Ringo Shiina project I'm trying to start

[oasis_heart3]

(by the way: feel free to ask any questions you have!! =)

Hello, everyone! (^^) I really hope you'll help me -- or at least hear me out. Right now, all I pretty much have is a dream. ^^;

I loooove to write, and one of my hobbies is writing song lyrics. A lot of times, I write English covers for whatever I’m “in the mood” for. And one artist I’m almost always in the mood for is Ringo Shiina. (^^) There’s just something about her that really inspires me. Maybe it’s the great music, or the tricky lyrics (“tricky” meaning “Her lyrics are VERY abstract, and I like to use rhymes. So it can be HARD trying to make her lyrics rhyme [and not be cheesy] and STILL make sense”).

I’ve thought about doing this project for a while now, and I’ve written just over 40 lyrics since the beginning of the year. (^^) I even came up with a name for the project…but the only problems are:

* I can't sing too well
* I can't play instruments
* I'm not that great with audio editors (Goldwave, Audacity, etc.)

...So I was wondering if there's anyone who's interested in joining my cover project? I'd like to start it in July (if possible)...and some of the benefits to it are:

1. The work will never be over-demading. We all have a life and obligations, so I won't impede too much. ^^

2. I'm always open to suggestions. Did you think of a better way to say a line in a song? Would you like to write one of the many songs I didn’t do yet? Feel free to suggest as much as you can; I’m always willing to listen. ^^

3. It'll be fun! Plus fans will get to see your work in action! And who knows...Ringo Shiina herself might even hear about the project. (We can dream, right? ; )


What to do if you want to join
--Reply to this thread, and tell me which position you want. (^^) I've listed the positions below.

--Please note that I WILL test you on your skills, so you WILL have to do a small audition.

--If you sign onto this project, you HAVE to be good at checking email AT LEAST once a week!! Even though we all get busy, you can still squeeze in time to respond to emails. I do this all the time. If you ignore your mailbox for more than a week, then you are NOT free enough to help with the project!!
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The People I Need
1. Female Singer - preferrably someone who sounds similar to Ringo Shiina, but at this point, ANYONE can apply!!. Also, please note that you MUST be able to sing in Japanese AND English.

2. Someone who can translate English into Japanese - since I want to cover ALL of her songs in a different language...that means I'm doing her Japanese songs (like "Onaji Yoru") in English...and her English songs (like "Sakuran") in Japanese! If you can translate English INTO Japanese -- AND you know how to type in kana -- please help out!

3. Audio Editor #1 (mixing files) - If you can seamlessly mix music and vocal files together, as well as seamlessly add sound effects, then this is the job for you!



4. Musicians - I need at least ONE of the following people:

*Audio Editor #2 (“making” karaoke) - This job is specifically for making karaoke files from existing/original MP3s. Since Ringo doesn't release karaokes -- and it's HARD making good karaokes from her MP3s -- I need someone REALLY talented to do this job. Do you qualify? ; )

*Composers (MIDI keyboard, actual instruments, etc.) - If you know how to make these songs by ear (that's assuming you or I can't find any sheetmusic), then please help! Also...even if you CAN'T add "multiple tracks" (to a MIDI, etc.) and all you can do is play the piano, you can still help out!!


*Someone who has (or knows someone with) a Japanese credit card – and please note that I HAVE money, and I WILL reimburse you!! (I just don’t have a Japanese credit card, that’s all!!)

I need a Japanese credit card because if I CANNOT find a composer, then I would at least like to download Ringo Shiina's "karaoke" MIDIs from ClubDAM. It's a Japanese site, and the MIDIs all cost about $1. I'll happily pay for them, but the problem is ClubDAM ONLY accepts Japanese credit cards. So if you can get these MIDIs for me, I would greatly appreciate it and I will pay you back with PayPal or some other convenient method.

If you're leery about doing this, I completely understand, really. But I thought I'd ask, 'cuz you never know -- someone might agree to it. =)

[golem09]

Reminds me of Soil & "PIMP" Sessions. You would be the agitator...

[justriiingo]

Originally Posted by golem09

Reminds me of Soil & "PIMP" Sessions. You would be the agitator...

What a great connection!

Good luck on the project oasis_heart3! I'm still trying to figure out Juuwaki no Naka. hmm.

[Glathannus]

I'm professionally capable of helping you on everything except the singing, and the Japanese credit card is a grey area. The main problem is I don't have time, no matter how much money you throw at me. I have too many other projects to manage (which don't even fall under the categories of expertise you've listed out) for too many people who've waited too long and have deadlines of their own that they're running out of time on because I can't meet all their needs at once.

If a few months go by, and there hasn't been any (or enough) progress with your project, then get back to me, and I might be available.

[Inaudible-Whisper]

Very ambitious project! I don't really have any skills that could be of much use. I am a beginner guitarist and I have limited audio editing skills (Enough to get me buy when I'm recording my own songs) so I won't be of much use, but good luck anyway!

[oasis_heart3]

Wow, glad to see everyone's pretty supportive of my idea. I was a bit worried. ^^;

@golem: I assume what you said is a good thing? I'm still not too familiar with Soil x "PIMP" Sessions. But "Kairosome Otome" is an excellent song, and I definitely do want to hear more.

@justriiingo: Thanks for the well wishes! (^^) By the way...are you the "justriiingo" at the Ringo Catalogue forum?

@Glathannus: You have no clue how much that crushes me. ( ><; ) But anyway...do you have a website? I'd love to see your work. =D

@Inaudible-Whisper: That's okay if you can't help. (^^) Thank you very much for the well wishes; I appreciate it!

[Glathannus]

I can foresee the likely scenario that whomever sings adequately and is available, does not have access to good recording equipment. This combined with Shiina Ringo being the least feasible artist to engineer some unofficial karaoke tracks for, means that the final product is going to be bootleg quality at best.

There are official (although near-impossible to get) karaoke tracks, but to my knowledge they're not for any of the tracks where Shiina Ringo actually.. rocks...

I don't like the idea of embracing only one side of her, but without a diverse set of instrumentalists who also have recording equipment, that's effectively what you'd be doing. You'll have the easiest time gathering a team of people who can replicate Tokyo Jihen tracks, and only if you do a worst-of-both-worlds Phase1/Phase2 slow and emotionless performance for every instrument.

That's not to say I'm against the concept of this thread here. It's mainly that I have strong doubts about real world implementation and availability, when it comes right down to it.

However, I'm not exactly a strong supporter of "cracking the language barrier" either. Afterall, a significant portion of the board members here (myself included) got into Ringo because we like the sound of her voice or the style of her compositions, NOT because she IS or SPEAKS Japanese. To do multi-lingual covers is to take away emphasis from that, no matter what you're translating to or from. The world already has plenty of shitty 'music' that sells just because of the lyrics. It's not exactly one of my life goals to cater to that demographic. I refuse to be right for the wrong reasons (or encourage others to be), in any arena of life, because when life throws you into a different context, the old protocol/reasoning doesn't work anymore and gets you into big trouble from attempting/continuing it and thinking it will still fit the situation.

I want to help, but more specifically to challenge myself, than out of any belief in the cause. Consider this more of a lukewarm welcome, than well wishes.

I don't have a website (not for my own projects anyway), but I work with video mastering/encoding for a primary living, and work with audio mastering/encoding as a regular hobby. I'm also a keyboardist with perfect pitch and moderate training/experience, and I play a few other instruments, but they don't really have any place in Shiina Ringo's music. Other projects that tie up my 'off'-hours, are mostly related to building/troubleshooting/maintaining PCs, but that's straying off-topic.

[oasis_heart3]

Well, considering that I have little musical background myself -- and that hardly anyone I know offline has a musical background, either -- my resouces are limited, so I'm just trying to think of my options. The first one that came to mind was to go to forums and ask for help (and I figured, why not try a Ringo Shiina forum first?), but I'll probably think of more ideas as time goes on.

But that said...since I'm not that skilled myself, and I have limited resources, that means I pretty much am at the mercy of whoever helps me. I'm hoping that someone with talent and drive will volunteer (especially for the composition part), but if the only people who come along are folks that "create" karaoke with programs like Audacity (and the original, non-karaoke MP3), then that's what I'll have to settle with, at least for now. But nothing is ever set in stone -- and my ultimate goal IS to have the songs sound nearly as good as the originals -- so one day, all of the songs will definitely have high quality music AND vocals.

And as far as the covers go, I was expecting some people to not like the idea that much...but I have faith in my skill, and since Ringo often does the same thing that I'm doing (ex: she took "Yokushitsu" and later resang it in English as "La Salle de Bain"), then I really feel like my project wasn't that much of a stretch (since the original artist is kind of doing the same thing) and that it might be easier for people to except what I'm doing.

I guess all in all though, it's the results that prove anything, so I just hope that the work we put into this (and especially my lyrics) makes a believer out of people, including you. (^^) But even if you (or anyone else) doesn't like my work, I'm always open to suggestions and criticism...and since I'm not going to quit this project until I feel it's completed, then the least we can do is reach some sort of compromise. =P

Moving on...you said that you don't have a website for some of the work you do, but can you provide a link to some projects you worked on? I'd really like to see what you've done (and what you're capable of. =)

[Tokyo Jihad]

Heres my suggestion, and you can disregard it if you want, i mean whatever. Normally just placing a want ad, wall o text, and saying "I got no skills, but I got the vision mang" usually wont illicit much interest. I know, cuz it didn't work to hot when I tried that approach once before.

If you really want this to happen, you HAVE to know the field. You can't say "oh I wanna make video game, but i don't know how to program or design graphics and am not planning on learning." if you really want your thing to happen. So here's what you do. You go to whatever electronic shop, or an online place, get you a nice cheap keyboard. Midi or not, cheap. Then you teach yourself. No one expects you to turn into Mozart or anything, you don't have to be a wiz at it, but just god enough to pluck along to a song. If a guy with one-arm can play along to Tsumiki Asobi on guitar, than you can pluck along to whatever song on a keyboard. Then you record your rendition and hawk it around. Essentially, make a demo. Say hey, "here's my deal; are you interested in making this happen for the win?"

I guarantee this will illicit more interest than just a texted idea. Plus, if no one bits, hey you've got something to show for it. And hey, if someone does, you have that much more mastery over your gameplan.

[Op2]

What MIDIs do you need to download? I have a buttload of SR/TJ MIDIs.