I took a day trip to see Seika-san, the AI singer of Synthesizer V and poster girl of Seika-cho, Kyoto, who is also known as Kyomachi Seika, hold an orchestra concert in her hometown of Seika-cho.
I've been working long hours recently and I'm a time-poor person, so I considered spending over 20,000 yen round trip on a bullet train to take a whirlwind tour and just listen to the orchestra concert, but I decided to take a leisurely stroll around Seika-cho, Seika's hometown, and head to Kyoto on the morning bullet train.
By the way, the photo above is of sushi I ate at a Japanese restaurant in Kyotanabe City, next to Seika-cho.
Whimsical Seafood Bar Fujimaru
The nearest station to Keihanna Plaza, where the concert was held, was Shin-Hosono Station on the Kintetsu Line, but I got off at Shimokoma Station, one stop before, because it was a walking course.
The smallest of the smallest stations.
It was the same when I was on a bicycle trip, but it's more fun to stroll along streets like this with a sense of life than in crowded tourist spots.
I found a mysterious shrine.
Long stone steps.
I thought about leaving a donation, but there was no donation box.
I remember a shrine setting a minimum offering amount because exchanging a large amount of coins would result in a loss.
I guess that's how it is.
It's a cruel world.
Rice fields galore.
Seikas can be seen here and there.
A town hall standing alone in the countryside.
I came here to pay my taxes.
I don't know what kind of flowers they are, but they're beautiful.
Seikas can be found even in places like this.
A vast park.
It's been a while since I've walked that much, so I stocked up on some meat.
I arrived at the concert venue 30 minutes before the start of the show.
This time, the collaboration members were also impressive.
Come to think of it, Takahashi-kun didn't appear until the end.
An illustration of Seika-san by a local (?) resident.
There was also a message board, so I wrote a detailed message of congratulations.
Unfortunately, photography and videography were prohibited inside the hall, so I have no photos of the concert, but this concert was also broadcast on Nico Live, and the archives can be viewed until October 15th, so if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you do so.
[September 15th] Songs Beyond Time and Space 2 Kyomachi Seika with StyleKYOTO Orchestra Concert
You will need 4500 Niconico Points (= 4500 yen) to watch, but I think it is worth more than the price.
I hope you will enjoy the avant-garde art created by cutting-edge AI singing, which is different from Vocaloid, and a full orchestra with your eyes and ears.
You will understand everything if you listen.
Just because it is AI singing, it does not mean that you can sing like a professional singer just by typing it out.
These days, AI can sing "authentic" even if you type it in, but that's it. If you want to express yourself like a professional singer and move people's souls, you need to "tune your voice" just like with Vocaloid.
It's a great deal to be able to enjoy an avant-garde work of art created by cutting-edge professional artists in the voice synthesis world and a skilled orchestra for only 4,500 yen.
Apparently they're doing it again next year, but unfortunately I'll probably be overseas by then.
I hope they broadcast it on NicoNico again so I can watch it from overseas.
About that.
Our Nico Nico is finally back.
It was 3pm today, which seems like an odd time, but I happened to be off work due to some mysterious illness, so I was able to witness this historic moment.
I immediately accessed the newly revived Nico Nico!
………………
Well, it was within expectations, or rather, it was a form of beauty.
It could also be said that this honorable 503 error is proof that people who had been waiting for Nico Nico's return (even though it was the middle of the day on a weekday!) rushed to this site first.
According to the official website, there was no leak of IDs, passwords, credit cards, etc., but perhaps just in case, all user passwords had been reset, and the authentication server was congested, so I couldn't log in for a while, but I was able to log in about an hour and even post a video.
https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm43891119
Not a new song to celebrate Nico Nico's revival... but a video version of a collaborative song with a musician friend.
I'm currently working on a song to celebrate the revival.
It's good enough to be played all day long. Look forward to it.
While I and other Nico fans are celebrating Nico Nico's revival, the world seems to be in trouble with the stock market crashing like a bubble burst.
I'm a poor person who doesn't have the money to invest in stocks, so all I can think is that the yen will appreciate and prices will go down a little.
If I had to say something, I'm happy that the chance to go on a wandering trip abroad is suddenly approaching, but at the same time I regret that I haven't been saving money seriously.
I didn't think the yen would get stronger...
And one more thing, I felt that Bluesky alone wasn't enough to promote my work, so I ended up making an account on X to promote my work.
https://x.com/OkonominoFujimi/status/1772948922815623292
That said, impression zombies are still rampant, and the tweets that incite hate among Twitter users are still flowing, so it's still uncomfortable.
I think I'll only use it to gather information and promote my work.
When I was looking up the future of NicoNico on X, I found out that the Vocaloid Collection that was planned for the summer has been canceled, and instead a project called "Bokaeri 2024 Summer" has been launched.
There's a month to post, so I think I'll have plenty of time to post a new song. Good job.
https://x.com/the_voca_colle/status/1818896201032647054
And so on.
In conclusion, Microsoft is about to make some changes that could wipe out all the data of Windows 11 users.
It's still fresh in our memory that Niconico Video was forced to rebuild its system in a hurry after it was destroyed by a ransomware attack.
For those who don't know, a ransomware attack is a crime in which some evil hacker somehow breaks into a company's system, encrypts the data and makes it unusable, then demands a ransom, saying, "If you want us to decrypt it, give us money."
Such attacks have happened before, but this time Microsoft is doing it in the next version of Windows 11, so all Windows users will be targeted, which is why we're sounding the alarm and telling everyone to be careful.
BitLocker, a feature that Windows OS uses to encrypt storage such as the C drive, has been implemented in higher versions since the days of Windows Vista, and is useful for companies like Nico Nico and wealthy people who move a lot of money, but for ordinary users, who don't hold data that is valuable to criminals, and especially for creators like me,
Risk of work data loss >>>>>>> (an insurmountable wall) >>>>>>> Risk of data leakage
So it's a complete nuisance.
You can check whether BitLocker is enabled by following the steps below.
1. Enter "cmd" in the search field next to the Windows mark.
2. When the command prompt appears, right-click and select "Run as administrator".
3. Enter "manage-bde -status" to check whether each drive is encrypted with BitLocker.
If the Conversion Status is Fully Decrypted, it means that the drive is not encrypted, so there is no problem.
If the drive is encrypted and you want to decrypt it, the following site may be helpful, although I haven't done it yet.
[Windows 11] Enable/Disable BitLocker Drive Encryption
Of course, unlike trash hackers, Microsoft has prepared a way to recover from encryption.
Also, just because a drive is encrypted does not mean that it will become unusable immediately.
The problem occurs when you reinstall Windows due to some kind of trouble, or when your PC breaks down and you replace it.
For example, if you have backed up important data on the D drive, if you don't know the recovery key, that data will be unusable forever.
If you are a user who logs in to Windows with a Microsoft account, the recovery key is apparently stored in the Microsoft account.
*There are cases where the data is not saved, so it is better to check if you enable BitLocker.
So, unless you are using a PC without a Microsoft account or you can't log in to your Microsoft account because you forgot your password, it's probably not a problem.
But even I, who use a password manager to manage my passwords, have had the experience of being unable to log in to SNS due to an app malfunction or mistaken operation, so BitLocker, which can lead to the loss of all data if you're not careful, is too risky.
Especially for middle-aged and elderly people who don't use credit cards or online banking, there's no way that data would be a problem if it was leaked, so encrypting storage for such people is as nonsensical as using nuclear weapons to get rid of cockroaches.
Windows 10 was well made, so I've been thinking recently that "Microsoft is evolving" but it seems that they're still as clumsy and have no sense when it comes to this kind of thing.
Maybe I should go back to being a Mac user...
The MIDI keyboard I use is an M-AUDIO one that I bought about 3 years ago when I started DTM, and it cost about 8,000 yen, but about a year ago, the pitch wheel broke and I started having problems with the pitch of tracks going up.
So I surfed the Internet for an hour to see if there was a way to disable the pitch wheel on the DAW side, or more accurately, to block only the pitch information sent from the MIDI keyboard, but as expected, I couldn't find any information in Japanese.
After searching in English, I succeeded in finding the information I was looking for.
Pitch Bend Control - plugins to alter, assign or disable MIDI Pitch Wheel
To disable only the pitch wheel while using other functions such as the keys and modulation wheel of the MIDI keyboard, it is not possible with just the default REAPER plugin, so you need to install an extension.
ReaPack: Package manager for REAPER
First, install ReaPack, an extension plugin management function.
When you type "pitchwheel" in the ReaPack search screen, "PitchWheel Control Center" will come up, so install that.
Once you're done, restart your DAW.
Search for "JS PitchWheel Control Center" in the plugin search and add it before your favorite sound source.
There are statuses called Output Range UP and DN, so set them to "0".
This disabled the pitch wheel while keeping the modulation wheel active.
REAPER is great value for money and I think it's the most flexible DAW I know, but unfortunately there's little information about it in Japanese, so when a problem like this occurs, I'm forced to search for information in English.
With DAWs that have a lot of Japanese users, such as Cubase and Studio One, any trouble you face will usually have been solved by someone else who has done so before and shared the information in Japanese, and sometimes the official websites even publish troubleshooting information, so in that sense I think it's easy.
Well, if there's no solution, I can just write it down, so I'm writing this down, not sure if anyone will ever read it in some remote corner of the internet, in the hope that it will be of help to those curious people who have chosen REAPER from the many DAWs available.
It's been half a year since I started using Reaper.
I was able to make songs smoothly and comfortably without any major problems, but recently I started to worry about something.
It's about managing plugin presets.
It's not a problem with plugins that can read and write presets with their own GUI, like Melda, but it's troublesome when you rely on a DAW for preset management, such as PA.
For example, bx_console, which I often use.
When I create and save a preset, it is saved at the bottom of the self-made presets, but it seems that Reaper does not have a function to sort the presets I've created alphabetically.
I can change the order of the presets, but all I can do is click Move Up from the menu and move them one line at a time...
I spent about an hour looking for people who had made macros or scripts to automate processes, but I couldn't find any information.
About four years ago, someone with the same problem as me submitted a request for improvement to the official forum, but the fact that it has still not been improved suggests that there is little hope for it in the future.
Well, if it doesn't exist, I'll just make one.
To be honest, it's a pain to switch to another DAW just for this, and it's endless.
By the way, FL and Studio One will automatically sort the bx_console preset list alphabetically, as you would expect.
Reaper's plugin setting files are managed together in one file per plugin, and after locating the location of the setting file and analyzing the data, I found that I could change the order by rewriting the contents, so I created an automation tool in Python.
The usage is simple. First, find the folder with the target preset file and save it in target_path.ini.
Save the file names you want to sort automatically in target_files.ini, one file per line.
Right-click Reaper_Preset_Organizer.py and run it from Python.
It won't work unless Python is installed on your PC, so if you don't have it, please install it from the official website.
If you set .py files to always be run from Python, you can simply double-click to rewrite the preset files specified in target_files.ini in alphabetical order.
Hooray, I'm free from the pointless task of just clicking Move Up.
I'm always willing to make an effort to make things easier.
If you're interested, please visit the app page on this website.