Audio x Office

A short clip I animated for Galvan Ize's character birthday. (belated). It was on Jan 23.

Full cover video coming soon.

Hi Anon, Thank you very much for your enthusiastic support for my projects! Regarding Caeles, I have not forgotten about him at all - I'm very happy to hear you still express curiosity and interest in him.

I was in the process of seeking out a new voice provider for him so I could continue his voicebank production. I did find someone with an incredible and suitable voice, but he is busy atm with professional voicework and I do not want to confirm or hype up anything further until I'm able to get back in touch with him. As Denki and Galvan are already a lot of work to put back into production (Since they're two separate multi-pitch voicebanks), Caeles will not yet be my focus for a while longer. I would also need to carve out time to also teach the new VP how to use Oremo and how to record for UTAU. I really want to be as active as possible again, and really missed being able to. The dip in activity for several years was due to a lot of things happening in my work and life situation, but I'm excited to say I'm doing my best to keep my own projects on top priority going forward.

I am working on quite a bit simultaneously right now but things are moving along, at least.

(roughs)

Hi Anon, Thanks for reaching out!

Sorry I also didn't see this question until now, this was asked last month and I have not been looking at Tumblr very carefully.

I've actually had a lot of ups and downs with creative production over the past few recent years. Two of the factors that affected it the most was actually health and energy, among other things.

The best advice I can give in that situation is to deliberately, very pointedly take time, and make space, to look out for yourself first. Take care of yourself. Schedule a do nothing day for yourself.

If your mind and body can't heal/repair, nor passively soak in inspiration and ideas from things you enjoy in life, it will always be an uphill struggle to create.

If you're already burned out, running on fumes, forcing yourself to create anything will feel like a chore, or more pressure added to your existing pile of pressure, and thus may result in a block. You don't want your area of creation to be another force of pressure/misery - it's ideally a space where you can feel flow and natural joy, or more of an escape from other stressors in your life.

It might sound like very stereotypical "I know, duh, whatever" advice, but your ability to create and be productive in that area, diminishes every time you overexert yourself, or try to push yourself past your personal limits. (And that specific limit is different for everyone).

tl;dr; Rest.

I have other go-to tips for getting jumpstarted on creative stuff when you're stuck, but I think rest would be my top one if you're in an environment of pressure. Let me know if you want elaboration on other tips if this doesn't apply to you at all.

revised banner art for Galvan Ize for my UTAU site as a warm up.

More UTAU related updates/materials to come, likely through April and May. I have some plans for Denki Sai / Galvan Ize's 10th Anniversary (May 14, 2024)

Dragon Rising, UTAU cover with Denki Sai and Pumpking.

The main illustration was done in collaboration with Snowy. @mrfebruarius

Thank you, Powimo - I'm very grateful for your support, both from the past to the present!

Thank you, Happy Chinese New Year to you too! I unfortunately did work that day, but got to celebrate with some friends the next day - I was invited to a dinner party and went home almost comatose with pork, so that made up for it.

Yeah, the art in my current icon is by Tsu (or Lovesick1964), she has a wonderful style.

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for letting me know, Foyuka. That cake looks like... mint, based on coloration. Which is one of Galvan's favorite flavors. He likes refreshing sweet flavors.

It looks very well made, and is decorated very nicely. The flowers on the side and center/top resemble Lily-of-the-Valley, and.. maybe celery stalks on top? Galvan does love his greens. Very impressive.

I went to BiliBili to take a look, and it seems like Carosy ran an event where they created a lot of covers for Galvan's character birthday (Jan 23). They have also made a lot of other covers and fan illustrations with Denki Sai and Galvan Ize beyond this event.

That's highly dedicated, and words alone can't describe the gratitude I feel towards the overwhelming effort and love shown towards Galvan and Denki, especially when I have been so inactive in recent years with UTAU covers.

I don't use BiliBili, or know how to - I don't have the wherewithal to join and manage my presence on more platforms, at this time. Carosy，如果你读到这封信 - Please know that I'm very grateful for your love and dedication towards Galvan, and I hope that my renewed activity into this year can justify any continued support. 非常感谢！

Thank you v much for kind words on the cover, and the birthday wishes to Galvan! This is the year I decide I will stop being a negligent character owner and actually do more with my characters.

Thank you for your well wishes! Same to you, Anon.

It was the same with me when I first got into UTAU, so you're not alone. I recall running into quite a few obstacles trying to even get the voice to playback in the program. The learning curve is steep and it is legitimately difficult for newcomers to get into using the software since there's quite a few entry-point barriers to getting into it (such as changing your system locale, language barrier, trying to get the program to work to begin with, etc.). Back then, I believe the resources/info for UTAU were more limited too, but it's become more plentiful nowadays. My best general advice would be to start simple and give yourself small, achievable goals that are realistic and take small steps forward and let yourself try and learn things little by little, so you don't get discouraged off the bat. If you have curiosities or questions while using it, fortunately there are tons of good resources (both written and video) out there with a specific enough Google query. It's definitely not a skill that can be mastered overnight, and UTAU comes with a sandbox of creative skills that you can explore and level up further if you desire (such as mixing, art, composing, etc.) Small goal examples could be trying to create and mix a simple cover song with a voicebank that already exists out there, try to record a simple CV voicebank, learn how to configure (oto.ini) a voicebank. It's easy to be overwhelmed because of seeing what users who are great at their craft are capable of, but it's best to compare progress with yourself, since everyone's backgrounds and mentalities towards learning are different.

I have a song with Denki Sai in the works to get myself back into it. Hopefully it will be released by next month if all goes well.

I redid my old cover of Angel Rain from 2014.