Piano Cover: Kyou ni Koiiro (Inari OP)

Although this anime season started off a little slow, an unassuming little show called Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha showed up on week 2 and captured my heart. It's a strange cross between slice-of-life and supernatural, revolving a girl who gains mystical powers from a ridiculously cute fujoshi goddess. It's a shame this show is only 10 episodes; it's been consistently solid so far.

Gamer goddesses = the best goddesses.

The OP for Inari is a collaboration between composer kz of livetune (perhaps most famous for the Hatsune Miku song "Tell Your World") and singer May'n. The result is as beautiful as you might imagine; livetune's music is great, and I'm definitely a fan of May'n's lovely voice.

While the tempo on the original song is actually fairly high, I thought the song lent itself well to a slower interpretation. (Either that, or it's an excuse because I can't play fast.) After some faffing around on the piano, this cover was the result. I actually tried to do something a little more complicated (for me, at least) with the left hand this time, to mixed results. In any case, cover:

Kyou ni Koiiro (Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha ED): Piano Cover



Artist: May'n & livetune
Date Completed: 2014-02-02
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Instrumentation: Piano

I also put together some sheet music! Click here for the link. That's all for now! :)

Take care,

xds

Global Game Jam 2014: Race the Rainbow

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of taking part in the 2014 Global Game Jam, a game-making marathon held at multiple locations worldwide over the course of 48 hours. The theme was "We don't see things as we are, we see things as they are." After some brainstorming of ideas and quite a bit of arguing, we decided on our game:



"Race the Rainbow" is, as its title suggests, a racing game. Each racer is one of four colors, and various colored tiles are scattered across the racetrack. When a racer is driving on a tile that matches its color, it gains a speed boost; if the tile is of a different color, it takes a severe speed penalty. Thus, although the racetrack is the same for all players, each player sees the racetrack differently depending on the color. (Yay loose interpretation of theme!) 48 hours is never as much time as you think, and I'm glad we ended up settling on this straightforward idea.

I was on composing/sound design duty for the entire weekend, which was a ton of fun: it's been a long time since I've been able to focus just on writing music. I had the pleasure of working with two other talented audiophiles/composers, and learned more about producing music and recording over a single weekend than I have in my whole life. Working with the other members of my team (programmers, designers, and artists) was a lot of fun as well.

I ended up being responsible for the main level theme, which we decided would be of a "modern chiptune" style. I tackled the composition in FL Studio (accompanied by FL-chan :P), which I had finally purchased over the past holiday season. After scrapping my first few drafts, the final melody idea came to me in my early-morning drive back home, and I subsequently put the rest of the piece together over the next 30 hours or so. A bit slow in retrospect, but given that I was simultaneously learning how to use FL Studio, I'd say not bad. Here's the full version of my song, "Chromatic Circuit":



Title: Chromatic Circuit
Date Completed: 2014-01-26
Software: Audacity, FL Studio
Composition time: ~15 hours

All in all, the weekend was a huge blast, and I'd recommend that anyone who has an interest in games check out the next Global Game Jam (January 2015). Check out our official Game Jam page here, and if you're interested in playing our game, you can either download the executable from the page or play in a browser here. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Best,

xds

Piano Cover: Oto no Naru Hou e (Gin no Saji)

First cover of 2014, and of the new season! :D To be honest, this season's been disappointing so far, so I was very glad to see Gin no Saji, one of my favorite shows from two seasons ago, return for its second run. The show's more-or-less the same (minus one particular farm animal), but that's a good thing: can't argue with seeing more of the super-adorable Mikage :D

There does indeed appear to be a silver spoon.

The song I decided to cover from Gin no Saji season 2 was the "Oto no Naru Hou e" (no idea what that means, honestly), the super-catchy ending by Goosehouse. Actually, likely the best part of me attempting this cover was discovering Goosehouse, who is a flat-out amazing musical group. While their work doesn't quite have the same immediate impact as some other artists, they clearly really enjoy what they're doing, and that comes across in both their music and their videos. Check out their YouTube channel here.

Anyway, here's my cover. I had fun with it, but after way more takes than I'd intended, I just gave up and went to bed. X_x The end result isn't as polished as I would have liked for it to be, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Oto no Naru Hou e (Gin no Saji Second Season ED): Piano Cover



Artist: Goosehouse
Date Completed: 2014-01-17
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Instrumentation: Piano

Also, I finally managed to pull off widescreen, so no more random crops!

'Til next time,

xds

Piano Cover: Just One Life (Samurai Flamenco)

Happy 2014! Except I'm still blogging about things from 2013. Typical T__T

Samurai Flamenco! Now in cherry, grape, peach, and lemon.

I honestly don't know what to say about Samurai Flamenco. At one point I would have recommended it without any reservations, but recent developments in the show have tempered my enthusiasm a bit. I'm still finding it fairly enjoyable for the time being, but suffice it to say, it's a very different show now than I'd have expected a few weeks ago. Nonetheless, I think it's still worth a watch, at the very least for the brilliant first few episodes.

I know this is a second image but I LOVE MAYA MARI OKAY

The opening to Samurai Flamenco, "Just One Life" by SPYAIR, is more rock-like than songs I typically cover, but as always, I dialed down the tempo a bit and offered a more liberal interpretation of the song. I think there's plenty of emotion in the song, particularly when matched with the opening footage. Here's my cover!

Just One Life (Samurai Flamenco OP): Piano Cover



Artist: SPYAIR
Date Completed: 2013-11-27
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: Also don't remember
Instrumentation: Piano

New season's in tow, so look for more covers (hopefully in a timely fashion) soon!

From beyond to heaven,

xds

Tutorial: Gogo no Junjou (Kuragehime)

I've been on a josei roll of late. Sakamichi no Apollon is one of my favorite shows ever so I already had a soft spot for the genre, but I recently watched Kuragehime, Honey & Clover and Nodame Cantabile all in a row, and they were all pretty great. Kuragehime in particular had a cool little piano insert song with a metronome, so I decided to put together some sheet music.

...Of course, I finished this tutorial before I ever watched Kuragehime, so most of that previous paragraph is irrelevant.

I ALSO CAN'T BWEATHE BECAUSE CLARA IS TOO MOE

I was struck by this piece in particular because of its neat classical sound and ternary form, and because it sounded like so much fun to transcribe. It was, indeed, a lot of fun to transcribe; lots of arpeggiated passages and fairly predictable structure, and none of those annoying tricky chords that I always have trouble with. Then, like all music that I transcribe but am too lazy to actually learn, I put together a Synthesia tutorial! Check it:

午後の純情 (Kuragehime Insert Song)



Composer: Makoto Yoshimori
Date Completed: 2012-10-23
Software: Finale 2008, Fraps, Synthesia, Movie Maker
Instrumentation: Piano

Here is a link to the sheet music. It's a pretty fun technical piece; enjoy! And if you're looking for a funny, feel-good show, give Kuragehime a chance; I think it's definitely worth the watch.

Laters,

xds

Piano Cover: Innocent (Galilei Donna)

I'm several months behind, so I'm going to keep this one really short.

Because everything is better with more moe girls.

Galilei Donna was a show this season. I watched it. It was mediocre and I didn't finish it. (I am disappoint, NoitaminA.) I did, however, make a cover of the ending song, which is actually pretty catchy. And features even more moe girls! Enjoy :)

GOD EVEN MY VIDEO PREVIEW HAS A MOE GIRL ON IT

Innocent (Galilei Donna ED): Piano Cover



Artist: Earthmind
Date Completed: 2013-10-13
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: Honestly don't remember
Instrumentation: Piano

I'm going to keep these posts short from now on to facilitate me actually getting them done in time.

Happy winter,

xds

Piano Cover: Rage On (Free!)

Once upon a time, there was an innocent little YouTube video, put together by Kyoto Animation to demonstrate its awesome new water-animating skillz. Unfortunately for video-kun, who just wanted some peace and quiet, the Internet was taken by storm. Legions of fangirls and fanboys celebrated KyoAni's foray into the world of delicious manservice, and dubbed the content "Swimming Anime." When it was finally discovered that Swimming Anime wasn't, in fact, a real show but only a demo, the resulting cries of grief and frustration were deafening. Overwhelmed by the pure volume of fan reaction, KyoAni finally relented, and announced that their new show Free! would begin airing in July. Cue the Internets going wild.

Or something like that.

The butt-slap that started it all.

Along with seemingly everyone and their great-aunts, I began watching Free! when it began airing in July (which was marginally awkward since I was visiting family in China). I don't know what I expected from the show, but one thing's for certain: KyoAni certainly didn't shy away from the fanservice, and Free! has been chock-full of shirtless dudes and near-yaoi moments. I really admire shows that are unapologetic about the content they're showing, and Free! is about as unapologetic as they get. With all the ridiculous female fanservice in the anime market, Free! comes off as almost tongue-in-cheek in the way it reciprocates it on the men.

I guess I should mention the backlash-from-dumb-people that the show got, but I'll direct you to my friend's blog post for all matters concerning that bit of controversy.

Oh, what's that? I'm supposed to talk about the music at some point?

To be honest, I can't say the music in Free! is the best I've ever heard -- though the ending sequence might be the most absurd (-ly awesome) I've ever seen -- but I still wanted to give the OP a try. The rock style of the song isn't the type of music I'm used to arranging for piano, but whatevs. :P Here is my attempt at covering the opening for the Swimming Anime:

Rage On (Free! Iwatobi Swim Club OP): Piano Cover



Artist: OLDCODEX
Date Completed: 2013-07-27
Software: Audacity, Sony Vegas
Number of Takes: 18
Instrumentation: Piano

Although I doubt Free! will find its way onto my best-anime-of-all-time list, it's definitely been an enjoyable ride so far. If you're curious, give it a try; I'd be interested to hear what you think! Here, have some Matsuoka Gou for good measure. :P

See you next water time (wut),

xds