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 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Man, makes me want to buy it from amazon. But it’s not cheap… 15000+ yen is no small sum. If only it’s priced as a PC game…
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:42 pm
may I remind ppl that YAMAHA is the real company behind this piece of software, Crypton only does the voice synthesizing bit. see wikipedia and vocaloid.com for details.
Miku is just a visual representation of the software, appeal to vast fandom in Japan, Crypton understands its audience too well.
Saki Fujita sucks in English -> Miku sucks in English
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
I don’t think the software is that bad in Japanese, the leekspin animation was pretty cool.
But as DF says, Hatsune is just a marketing trick to rip off otaku who buy anything anime-related. I checked out the website of the original VOCALOID, and there were no anime characters in that version. Hatsune was just an add - on.
Btw the speaking clock was soooo cute!
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I doubt that it will work well with English songs even if you find a seiyuu who speaks English fluently.
The software is obviously taking advantage of the fact that Japanese is read they way it is written. It will not work with English without the aid of some kind of dictionary software with phonetics conversion.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:18 pm
anyone watched this movie called s1m0ne starring al pacino? everyday we are one step closer to that.
some of the technology is already in place in fact.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jVBJ5bajNo
Vocaloid Miriam (note that it’s based on Vocaloid1)
I have nothing against Miku, Crypton should be proud of their product, which tops Amazon Japan’s Sep. sales chart. Though I hesitate to conclude that’s the best we can get out of Vocaloid2.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:34 pm
The cake is a lie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12b6Om758Q
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:53 am
@TinyRedMan,
new character?
Do you mean, Hatune Teku?
http://i19.tinypic.com/6ffghnm.jpg
ROFL~
I’m waiting for a male version of this synthesizer, unless it’s gonna sound all crappy like Larc~En~Ciel (Yeah I’m still not happy that they ditch Nami Tamaki, See-Saw and TMRevolution in Gundam).
November 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Oh hey, just 3 days after I found out about this I read this post.
Guess only Engrish will do for English songs, eh?
November 5th, 2007 at 5:35 am
It still gets to me when people say Fly Me to the Moon is from Eva. D:
Trackback from
Ramblings of DarkMirageNovember 7th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
VOCALOID2’s Kagamine Rin…
The next girl to be featured in Crypton Future Media’s VOCALOID2 software has been revealed. (Check out my previous post if you don’t know what is VOCALOID2.)
Kagamine Rin (鏡音リン) is a loli-looking character voiced by Asami Shimoda,…
November 8th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Hahahahaha,what an awesome joke,gaining sentience. XD
Anyways,well,this would probably explain the odd songs I have been hearing on you tube lately. >…> Which I don’t mind at all. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP0xhF97Asw (LEEKS EVERYWHERE!)
November 9th, 2007 at 11:20 am
Actually if they manage to synthesize IPA, you could just about use a similar program to make songs for any language.
November 10th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Recently, I hear she sings “Fly me to the moon”
There’re two version. She can sing in English with strong Japanese accent!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UotUuSwtuSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bze1ZczI-0
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:12 am
フライミーツーダムーン… ;)