Vocaloid? Anyone?

[WeirdlyGruesome]

I did a very quick search for Vocaloid threads and found none. If there is one, mods, please close this one.

I'll keep it simple, any vocaloid fans out there in AoD land?

Are you fans of the music that is "produced" with the software or are you a musician using it?

I've been getting into the vocarock genre, but there is an interesting mix of different styles of music out there. I'm actually looking forward to the English version of Miku. I'm not a musician that could use the software, but I'd like to see if anyone in the west picks up on it.

[something]

Originally Posted by WeirdlyGruesome

I'll keep it simple, any vocaloid fans out there in AoD land?

Absolutely. Vocaloid has dominated my avatars for the most part, although I've been celebrating Jun from K-ON! lately.

I watch the Vocaloid Ranking on nico every week (though I need to get a chance to watch #165) and refreshed the SP5 videos over and over to see when the next parts went up. I've also imported a dozen Vocaloid CDs before (mostly the compilations, but also albums for supercell and 40mp, plus the ryo/kz Diva 2nd single) and the only three figures I've ever bought are Miku, Miku nendroid, and BRS (tangentially Vocaloid, but the song is how I got into it after all).

I also consider Miku my 3rd favorite character ever behind Furukawa Nagisa and Suzumiya Haruhi, which is pretty remarkable considering her "character" is virtually entirely fan-created. Melody is the first Vocaloid PV that made em cry... And I can say without sarcasm or reservations that Miku is easily one of my favorite vocalists, at least in the hands of a competent composer.

I've thought about starting a Vocaloid thread before (I've done one or two about specific things, not general discussion), but I think there are only a handful of us at AOD who are into it to any extent beyond having heard Melt and Black Rock Shooter.

The status of Miku and her comrades as, essentially, crowdsourced idols is utterly fascinating to me in a way that few if any "real" idols could ever be.

[Quarkboy]

Agree with the above.

To answer the question: I'm fascinated in Miku and the other Vocaloids as a "new media" phenomena. However they have also led me to discover a number of great artists.

I'm heading to Comiket this winter pretty much intending to buy only one thing: Electrocutica's new album with songs from Treow (Drain, etc...), #8Prince (little devil), AVTechno (Dye), etc...

Treow especially is a talent that I do not doubt will get much bigger over the next few years, and the Electrocutica label he(?) started is an interesting self publishing method.

[superdry]

Originally Posted by WeirdlyGruesome

I'll keep it simple, any vocaloid fans out there in AoD land?

Add another one! Miku and the Crypton vocaloids (sounds like a jazz band or some theater troupe) have been dominating my commute music listening for the past two years.

Probably like most people in the west, my first exposure to Miku was the wonderfully comical Levan Polka song. It also doesn't hurt that her avatar is such a cute girl (Crypton Media got it right after their first works...add a picture of a really cute girl and it'll sell). Thankfully she has the voice to back up her image.

Originally Posted by something

And I can say without sarcasm or reservations that Miku is easily one of my favorite vocalists, at least in the hands of a competent composer.

Same here. The append voice bank is amazing in the hands of a competent composer. I didn't like the demos, but I recently picked up Doriko's latest album (Romeo and Cinderella - Miku fans, buy it now! Not a bad song on the whole album and as usual a mix of genres to keep it fresh) and a few songs use the append voice, and it just sounds amazing. Amazing almost to the point of being realistic (I was shocked that I was still listening to Miku).

Another great thing about Miku is that her popularity has allowed people to listen to music from musicians that we wouldn't have otherwise. And, most of these people are flying solo too. Just like in the late 90s when computer recording/composing software became cheap...people got to hear a whole new group of musicians. Miku is continuing the trend of making writing music more accessible to people and that's the most important part.

As a musician, I can't wait for the release of Miku's English voice bank (I'm a little worried how it'll since Crypton mentioned she sounds really cute) to play around with whenever I get back into writing music. I'm also interested in hearing other people use her upcoming English voice bank.

[Yuriko]

I don't like Miku's voice much, but I really like Len/Rin and Luka! My favourite Vocaloid user is mothy/AkunoP, though I'll listen to any song that sounds good.

I like that a lot of the [good] music eventually finds its way to doujin events or iTunes. It's cool to think that it's changing the face of amateur music production so rapidly, and seeing a familiar 'star' involved encourages me to check out work by people I wouldn't normally give a second look.

I've been tempted to pick up the Kagamine pack myself but I know that I wouldn't be anywhere near skilled enough to make music of my own ^^;

~Y

[something]

Originally Posted by superdry

(Crypton Media got it right after their first works...add a picture of a really cute girl and it'll sell). Thankfully she has the voice to back up her image.

The image is incredibly important. I doubt I'll ever care too much about VY1, since it has no avatar. Miku the "character" provided an intense rallying point around which people could share in a common concept. A design is far more powerful than a voice alone. "Hatsune Miku" actually meals something

As a musician, I can't wait for the release of Miku's English voice bank (I'm a little worried how it'll since Crypton mentioned she sounds really cute) to play around with whenever I get back into writing music. I'm also interested in hearing other people use her upcoming English voice bank.

My concern initially was whether or not she'll sound similar enough to be taken as "the same person". Having some English speaker take Fujita Saki's place and then just slap "Miku" on the box would be depressing. But as far as I know, Fujita is still providing the voice, so it should still sound like Miku. I mean, you don't just change the lead singer of a band and act like nothing happened either. That was actually my issue with Append initially, in that adding too highly variant voices would dilute what it means to be Miku. However, the Append songs I've heard have been largely decent.

As for other Vocaloids, Luka is far and away my second favorite of the core Crypton voices. Rin can be good at times, although Kaito and Meiko tend to be a bit too primitive. There are certain musical styles for which that works, but I rarely seek out their songs.

I never warmed up too much to the non-Crypton Vocaloids with one huge exception... Gumi! Gumi is absolutely amazing and I even prefer her to Luka. She's also by far the non-Crypton Vocaloid that's enjoyed the greatest popularity in Vocaloid Ranking, even managing two of the top 20 in SP5, including #3.

Ah time to leave for work... cutting into my Vocaloid time, damnit.

[Fencedude]

I'm not as big a Vocaloid fan as others here, though I certainly enjoy much of what I've heard. I also quite enjoy the Project Diva PSP game, even though I kinda suck at it.

I'm more interested in the utterly insane amount of fanart that the franchise has generated, and in various spinoffs, most notably Black Rock Shooter.

Also MikuXLuka is my OTP

[Citizen Klaus]

I have both the Project Diva PSP games, Project Diva -Dreamy Theater- for the PS3, the 39's Giving Day concert on Blu-Ray, a bunch of albums, the band score for Supercell's self-titled debut, a bunch of Nendoroids, and the actual Megurine Luka software (legitimately bought and registered). So yeah, I'd consider myself a fan.

I'm also hitching my professional wagon to the Vocaloid train; this upcoming March, I'll be presenting a paper at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in New Orleans investigating the participatory fan culture surrounding the whole Vocaloid universe. </shameless self-promotion>

[Fencedude]

Originally Posted by Citizen Klaus

the 39's Giving Day concert on Blu-Ray,

...that is a truly horrendous pun.

[Quarkboy]

The only Miku stuff I actually own are sasakure.uk's album with the hello planet cycle on it, as well as DYE and the special edition of supercell's first album with the beautiful artbook.

Oh! And I suppose the neatest thing I have is an exlusive hatsune miku towel, which I got at comiket _2 years ago_ after waiting in line for about 2 hours.
That was totally when Miku was still only known by hard core nico-chuu.