I don't want to write all the complaints about real life, so today I'm going to talk about creation like a creator.
I am currently active mainly on Nico Nico Douga and Twitter as a Vocaloid P.
I thought I'd write about how to get started with Vocaloid P activities, but people with more names and achievements than me have put together an easy-to-understand summary, so if you're interested, please google "How to start Vocaloid P".
Here, I will write about my production environment and how to make songs.
I'm mostly self-taught about music, so I don't know how efficient it is.
Today we will talk about the DAW that is essential for Vocaloid P activities.
A DAW is basically music composition software.
It's packed with features that allow you to place notes on a sheet of music to create a musical score and create a song, or mix sounds recorded using a microphone to create a song.
Various software makers in various countries have released various DAWs, but here I will write about the DAW I use.
I use a DAW called FL Studio developed by a Belgian company called Image Line.
*Using Reaper after November 2023
The main reason I bought it was financial.
The Producer grade, which can use almost all functions, costs a little over 20,000 yen, and is free of charge for many years.
With other DAWs, you have to buy an upgraded version every time a new version comes out, so it's very kind to the pocket of the poor.
It's also lighter, simpler, and doesn't fall off too much.
Cubase and DAWs made by other companies often have a one-month trial period in their trial version, but the trial version of FL only has a restriction that the exported save data cannot be reloaded, and there is no specific deadline, so you can buy it whenever you want to try it.
I don't like being rushed, so this kind of looseness was also a high point.
As it is said to be for EDM, it does not come with a comprehensive orchestral sound source such as Cubase or Studio One, but it is not necessary for making pop or dance music.
If you need it, you can just add a third-party sound source, so it's better to keep the initial cost low.
That's why the synth has a pretty high-performance guy from the beginning.
For example, this synth called Sytrus comes with the Producer grade and above, and includes about 500 types of sounds including the additional presets that the official distributes for free, so you can make songs with just this synth, and there is also a demo song actually made with Sytrus alone.
For the first half of the year, I composed mainly this song.
I still use it from time to time.
Also, this can be said for other DAWs, but it was also good that there were many demo songs with a high degree of perfection.
If you have data created by a professional, you can figure out how to use a DAW to finish the song, and it's much easier and more reliable than looking at the manual.
There is also a Hatsune Miku song.
Speaking of clear disadvantages of FL, I can only think of the fact that it can not be translated into Japanese at the moment.
If you're not good at English and don't plan to study it in the future, Studio One might be better.
However, if you can read English in DTM, you can buy sound sources cheaply on overseas sites, and there are many plug-ins that do not have a Japanese UI, so I think it will be useful in various ways.