fascinates: (kimi ni todoke | kazehaya////)
[personal profile] fascinates
TokuP / とくP

mylist | community | website | Wikipedia entry.

This writeup took me a long time to write because of the very vast history and work-related information TokuP has. I mean, he has his own Wikipedia entry, for goodness' sake! Of course, there is probably no one in the Vocaloid fandom who does not know him. He is known for his highly popular song, SPiCa and other Vocaloid hits.

Born March 5, 1978, Toku or Yoshinori Abe is not only a Vocaloid producer but is also a professional arranger/composer/musician. He was first a member of the professional band "beatica" and was named arranger/manipulater/remixer in it. His producer name "Toku" also came from his nickname in this band. Before and while he was working on Vocaloid stuff, he was also doing pro works as an arranger and manipulator for artists like Angela Aki, Dir en grey, KinKi Kids, baroque, Superfly, Rie fu, Rag Fair, etc. He also arranged the opening song for Fate/Zero, "oath sign", sung by LiSa. He was also part of arranging the ending song of Ano Hana "secret base~kimi ga kureta mono(10 years after ver.)", under the name estlabo, a collaborative group composed of TokuP himself, wowaka, FullkawaP, and hachi. And he was also the composer for the opening song of the anime Freezing, "Color", which was sung by MARiA. You can see a list of his professional work here.

He started uploading his Vocaloid works in Nico Nico Douga in 2009, and was noticed for the impeccable quality of his songs. His first two songs are based from Beatica songs, and his first original "SPiCa" remains his most widely-acclaimed creation in the Vocaloid community. He is known for making electropop upbeat songs which, although appearing to have a common rhythm, has a multitude of sounds. His ballads are often dramatic but powerful. and Almost all of his songs have the characteristic "rising mood" wherein the song starts slow before slowly picking up pace towards a fantastically grand chorus that sets a high climax for his songs. He uses a lot of instruments, mostly distinct keyboards and guitars (esp. in the recent uploads).

TokuP is known as one of the first producers to have used GUMI after her release in 2009. However, he mostly uses Hatsune Miku for his works, tuning her solid with mid-range that slowly rises into a crescendo with a high pitch. He also uses Miku append in some of his works. Aside from Miku and GUMI, he has also used Miki and Kagamine Rin.

Despite having professional work (for other artists), TokuP still collaborates with other Vocaloid producers, like with estlabo and Vocaloid music label Balloom. Aside from his Vocaloid works, he also concentrates on his non-Vocaloid indie groups, namely GARNiDELiA with utaite MARiA, and Headphone Tokyo, where he is the composer, keyboardist, mixer and sound producer.

TokuP has released a number of doujn CDs including SPiCa, SPiCa ReACT, etc. He doesn't have a major release yet, but he has taken part in tons of compilation albums including EX:P2~Ex:Producers, DEBUTANTE VI, VOCALO SMILE/TEARS feat. Hatsune Miku, VOCALOID BEST from Nico Nico Douga, EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocalolegend, Hatsune Miku - Project DIVA - extend Complete Collection, etc.

sample songs
A. Vocaloid
blue bird (GUMI)
Butterfly (Hatsune Miku)
The Universe (miki)
Hands (Kagamine Rin)
Melting Summer (GUMI)
Arrow of Love (Hatsune Miku)

B. Non-Vocaloid
ORiON (GARNiDELiA)
GET OUT (GARNiDELiA x L.I.N.E.)
MACHINE DOLL (feat. Harada Hitomi)

nikki says
Like most of you, I also knew TokuP from his work SPiCa, which I think is already a Vocaloid classic. However, I didn't start liking him because of this song, but for his other two songs blue bird and Butterfly. I think he's a really talented person, especially after seeing him collaborate with MARiA for GARNiDELiA and see them perform live. I always thought he was a man of potential, but I didn't think he would be this accomplished until I read up about him. Seriously... He worked for 12012 albums!! That band's like...they used to be one of my favorites. Also, Angela Aki!! His list of works in his website is impressive (even though it's mostly arrangement/manipulation, working for that many artists...). But outside the being pro and stuff, I'm mostly amazed at how wonderfully he could juggle all of this work while still posting food pictures in his twitter. Having tons of wonderful accomplishments is pretty norm for talented people, but managing to do all of them so well without missing a beat, that IS saying something.
fascinates: (Default)
[personal profile] fascinates


This month's Indies Ranking still has a lot of songs from the previous ranking, but there is surprisingly a large number of new ones. There are instrumentals, V-kei material, and your usual dose of post rock.

Like with the Weekly Utaran, a mirror to the English Nico Nico Site is also provided for the Monthly Indies Ranking, so if you want to comment in English, feel free to view this one.

English nicovideo link
original nicovideo link

new upload ranking )

overall upload ranking )
fascinates: (marmalade boy | suddenly)
[personal profile] fascinates


This is a combination of the rankings for September and October. As the NNI category is pretty slow with updates, there's still a lot of old stuff in this ranking. However, there are also a lot of new ones worth watching, although you may have already encountered them somewhere if you follow some VocaloP/utaite's original stuff. Apologies for the lateness, I didn't realize it was already uploaded OTL.

original nicovideo link

new upload ranking )

overall upload ranking )
fascinates: (hakuouki | saitou 2828)
[personal profile] fascinates


This week is Miku's birthday week, so you'll be expecting a lot of new Miku songs to honor her anniversary. You can find songs uploaded for her birthday under this tag.

Since it's Miku, the most popular Vocaloid, you might be expecting that this is a Miku-fied week. I am also surprised that it's not at all like that! Rin/Len has quite a few songs this week, both new and old from last ranking. Luka has some, too! And our top three this week aren't even Miku songs! Ok, I'll stop acting all suspenseful and get on with it ^^;.


↑# - the song moved up from a previous top 30 rank
↓# - song moved down from a previous top 30 rank
- song is a re-entry to the top 30 rankings

original nicovideo link

Songs are arranged from 1-30.

top 30 under the cut )
fascinates: (madoka magica | homura moment)
[personal profile] fascinates


Since I'm on vacation today, I'm posting the Vocaran while we wait for Utaran :D. I looooooove this week so much because there are a lot of new, amazing releases from famous producers and new ones that have so much potential (I swear, I will stop using 'so much' so much). Because of the awesome new stuff, there are only a few left from last week's ranking, some of them pulled down as a consequence. Still, there are some surprising returns (Matryoshka, what!) and rises. I hope this week will also be an interesting listen for you guys, too, so let's get started.

↑# - the song moved up from a previous top 30 rank
↓# - song moved down from a previous top 30 rank
- song is a re-entry to the top 30 rankings

original nicovideo link

Songs are arranged from 1-30.

top 30 under the cut )
fascinates: (toshokan sensou | pfffft)
[personal profile] fascinates


You might remember that I did a sort of intro post (plus a previous ranking writeup) for Nico Nico Indies Ranking. This is the ranking for this month. As I said, NNI is much more slow-moving compared to utattemita and Vocaloid, so you might still encounter songs here which appeared in the previous ranking. In order to keep your interests piqued, I'll copy my intro discussion on the artist from last ranking as they appear here. :)

original nicovideo link

new upload ranking )

overall ranking )
fascinates: (kuroshitsuji | alois nice playthings!)
[personal profile] fascinates
Since I dropped the monthly Vocaloid ranking, I decided to replace it this time with the Monthly Nico Nico Indies Ranking.



Nico Nico Indies is a small part of the Nico Nico Douga site where people post their original works. The concept that is different from Vocaloid/Utattemita/Ensoushitemita is that the works here are all original and are usually instrumental or sung by people. Of course, while there are many unfamiliar names here, there are VocaloidPs and utaites that participate in this area, too, especially when they collaborate to sing original songs. Oftentimes, original songs from NNI appear also in utattemita, so you might recognize some of them. NNI is also a very slow-moving category, so there are only a few views/participants than what you might be used to.

I'm glad this ranking is just monthly because gathering information on the artists is a bit difficult, especially since I am also a bit new in this area. Since this writeup is to introduce people to NNI, I tried my best to be as descriptive as possible. If you are a fan of anyone mentioned in this ranking please feel free to chip in other information you can share re: the artist!

Since it has almost the same format, this ranking will be arranged just like the utattemita ranking, minus the colorful letters :). This might be a bit tl;dr than most of my rankings, so please be warned! Also, as I said before, this is a slow-moving category, so you will encounter songs here which you might have already heard months ago :).

original nicovideo link

new upload ranking )

overall ranking )
fascinates: (unknown | roses)
[personal profile] fascinates
This "album" is a collaboration among Vocaloid producers, utaite, illustrators, and other artists, but it's not really an album. Actually, it's a series of songs uploaded in Nico Nico as a "set". If you know about the previous season albums "Utaite Tsunagu Album" which has included Clear, Wotamin, Re:A and others in the past, "&" is very much like them.

The theme is "relationships, ties and connections with all things". Each song is a collaboration of a VocaloidP, a singer, and an artist who did the PV. All songs are original and they are not covers of existing songs.

Here's the list of the songs, collab team and a short description on each song. The whole set is in this mylist. When you listen to one song, it automatically forwards to the next track, but in case it doesn't work, just check the mylist :).

track list )
fascinates: (durarara | punch of love)
[personal profile] fascinates
Weekly Vocaloid Ranking #179 (February 28 - March 07, 2011)

Not that many new songs this week and most of the rankings are just movements of those from the previous ranking. However, I hope you won't skip this one because despite the few new stuff, most of the songs are from Ps you don't hear from often or you might have never even heard of before.

↑# - the song moved up from a previous top 30 rank
↓# - song moved down from a previous top 30 rank
- song is a re-entry to the top 30 rankings

original nicovideo link

Songs are arranged from 1-30.

top 30 under the cut )
fascinates: (unknown | music is my life)
[personal profile] fascinates
The first half of 2010 SP ranking (GUMI part) can be found here. For an intro on the SP ranking, please refer to the Miku compilation!

This compilation has even less songs at 80, but I'm sure they're all worth your listen!

Since all of them are GUMI songs, I'll just type the song, composer, and additional Vocaloids used if there are any.

original nicovideo link

list under the cut! )

Profile

ofurotaimu: (Default)
- おふろ ♨ タイム -♪

Most Popular Tags

Syndicate

RSS Atom

stats

free counters

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags