Just a reminder that I’ll be at MomoCon from the 24th to the 27th!
Come stop by the UTAU: Free Virtual Vocalists panel to learn a bit about UTAU’s history and usage, and to snag some stickers… as well as possibly win a copy of Decagon!
convention
Miscellaneous updates!
Whew! Got a little bit of catching up to do!
I can’t believe I never posted this here, but back in February I wrote a song with KAITO for the third and final ABCD Project! I tried to write something a little Grimm fairytale themed, and the song also features Aoki Lapis as chorus vocals. It was a lot of fun to make and I’m glad people seem to have enjoyed it!
Also, I’m happy to announce I’ll be hosting my UTAU: Free Virtual Vocalists panel at this upcoming Momocon in May! More details to come soon once the final schedules are hammered out–it’s already changed location/time once so I want to make sure everything is absolutely set in stone first!
If all goes well, I should have a special item to bring with me to the panel that I might do a raffle for ;D
New cover: “Rinse, Repeat” feat. Big Al (+ convention update!)
Hey all! This is the first VOCALOID cover I’ve posted to YouTube in a long, long while! It’s Big Al singing CrusherP’s “Rinse, Repeat”. I’m so happy to finally post another thing with my favorite singing synth husband 💖
In other news, I’m happy to announce that I’ll have my UTAU panel at this year’s ETSU-con! The convention is February 17-18 on the East Tennessee State University campus. I’ll be posting the specific time and day of my panel once I have that information!
VOCAMERICA at Anime Banzai
I’m a little later than I would’ve liked in posting this, but I had an absolute blast at Anime Banzai and VOCAMERICA the weekend before last!
It was my first time in Utah, and my second time out West… other than attending Anime Expo back in 2014, I ‘d never traveled farther out than Arkansas! The area is absolutely GORGEOUS, I still can’t get over the mountains that surround Salt Lake City. They’re absolutely stunning. I wish I’d gotten the chance to take better photos, but this one will have to do.
My attendance was mostly thanks to Pandemic : doujin music collector extraordinaire and co-host of the Vocaloid Hangout Plug.dj room. I honestly can’t thank him enough for inviting me. I also was happy to have a third convention run-in with Agatechlo (resident LEON stan and Plug room manager) who gave us all nifty little LEON keychains, with art drawn by Untramen!
It hadn’t crossed my mind that Anime Banzai was the convention where Vocatone first debuted V3 Oliver years ago, so I certainly got a surprise when I ran into Chaofreak (now SCRAPxRABBiT), one of Vocatone’s former members. I was more familiar with him as voicer of Kurone Zanda, one of the first couple of overseas UTAU… EVER. It was a giant blast from the past to be able to meet him IRL, since he and Chii were basically the ones that brought UTAU to the US and outside of Japan in general. I had fun chatting with him and the rest of the Utah Vocaloid crowd, even unexpectedly meeting one of Lystrialle’s PV artists, Oxymoroff!
VOCAMERICA was fantastic, with a bunch of new songs added to the setlist (I’ll be linking the official Engloids.info writeup later!) Many thanks to Aki for including the special surprise of Aiko performing HIBIKASE, I’m extremely honored!!
All-in-all, this was easily one of my best convention experiences. I definitely hope to be back at Anime Banzai next year!
My next convention will be Yama-con in Pigeon Forge, TN from Dec 1st to 3rd, which will also feature a VOCAMERICA show! Hope to see y’all there!
More Convention Updates!
Hey all! Just some news concerning MTAC next month. I’m sorry to say that CrusherP will not be able to attend this year’s MTAC due to unforeseen circumstances.
However, I am pleased to announce that Pachi, our gracious web host and soon-to-be voicer of the lil’ pink cutie in the top banner, will be attending! If all works out timewise (as I have not yet received a schedule) she will be assisting me with the UTAU panel. I plan to do a live recording, otoing and USTing demo with her help.
As usual, after the panel I will be offering an UTAU fan-meet, where we can go hang out and grab something to drink or eat around the con venue. And I’ll bring some UTAU-themed goodies to hand out as well! So please come and chat about singing robots with us~ o(≧∇≦o)
(Official announcement video on YouTube will come later once I have the date and time set!)
VOCAMERICA Recap!
I arrived home from NekoCon yesterday early morning, but I was far too exhausted to properly recount anything about the weekend for a coherent blog post. It’s still difficult for me to put everything into words as the whole VOCAMERICA experience was actually overwhelming.
I cannot thank everyone enough for their support: Aki for including Aiko in the concert and allowing me to assist her at the exhibitor booth (which was a FANTASTIC experience), Agatechlo and KK and Iris and Joe and everyone else I met at the con for being such wonderful friends and supporters, and Pandemic for being there in spirit and surprising Aki with such a fun gift at the VIP hangout. I couldn’t have asked for a better NekoCon.
I unfortunately did not film the concert (for one, at that point my phone was nearly full anyway and I also wanted to fully experience the first VOCAMERICA performance) but videos have been cropping up on Twitter and YouTube already.
Shinji, the tech manager for the show, posted his videochat footage from Aki’s phone. Aki herself filmed the entire concert with a camera & tripod, so you can expect footage to be posted within the next few weeks, and even sooner if you were a Kickstarter backer.
Also RoboticReptile1 on Twitter captured footage of the 3 CrusherP songs in the concert: “Biohazard”, “Wildfire!!” and “ECHO”. I still can’t believe I got to see Aiko perform on stage and I’m not ashamed to say I cried like a proud mom.
#VOCAMERICA – Biohazard pic.twitter.com/dmUHtpyAYF
— robo ⛄️ (@roboticreptile1) November 6, 2016
The concert itself went off without a single technical hitch, with an estimated 800-1000 person audience. It was an incredible success, if the merch line post-concert was any indication! Aki and her staff worked incredibly hard and the end result was well worth the wait. Here’s to many more VOCAMERICA concerts in the future! Remember, if you want to see VOCAMERICA at a local convention in your area, contact that convention’s event staff and express your interest!
