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
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:58 am
It sort of “works” with English if you transliterate the lyrics to katakana… That is to say, unlike Japanese lyrics, you can’t just dump English words in directly.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:30 am
Hey check out this flash application embed of Miku Hatsune talkingclock:
http://nekokan.easter.ne.jp/flush/mikuclock.html
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 am
Interesting piece of technology. With the advancement in 3D graphics already so advanced (FF7:AC and the upcoming Beowulf), it’s only a matter of time before some big corporation in America “creates” their very own virtual actor/actress
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… ;)
Trackback from
A Brief Reiteration of Miku Hatsune « Atama Ga WaruiApril 22nd, 2008 at 2:17 am
[...] DarkMirage – VOCALOID2’s Hatsune Miku [...]
May 13th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Heh, Ieva’s Polka+Hatsune Miku. What a nice thing to bump into while randomly browsing around. Too bad the actual lyrics aren’t “Mikued”. Most of Finnish language can be, as it’s pronounced a lot like Japanese (from written text). Few big differences are there but it remains well understandable if you know how to play around with it.
The lyrics are hard to understand for a modern Finn (they were written around 1930′s and are heavily dialected), but there IS an actual story in the song if you listen carefully. It’s a very simple love story.. heh.
Great articles you have here. Back to browsing…
January 27th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Hehe… The vocaloid original songs are quite good too…. :)
Love is War…..
February 8th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Say, are the 1/6 PVC figures of Miku prepainted? Not the Nendroid ones. I’m afraid of messing up the paintjob if I have to do it…
GWAAAH!! I’m another helpless human smitten by the Vocaloids and forced into being a fanboy ^_^;
June 16th, 2009 at 10:24 am
http://vcldjp.web.fc2.com/
March 11th, 2011 at 10:29 pm
hatsune vc é cantora de que tipo de ritimo musical ?