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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