lumo cover: Metro Hadron Collider
Source Material
Vocal Design
Voice banks & V5 style presets utilized in this project:
Melody- Kaito V3 Soft & Straight [alternating] Strength & Texture
1st and 2nd Harmonies- Kaito V3 Soft & Straight [alternating] To the Stars, Short Echo
Tuning this was relatively easy. The mixing, though-
I had a difficult time deciding where to use the Straight append and where it was better to use the Soft one. I ended up alternating between the two pretty freely and set them to mirror each other at least once in matching melody lines.
In the first section, I added some additional pitching up and down. The second section includes accents on the lone interspersed syllables. In the third section, as well as the last, I used some crescendo, vocal fry, and vibration, in addition to several pitchbends. A number of the vibration effects on release include the ‘open’ parameter on attack to clarify and smooth the sound. Harmonies include repeated slight vibration in several sections and occasional pitchbends. Some of the accents match the melody line for emphasis.
This is probably the first time I’ve attempted to add some sort of robotic effect. Short Echo worked extremely well for this.
Reflections
Today [or three days ago, depending on who you ask] was the 18th anniversary of Kaito’s V1 release.
The bad joke, of course, is that Kaito is now officially of legal age.
Eighteen years is a long time for any computer software to remain in use, and it’s been ten years since the V3 update. Vocaloid 5 is no longer available. Vocaloid 6 continues to support the V3 libraries, but without future updates, I wonder how much time Kaito has left. I hope he will be making music far into the future, and I also hope I will be making it with him.
Bittersweet thoughts tonight, and a lot of nostalgia.
I wanted him to sing something upbeat and hopeful in honor of the occasion. This is a song invoking infinity and transcendence, a feeling of oneness and awe with the physics of the universe. It’s a perfect fit for him.
Happy birthday, my angel.
