Tag: Vocaloid

The Pocket Miku is a tiny synthesizer that turns its key presses (or audio input) into Hatsune Miku’s voice. For those of you unfamiliar, Miku is a Vocaloid software voicebank created by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot, a Japanese idol with long, turquoise hair.

Japan is home to some wonderful creations. One of the more popular franchises of the past decade has to be Hatsune Miku, a fully digital J-Pop musician, whose vocals are created synthetically. The vocaloid singer’s voice has been featured in over 100,000 songs, has sold out digital concerts around the world, and even has her own GT series race car.

Synthesized music can now sound less synthesized with the latest voice bank for Yamaha’s Vocaloid software. Announced earlier this year, the Cyber Diva is the first library to have an American English female voice. Here’s a sample of a song created with the Cyber Diva and the new Vocaloid 4 Editor: While she still doesn’t sound like a real person, Cyber Diva is still a massive upgrade to earlier Vocaloids like Lola… or Miriam: Yamaha also said that the voice bank comes with a feature called Growl Expression that gives the samples a “harsher, gruff tone.”

I’m not much for animation outside of Archer, so I am not too familiar with Vocaloid and its animated star Hatsune Miku. I am a fan of LEGO construction though, and the thought of building a life-sized recreation of an animated character is interesting.

If auto-tune can’t fix your voice, maybe one day you’ll be able to “sing” through this keyboard. Developed by Yamaha, the Vocaloid keyboard allows users to generate a singing voice in real time. It’s based on the company’s immensely popular Vocaloid software, which lets users synthesize a singing voice by manipulating samples of actual human voices.