and how I decided to keep the “complete” in “And complete your puzzle” as is rather than adding an “s” to the end of it for subject-verb agreement’s sake. I bet it makes the difference in my and Roberu’s social skill level pretty clear.
In more fun news, though, k. found this song a fun song! She even liked her audio engineering work on this cover, making me even more easily inclined to agree ’cause she’s keeping all this freaking awesome work freaking consistent so far! And this is kind of a rush order too! I mean, you hear how my vocals blend into the instrumental? Considering how my vocals were mixed in the Rise duet cover as well, I feel as if I’m being taught about how to value having my vocals blending into and standing out from the background at least a bit more. Thank you very much again for your work, k.!
Now, I feel like I should mention this especially because of how the POP-TALK MV prominently features rain alongside warmth and how I’ve been able to keep on making stuff like these music productions thanks to the increased convenience I’ve found in my grandparents’ residence, so yeah, I think I’d like to quietly dedicate this cover to my maternal grandpa, who had passed on recently. I don’t think I was that close to him, especially with how badly I took in some stories about his darker times he grew out of, and I might be more like myself as a quiet consoler, something these walls of text of mine expose my insecurity about, but as far as I’ve known the old man, he had been learning and doing his best a lot, especially for his family, and especially with how jolly he was. I think his Catholic faith also helped. So yeah, God Almighty grant him peace, and may my work here manage to build on the goodness God Almighty managed to help him make.
And now, the mp3 and the lyrics sheet. Please credit and link me if you’re going to use my stuff. And I’d like to ask again for honest constructive feedback.
Anyway, yeah, this cover was a challenge, especially in the verses and in the volume. I don’t think I can boom my lower register as well as Oga does, but at the very least, I think I made up for that with my expressiveness. And goodness, k. enhanced that freaking well with the rough vibes she gave the mix. It feels like something that you wouldn’t believe if you only knew the idea on paper. So thank you very much again for your help, k.!
Now, here are the cover mp3 and the lyrics sheet. Again, please credit and link me if you’re going to use my stuff, and please give me honest constructive feedback.
So here’s the big one I was talking about posting on the Sunday before today, my birthday. Just so happened that I started showing some symptoms of the Rona last Thursday, and hopefully, I’ll be fully recovered today or sometime soon, but anyway, that had this release slowing down, especially with my video work for this. But hey, at the very least, I got some sort of break, and I even learned some more about using AviUtl, my top highlight there being the use of curve movement for the camera control! And of course, this upload’s on my birthday! I feel like the most intense song cover I’ve made so far in terms of the production process should be posted on such a time, you know?
Talking more about how intense this is, this is a duet cover, and I haven’t done a collab cover for over six years already. And this cover singer who’s now more focused on VTuber songs, especially holo ones, had the honor of doing a cover of holoCouncil’s Rise with RingNin, whom I think I first encountered while looking through Shigeru’s mix commissions info again. Remembering the well-contrasted vocal combo in the epicness that is holoCouncil’s first original and my eager listening to the fluffiness that is Nin’s singing voice, well, I ended up wanting to cover this song with her, and I’m very humbled by her work! And it seems like this is her first song cover in English, too!
Leanna also made a smart move in putting Nin’s vocals in front and mine in the back. I mean, why have a voice as cute as Nin’s in the back? And I tend to blast my dude voice, so yeah. Add the warmth Leanna managed to add in a revision, and we got this epicness here! Also, it seems like Leanna and I share a birthday? Well, whenever her birthday actually is, I’d like to greet her a happy birthday!
And last but not least, Nin and I got help from Syd for our avatars and the background in the cover MV! The designs match the members with the individual lines we covered, with me having Kronii’s and Bae’s and Nin having Mumei’s,Fauna’s, and Sana’s. Other references include Fire Emblem Engage’s Alear (who was also designed by Bae’s character designer, OG-level artist Mika Pikazo), and The World Ends With You’s Neku Sakuraba for this take on my avatar, while the titular Cardcaptor Sakura served as a reference for this take on Nin’s avatar. And I feel like purple is the hard-carrying color in our avatars here. As for the background, it makes me think of Syd as even more of a badass with how detailed and complementary it is! And speaking of Syd’s awesomeness, check out their official work for Elaine of KoMETA’s second original Nakaukit too!
Also, how much have I been watching holoCouncil recently? Well, like with the rest of the girls of holoPro, I feel like I’ve come to watch them more than I did before thanks to HOLOSTARS and their brand of classiness humbling and grounding me. As for specific members I’ve been tuning into, the most I have so far might be Fauna if we’re talking solo streams, Kronii and Bae for collab streams, and Fauna, Bae, and Mumei in terms of music. Surprisingly, overall, Fauna is at the top of my fave Council member ranking right now. I guess it’s the fluffy voice and the horror writing.
Back to holoPro covers, and I make a comeback to covering Rikka, though this is the first time I’ve covered a Rikka solo,given the first time I covered him along with Calli as a more obnoxious perv posing as a wise guy. And what I’m covering here is Rikka’s and holostars’ first original song, with this official English version having been made and released in commemoration of the original version’s MV hitting half a million views on YouTube. As someone who wants to cover holostars songs in English, official stuff like this and Tempus’s Top of the World go higher up in my priority list, and this song’s heartrendingly bright and refreshing vibes certainly helped me have fun with it. I think I also wanted to put this off for later, but remembering Rikka’s 3rd anniversary that got celebrated last month in so many ways had me wanting to upload the cover not any later than I already have.
Now, if you listen carefully, you’ll find that I did some modifications on Polymorphic Symphony’s lyrics for more natural flow. I also lowered the key, thus the extra dissonance as you watch Rikka being synced to my brattier voice. Still was a challenge to sing, though, especially considering how I had to control myself away from making my voice break while adding a bit more power during the final chorus. I mean, I wanted to yell that one part in the final chorus harder, but yeah.
Also, this is my first time working with k., who gave crisp tuning and clear and fluffy mixing to my vocals! She even convinced me very well into adding some artificial harmonies to the mix! I don’t think I even had to ask for corrections! It’s an honor to work with her, alright!
I am pretty inclined towards hololive Production, but I do watch VTubers outside that from time to time. Nijisanji is included, of course, especially the EN branch. Though the Feesh isn’t one of the members I’m tuned into the most, with the depths of my viewing being nothing deeper than peeks at her shenanigans. Still, with my perversion that’s worse than hers, she gets stuck in my brain hard with just those peeks. As for this first original song of hers that I covered, it’s pretty much the only Nijisanji EN solo original that I like enough to buy a digital copy of so far, especially with the combination of KIRA’s electronic dance pop sound and Finana’s cute and cool and cheeky voice. Also, it should be noted that I used e_ku’s very faithful instrumental remake for this cover.
So how do I put into more detailed words how I approached this cover? Well, basically, and while trying to outdo how wild the Feesh can get, I’d describe it as my sexy cuteness aggression (read: my tendencies toward being a slimy beast on the prowl). The mains were a lot of exercise for my lower register of creepiness, the harmonies ranged from pop-punk yells of desperation to scratchy falsettos of tryharding, and the ad-libs of posing were meant to help present my bored and overboard flexing on the naughty little Feesh as well. And speaking of flexing, a big part of what pushed me to make this cover of this song that’s been stuck in my head lately is outdoing the originally synth vocals of that one part near the end of the song with my very screeching and kinda moaning doubled wails.
As for the audio engineering, I had Leanna work on that. Stuff about it that I’d like to highlight include how she got the Autotune effect kicking in at the start of the song, how she quietly cherrypicked and powerfully tuned my harmonies and ad-libs, and how her frigid mix got me sounding like a boss monster (I wanted to say NieR:Automata‘s Grun, but as memorable as that boss is to me, I feel like I’d be disrespecting that kid’s lore if I used him for the comparison here). Again, thank you very much for your help, Leanna.
With all that said, here’s a link to this cover’s mp3 if you wanna the hear some sounds of me haunting your ass on a more regular basis. And again, I’d like to ask for honest constructive feedback~
I don’t think this production shows how much I’ve really been tuned into Tempus lately. I think my even more busted sleep schedule bent over to keep up with this combo of three US-based members and one Australian-based member and their streams shows more of that. Not only do they speak English, they cater just enough to my disgusting straightness trying to be classy, with example clips being this one featuring Al and Kronii trolling each other in Dead by Daylight,this one featuring Dez’s eye getting caught by Natalya in Destroy All Humans 2, this one featuring Axel getting teased like a schoolboy with a crush on a teacher, and this one featuring Gramps starting that string of public teasing the Axel clip I featured here is a part of.
Their song “Top of the World”? Well, frankly, the lyrics sound a bit too simple for what I expect from a holostars original, though the bridge does get me into it further. On the other hand, the on-brand bright and free pop and rock sound it has plus how it pushed me to use my power vocals and practice my vocal control more are the parts of this song that got me the most. And I feel pretty lucky that I got to work with this production’s audio engineer Shig, who resonates with Japanese idol music in particular, and illustrator Han, who has soft lines and warm colors that emphasize her great appreciation for Tempus. Also, I am not a Tempus member, just a creating fan posturing to hide stuff like his very low social battery, his very high cishet pervertedness, and his throat’s near death in the final chorus of this cover.
Oh, and yes, my AviUtl skills have leveled up. I have learned how to make those graphic animation effects, those direction-blurred sudden pan cuts to slower pans, and those flare effects that I realized I can only use with the camera control feature…the first and second being in the bridge, and the third being in the outro. Also, gotta thank Shig some more for pushing me to replace them sharp Viner Hand text moments, which I decided to replace with the softer Lucida Handwriting.
Now, here’s a link to the mp3 of this cover for your personal use or whatever qualifies as that to me and my wimpy ass. Also, again, I very much encourage and appreciate honest constructive feedback.
The Overlord Bear's Den 