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Post by Valdemar Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 1:19:53 GMT -5
There was never anything to do on Saturdays... And when Vald got bored, he tended to do stupid things that would get him in trouble with his mother. Usually things that involved minor property damage and a very angry ex-headmistress trying to cart him off and make him wear dresses as punishment.
Vald leaned out the window of the student lounge and stared at the grounds below, wondering whether or not it would be worth it to create a miniature replica of the Grand Canyon where the newly constructed tennis court stood. He doubted the headmaster was all that attached to it.
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Post by Merkyutio "Kyu" Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 1:33:29 GMT -5
Kyu, tucked in the corner with a PSP and a newly purchased samurai rpg, glanced up at his brother and arched an eyebrow.
"If you're thinking about jumping," he said, pausing to mash buttons for a few seconds, "mom will heal you up just to kill you." There came from the handheld device a distinct sound of explosions.
"And if it's anything else, stop thinking it." He caught Valdemar's eye, smirked, and continued to play.
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Post by Jack Emberlain on Jun 9, 2010 1:38:03 GMT -5
Jack poked his head into the student lounge, and, seeing people he mostly recognized, stood in the doorway, arms crossed.
"Either of you seen Ai and Demi today?"
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Post by Valdemar Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 2:32:13 GMT -5
Vald grinned at his brother and leaned back away from the window. "Don't worry, I'm not planning anything that self destructive. Just considering remodeling the landscape."
He glanced over at the young man in the doorway. Jack was sort of family in a very roundabout way; he supposed they were technically cousins, but it was far enough off that it didn't mean much. Vald wasn't even entirely sure how there were connected, at least off of the top of his head, except that it probably went through Hitoshi.
"Can't say I have," he replied. "I've only been awake for a few hours, though." Vald hopped onto the sofa and kicked his feet onto the coffee table, sinking down several inches into the deep plush cushions.
Now that there were actually people around, he could probably find something more interesting to do. And whenever he could drag Kyu into something, Kyu always ended up taking most of the blame. It was one of the many advantages of having older siblings.
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Post by Jack Emberlain on Jun 9, 2010 2:52:36 GMT -5
"Ah. Shoot; I'm out of things to do, then." He walked in and plopped himself in the floor, leaning against one of the chairs.
"Can I impose myself on whatever you guys are doing?"
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 9, 2010 16:08:30 GMT -5
Chris hadn't planned on going to the student lounge-- in fact she hadn't been planning on ending up anywhere-- but she'd heard the voices, and voices were what she needed.
With her open laptop balanced in the crook of one arm, and the cord of a microphone looped around the other, she pushed through the door and was relieved to find all familiar faces.
"Can I borrow you guys for a second?" she asked, indicating the microphone she held. "I've got like three new projects going, and I need voice samples."
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Post by Valdemar Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 18:09:08 GMT -5
Vald hadn't really been doing anything of interest, so he was more than happy to help out Chris with whatever she was doing. He pushed himself upright on the sofa and turned toward her.
"Sure," he said. "What do you need?"
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 9, 2010 18:19:33 GMT -5
Chris grinned and set herself down on the couch next to Valdemar. She put her laptop on the coffee table and plugged in the microphone, which was then handed to her classmate.
"I'll be poking you until you do this, too," she said to Jack, as she pulled up a list of seemingly random syllables on screen.
"Vald, read these syllables out loud. Go through the list twice, and try to stay in monotone." She expanded the page set so that the entire list could be seen, in three columns, on screen to eliminate the need to scroll.
Chris was quite excited about this. She had found a way to crack the system behind the Vocaloid programs, and was now determined to make her own. This would open up a whole new array of music for her to play with.
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Post by Valdemar Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 19:24:31 GMT -5
Vald took the laptop from Chris, looking over the syllables. It was a simple enough task, but he was interested to find out was she was doing with them.
"Ah, ba, da, na, ta, ra, va... oh, bo, no..." He read through the syllables, keeping his voice flat, until he had made it twice through the list. He handed the computer back to her.
"So what exactly are you making with them, anyway?" he asked.
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Post by Kyre Athdaire on Jun 9, 2010 19:47:12 GMT -5
Kyre walked in with a slightly abstracted expression, playing idly with a small ball that appeared to be made on solid gold. In his other hand was a book of fairy tales, which his nose was buried in. He walked through the door with barely enough of a glance to avoid hitting anything.
His eyes glanced up again as he heard the nonsense sounds, their unsettling color seeming to almost glow as the light hit them. He glanced at all the other students and merely moved to a clear couch, still playing with his gold ball. It wove around his fingers, reflecting images that were of and yet not of the room around him.
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 9, 2010 19:48:18 GMT -5
Chris's grin took on a very feline feel. She ran the recording through a custom program and broke it into separate sound bites. Then she went into her files and pulled out a track she had composed earlier, which was a reworking of the "Kagome Kagome" tune.
"It doesn't work so well for songs in English, but..." The specs had already been worked out for the tune-- all Chris had to do was assign the proper sound bites in the right order, and pitch them.
After a few minutes of working, Chris had the first verse done. She pressed play, and a computerized voice-- though still recognizable as Valdemar's-- was singing "Kagome Kagome."
Chris sat back, rather proud of herself. "How does that sound?"
Oh, the fun she would have with this new program.
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Post by Jack Emberlain on Jun 9, 2010 20:15:17 GMT -5
Jack leaned forward a little, pulling his legs underneath him, and looked over at the laptop. "Hey, what's it doing?"
"Cool, so you take our voices and it uses them to say stuff? That sounds useful."
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 9, 2010 20:40:56 GMT -5
Chris nodded vigorously. She tilted the laptop screen back so both Jack and Valdemar could see. "See where I've run the sound bites through that grid, there? I've got the background track running in layers-- one of which is silent. I've set that layer to carry the tune of the vocals." She hid the other sound layers so that only the silent one could be seen. It looked like line graph. "When I bring the sound bites into this layer and put them where they need to be--" she selected a few of the syllables: ka, go, and me. These were dragged to a section of the graph and arranged over the line, then doubled so that they repeated once more. "--they automatically convert to the pitch indicated by the tuned layer."
She pressed play, and the computer sang to them.
"Cool, aye? Took me all freaking summer."
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Post by Valdemar Yogo on Jun 9, 2010 21:49:07 GMT -5
Vald's raised an eyebrow at the laptop. "Wow, that's really cool. Do you think you could do that with other things? You could make a techno remixes of other songs."
He was quiet for a moment, thinking. "I've been wanting to start a band, and I'm working on gathering members. Do you think you could do sound-editing, remixing, that sort of thing? If you can do that, touching up recordings should be a cinch." He smirked. "And maybe you could talk your dad into letting us use to the music room for practice."
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 9, 2010 22:04:15 GMT -5
Chris chuckled. "Oh, of course I could. I've run tests using mine and my parents' voices already."
At Valdemar's proposition, she paused. A new grin spread slowly across her face. "Ooh. That sounds glorious." She rubbed her hands together. "I would love to. And yeah, I don't think there'd be any trouble getting the music room. All my dad would ask for is to put some of the finished stuff on his computer, so he can listen to it. His collection never stops growing."
She giggled, her expression bright, and handed the microphone to Jack.
"Your turn!"
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Post by Kyre Athdaire on Jun 9, 2010 23:24:54 GMT -5
Listening closely, Kyre put his book down and leaned forward, watching the... mostly younger students with interest. That was a rather fascinating program.
Kyre found computers ridiculously interesting. He loved the way they changed things, and what the Lyckander girl was doing had him fascinated. The ball continued to dance over his hand, weaving a pattern of shine.
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Post by Jack Emberlain on Jun 11, 2010 0:25:31 GMT -5
Jack moved over closer to the couch to look. Something about... computers. Gotcha.
He took the mike from Chris and repeated the syllables.
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 11, 2010 13:46:32 GMT -5
Chris beamed and ran the recording through the program. While it loaded, she looked up at the other young men in the room. Merkyutio seemed occupied with his video game, though when she looked at him, he caught her eye and smiled.
The other looked familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on where she'd seen him before, if not at school.
"Would you like to try?" she offered. "I'll run your voice against Jack's, and harmonize it."
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Post by Kyre Athdaire on Jun 11, 2010 21:07:13 GMT -5
Kyre smiled slightly and shifted closer.
"I would love to," he said, his voice a smooth lilting almost-purr that had an almost indefinable accent. He took the microphone and recited the syllables with a perfectly flat, monotone voice. From the sound of it, he'd had practice. Going through them twice, he finished and glanced at the girl. His blue eyes scanned her face closely, narrowing slightly. It seemed that he should recognize certain aspects of her face, from things his father had told him about coming to this school to prepare him.
"That is an interesting little toy you have there," he told her, gesturing with an almost feline ease at the computer and its screen.
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Post by Melanie Christine Lyckander on Jun 11, 2010 21:30:35 GMT -5
"Thankee, much." Chris bobbed her head in affirmation and ran the new voice through the system, as well. She found a proper music file and pulled out the layers tuned to vocals, dragging and dropping as was necessary. Every so often she had to retune a point on the graph, but her hands worked quickly and with the ease of practice.
"This computer is my baby," she insisted, grinning. "I use it for pretty much everything."
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Post by Kyre Athdaire on Jun 11, 2010 21:40:24 GMT -5
Kyre smiled again, shrugging. "I never was very good with technology," he said, his voice still an almost-purr. He listened and watched her work curiously, noticing each and every finger-stroke.
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