Singularity on the Plane

Audacity is a free (open source) audio recording application. It is multiplatform, with versions for Windows, Linux, and OS X. By default it outputs the final audio in ogg/vorbis, but mp3 support can be added quite easily.

In this article I’ll guide you how to record a karaoke using Audacity. What it means is that you have an instrumental (music-only) version of a song and you want to add your (horrible) sound to it.

First of all you need to have the instrumental version of the song itself. In the Japanese music scene, singles are released in CD which also includes its instrumental version so download go buy that CD and rip the audio. Audacity supports wav, mp3, ogg, and some other formats as its input.

After that download the program and install it. For this guide I’m using version 1.2.6 for Windows. The first screen should look like this:

Now make sure your mike is plugged to the right place and the correct stream (e.g., “Mic”) is selected in the input drop down. Press the record (red circle) button and mumble some words. You’ll see a new audio track created. Press the stop (yellow square) button and try to play back by pressing the play (green arrow) button.

In the top left of every audio track, there is a small “x” button (pictured above). You can click it to delete the track. If you think the recorded volume is too loud or small, delete your first audio track, adjust the volume (the slider with a mic icon), and try another recording. When you are satisfied with the volume, you can go to the next step.

Load the instrumental version of the song from “File”->”Open…”. After the importing process is done you will see the the audio tracks. Before you start recording though, you need to make sure that Audacity plays those tracks while recording. This step is probably the most important but nonobvious. Go to “Edit”->”Preferences…”, open “Audio I/O” tab, and select “Play other tracks while recording new one” (see below).

After that you can go to the real fun. Press the record button and sing until the song ends. Your voice will be kept in a new track so if you’re not satisfied just delete the track and record again. To finish, select “File”->”Export As Ogg Vorbis…” and the resulting file can be played in any sane media player (such as VLC or Windows Media Player after installing the codecs).

Below are some stuffs which you probably want to do…

Changing pitch

If you can’t hit some note because it’s too low or high, you might want to change the pitch of the musical instruments before recording your sound. To do it, press CTRL+A (select all) and go to “Effect”->”Change Pitch…”. For example, to lower it you might select from “F” “down” to “E”. Note that the instruments will have a lower quality and sound unnatural if you do this.

MP3 export

OGG Vorbis is a free format while MP3 is proprietary so you should prefer OGG Vorbis when possible. In cases where using MP3 is a must (such as to play on MP3 players) the supports can be easily enabled.

First download LAME MP3 encoder for your operating system. Then extract the compressed file somewhere. After that go to “Edit”->”Preferences…” and open the “File Formats” tab. Press “Find Library” and browse for the requested file (e.g., lame_enc.dll for Windows). With that, you can export to MP3 from “File”->”Export As MP3…”.

Closing

I won’t give an example exported file here. Just have fun, but remember to respect your friend’s ears.

In Japanese, the kana ん (n) is considered a sound that can stand by itself. It sounds somewhat like “uhm”.

In normal speaking the ん sticks to the preceding kana. For example, りんご (ringo, apple) is pronounced “rin-go”, not “ri-n-go” (ri-”uhm”-go). Note that because ん is considered one mora (beat), “rin” (composed of 2 mora, “ri” and “n”) should sound longer than “go” (only 1 mora). The elongation is done by holding the “n” sound for a while.

However, in songs ん is oftenly detached and voiced by itself! This is very funny considering that the same thing doesn’t happen in Bahasa Indonesia and English. Consider Indonesian words like “jantan”, “makan”, and “jalan”. In songs (and conversation), they are always pronounced as “jan-tan”, “ma-kan”, and “ja-lan”. The same thing holds in English (e.g., “wo-man”, “ten”, “a-gain”, “A-me-ri-can”). ‘n’ never gets its own note.

An Indonesian or English song where the ‘n’ is forcibly separated would sound wacko. Try to imagine it… However enter the Japanese music world and a lone ‘n’ doesn’t seem weird at all… Two examples:

Anshinkan (Berryz Koubou): Nee itsu datte anshin shitai no yo (a-n-shi-n)
Aozora ga Itsumade mo Tsuzuku You na Mirai de Are! (Morning Musume): So donna toki mo jibun jishin shinjite GO (do-n-na, ji-bu-n, ji-shi-n, shi-n-ji-te)

Of course ん can also stick to the preceding sound like in normal speaking, so it all depends on the songwriter. In these following examples the ん isn’t separated:

Sakura Mankai (Morning Musume Sakura Gumi): aa sakura mankai, nee sakura mankai mune no naka (man-ka-i)
Lemon Iro to Milk Tea (Morning Musume): onnaji kuukan kuukan eiga no naka kansei kansei (on-na-ji, kuu-kan, kan-sei)

I’ve said that in speaking (conversation, speech, anything other than songs) the ん is normally attached. That is almost always the case. However, I’ve actually encountered the isolated case several times! Here’s one example from a casual talk:

Sugaya Risako: ma… zenbu… kawaiin desu kedo, atashi ga ichiban… (i-chi-ba-n)

Of course, you can deliberately separate the ん if you want to give a slow motion effect. However I don’t consider that normal speaking. Nevertheless, this is what Sayumi does on her radio show:

Michishige Sayumi: Mooningu Musume Michishige Sayumi no “Konya mo Usa-chan peace…” (ko-n-ya)

To finish, I offer the audio file that contains all the above examples:

n-sound.ogg (duration 1:01, 515 KB): MediaFire mirror; 3000mb mirror; Indonesian mirror

(Audio made using the open source audio editor Audacity. To play the audio file in Windows you might need to install the codecs from Illiminable.)

No, I’m not talking about the fruit…

In the Japanese language, なんか (nanka) is a filler that has no particular meaning. In casual speech, some people use it just about anywhere. It serves the same purpose as “like” in sentences such as “His brother is, like, very tall!”

Some examples from guidetojapanese.org:

今日は、なんか忙しいみたいよ。
Ima wa, nanka isogashii mitai yo.
-I guess he’s like busy today.

お母さんが、なんか明日まで戻らないんだってよ。
Okaasan ga, nanka ashita made tomaranain datte yo.
-Mom said she’s not coming back until like tomorrow.

Another example I picked from the novel “Wagahai wa Neko de aru“:

私は唐人の名なんかむずかしくて覚えられませんわ。
Watashi wa toujin no na nanka muzukashikute oboeraremasen wa.
- For me, Chinese names are like hard and I can’t remember them.
(My own translation, flame on for mistakes :))

OK, now to the main point of this post. Some time ago, I watched Morning Musume’s trip to Hong Kong. In the end of the trip every member gave their impressions, and Takahashi Ai spoke using nanka like all the time! Here’s the audio for your hearing pleasure:

takahashi-nanka.ogg (442 KB, 48 seconds): Mirror 1 (3000mb.com server); Mirror 2 (Indonesian server)

I won’t give any transcription nor translation. The point in hearing it is to get a feel about how it is slipped in (besides, uhm, I’m not skillful enough to comprehend her talk yet). Try to spot all 6 occurences.

I found something funny in Hello! Morning ep. 338. There’s this CM (commercial) segment where new Hello! Project goods are announced. One of the items announced is Berryz Koubou’s new single “Munasawagi Scarlet” (munasawagi means uneasiness or premonition).

The problem is, munasawagi is written as 胸さわぎ while the kanji 胸 is normally read as “mune” (not “muna”). “mune” itself means literally chest but connotatively means heart. 胸 as it stands by itself is used a lot, such as for expressing “it blooms in my heart” or “you’ll always be in my heart”.

PS: “sawagi” itself means disturbance, so 胸さわぎ (munasawagi) literally means “disturbance of the heart”.

Munasawagi seems to be an uncommon word, so Niigaki Risa misread it as “munesawagi”. She’s not entirely sure herself, saying “mune…??? …sawagi” (listen, 85 KB). Quickly, a notice appears on the screen informing the viewers, “It’s munasawagi” (using furigana - see the screenshot above).

With all those various readings for a kanji, reading could be tricky even for a nihonjin. Or perhaps it’s just Niigaki Risa that’s under-educated :)…

(Of course the situation is no more coherent in English, where reading is highly irregular. Bahasa Indonesia is a lot better and I can only think of the letter ‘e’ where reading is ambiguous - compare “lempar” to “lempit”)

"私達、タカミザワさんの事、後悔してたんじゃないでしょうか？" (listen, 44 KB)
"Watashi-tachi… Takamizawa-san no koto… koukai shitetan ja nai deshou ka?"

達 (tachi) is an oftenly used suffix to indicate plurality of person. For example, 私 (watashi) means "I" so 私達 (watashi-tachi) means "we". Some other examples are 子供達 (kodomo-tachi) which means "children", あなた達 (anata-tachi) which means "you guys/girls", and 田中さん達 (Tanaka-san-tachi, Tanaka-san’s group).

There is one glaring exception. While 友 (tomo) means "friend", 友達 (tomodachi) still means "friend" (yes, still singular)! I’ve encountered tomodachi-tachi (friends), but the kanji used is 友人達. It’s from Matsuura Aya’s song Zutto Suki de Ii desu ka:

眺める友人達 (listen, 61 KB)
nagameru tomodachi-tachi
(My friends gaze)

I’ve heard 娘達 (musume-tachi) used to refer to the girls of Morning Musume. Probably the weirdest use of tachi I’ve met is 思い出達 (omoide-tachi) which means "memories" (actually 思い出 (omoide) alone already has a plural sense). Because the other tachis I’ve encountered were suffixes for a living entity, the use of tachi in omoide-tachi makes the "memories" feel alive for me. It’s from Goto Maki’s song Suppin to Namida:

涙拭いたら 思い出達と「バイバイ」して帰郷るね (listen, 131 KB)
namida fuitara omoide-tachi to "baibai" shite kaeru ne
(After I wipe away my tears, I’ll say "bye bye" with the memories and go home)

In Japanese, the kana が (ga) can be read either “ga” (obviously) or “nga”. The most prominent example is when が is used as a particle. Some examples from songs:

(ga) Furusato (Morning Musume): tanoshii hi ga atta (楽しい日があった)
(ga) Namida ga Tomaranai Houkago (Morning Musume): shiawase ga sugiru kara (幸せがすぎるから)
(nga) Melodies of Life (FFIX): wakareru toki ga kanarazu kuru no ni (別れる時が必ず来るのに)
(nga) Suteki da ne (FFX): kaze ga yoseta kotoba ni (風が寄せた言葉に)

And two examples from a TV show (Hello! Morning 2006-11-19, World Children Games segment):

(ga) Ishikawa Rika: Kyou mo ne… e… tanoshii otomodachi ga.. asobi bla bla bla… (something like: Today we will also play with a fun friend)
(nga) Narrator: Soshite, Ishikawa-sensei ga “tonda tonda maru maru” to bla bla bla… (something like: And then Ishikawa-sensei will say “It flies! It flies! [insert-anything-here]“)

How about が not as a particle? It can also be read as “nga”! Compare these two songs:

(nga) Sougen no Hito (Matsuura Aya): shiroku nagareru (白く流れる（ながれる）)
(ga) Sougen no Hito (Tsunku): shiroku nagareru (白く流れる（ながれる）)

A person doesn’t even have to be consistent. For example, Matsuura Aya pronounces the が in “nagare” as “ga” in another song:

(ga) Watarasebashi (Matsuura Aya): zutto nagare miteta wa (ずっと流れ（ながれ)見てたわ)

Other cases where I’ve heard が sounded as “nga” is in “onegaishimasu”. I don’t know whether there is a (unwritten) rule about the words where が can be read as “nga” so be careful or you might sound totally weird.

As a bonus, I’ve compiled all of those examples into a neat ogg file. The examples appear as they are ordered in this post. Download and listen! (491 KB, duration 1:08) Made with the open source audio editor Audacity.

(Your Windows can’t open ogg files? Download the codecs here.)

Because some number kanji can be read in many ways, counting can be confusing to a beginner. The kanji for 44 is simply 四十四. However, how do we read it? よんじゅうし, よんじゅうよん, しじゅうよん, or しじゅうし? Only one correct reading, or more than 1 correct way to do it?

I found a real-life example that should shed a little light on this matter. In the TV show Futarigoto, Tanaka Reina of Morning Musume shows her ability to stand using her hands and head. While doing so, she times herself, counting from 1 onwards.

This example won’t invalidate other readings, however it does give us one way to correctly count. Here’s how she counts:

1: いち
2: に
3: さん
4: し
5: ご
6: ろく
7: しち
8: はち
9: く
10: じゅう
11: じゅういち
12: じゅうに
13: じゅうさん
14: じゅうし
15: じゅうご
16: じゅうろく
17: じゅうしち
18: じゅうはち
19: じゅうく
20: にじゅう
21: にじゅういち
… (same pattern)
30: さんじゅう
31: さんじゅういち
… (same pattern)
40: よんじゅう
41: よんじゅういち
… (same pattern)
50: ごじゅう
51: ごじゅういち
… (same pattern)
59: ごじゅうく

There are two things to note, probably specific to this kind of situation. First, the “じゅう” is spoken as only 1 mora, i.e. “じゅ”. Second, if the number consists of 2 or more mora and ends with a vowel, then the final vowel is oftenly omitted or almost unheard. Therefore it sounds like “ich”, “ni”, “san”, “shi”, “go”, “rok”, “shich”, “hach”, “ku”, “ju”, “juich”, “juni”, “jusan”, “jush”, “jugo”, “jurok”, “jushich”, “juhach”, “juk”, …

(This is like “tu, wa, ga, pat, …, dua satu, dua dua, …” instead of “satu, dua, tiga, empat, …, dua puluh satu, dua puluh dua, …” in Indonesian.)

I’ve prepared the audio file (396 KB) of Reina counting. The file is in the free Ogg/Vorbis format, and Windows user might need to download the codec. It is made using Audacity, a free digital audio editor.

PS: There are some interjections between the counting. First is between 19 and 20 (”It is getting tough”) and second is after 59 (”I passed 1 minute!”). After 59, she counts from 1 again. In the end she says “Let’s stop now.”.