VOCALOID2’s Hatsune Miku
Remember the 2ch hit flash animation with the spinning leek? An indie Finnish song that achieved Internet fame thanks to a fateful fusion of Japanese otaku culture, Macromedia and Bleach, Ievan Polkka lives again!
Hatsune Miku
Well, I’m in love with the song all over again thanks to this YouTube video and a crazy piece of software called VOCALOID2. Embedded after the break.
The singer is Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) from Crypton’s VOCALOID2 software. It’s basically a music creation tool similar to MIDI composers except that instead of synthesizing instruments, it synthesizes vocals. That said, it doesn’t actually generate the voice using any magical algorithm; the vocals are actually pre-recorded (the voice belongs to Saki Fujita, an obscure seiyuu with few titles under her name).
What Crypton did was to record all the necessary pitches and consonant-vowel combinations needed for a typical J-Pop song and let the user combine them into coherent pieces. It works surprisingly well due to the fact that the Japanese language has only fifty or so possible sounds and words are always read the way they are written. It’s hard to explain, so here are some YouTube videos.
When I first heard of this some time ago from Kotaku, I thought it was something related to IDOLM@STER, especially since Kotaku seems obsessed with anything to do with the anime pop idol management simulation for Xbox 360. And after watching a few YouTube videos, I realized that I was right, just not in the way I had imagined. Just imagine if Namco Bandai decides to license this for use in IDOLM@STER…
I think this is the beginning of the end of the anime song industry as we know it.
I kid, I kid. Your favourite seiyuu isn’t going jobless just yet. At least not until VOCALOID-9000 achieves sentience and figures out how to synthesize new voices without the aid of puny humans… >_>
If you are interested in trying out VOCALOID2, you need to either fork out ￥15,750 (about US$140) or wear an eye patch and get a pet parrot.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:18 pm
I don’t know what the big deal is about her other than she has a cute character design…frankly I find her voice pitch incredibly irritating o_o
November 1st, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Nice airticle, Thanks.
Hatsune Miku is a buzzword in Japanese otaku scene(^^)
I can see several Hatsune Miku related news everyday. Fansites are mushrooming now. Although she made her debut in Sep. There’s so many cosplay photo in Cure.
http://cure.livedoor.com/category/search/?sw=%BD%E9%B2%BB%A5%DF%A5%AF
But as long as current software version, Hatsune Miku’s power of expression is very limited. I think, To make near perfect VOCALOID takes much long time(maybe over 5 years).
Here’s my impressions to Hatsune Miku
(Sorry, Japanese only)
http://don777.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2007/09/200709_38a3.html
http://don777.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2007/09/200708200710_b77d.html
November 1st, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Yeah it’s far from perfect, but it’s certainly waaay better than I had imagined when I first heard about it.
Right now, it does seem to fall short at certain genres of songs.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:37 pm
The real gems of Hatsune Miku are the original songs or “covers” with original lyrics.
Like all recent internet fads, the attraction of Hatsune Miku lies within giving more power to the end user and enable their imaginations run wild. So now not only can some geek with too much time can compose their own songs on their PC, they can even have a virtual voice to sing said songs, and then share it with millions of other geeks.
That said, it’s not going to replace real singers anytime soon. There are a lot of songs by some seiyuu singers which people tried to make Miku covers but failed miserably, such as those by Mizuki Nana….
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:03 am
i’m currently installin this…and many youtubers and stage6ers are crazy over hatsune too. and there will be a new character set to be release on december.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 am
Yea, im a big fan of Hatsune Miku after listening to her on youtube. <
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:49 am
they are giving her a manga. what more can you say.
but it is interesting to see what they can actually do with it.
pretty shocked at fly me to the moon since i know the software doesnt work with english. i belive there is to be an english version for the software sometime later.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 am
Did anyone use Hatsune Miku to sing those Manabi Straight Momoha songs? It would be a pretty lol attempt at mimicking the original.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:08 am
Ah ha. So you did like it.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:51 am
Ah, so the rage is about Hatsune Miku. That explains why I keep seeing all the Miku-related entries on most of the otaku-themed blogs.
It sounds like a novel concept: who would have imagined that people can use voice as a synthesiser to make their own songs? I give it +3 for bringing power to the people. (Anything that brings power to the people, deserves to be recognised.)
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:28 am
Miku has been turning up everywhere… and I love some of the songs that have popped up that is so good… but after seeing and hearing so much, it’s clear she cant handle some types of music like those that use english for example.
I would like to give the program a try but that would mean getting back into the music/midi business… and also learning enough basic japanese to decipher how to use it
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:42 am
harrr! I prefer my pirates to look something like Captain Jack Sparrow