Under construction.
~Lappye.
Friday, August 05, 2011
What is Vocaloid?
First, I need to explain what is Vocaloid, and I'll use the info. available at Wikipedie to do so. And then, I will talk about the one responsible for Vocaloid's success and the so-called world's virtual diva, Hatsune Miku.
Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application, with its signal processing part developed through a joint research project between the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and Yamaha Corporation, who backed the development financially—and later developed the software into the commercial product "Vocaloid". The software enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody. It uses synthesizing technology with specially recorded vocals of voice actors or singers. To create a song, the user must input the melody and lyrics. A piano roll type interface is used to input the melody and the lyrics can be entered on each note. The software can change the stress of the pronunciations, add effects such as vibrato, or change the dynamics and tone of the voice. Each Vocaloid is sold as "a singer in a box" designed to act as a replacement for an actual singer. The software is available in English and Japanese, although a Chinese version was produced for Sonika.
The software is intended for professional musicians as well as light computer music users and has so far sold on the idea that the only limits are the users' own skills. Japanese musical groups Livetune of Victor Entertainment and Supercell of Sony Music Entertainment Japan have released their songsfeaturing Vocaloid as vocals. Japanese record label Exit Tunes of Quake Inc. also has released compilation albums featuring Vocaloids. Artists such as Mike Oldfield have also used Vocaloids within their work for back-up singer vocals and sound samples.
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| Vocaloid Editor. |
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| Vocaloid2 Editor. |
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| Vocaloid3 Editor. |
What is the 'Hatsune Miku movement'?
Now that we know what Vocaloid is, I can talk about the 'responsible' for Vocaloid's success and the so-called world's virtual diva, Hatsune Miku.
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| Hatsune Miku |
"HATSUNE MIKU" is a computer music software that enables users to create synthesized singing of unprecedented quality and remarkable realism by just typing in lyrics and melody. Powered by YAMAHA's VOCALOID (= Vocal + Android) technology, HATSUNE MIKU was developed by Crypton Future Media in Sapporo, and released on August 31st, 2007. And since then, there have been more than 30,000 songs and movies about HATSUNE MIKU were posted in a popular Video sharing web site such as YouTube and Nico-Nico-Douga (Japan).
From this "music software" with cute voice and an illustration of cartoon girl on the cover, not only lots of CGM(Consumer Generated Media) music were created, but remarkable numbers of derivative illustrations and dedicated free software (including an amazing application tool to create 3D animation of HATSUNE MIKU, etc.) were also created. Then, as the recognition and popularity of HATSUNE MIKU grew, more other related activities such as launching news site and SNS site featuring MIKU or organizing events for MIKU fans are taking place.
HATSUNE MIKU is not merely a music software anymore. It's turned into a source of inspiration to create its derivative works. With the increase of those mash-up and remix works by HATSUNE MIKU lovers, Crypton Future Media has opened "PIAPRO" as a next step. PIAPRO is a CGM contents posting site for the creators to collaborate and exchange ideas with others. At PIAPRO, you'll be surprised to see all those talented works, but besides that, a CCJP official character are being seeked as one of collaboration projects, and also, creators are discussing vigorously and freely about copyright for the sake of better future goals of their works.
Hatsune Miku
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| Hatsune Miku |
Hatsune Miku is the name of a Voice Bank for Crypton's Vocaloid software. Her name roughly translates into "First Sound to the Future" according to the Vocaloid Wikia site. She's also called 'Miku Hatsune' by some English fans, considering that in Western cultures the surname goes last. As opposed to Japan and some other European countries.
"The name of the title and the character of the software was chosen by combining Hatsu (初, first), Ne (音, sound), and Miku (未来, future) thus meaning "the first sound to the future."
- Vocaloid Wikia.
She was the first released in the Vocaloid 2 series, and to this day remains possibly the most 'well-known' Vocaloid character. Her release took Vocaloid from obscure software to household word.
Her voice was sampled from Japanese Voice Actress Saki Fujita (藤田 咲). Her character art, seen here, was drawn by Japanese illustrator KEI. Compared to her Vocaloid 1 predecessors Kaito and Meiko, Miku's voice achieved a level of realism that was very nearly unparalleled. Many people mistook her for a real singer, or an anime character.
While Miku is commonly used to sing J-Pop style songs, she can be used for other purposes. Examples of her songs have literally flooded Youtube and its Japanese counterpart "Nico Nico Douga".
Miku also sang the opening theme to the recently released "Black Rock Shooter" Anime by Huke. Before the series was announced, many people thought that Black Rock Shooter was simply a fan-made Vocaloid character. This may be because both of them have the same hairstyle, two long pigtails. BRS is actually an Original character, totally separate from Vocaloid.
Over time, dedicated fans of Miku have created fanart, doujin and fanfiction of her and the other Vocaloids. Because Crypton never gave much data on Miku's personality, the fans have attempted to fill in the blanks. She's most often portrayed as a sweet, caring individual who loves to sing. She is also shown repeatedly with a leek (a type of Onion), and has therefor been heavily associated with the 'Leekspin' meme.
Also notable is 'The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku'. The song is thought by some to be derived from an incident on October 18th, 2007, where images of Miku could not be found anywhere on Google/Yahoo image search. Both companies were accused of censorship. They stated that this was the result of a 'bug' which affected other keywords as well. Not just Miku. The so called 'bug' appeared to be fixed as of October 19th. Miku re-appeared in the search results.
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What Hatsune Miku Is
Hatsune Miku has become incredibly popular amongst news reporters lately, and this is a response to the huge number of Vocaloid-ignorant people commenting. First off, I will say what Hatsune Miku IS NOT. She is not an anime character. She is an avatar for a software, which I will get into shortly.
She is not a hologram. In her concerts, her avatar is made by projecting a video on a transparent glass screen. It looks realistic, but it is nothing but smoke and mirrors. She is not the only or even the first “virtual pop star.” There are over 24 other characters just like her that belong to the same software. However, none of them get any media coverage.
What is Hatsune Miku? Hatsune Miku is one of the 25 different Vocaloid singing synthesizer voices.
While the Japanese Vocaloid voices have character designs on their box art, and some Vocaloids, such as Miku, get their own concerts, Vocaloid looks like your standard music software.
There are voices for both English and Japanese. The software is used by drawing notes into the editor and typing in lyrics. Even if you can’t sing, Miku and friends can sing for you!
Mind you, using Vocaloid is FAR from easy. You have to painstakingly edit settings and parameters to get a good sound. However, it’s a lot of fun and not too difficult to figure out.
So, why does a software that creates artificial singing get its own concert? Hatsune Miku is part of the “Character Vocal Series”, a series of Vocaloid voices meant to appeal to anime fans. Thanks to the popularity of the character vocal series Vocaloid is incredibly popular amongst musicians, anime fans, and both.
Crypton, creators of Miku and the Character Vocal Series, realized the huge popularity and held concerts with songs made by Vocaloid users. Yes, people who buy the software and use it to make songs can have their songs featured in a concert!
Here is a cover using Big Al, an english Vocaloid, commonly called Engloids, singing New York, New York by Frank Sinatra.
However, only four out of the 25 Vocaloid characters appear in the concert. This is because while all the voices share the Vocaloid editor made by YAMAHA, different voices are made by different companies.
There is Zero-G, the creators of the first Vocaloids. They are based in England and make English Vocaloids.
There is Crypton, just mentioned, who created Hatsune Miku, The Character Vocal Series (Megurine Luka, and Kagamine Rin & Len), as well as two other lesser known Vocaloids, Kaito and Meiko.
There is Power-FX, an English singing Vocaloid company based in Sweden. They are hailed as making English Vocaloids with the clearest pronunciation of the English language.
Internet Co, LTD. They are famous for using the voices of Japanese celebrities and pop culture icons, such as Gackt, the most famous singer in Japan; voice actress and idol Megumi Nakajima; and children’s television icon Gachapin.
Ah-Software doesn’t really stand out much. They are the least popular company. They have made a Vocaloid that uses samples from a real elementary school girl.
B-Plats is famous for being the only Japanese Vocaloid company to not include characters on the box art for their voices. The idea is that the user is supposed to imagine their own interpretation of what the singers looks like.
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KarenT
Karen-T is the Indy music label owned by Crypton Future Media which grants the sale of many Vocaloid related songs. It also covers non-Vocaloid songs. While Supercell is under the Sony Music label, many other composers do not have the chance to be under such a powerful label. The following statement is from KarenT:
“KarenT is the CGM(Consumer Generated Media) style Record label which is for the artist and by the artist. On KarenT, the artist themselves can control their songs and copy rights, and the system that artists can easily distribute worldwide makes possible their songs deliver to listener while it’s hot.”
The name KarenT is derived from an American futurologist, Alvin Toffler. Nowadays, it is much easier for individual creators to make public their work and gain recognition by posting them on the internet. This has been making a far-reaching impact on economy and changing our values. Surprisingly, Alvin Toffler already predicted such changes in 1980s, and in his book "The Third Wave", he coined a new term "prosumer" and described that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge. He had a daughter, who supported his works. Sadly, she died at young age before seeing a world of The Third Wave. Because we have been greatly impressed and inspired by his books, to honor Alvin Toffler, and also as a symbol of coming future, we named KarenT after his daughter, Karen Toffler.
In order for you not to get bored reading, here are some videos made by talented fans.
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The World Is Hers: How Hatsune Miku Is Changing Everything - Part I
Before reading this article, divided into three parts, I really recommend you watching this video about the creators of Hatsune Miku.
"Hatsune Miku is a [piece of] software," he says, "built on the Vocaloid technology developed by YAMAHA. [Vocaloid] is an engine that produces a singing sound, and we obtained a license from YAMAHA to develop products based on that."
By Carlo Santos, Jul 15th 2011.
Hiroyuki Itoh would like to explain himself.
As the CEO of Crypton Future Media, the parent company of "virtual idol" Hatsune Miku, Itoh sits in the driver's seat of a very crowded pop-culture bandwagon. And before everyone gets too excited, he wants people to understand what this bandwagon is about.
"Hatsune Miku is a [piece of] software," he says, "built on the Vocaloid technology developed by YAMAHA. [Vocaloid] is an engine that produces a singing sound, and we obtained a license from YAMAHA to develop products based on that."
In other words, declaring oneself a fan of Miku is like being a fan of the Korg Triton keyboard, or the Fender Stratocaster guitar. You're rooting for a musical instrument—one that must be installed on a PC, and comes in a box with an anime-styled illustration on it, but still, an instrument. And the Vocaloid brand name itself doesn't refer specifically to Miku and her colorful friends, but rather, to the sound synthesis engine they run on. Taken literally, being "a fan of Vocaloid" is like being a fan of a particular brand of guitar strings.
But who cares about playing semantic games? As with any emergent subculture, words have a way of taking on their own meaning. These days, "Vocaloid" refers to the entire meta-verse that has blossomed from that one innovation. Vocaloid is the infinite repertoire of songs created by home-studio producers using that software; Vocaloid is the gallery of images and videos that go with each song; Vocaloid is every meme and storyline spawned by those images; Vocaloid is the family of characters representing each particular voice bank; and as anyone who attended Anime Expo will tell you, Vocaloid is the fanbase dressing up as those characters in all their variations.
It is a viral effect that has surprised even Wataru Sasaki, Crypton's marketing director. He says that he is struck by "the way it's being utilized through video-sharing sites like YouTube and NicoNico. It's spreading among peers through these sites—really, word of mouth. It's become popular in various countries [in such ways that] there really haven't been any prior examples." In a world where most mainstream entertainment is still run by a heavy corporate hand, the self-propelling nature of Vocaloid has turned everything upside-down.
"In a way, it's been a struggle to find out how to best work with such phenomena," says Sasaki. "We believe that it's best to get feedback from fans about ... how best to handle things, how to do what's best for the fanbase. We're not in a hurry to make money on this."
Left: Hiroyuki Itoh. Right: Wataru Sasaki.
The World Is Hers: How Hatsune Miku Is Changing Everything - Part II
Crypton was founded in 1995, a time when even MP3 was still an infant technology, YouTube was a decade away, and the idea of anthropomorphizing everything with cute anime girls was yet to take off. "Our goal was not originally to work with Vocaloid or to create a [voice synthesis] software," says Itoh. "Crypton was set up as a company that works with sound in general—any software that has to do with sound."
If Itoh is jokingly called "Miku's father," then her grandparents are the folks at YAMAHA, who unveiled the original Vocaloid engine in 2003. "We knew that such a technology existed, and wondered if there was anything we could do with that," says Itoh about the early years. "We already had an existing relationship with YAMAHA, so we were able to contact them and create a product out of it."
But it's not as if Miku just descended from the heavens as a fully formed synthesized singing angel. Her roots can be traced back to some very humble forms of sound technology, as Itoh explains. "In Japan, [voice synthesis] software is reasonably popular and is used in places such as train stations, where trains may be announced, or [on board] when the train station is being called. Telephones might have an answering system that is driven by Vocaloid." (Imagine that: one of Miku's relatives is the dreaded robo-phone that works the customer service hotline).
"At first, there was no software that worked with a [synthesized] singing voice," Itoh continues. "I wasn't sure how much need there was for such a software. Or, for that matter, what merit there would be in creating a software that could make a PC sing."
It was that uncertainty that guided Itoh's next move—ultimately one of the smartest moves in Crypton's history. "In 2004, I created our first [Vocaloid] software, Meiko, and attached a cartoon character to it. I did that because a software that [simulates] a person singing is not an essential need to human beings. I figured, in order for it to appeal to people and be loved by people, it needed to have a human touch, and something like a cartoon character was the right tool for that. It had a reasonable amount of success, and of course that led up to the concept of Hatsune Miku."
And everyone knows what happened next.
Maybe the secret of Hiroyuki Itoh's success is that, as Crypton's founder, he is more a business person than a music, sound engineering, or even software person. Itoh laughs when asked if he is a musician at all (he's not), then admits that he majored in Economics. "Nothing to do with sound," he says. "I guess that, in successfully marketing Vocaloid, I did use some of the skills I learned."
At his keynote speech on Day 1 of Anime Expo, Itoh puts on his businessman hat as he breaks out a formal slideshow presentation about Hatsune Miku and the cult of Vocaloid. He provides the customary rundown about who he is and what his company does, then goes over the list of official Crypton-produced Vocaloid "characters" (or, to be technically correct, software packages).
Hatsune Miku, the eternal 16-year-old born on August 31, 2007, remains the star of the show to this day. Second to her in popularity are the Kagamine twins, Rin and Len, whose distinctive yellow trim and boy/girl pairing are almost as ubiquitous as Miku's green-and-gray on the cosplay circuit. But the most versatile voice, from a music producer's perspective, is that of Megurine Luka, a 2009 product who boasts a deeper range and the ability to "sing" in both Japanese and English. Some fans also wave an old-school flag for Meiko and Kaito, whose voices were built on an earlier generation of Vocaloid technology but are still core members of the Crypton family.
Non-Crypton Vocaloid characters have also entered the subculture, such as Megpoid, based on voice samples of seiyuu Megumi Nakajima and modeled after Macross F's Ranka Lee, and Gackpoid, built on the voice of J-rock superstar Gackt. Other enterprising souls have even developed an open-source synthesis engine called Utauloid (from the Japanese word utau, "to sing"), the most famous of which is the pink-and-curly-haired Kasane Teto.
It may feel strange at first to talk about music software packages as if they were real people. But just as Itoh predicted when he first created them, that's exactly what has made them so appealing. The inspiration that these characters provide has resulted in 366,000 Vocaloid-related videos on YouTube and 92,600 such videos on NicoNico, a statistic that Itoh proudly shows off in his presentation.
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| The Piapro collaboration workflow. |
Then there is the multimedia spillover that has resulted from this growing meta-genre. The Crypton-owned website Piapro (an abbreviation for "Peer Production"), features over 450,000 Vocaloid-inspired creations in word, sound, and image. Even more remarkable is how creators inspire each other: under a shared-content policy, one Piapro user might produce a song, then another will listen to it and draw an accompanying illustration, and yet another might run with the concept and produce a short animated video. All that matters is that the originator is properly credited under the site's rules.
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The World Is Hers: How Hatsune Miku Is Changing Everything - Part III
Some Vocaloid fans have even gone beyond the realm of the arts and into feats of engineering. The most well-known of these is MikuMikuDance, a 3D animation program where a Hatsune Miku character model—or any character model, really—can be made to lip-sync and dance to a given song. More subtle in scope is VocaListener, which analyzes input from a real human singer, then automatically adjusts the settings in the Vocaloid program to match that voice. Even offhanded flights of imagination can become reality: an odd-looking touchscreen keyboard nicknamed "Ano Gakki" ("That Instrument"), which was featured in the Hatsune Miku video for "Innocence," has been replicated as a real working instrument. (A less ambitious version can also be downloaded as a smartphone app.)
What this all means is that there is a bustling creative ecosystem run almost entirely by the fans. Ultimately, that may be Crypton's greatest gift to the world: not Hatsune Miku or the Vocaloid software itself, but the way in which it is used. An entire form of entertainment has been built not by corporate overlords, but by its consumers. The corporation is only there to give them a few tools and rules, then they sit back and see what happens next.
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| The Crypton/Vocaloid ecosystem. |
Still, there are a number of corporate-sponsored events that make the Vocaloid experience come alive. This year, Anime Expo played host to MikuNoPolis, the first ever "live Vocaloid concert" outside of Japan. It is nothing more (and nothing less) than CGI animation projected onto a clear screen on stage, but with a good viewing angle and a healthy suspension of disbelief, the illusion is still impressive. Even more impressive is that every song on the setlist was, obviously, fan-made—not a product churned out by songwriters slaving away in Crypton's basement, but the creations of genuine musicians expressing themselves through the Vocaloid medium.
However, the concert also revealed what limitations remain. The magic of Miku stops working outside of about 40 degrees in each direction. Sometimes the vocals, unable to adjust, get lost under live instrumental accompaniment. And for all the innovations in voice-synthesis technology, those with more sensitive ears feel that Miku still sounds like a robotic squirrel being strangled. But what is it they say about real-life idol singers in Japan? "Idols are perfect because they are imperfect." It is those imperfections that make Miku so fascinating: an ongoing work-in-progress that everyone can get involved with.
Who knows what the future holds? Crypton has already promised us that an English version of the Hatsune Miku software is on its way, while a new and improved Vocaloid engine is under development in Japan. That will mean a new cast of characters, including a voice bank that can even sing in Korean. Crypton's original Vocaloid line continues to evolve with "Append" add-ons that bring new tone colors to their voices. And somewhere, unknown to any of us, some mad genius is probably working on an idea that will change the world of Vocaloid forever.
As many people know, the name "Hatsune Miku" is a pun on "the first sound of the future." But as the Vocaloid culture expands, the name is becoming increasingly inaccurate. She is no longer the sound of the future. She is the sound of right now.
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