Scop Interview: “Making Songs That Resound In Their Hearts For That Moment”

Making Songs That Resound In Their Hearts For That Moment

A short interview with Scop from the official Hatsune Miku Google+.Vocaloid Creators Interview Vol. 08(+ le scop A straight rock sound with impressive piano parts mixed in, and Miku singing along with lyrics that have evoked sympathy from so many. With Scop continuing to produce popular songs in this style, we asked about his creative process.HomepageTwitterQ. Tell us how you got into creating music.A. I liked band music and longed to be in one around high school, and I got the chance to start a band with my club in college. I started by playing bass.Q. In what way did you learn music (and composition)?A. Basing it on what I did in my band, I started in digital music thinking I should try to do it on my own. Since I had barely any competence with computers or music theory at that point, I read a lot of books focused on the absolute basics of digital music.Q. How do things generally go when you’re composing?A. I start out playing the guitar and trying to hum a melody, or if I have an idea for the melody, I get the basic tune in there. After that, it varies a lot, but I find it best to have multiple songs progressing at the same time. So today I’ll do the lyrics for this song, and record the guitar for this other song. Sometimes it depends on what I feel like, and if I suddenly think of something, I make sure to act on it as soon as possible.Q. Are there any musicians that influenced you?A. I usually listen to emo and post-rock bands. I like bands with pretty melodies, so I think I’m influenced in that area. I starting using Vocaloid at the same time as digital music, and I listened to supercell’s songs for reference often, since they were central to Vocaloid at the time. I studied how to arrange by listening to off-vocals, too.Q. Tell us what Vocaloids you own.A. Hatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku Append, Megpoid, Kagamine Rin/Len, and Megurine Luka.Q. Most of the songs you post use Hatsune Miku. Is there a reason you continue to have Miku as your main Vocaloid?A. I’m most used to her, so she’s easiest to use. But I also feel like she can handle the widest range of genres, so I have Miku sing unless it’s to the point where she just doesn’t fit the song at all. I’m also kind of glad when listeners recognize “Scop’s Miku voice.”Q. Tell us your preferred Vocaloid settings.A. For Miku, my settings are around here: CLE: 10-15, BRE: 95, BRI: 10-15, OPE: 105, GEN: 50-55. The only one I mess with mid-song is “DYN.” Then I make the VEL on each note really big. In my case, I do most of the tuning in in a pitch-editing software called Melodyne.Q. You write a lot of “sympathetic” lyrics. Where do the ideas for these originate from?A. I’ve made stories in my head for a long time, and got in a habit of expanding on my daydreams. Most of my lyrics are just an extension of that. As for sympathy, all people have inner feelings they want others to understand. So I make songs with those feelings to both be a mouthpiece for them, and because I want others to understand me, too.Q. One characteristic of the Scop sound is diverse piano parts. How do you arrange these?A. I don’t actually play the piano, so I just think “Man, it’d be cool if it sounded like this,” and I search for it on my keyboard to put it in the song. In fact, it’s not just piano - I do my arrangement in general by playing it back and thinking that such and such sound would be cool.Q. Are there any samples you always use in your music? And how do you use them?A. I always use “BFD2.0” for drums, and “Ivory 2” for piano when there’s a piano part. Also, I use the accordion samples that come with Logic, “Session String Pro” for strings… I basically just choose samples by the instrument. I don’t use many other samples.Q. Tell us any songs you’d like to make in the future, or any other plans.A. I’m always thinking about this, but I’m okay with not making a famous song that goes down in history, and I’m okay with being forgotten someday. I just want to make songs that can resound in the listener’s heart for that moment. Also, I’m studying more musical theory and how to add brass instruments to my songs, since I think that’d be nice.Q. A last message to the creators and listeners who watch Hatsune Miku’s Google+?A. Thanks for reading down this far. If other creators learn a few things from me, I’m glad. And I’m really grateful to everyone who continues to listen to my music. I hope to make many more songs using Vocaloid, so I hope you keep listening.Mac OS X 10.6.8 (iMac Intel Core i5 3.1GHz 27inch 12GB Memory)Apple “Logic Pro 8”FXpansion “BFD2.0”Synthogy “Ivory II”NATIVE INSTRUMENTS “KOMPLETE6” “SESSION STRINGS PRO”IK Multimedia “Sample Tron”Waves “Platinum Bundle” “CLA Bundle”Sonnox “Oxford EQ” “Oxford Inflator”DMG Audio “EQuality”Overloud “TH2”Celemony “Melodyne Editor 2”Until starting in digital music, I had no experience with computers, and I had the concept that if you did music, you used a Mac, so I got a Mac and Logic. After a while, I realized it didn’t really make a difference, and in fact, learned that Windows had a lot of free plugins and other handy things… But I like how Macs look, so I’m satisfied.Yamaha “MSP7”Sony “MDR-CD900ST”MOTU “Traveler mk3”N/ASSL “Xlogic Alpha Channel”Gibson “ES-335”, MUSICMAN “StingRay”It’s been this way since I bought my first instrument: I pick out the best thing I can, and for the sake of getting more skilled, I’m willing to stretch a little bit to buy it. Once I get my hands on it, I feel like trying hard to make it worth it, so I think about both the price and my motivation at the same time. So I’ve bought a lot of things that I feel confident about not screwing up with.His new album Sentimental Boundary releases July 8th. Preorders are starting, so be sure to check it out!