been waiting for the shows to end before posting so no one would get spoiled but iāve been so excited to share⦠i drew teto and her close good friends for flavor foleyās digital stars dj set!!
you can watch the online VOD here! i also drew the foleys + me to direct the clapping :)
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Miku Expo 2026 Digital Stars NYC - Thoughts and Setlist
Hello! I'm nostraightanswer! For those unfamiliar, I use the handle LupinNSA for most purposes online, Lupin for short. I'm probably best known as the voice of VOCALOID DEX, a few Warframe Fan Songs, as well as a song called Red Windows which caught unexpected levels of attention on streaming services.
It has been just a couple days since one of the most amazing nights in my career as a VOCALOID producer and musician in general. I'm honestly still coming down from the high of it all- everyone was really lovely, including all of the performers, their guests and personal staff, Crypton Future Media's staff, Racket NYC's staff, and the audience- genuinely electrifying. While it is still fresh in my head, I wanted to talk a little bit about the process leading up to the show, some observations I had in hindsight, and of course share the full track list for my set.
Let's do the latter thing first, actually:
THE TRACK LIST
Define Me (feat. MAIKA) - nostraightanswer
the dots (feat. AVANNA) [Unreleased Self-Remix] - nostraightanswer
hourhand (feat. Otomachi Una) - suzie
The Sim (feat. Kasane Teto AI) - Jam2go
WILDCARD (feat. Kasane Teto AI) - KIRA
What Should I Say First (feat. SynthV Natalie) - CircusP
SUPERSHOT (feat. VoiSona SELENA) - Mellowcle
With This Love (feat. Hatsune Miku) - nostraightanswer
Room for a Fantasy (feat. Hatsune Miku) - nostraightanswer
Juggling a very busy semester of college, the track list was ultimately decided just a week before the show, but I think people really enjoyed the selection overall! I opened with two songs from previous albums: Define Me from SYNTECH+, and an unreleased remix of the dots from specters. From there I immediately jumped into playing a bunch of songs that have been recent favorites: hourhand, The Sim, WILDCARD, What Should I Say First, and SUPERSHOT. In the case of The Sim, I had also considered playing a couple of other songs from Jam's Crash Test album: Same TBH and Edutainment. I then wrapped up the VOCALOID segment playing With This Love, my runner-up entry for the Miku Expo 2021 Song Contest, then Room for a Fantasy, which ultimately won the most recent contest- I'm still in shock and awe, and so incredibly honored.
The big surprise was really the last couple of songs, Cottonmouth and Moving Forward, which notably do not feature VOCALOIDs at all, but instead the voices of myself and one of my long-time best friends, EmpathP (also the voice of VOCALOID DAINA). When I introduced them to the audience as brand new songs* that I sang myself, someone shouted if I would be singing them live. I had not been planning on it, and when I explained such, I was met with chants from the audience to just go for it and ultimately gave in. I was worn out from bouncing around and throwing my body every which way, but I absolutely gave it my best effort- the only thing I had ever promised anyone leading up to it.
I'm really, really glad I did, actually! While I didn't have files prepared with the main vocal removed or lowered, people seemed to hear my live voice over or blending in with the original and responded really, really well. I got a lot of compliments after my set and the overall show on my singing voice in particular, including from fellow performers and fans new and old. This was deeply encouraging for several reasons, but in particular because my next album- which I hope to release this year- hardly features vocal synths at all, if any. In a sense, I hope my live performance made people want to hear more of my singing- a couple more thoughts on this later.
*: An older version of Cottonmouth was part of my Digital Stars 2023 Online set.
POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
Holy fuck. Apparently I was the only person performing that night who didn't swear on stage, and I might have even apologized for thinking I wasn't allowed to LOL. I genuinely can't remember. It was all a blur. But it sounds like something I would do. Regardless, I shouted "I FUCKING DID IT" at the top of my lungs in wristbands-only after the show was over, and said "Holy fuck" about once every ten seconds when I got back to my hotel that night.
Jamie Paige (of FLAVOR FOLEY, headlining the Digital Stars series this year) was, to my genuine surprise, one of my loudest and most excited hype-people of the evening. I had been acquainted with her since the Skype Daysā¢ļø but had never really interacted much with her until more recently. The way she believed in me like all of my other friends believed in me made me feel like I could fucking do anything, dude. And the hug I received after my set from her is unforgettable.
I'd briefly met Jamie, Vane Lily, MonochroMenace, and KAT in Chicago before the first Miku Expo shows, but I hadn't had much time to actually hang around too long that day. In New York / Newark, I was able to spend about an hour hanging out with Jamie (as well as Sleppuccino and ODDEEO, who I'd been closer with for longer) in my hotel room two days before DigiStars, and I attended an unofficial meetup at the American Dream mall with Menace, KAT, and several others (I think Bedrock [aka isidore.] was there but I am struggling to remember things clearly) the day of Miku Expo Newark. I was so grateful to be able to hang out and chitchat with everyone at length during the DigiStars sound check / rehearsal, and I felt really really welcome in the space for the first time in a few years. Thank you all so much for your kindness and warmth. š
The entire time I was traveling with Aki (EmpathP), and I genuinely don't think I would have survived the trip without her- she took on the brunt of incidental food and travel expenses (Lyft, Amtrak), and while I didn't exactly come to NYC with zero cash (indeed I handed Aki several bills to pay her back), there were several major expenses that drained my debit account FAST (an absurdly priced hotel incidental authorization nearly took me out tbh, but that's reverted now so it's all good).
I was invited to KBBQ after DigiStars by 4M-P, and holy shit there were so many other people it was hard to keep track. 4M-P, Bedrock, Menace, KAT, Menace's BF, ODDEEO and Sleppu, Ultimashadow, oh my god so many people I can't remember names of right now but you were all so nice to travel with for my first subway ride (thank you for dinging me through the gate LOL).
There was a good chance I would have actually withdrawn from DigiStars entirely due to enormous, insurmountable waves of anxiety in the prior months due to increasingly poor physical and mental health. I struggled to keep up with academics, physical fitness, diet, and so much more for a variety of reasons, and I had felt a lot of pressure all the way up to the hours before the show... If it weren't for my various friends throughout a number of social circles supporting me, this incredible night would have never happened for me. Thank you all so much.
I owe a lot to the Miku Expo and Digital Stars teams, from selecting Room for a Fantasy and creating such an amazing arrangement for it (wish I could've met the band), to inviting me to perform and giving me a chance I probably barely deserved or had the experience for, but trusting me to just do my best, which was all I could really promise anyway. Super big thanks to Riki, who handled most of my more casually framed questions, requests, and other sorts of confusion (probably to a level of annoyance) with incredible patience the whole time, and made a significant effort to make me feel more at ease.
I do think people liked the singing enough that next time I do a performance, I'd like to try doing that "glorified karaoke" set I was so afraid people wouldn't like, or at least deliberately planning that into a set comparable to my DigiStars performance. People absolutely want their VOCALOID content still- can't take all of that away- but I think with more practice and deliberate rehearsal, a proper vocal performance would be received even better than one where I'm trying to sing over a full-volume pre-recorded lead vocal.
Simultaneously, next time I'm invited to do a performance, I would like to NOT have a full or more-than-full course load in the parallel academic semester. Only having one actual week to prepare the set forced me to simplify my plans so greatly and not being able to practice an additional week certainly forced me to simplify further. That said, I don't know if the actual "format" of the set would have changed much- more "casual DJ" and less "club DJ".
Also simultaneously, next time I'm invited to do a performance, I want to be hot and shirtless. is that too much to ask
To everyone in the audience, thank you so much for your enthusiasm during my performance. If I gave you any reason to pay attention to what I'm doing next, I'm so happy to have achieved just that. But more than anything else, your energy and encouragement helped me be brave doing something I've literally never done before- the last time I'd performed on any stage at all was almost 15 years ago (at least, in non-impromptu fashion), and I'd never, ever performed on a stage solo. You were all amazing.
And, finally... if I could do it all over again, I think I would. Maybe better this time. More thought out. Less juggling college. But I had a lot of fun, and it was all worth it in the end.
Thank you so much for coming to my TED talk
...also I'll be editing together a video of my set (as best I can) for viewing once I have the licensing requirements sorted out with the venue LOL. it'll be pretty basic but please look forward to it if you couldn't come to the show (or perhaps if you want to relive it).
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thank you for taking a photo with me!!! i hope you had a lot of fun at digistars, it was electrifying and everyone was amazing, including you all in the audience and the venue staff š
i just want to say thank you for making your music,
your album specters got me through the worst of my depression a few years back, and i don't think id be who i am without it...
whenever I'm feeling down or something it always makes me feel at least a little bit better..
:3
Thank you so much for listening to it!! I'm so glad it was there to help you through that experience, depression is no joke and I'm very happy you made it through!! It is the constant battle of course, but I'm glad it can still bring you comfort when you need it, too š
Hello Tumblr! We're the creators of Mikoto Studio, a new singing synthesizer. We just released the very first original demo song for Kikyuune Aiko 3510, Aiko's all-new commercial debut voicebank. This beautiful original song was created by nostraightanswer and features vocal tuning by UtaUtaUtau.
Aiko is scheduled to go on sale later this year - that is, if we reach our crowdfunding goal!
With one week left and many cool goodies still available, please consider chipping in to help us bring our dream DAW and singing synthesizer to life in 2026. And don't worry! Even if we don't meet our goal, we'll still release Mikoto Studio in the future - we'll just need to readjust our timeline a little.
To learn more about Mikoto Studio, please check our website!
are you planning to reupload/remake ur old songs like parasite, someday soon etc? i get why people delete old work i just really miss them
I would love to remake both Parasite and Someday Soon; they were originally going to be a part of SYNTECH 0 and an unreleased project, respectively, but Parasite was cut for being too dark, and the unreleased project was ultimately canceled when I grew to find it had shifted from being "an outlet to overcome interpersonal grief" to being "an outlet to project interpersonal spite". That wasn't the kind of message I wanted to put out into the world, feelings valid as they might have been.
I still think both of those songs have plenty of other merits, but I'd really want to bring them back to the drawing board and give them the time and attention needed to polish them with my current skillset. The same applies to various other works I've made in the past- Caitlin, for example- but the truth is, I look back on most of my past work primarily as points of comparison and perspective, rather than as work I'm particularly proud of.
Here's a list of old songs I'd like to reapproach or polish one day (with links, if I have them):
Caitlin (feat. GUMI)
Cologne (feat. Big Al and DEX)
Dance Lessons (feat. AVANNA and MAIKA)
Feeling for Snow
Parasite
Someday Soon
Twilight Teardrops (feat. IA)
I also considered including Hard-Disk Hide and Seek in this list, but I struggle to imagine any other version of it... it's deeply rooted in the literal perspective of the song and the events it is meant to portray, and while it might be fun to reexplore that story, I think it would be better to write a new song that fits my tastes better, rather than overwrite the original (pun intended).
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hi lupin, idk how often you check your tumblr but i just wanted to say that i hope you're doing okay and that things get better for you. and also that specters almost single-handedly got me through the end of high school. because i finally felt like someone had put words to the anxieties i'd been feeling for years and that had kinda come to a boiling point at the time, and there were a lot of times where i would think of your songs and sometimes sing them to ground myself. i feel like if i hadnt heard them i would have lost my mind. so i hope it helps in some capacity to know that youve made things a lot better for someone out there, that you made life a little easier to get through. and i hope everything gets better for you mentally because you deserve to be happy <3
THIS MESSAGE WAS SENT IN 2024, thank you so much for the kind words, and sharing your story with me. I'm glad that specters meant a lot to you; anxieties seem to fuel a lot of my creative writing and songwriting efforts, and while that album only represented a specific subsection of my own, I am glad they managed to connect with so many others.
My mental health is still a pretty regular struggle, with ups and downs coming in equal measure, but I've made strides elsewhere in my life that help keep my mental health from weighing me down too much, and friends that are very dear to me who support me when I struggle to float. š
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For those who aren't familiar, specters is a VOCALOID concept album I wrote about my personal fears that I released in May 2020. It was a useful outlet for those anxieties, and helped me explain some of my biggest fears to people who struggled to understand them without. Some of those fears don't feel so big anymore, but some of the more existential ones will always be with me in some way.
with my vocal synth headcanons, I like to make redesigns of them & their original outfits (what I consider their on stage/performance outfits), but also give them a casual outfit to show what I imagine them to dress like on their own time. I do plan on shading these soon
I am very honored to have the opportunity to illustrate a page for nostraightanswer / @lupinnsa in the @backstagezine. Please go show everyone some love, there are so many talented artists that have shown their love for their producers.
This is my initial sketch and its notes... I didn't get to develop this piece as much as I would have liked to as I was in the middle of navigating job changes and moving.. But i really wanted the feeling of looking out from a train and incorporating the mandala-like patterns i enjoy drawing so much as thoughts. There are more notes in the zine, so please look foreward to this as well.
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iāve had a few bad experiences and discoveries over the past year, and one of those revelations included a weird, uncomfortable observation: that while I strive for kindness in casual conversation, often times the people in the world around me⦠do not.
iām not talking about silly, comedy-tuned mockery of friends or anything either. iām referring to, at least, semi-serious discussion about anything you could have opinions about, from other people, to current events, to trending products.
no matter how positive or negative my opinions are, i strive to voice them with as much respect as possible to those involved with the subject. i might overemphasize my positive opinions and refrain from spending too long on my negative ones, for example. More importantly, I try not to belittle other people casually just because they āarenāt in the roomā. When they are, I try to be direct and honest without exaggerating my point. Negative opinions and disagreements are already difficult enough, and thereās no need to salt the wound; I try to remain kind even when discussing events or persons that actively harmed me. Even when Iām pretty sure no one else will see.
If I realize my opinions are flawed based on incorrect or outdated information, I always try to own up to those sorts of errors, and change my opinions accordingly. I try to leave room for personal growth or change to make a difference. I try to keep my expectations from coloring my attitude.
Recent events have made it very clear that others are not so interested in that same effort. I suppose it is easier to be unkind if the expectation is that the subject will ānever know.ā Or perhaps there isnāt enough consequence for ābeing meanā to choose words with care. Or perhaps this aggressive behavior comes from the increasingly antagonistic perspective of those beyond oneās personal boundaries. Or perhaps it simply costs more energy to keep your filters on.
Iām not free of this sort of sin myself. Iāve said unkind things before, especially when I was younger, especially when I was less informed, less sympathetic. Even recently, Iāve said unkind things to my own close friends simply because I was in emotional turmoil, because I was desperately craving the minimum closure I could ask, for one of the most egregious accusations Iāve ever been the target of on a larger scale. A simple, genuine, apology.
When I realize that something I did or said was hurtful beyond necessity, whether it was from the heat of the moment or a moment of carelessness, I try to genuinely apologize for it. But Iāve seen that others are all too willing to double down on their aggression instead, punching deeper without indication of a second thought. Without restraint.
Someone once said that people donāt like to own up to their mistakes because saying stuff like, āI was wrong,ā is an admission of guilt. That no one wants to be guilty of being a jerk, because then they would be a jerk. And I think overall, that observation seems pretty spot on, if deeply disappointing.
I obviously want people to be more kind, passively, to other people in general. But I especially want the mindset of admitting you were wrong to change: not, āI was wrong and I am a jerk,ā but, āI was wrong, I was a jerk, but I want to do better.ā
Obviously thereās a lot of nuance to be had here. Like, what about the consequences of actions? Why not fight back if something isnāt interested in giving you a chance to defend yourself? How do we learn to be kind and sympathetic in a world that is, for some reason, becoming increasingly intolerant?
I wish I had the answers to all of that, but I donāt.