Alfred admired the set up of the program when it appeared, the music roll probably the calmest shade of red he'd ever seen, the settings having a spherical red shade, and the buttons had easy to read letters. No wonder Francis used this program so much, as simple as it was, it was beautiful.

"Alrighty," Alfred clicked on a button with a pencil, "Let's start writing a song."

It took him a while to figure out which note to start out in, and when he did it didn't take long to set up the rest of the notes. The lyrics in his head he inserted, but had to redo the role when they all didn't fit.

"Hmm," he grunted, "This is much harder then I'd thought it'd be."

After messing around, he finally gave in and decided to try the tutorial from the manual. He saved his current song before starting fresh before flipping the glossy pages of the manual to the page the tutorial started on.

Step 1: Open a new role and select the pencil button. Copy the placement of these notes as best as you can, starting from line one.

"Easy as cake!" Alfred copied the notes, having to restart when he realized that he started too high (he later found out that you could just click and drag the note, which frustrated him a little, but not enough to make him quit), and having to resize the notes a lot before it looked almost exactly like the picture in the manual.

Step 2: Add the words to the notes. You can use the words in the picture, or make up your own words.

Alfred, being at a loss of words to use, just reused the words in the picture, taking a few minutes to find a way to exit the word editing option.

Step 3: Test the voice by selecting play. Listen to how it sounds.

"Hmm. Alright. Here's hoping it sounds awesome!" Alfred hit the play button, watching as the hour glass picture appeared before the voice began to sing:

"Well he-llo-, my name is Ma-a-tthew! Tha-nk you for u-sing me!"

"Ew," Alfred grimaced at the hideous robotic sound that played, instead of what were supposed to be realistic sounding vocals. Maybe the program was bugged? Well, he did get it used, but what would that have to do with anything?

Step 4: Now it's time to make the voice sound more like a human singer.

"Oh. Duh"

Click on the VOCATALIA palette to open the various attack, vibrato, crescendo, etc options. These help give the voice its human feel.

Alfred did as told, blinking at the number of option to choose from before resuming reading the instructions.

Take the Matthew vibrato and apply it to every note in the sequence. Make sure the vibrato lasts the entire duration of the note.

After figuring out how to attach the Matthew vibrato and extend it, Alfred really wanted to hear the voice now, but saw there were more steps to follow.

Step 5: In the pitch edited roll below the sequence, slightly raise the pitch bend on notes three, five, and eleven, and lower them on four, six, and ten.

There were more steps afterward, but they were easy changes to make that Alfred found very tedious. After ten more minutes, however, the result he got took his breath away.

"We~e~ll he~llo~, my name is Ma~a~tthew! Tha~nk you for u~sing me~!"

oOo

Matthew smiled after singing the notes, seeing the look on Master's face after he sung the words displayed to him in his best voice. The man's mouth was agape, his eyes were open, and Matthew swore that he sat up straighter in his chair.

Yes, his voice was amazing, as always, smiling proudly and crossing his arms. He would never sing unless the notes had all of the attacks and other things attached to them, therefore he just thought the words, like he was told to by another VOCATALIA before his distribution started.

Master seemed to break out of his trance, coughing nervously before looking around slowly. A devious smile then grew on his face before Matthew saw him pull out the thing he hated – background voices. Master then copied the sequence onto the two new sequences he made. On one, Master moved all the notes down, which meant they had to be sung in a lower pitch. The other one was raised a little, and the vibratos were changed.

A challenge, yes, but Matthew could manage it.

When Master hit the play button, Matthew quickly read the notes, determined how he had to sing, and then opened his mouth –

"We~e~ll he~l~lo~, m~y n~ame is Ma~a~tthew! Tha~nk you fo~r u~s~ing me~!"

The triple voices filled in together in a sweet harmony, Matthew panted after the last note, happy with how the result turned out. Master, however, had a look on his face that Matthew knew all too well – he didn't like it.

What was wrong? He sung it just as he had been told to!

He saw Master's mouth move before the felt the sequence being added to his memory, and then he saw the cursor moving to the "dismiss" box.

Matthew, not wanting to be forgotten, felt he had to do something.

He then opened his mouth, and began to speak without being told.

oOo

Alfred liked the result of his quick experiment, but something was off about it… maybe it was better if he didn't make multi-vocal track songs?

"Meh, I'll play with that later." Alfred saved the sequence, "There was something else that I wanted to do –"

"Don't close the window!"

The man almost jumped high enough to hit the ceiling, throwing the mouse at the screen and hitting the keyboard without meaning to. "Shit!" He finished as he fell out of the chair.

oOo

Matthew jumped back from the mouse being thrown at the computer, even though there was a barrier that separated him from his master – permanently.

"Did I scare him?" He asked, walking closer to the screen to try to get a better look. He pressed against the glass, looking left and right through the transparent sequence roll that skewed his vision. It took him a while to see Master, lying on the floor while rubbing his hand.

"Oops," Matthew whispered, "Sorry."

Master's head turned back to the computer, his blue eyes as wide as Matthew's headphone ear cup (and they were very huge, they took up half of his own head, which made Matthew's head look small on the box art).

"I-I didn't mean to scare you, Master," He said again, watching as Master's eyes grew even more and he leaned back. "What? Never had a computer talk to you before?"

Master's mouth opened, but Matthew couldn't understand what he was saying. His mouth repeated an opening and closing action before his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell onto the floor.

"Master?" No response.

"He's fainted," He heard Ludwig's stern voice spit at him, turning around to see the anti-virus program was standing at the door. "I heard Master scream, and I came to make sure he was okay. That you didn't do anything."

Matthew's eyes widened, "I – I just tried to talk to him! He tried to close me out and I begged him not to –"

"He scares easily," Ludwig cut in, "The other night he was looking up ghost stories and scared himself until he fainted. He always does that, for no reason. Of course, when he screams I always run in and make sure he's fine –"

"Wait, you can hear him?" Matthew asked, pointing at Master from where he stood, "I could only see his mouth move!"

Ludwig shrugged, "You're a vocal singing program, and you're not supposed to hear what your master says."

**Ugh, this chapter did not turn out how I wanted it to. I typed it during school, so I was distracted by kids looking over my shoulder and teachers yelling. But my friend wanted me to type this chapter, so I said "Screw it, a short one won't hurt."

I hope you enjoy until I get around to updating again. I feel like writing a dark Mario story now. BAIII!**