liner notes: virtual youtuber @ 25:00

25 Jul, 2026

hello! i've once again made a video that requires a lot more side context to make its intentions clearer.

the theme for this season's resample video jam is "imitation", and being myself i wanted to see how extremely i could take this concept. i decided to not only try to respect another creator's style, but to also take each sample and replace it with a thematic equivalent.

for this experiment i chose darekachan as my subject, as he's one of my favorite audio guys in the ytpmv scene and has a fascinating source selection ranging among vtubers, the idolm@ster, indie animation, and rpg maker horror games (all of which are things i myself am also in love with). i find that the ytpmvs i like the most tend to come from a place of sincere love and respect for the materials it's using, and with the crossover of niches i feel like this is a particularly strong driving force behind dareka's work and why i'm so attracted to it.

in the process of creating my own video he also happened to post a new work that fully showcased his interests in an all-star format, and it ended up being my "checklist" to make sure all the bases were covered.

bgm selection

dareka's a pretty unabashed fanatic for funkot, as made apparent by literally every non-ytpmv venture he's made being some sort of funkot mix. i originally wanted to pick a proper indonesian track for obscurity points (some tracks from barakatak and amour's "hantu blao" were strong contenders), but i ultimately conceded to that one popular funkot remix of "cat loving" by kaishii momoi as it offered a lot of layers to cover with sampled instruments.

general style notes

audio:

• use of ableton as the main audio workstation. easy enough for me...
• use of the wavetable synth vital to create melodic samples, specifically through this method. i think he recently tweeted that he's been doing this less outside of basses, though.
• mixing generally stays on the more trebly side, probably due to vital's method of sample processing giving everything a "glassy" quality.
• generally no bgm, so audio must stand well on its own.
• traditional vocals are less common, but when they do appear then it's likely kerovee being used for the pitch correction. in his detailed writeup he also mentions vocalshifter.
• from his list of plugins on his overall methodology post, i'll be using meldaproduction's mvibrato, and tbproaudio's stiltv2. he also lists ableton's built-in simpler instrument here, which is what i already use for all of my other videos.

visual:

• primarily box visuals. everything is kept quite organized to offset the myriad of visual materials, and often colored drop shadows help to further distinguish what's what.
• there isn't really a fear of just keeping everything looking as-is, with some videos just being a pile of album cover arts when there's no moving material to work with.
• likewise, scenes often stay "stationary" and there's not a crazy amount of playing with the point-of-focus, other than maybe some slight camera shakiness on some boxes. in this case it probably helps because the viewer's eye is already busy trying to capture all of the information onscreen.
• extremely jerky movement of individual items + zooms. this is something i actually nicked from dareka since my earliest videos by spamming a lot of exponential(?) ease out curves, and you can really see it when leads or drum hits enter/exit the scene.
• motion blur as accessory to aforementioned movement. this would not be a major note for most people, but since i tend to use motion blur sparingly it has to become a conscious decision for me.

sample list

from here i'll be describing each sample source, the source i replaced it with, and the reasoning for doing so. i've also created a visual representation, if that's your cup of tea.

shijou takane (the idolm@ster) ➡ mint fantôme (densetsu.exe)

"kyun! vampire girl" is one of dareka’s most beloved samples. he either uses takane's “hahn” for leads and chords, or the song's own snare (but never both at the same time¹, so i'll also be doing the same).

as it happens, mint fantôme actually performed this song in her 3d debut live, and even with the same choreography! it's a slightly different camera angle, but the correlation was the starting point for the viability of this video concept.

natori sana ➡ suou sango (nijisanji)

dareka samples a variety of vtubers from the early 20s’ boom, but the most varied and common of these in his library by far would be natori sana. she’s mostly used for leads and other melodic elements, as well as the occasional hi-hat.

there were a couple of obvious ones i could’ve done here (mint again for being a feral blue archive sensei, tsukomo sana for the name) - but i decided to go with a clip of suou sango for this substitution not only for the shared pink colors, but as an inversion of catchphrases (丁寧なインターネット生活にしよう <-> インターネットやめろ) as well as being truly 音大(き). she's also just really funny to sample.

kizuna ai ➡ neuro-sama

various kizuna ai clips are seen in dareka videos, but one particular clip that always strikes me is one of her just yelling (not to be confused with what i think is a natori clip, that is quite literally just the text on a white background). it’s often used for leads.

for this substitution i chose to take the "ai" part of her name and pair it with the literal ai vtuber, neuro-sama. the timbre of an artificial voice is quite different from a human actor, so this relatively softer sound ended up becoming a sub-lead during the song breakdown.

kaguya luna ➡ pmaru-sama

like the other vtubers she has plenty of sounds to provide on dareka videos, but i notice kaguya luna is utilized mostly as a "blockier" kind of hi-hat. since this is a funkot/dangdut cover i thought this could translate into the koplo rhythms essential to the genre.

i substituted this source with the vtuber and singer pmarusama, and specifically part of her song "earth explosion", as a secondary snare for the koplo fill. there is no particular reason for this choice.

nojaloli ➡ abe nana (the idolm@ster)

nojaloli is another one of the original 4 heavenly kings of vtubers, and his "armpit nigiri" video seems to be one in almost every other dareka track as a bass sample.

i cycled through several options here before settling on abe nana² for her kemonomimi, her shared affinity with kitsune, the (alleged) discrepancy of her appearance to her real self, and as a reference to dareka's own obsession with the cinderella girls era of idolm@ster. there's a variety of deresute game footage that can be pulled as a source, but i decided on a particular choreographed motion from "atashi ponkotsu android" to get a closer visual similarity.

pomni (the amazing digital circus) ➡ omaru polka (hololive)

the amazing digital circus is one of the newer sources in the catalogue but aesthetically aligning way too much with the internet metahorrors of his other favorite sources to not be included. pomni is normally used as a bass sample.

i kind of forgot that omaru polka made a ton of random greenscreens during her first year, so i chose to use one particular clip of her playing the kazoo. funkot usually has two split basslines, so i used this one for the syncopated stabs as it sounded more "buzzy" (who would've thought a kazoo sounded buzzy).

cookie☆ ➡ shocked black guy (jslutty)

while not a sample exclusive to dareka by any means, the "everyday" video also has a dedicated section for cookie☆. it's an old-but-gold source pool that definitely needs to be covered in a dareka-like video.

here i chose a direct visual parallel to that often-used marisa lead sample using jslutty, aka the "shocked black guy" reaction gif. i might need to use this one more because it was absolutely hilarious in practice.

inaba tewi (touhou) ➡ houshou marine (hololive)

the tewi sample dareka uses specifically from an episode of the summer day's dream ova and functions as a great audiovisual for chords.

i initially struggled to pick between usada pekora (bunny) and phoebechan (similar outfit and hair on her 1.0) for this one, but ultimately went with houshou marine here because of a very quick shot of her shrugging in holo no graffiti that was too perfect of a similarity to pass up. not to mention her being the de facto touhou representative for hololive...

lucky chloe (tekken) ➡ sakamata chloe (hololive)

this specific pose of lucky chloe is often used in a chord context. i'm not familiar with tekken, but i believe this is the punk alt outfit...?

i'm already full when it comes to melodic elements, so instead i decided to use an sfx from sakamata chloe's debut episode in holo no graffiti as the downbeat for the koplo rhythm. normally this is played on an instrument called the kendang, if i've done my cursory research right.

lacey’s diner ➡ akai haato (hololive)

lacey's diner is a flash-themed cooking horror animation. in dareka videos it's used for light chords and pads.

haachama seems like a pretty obvious choice here with the shared themes and character twintails. i though about recoloring her to be blue, but it turns out cranking the saturation on the music video for "☻ᖴOᑌᑎᗞ YOᑌ☻" basically gave me the look i needed.

doki doki literature club ➡ kyu-kyurarin

dareka uses various clips and even has dedicated videos to doki doki literature club, but the most used clip by far is the selection sound effect represented via the "just monika." dialogue box or the “OK” prompt. this mainly appears for arpeggios, but can also double as a keyboard-like chord or lead sound.

it took quite a bit of thinking to figure out an analogue here, but i ultimately decided to go with a sample of iyowa’s "kyu-kurarin", a song popularly believed to be directly based on ddlc. i isolated a piano note played just before the solo interlude.

mymy (ongezellig) ➡ marimari_en (phase connect)

i’ve not seen ongezellig, but as far as i’m aware this character is a super patriotic dutch history nerd, to an arguably racist degree. a favorite hi-hat sample that i’ve never really seen anyone else use in the japanese sector, at least.

i’ve substituted her with marimari_en here for the somewhat similar color scheming and hairstyle. she’s a bit less racist, though. i think. (fun fact, this sample is from her "otahen anthem" cover - so that gives us another parallel to the im@s influence in dareka's sample selection!)

mayhem - system23 ➡ reflect - gawr gura

"system23" is a song from a lapfox alias that constantly gets used for kicks. since the character is a female shark, it seems appropriate that the only correct vtuber translation of this source would be gawr gura.

thankfully the song "reflect" has a few sections in the verse where a similarly "snappy" kick can be very easily isolated, and the cover kind of aligns with the visual energy as well.

it's all right ➡ dream goes on

a character song for chihiro from the world god only knows. this might be his most used snare next to "vampire girl", and i'm pretty sure it's just the very first hit at the beginning of the song.

this one was a bit of a shot in the dark, but i tried to look for another character song sung by asumi kana with a character design from watanabe akio. that turns out to be the pripara song "dream goes on" for the character harune aira - and like "it's all right" it immediately starts with a clear snare hit. a godsend of coincidence for this project!

ena ➡ otonose kanade / kanaeru kobo (hololive)

similar to tadc, ena is a source i don't necessarily associate with ytpmv but feels like a perfect candidate for dareka's sample selection. like other melodic samples it's used for leads and chords.

there's a live cover of "BANG!!!" from otonose kanade's birthday live featuring kanaeru kobo, and i took an isolated drum hit and pitched it an octave higher to create a cowbell-ish sound. i shoehorned this to fit because their colors matched ena's own character design.

pachinko sexy reaction ➡ sexy parodius

pachinko sexy reaction is a simple go-to crash sample, represented by the game's title screen.

here i chose to represent it with a sound and title screen from sexy parodius. (as a completely irrelevant and unbiased side note, it’s my personal opinion that anything that involves parodius’ music automatically makes it better.)

control test keys (undertale) ➡ vaporize sfx (undertale)

dareka is a very clear fan of the undertale/deltarune series, as it appears frequently both as sample sources and as bgm. one of the easiest to use samples are the keys in the control test room, which play the basic sounds of a roland tr-909.

i chose to use the vaporize sound from undertale as a ride for the second half of the main section. this is additionally a bit of a nod to a waxolotl video i quite like.

matsukai mao (nijisanji) ➡ amamiya kokoro (nijisanji)

very cute girl.

i took this as an opportunity to switch her out with equally cute girl amamiya kokoro (who has a shared artist for at least one of their outfits, if i’m not mistaken?); i used a clip of her doing some wotagei on stream and also resequenced one of her live performances to have her sing the closing lines. it ends up aligning with her cat in-jokes and a good excuse to practice using dareka’s preferred kerovee plugin.

there's a lot i ended up liking out of this experiment, but this vocal might be the part i'm most proud of!

wawa cat ➡ itadaki babel (aiobahn remix)

i honestly didn't even know if this had a name, but the wawa cat / "oh the misery" cat meme is used sparingly as an orchestral stab. i'm pretty sure the sample being used here is actually a default stab or the one from "crank that (soulja boy)" rather than the horns on the imagine dragons song. they're definitely a cheat to some, but i kind of love samples like this that let you sample real music under ytpmv constraints.

i wanted to end the video on a quick boom, so i took the ending stab of the aiobahn remix of "itadaki babel", which works doubly with the cat imagery. this might actually be the exact same default stab sample, considering the song itself is also partially a "crank that" parody.

crab game ➡ mr beast (rap battles by freshy kanal)

crab game is kind of all over the place on dareka's videos recently, whether it be for vocals or other various sounds. on paper it feels a bit lowbrow compared to the other materials he uses, but i have to admit its dedicated section in the "everyday" video is cool as hell.

for this sample i chose to use "mr beast"³, as he’s also a known leech of the squid game franchise. if i had more time i would've had a longer part of the video here with a fully integrated visual, but instead i decided to end this video on a more unapologetically funny note. there's definitely some sort of irony in taking a lot of care to make a visual look like you don't care...

misc observations

• using vital as sample processing is basically like taking a microscope to frequencies at any given point in time. it's really cool to fiddle with, but you may need a lot of wrestling to get usable sounds that don't sound like buzzing mosquitos.
• things also kind of start to sound a bit same-y with this quasi-wavetable approach; i had to do a lot of tweaking to get the first two lead samples to sound distinct from each other. this also lends to the argument that the extremity of processing starts pushing this into "fake sample" territory, but i think this is enough of a gray area to still have it be interesting and retaining the qualities of its source inputs.
• this is my third or fourth video using kerovee as a jinriki vocaloid plugin, and it's giving me a lot more consistent + interesting results than my previous pitch correction tools. i can't remember which jp otomad author wrote about it recently, but your outputs are really made easier with the quality of your inputs and it just worked great here. i also learned on this one that it takes midi pitch bend data, which let me create a lot more subtle inflections and further pitch corrections!
• i haven't written about this anywhere publicly yet, but since my most recent blue archive video i've been creating visuals pretty much exclusively through fusion compositions within davinci resolve. the brunt of this entire video was created by a single composition. until i get a machine that gives me real-time playback, though, i'll probably have to stick to audio-focused write-ups.
• making this video was interesting because it gave me insights on both how i'm already inspired by dareka's style as well as what habits i've been actively trying to avoid recently. i still don't really know what my "voice" quite looks like in the scene, but i think making conscious decisions that don't feel like something i'd do implies that there's definitely at least something that's being compared to.
• on that note, while the leaving the colors "raw" is a very dareka move it feels equally valid to have washed it out or add some light filter to ease up on the intensity. i think my own personal taste won out here, as i quite like keeping things in bold.
• in retrospect i think i should've actually went for a song with less layers, or at least more stationary ones. it became quite tough to compress everything into the field of view, and also...
• the bitrate was really taking a toll on the colors and movement. irrespective of the imitation game i had to do a bit more research (read: bother chfr again) to save the video from my future self-cringe. despite rendering out a png sequence and recompiling with ffmpeg, i feel like the upscale to 1440p saved it more than anything else.
• i still missed a couple of dareka favorites to respect, probably the biggest being ronald mcdonald (i was sorely reminded of this with the recent release of the infinity of mcdonald collab). tabemi probably would've been a great fit in this cacophany.
• thank u dareka for making good videos i literally watch every single one i luv u <3

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