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Monday, April 8, 2013

Vocaloid Corner

Vocaloid started off as a singing voice synthesizer software, produced in the Pompeau Fabra University in Spain, developed and funded by music company Yamaha. Available in English and Japanese, it was described as being 'a singer in a box'. You can literally create a singing voice from nothing using this software. Vocaloid gained immense popularity in Japan soon after the release of the second engine (called Vocaloid 2) and Hatsune Miku (literally, 'first voice' Miku), the first of the Vocaloid software to label the synthesized voice with a character. It was released by Crypton Future Media in Japan.

The original target audience of the software was for professional producers (Vocaloid is sold at a very steep price with high system requirements). The proliferation of her songs was based on a number of factors: one, anyone can do it as long as they have a copy of the software, and two, it was a very useful and cheaper tool for budding music companies to produce their own vocals without resorting to human artists, who can be expensive to hire, and three, because it is well accepted by the cyber community, it was a great way for new artists and bands to promote themselves.

Nevertheless, the otaku fanbase grew rapidly because of immense user input, since it was so simple to create a song with the Vocaloid software and a simple music synthesizer, much like you would create a painting with Photoshop.

Whole articles could be written about the Vocaloid fandom in Japan, but this isn't a Vocaloid site, it's a Taiko no Tatsujin site. The first Vocaloid song, Melt by Hatsune Miku, was released for Taiko 12 Zoryoban, and the number of Vocaloid songs have increased exponentially since then, at first sticking to just Miku songs but later growing to encompass several different Vocaloids. All the songs were in the J-Pop genre until Taiko 14, where the entire thing was moved to Variety after it was decided that Vocaloid songs are not strictly J-Pop, and then gained its own genre on March 2013 after the release of Taiko no Tatsujin Sorairo Version.

Vocaloid
KAITO
MEIKO

Vocaloid 2
Hatsune Miku
Kagamine Rin/Len
Megpoid GUMI
Camui Gackpo
Megurine Luka

Vocaloid 3
IA
Yuzuki Yukari
ZOLA PROJECT
flower

Vocaloid 4
Mirai Komachi

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