Who is Hatsune Miku? (VOCALOID guide)

Have you ever heard about Hatsune Miku but never knew who she was? here in this blog you will find about her, VOCALOID, and more!

What's VOCALOID?

before answering who Hatsune Miku is, I think it's important to say what VOCALOID is since it will be mentioned.

VOCALOID is a program made by Yamaha released 20 years ago in January 15th of 2004. It's about a signing voice synthesizer. The software allows users to use voicebanks to sing by typing the lyrics and melody in a piano roll, the software it's equipped with effects such as vibrato, growling, breathing, whispering, etc... It uses synthesizing technology with specially recorded vocals of voice actors or singers.

VOCALOID1

VOCALOID before Hatsune Miku

Before Miku, there were 4 other voicebanks: LOLA, LEON, MEIKO, KAITO, and MIRIAM

LOLA and LEON were the first VOCALOID Voicebanks released the same day as VOCALOID1 released. Both were known to have existed at the early stages of ''Project Daisy''. 

As you can see, in the cover, there aren't any mascots like Hatsune Miku, so they failed reaching a higher audience, this caused for the both of them to be discontinued in December 31st of 2013.

MIRIAM, released on July first, was called ''the better version'' of LOLA and LEON, with it's notable upgrade in quality. Sadly, MIRIAM was also discontinued the same day as LEON and LOLA.

If you saw before, I highlighted the names of MEIKO and KAITO, this is because they were the first to become very popular, since the quality was so much better than LOLA, LEON, and MIRIAM. It also helped the fact that they had a mascot to represent them. Later, these two will become part of Miku's friends since they were created by the same company as Miku Crypton Future Media. MEIKO was voiced by Meiko Haigou and KAITO by Naoto Fuuga.

VOCALOID2 and the release of Hatsune Miku

VOCALOID2 was the second biggest update since the release of VOCALOID1, being launched in June 29th of 2007. There were so many upgrades since VOCALOID1; the UI had changed to make it easier for new users, the program uses samples directly from the human voice, etc..

All of the voicebanks released for this program were:

Sweet an, Hastune Miku, Kagamine twins (Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len) act1, Prima, Kagamine twins act2, Gackpoid, Megurine Luka, Megpoid, SONiKA, SF-A2 miki, Kaai Yuki, Hiyama Kiyoteru, BIG AL, Miku append, Tonio, Lily, VY1, Gachapoid, Nekomura Iroha, Utatane Piko, Kagamine Append, and VY2.

For now I will talk about the voicebanks in colored but if you're interested for the rest please check out this page!

Hatsune Miku, catalog No. CV01 (character voice 01) released August 31st of 2007 was the second voicebanks launched for VOCALOID2 with a moe character as a mascot voice by Saki Fujita. The Vocal Character Series was designed to be a set of vocals with specific characteristics to them.

So yes in short: Miku is not AI, she is not an anime character, she's a mascot for a virtual voice. 

Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len, catalog No. CV02 are two voicebanks released in December 27th of 2007 who were voiced by the same person Asami Shimoda. They were launched as dual voicebank package. 

Megurine Luka, catalog No. CV03 was the third voicebank launched by Crypton Future Media. She is voiced by Yu Asakawa released January 30, 2009. She was the first multilingual VOCALOID being able to sing in japanese and english. Personally, Luka is my favourite VOCALOID. Her voice is more deep than Rin and Miku, which I prefer, she also is promoted as a ''20 year old'' (just want to say that VOCALOIDS have no canon age and can be any age you want them to be) 

MEIKO, KAITO, Luka, Rin and Len are ''the main characters'' and friends of Miku. In the official concerts you'll only see only the 6 of them performing. 

Magical Mirai 2022 Blessing by Halyosy

Other Important Voicebanks

Megpoid GUMI is a voicebank released by Internet Co. (reason why she cannot preform besides Miku or other vocaloids made by Crypton) in June 26 of 2009. She is voiced by Megumi Nakajima.

A notable song sang by her is ECHO by CrusherP

Gackpoid Kamui Gakupo was released July 31 of 2008 by the same company as Gumi being voiced by Gackt, a famous vkei singer in the band Malice Mizer. One of the most notable songs sang by him is Madness of Duke Venomania by Mothy. If Luka didn't exist, he would be my favourite VOCALOID.

Kaai yuki was distributed by AH-Software Co. released December 4, 2009. Since she was voiced by a very young girl her identity wasn't revealed for legal reasons. A very popular song sang by her is Kyoufuu orubakku by Yukopi.

In other vocaloids releases there are some other decently popular voicebanks but to not make this very long I won't talk about them.

Producers and VOCALOID songs

Since VOCALOID isn't a genre there are MANYYY vocaloid songs. Here i'll add youtube playlists you can listen to in your free time!

Vocaloid classics (2007-2013)

Too Many Vocaloid Songs!! (5000 plus!!)

Creepy Vocaloid songs

Iconic VOCALOID songs That Every Fan Should Know

VOCALOID seven deadly sins saga (songs made by Mothy p)

Next, i'll add some popular Producers (P for short)

DECO*27 (pronounced Deko Niina)

MARETU

kairiki bear

NayutalieN

PINOCCHIO-P

Ryo (supercell)

Kz Livetune

OSTER project

Kikuo

Wowaka (RIP)

Shiinamota/powapowaP (RIP)

MitchieM

Neru

Syudou

Giga

HachiojiP

Junky

of course those are only just a few, but there are many more!

Character Items!

Now that we sent over the program side, this part of the blog is more about fandom stuff you MUST know!! this is about character items, decided by the fandom which became so popular crypton took it as real.

Hatsune miku: leek /green onion

Megurine luka: Tuna

Kagamine Rin: orange

Kagamine Len: banana

Kagamines together: road roller LOL

MEIKO: alcohol/ wine

KAITO: ice cream

Kamui Gakupo: Eggplant

GUMI: Carrots

Hatsune Miku Games

With SEGA miku has a lot of games! i'll write the list down bellow!

Project DIVA series:

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Arcade

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f (Vita)

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F (PS3)

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Arcade Future Tone

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA X

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone DX

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix/Mega39s

(Confirmed to be the last game of the DIVA series)

Miku Flick

Miku Flick/02

(Miku flick is now unavailable)

Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project MIRAI

Hatsune Miku: Project MIRAI 2 

Hatsune Miku: Project MIRAI DX

(last game of MIRAI series)

project SEKAI: Colorful Stage FT. Hatsune Miku

(Only miku game to have constant updates)

Concerts of Hatsune miku

And OF COURSE, if there are games there are concerts!! Honestly for me this is the best part about Miku, seeing people who like the same thing as you it's amazing. And you'll probably ask yourself ''But miku isn't real, how do they have CONCERTS??'' which honestly it's great question so here's a picture of her FIRST concert held in japan MikuFes'09

As you can see, she's standing there in a stage, with a band and crowd. This is posisble by a very simple technique: A transparent panel and a projector!! Throw-out the years of course the quality has become so much better!!

With many beautiful outfit changes and she even talks with the audience!

As shown before not only miku sings in these concerts but the other 5 VOCALOIDS do it too!

However, there's a high chance you aren't from japan (which if you are how do you not know Miku) so, are there any miku concerts in the west? and OF COURSE!! they are called MIKU EXPO

This is from MIKU EXPO 2018 in LA, California. however know that the most recent MIKU EXPO has been involved around controversy because they switched the transparent panel to a LED screen.

inevitable, this doesn't stop fans for going, since it's not about juts seeing the projection, but to hear the music live and having fans all around be together in one place!!

In the concerts just like many japanese Idol concerts they hold penlights/lightsticks which are different depending on the year and the type of concert (if its miku expo or magical mirai) these penlights can change colour depending on which vocaloid is on stage, and if there are more you can pick your favourite one. Green is miku, pink is Luka, orange is Rin, yellow is Len, blue is KAITO and red is MEIKO, but there's and extra color which is white, this is usually used when in the middle of the concert the band playing the instruments is introduced, but its also used to represent all of the 6 VOCALOIDS at once.

END OF BLOGG!!

This took so long and i didn't even write that much xD, honestly I could go so DEEP on the DIVA series and Project SEKAI but if you read this through the end ur probably new so I don't want to overwhelm you with information. If you have any questions about Hatsune Miku and VOCALOID please let me know. i'll see you guys next time byebye!!!