NEUN Sings Live Through a Robotic Pitch Effect in a Two-Hour Karaoke Stream

RK MUSIC — NEUN, a singer with RK Music, sang live through a robotic, heavily pitch-corrected vocal effect that fans call *kerokero* on Saturday, saying a newly installed audio mixer made it possible to apply the effect in real time. The stream, titled “Tonight, What I’ll Take Is Your Life,” ran just under two hours.

NEUN said they had spent about three hours that day adjusting their setup at the computer before going on air, then opened by saying they wanted to sing. The first songs were sung without the effect. Around the 18-minute mark NEUN switched kerokero on and carried on with it through much of the set, including Melancholic, Attract Light and Romeo and Cinderella (ロミオとシンデレラ). After a song, NEUN said the Romeo and Cinderella performance was one they were happy with.

“What I’ll be taking tonight is your life. I’ll be taking your life.” — NEUN, opening the stream

Midway through, NEUN explained the gear: a mixer called Stream Gear Mixer Pro (ストリームギアミキサープロ) and a companion harmony plugin. NEUN said one button on the mixer evens out the loudness of the audio that goes to the stream, and that the effected voice can be routed into Discord, which let NEUN sing there for the first time. NEUN tried the voice out by reciting lines in a villain’s voice and by adding harmonies while speaking.

The stream had a few hitches. The connection to YouTube dropped briefly twice, and the on-screen setlist froze and disappeared before NEUN got it working again, drawing a “the internet broke!” from chat. NEUN then drew on screen for viewers and answered stickers with drawings. Chat answered the new sound with cheers; viewers said the effect suited the songs and called the harmonies “too much of a villain.”

In closing announcements, NEUN said they will appear at RK Music’s year-end special event on Dec. 27, for which a first-round ticket lottery was open through Nov. 15, and at a live-house event on Dec. 13. NEUN also said a cover song would premiere at 7 p.m. that evening, and that the stream would redirect to it when it ended.