65 articles published in 2013
Yesterday, INTERNET uploaded a small snippet onto niconico demonstrating the capabilities of an upcoming sound library they call “kokone -心響”. The Japanese characters carry the same pronunciation as the romaji before it, and the kanji means sound of the heart. The simple video, made in Niconico Movie Maker, plays back a song called “Moment Notes” […]
With the end of the year approaching, it seems that many VOCALOID3 releases are happening or are about to happen. We’ve compiled some information about three sound libraries whose names all start with “M”: Merli, MAIKA and Macne.
In an email newsletter as well as on a blog post, Crypton Future Media has announced that a 14-day trial version for MEIKO POWER, part of the upcoming MEIKO V3, is now available as a free download. It also includes a trial version of VOCALOID editing software Piapro Studio, which now supports AU on the […]
Crypton Future Media is currently offering several software packages as free downloads to existing registered users of its software. Users must have created an account with Crypton and registered serial numbers corresponding to the required products in order to be eligible. Currently, three offerings are available, and all current offerings end on February 28, 2014.
VoxWave (Twitter) currently has a survey out to gauge user interest in a new French VOCALOID in the works. The survey will help decide whether a secondary English or Japanese voice bank will be included with the software and many other aspects of the new VOCALOID. Questions included in the survey ask the user for […]
According to a new blog post on Crypton Future Media’s website, Crypton Future Media will be providing Hatsune Miku V3 VIVID and Hatsune Miku V3 LIGHT free of charge to users of Miku Append who buy Miku V3. More specifically, this applies to users who have registered their copies of Hatsune Miku, Hatsune Miku Append […]
According to an official tweet last night and subsequent blog post this morning, Crypton Future Media had received many inquiries from users unable to activate their copies of Hatsune Miku V3, which had just been released yesterday. Yamaha, who runs the activation servers, also reported a similar situation last night. Shortly after noon, Crypton CEO […]
Japan Expo is a Japanese culture and entertainment convention held in France and Belgium which recently has expanded to the United States. Their first ever United States convention was held Santa Clara Convention Center in California. It was held on August 23-25, 2013. Japan Expo featured many Japanese guests and sponsors, one of which was […]
To promote their upcoming iVIS mini video camera, Canon uploaded a series of videos onto YouTube of various professional musicians performing KurousaP’s hit song Senbonzakura. These videos are embedded on Canon’s website, and include performances from “piano magician” H ZETT M, vocalist group R&B Connection Crew, anime and game music singer Lia (who also provided […]
During a product announcement event streamed live on niconico, Crypton has released more detailed plans regarding the upcoming release of Hatsune Miku V3 and Hatsune Miku English. There will be two packaged (hard copy) releases — Hatsune Miku V3 and Hatsune Miku V3 Bundle. The former will include five Japanese sound banks — Sweet, Dark, […]
Can’t make it in person to Magical Mirai? Here are some other options: Attend one of the delayed screenings to be held by Live Viewing Japan in Hong Kong (1)(2), Taiwan, France, UK, Germany, USA, Mexico and Brazil. Latest updates are available on their official Facebook page. Watch it live on niconico. Premium users can […]
【ニコニコ動画】【VOCALOID3】デモ音源β版/新プロジェクト【yamaha】 Today happens to be the first anniversary of galaco’s release (as well as Shibasaki Ko’s birthday), and Yamaha has posted a video featuring a beta VOCALOID3 sound bank. This sound bank is a collaboration between Yamaha and Stardust Promotion, the talent management firm to which Shibasaki Ko belongs. The video description states that the […]
Run Miku Run is a flash based typing game that has the player input letters that show up on the screen to make Miku run! The game was made by daniwell and features his own song “LET’S TYPE!“. The model used for Miku in this game is the well known LAT Miku MMD model. The […]
Music Girl Hatsune Miku is now available on the iTunes App Store for $3.99. Originally released in Japan back in August 2012, MARZA ANIMATION PLANET localized the application into English and made it available in the US, however it is now a paid application instead of being free while at the same time including the […]
Amongst all the recent news regarding VOCALOID on Mac, INTERNET Co., Ltd. has also posted a press release detailing their plans for Mac conversions of their VOCALOID3 products Megpoid, Gackpoid, Lily and CUL. In September, they will begin the gradual process of offering free downloads of the respective Mac versions to currently registered users. Users […]
ジャイアンリサイタル “Mirai no Neiro-Sound of the Future-” is a fan-run panel featured at conventions around the world. It is run by a group called Delusion Production House (D.P.H). The main purpose of Mirai no Neiro is to send out information about Vocaloids from Japan to people around the world. This year at Anime Expo, Mirai […]
Earlier today, Yamaha held a press event along with invited guest Itoh Hiroyuki (CEO of Crypton Future Media) at the Yamaha Ginza building; the event was also streamed live on niconico. During the event, Yamaha announced their “NEO” line of Mac/Windows VOCALOID products, including VOCALOID Editor for Cubase (VocaCu for short), VY1V3, VY2V3, Mew, Aoki […]
As a last minute addition to Anime Expo 2013, Crypton Future Media’s US/EU Marketing Director Kanae Muraki held a panel on the afternoon of the last day to talk about Hatsune Miku, including several announcements. Topics covered ranged from an introduction to Hatsune Miku and the collaborative creative phenomenon associated with her to the latest […]
A bit late this week, but here is the Weekly Ranking!
Last Friday, Good Smile Company started their “2013 Summer Scale Figure Photo Contest” with figures as prizes for winning photos that feature GSC’s Scale Figure(s) that have or will have been released as of July 7, 2013. The deadline for submissions will be July 7, 2013 as well. Prizes will be determined by both a […]
The comprehensive VOCALOID blog website HatsuneMikuMiku recently noticed that there have been some very interesting reviews about the 1/8 scale MIKUDAYO figure on Amazon. Reviews extolled the extraordinary benefits to be had by buying this figure, including the ability to ward off evil or bring luck to the buyer. We’d like to take the chance […]
The next big Hatsune Miku concert to be held in Japan will be a part of the Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai festival, organized by Crypton Future Media, the company that gave birth to Hatsune Miku, and Tokyo MX, a television company that had previously streamed some of Miku’s live performances. The festival will be held […]
SEGA has now updated the official website for Project Mirai 2 to include new songs and costumes as well as explanations of the rhythm game mechanics. The website now lists OdoP’s 1/6 -out of the gravity- and OSTER project’s Piano×Forte×Scandal in addition to Koneko no Payapaya, Do Re Mi Fa Rondo and YUMEYUME. With 1/6, […]
This week I managed to do the Utau ranking too! (since it is only 10 spots) I also did the new songs of the 31-100 so those looking for new songs to listen to should check it out.
According to the latest post on SEGA’s Weekly DIVA Station blog, SEGA will be releasing Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F in North America on PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Network as well as in Europe on the PlayStation Network. The localized version will be identical to the Japanese version except for the localized text. The […]
Crypton Future Media’s Sasaki Wataru (wat) has revealed a few little tidbits here and there about the currently-in-production MEIKO V3 sound banks both last week and today on Twitter. Most of the comments were with regards to recording and adjustments to specific parts of the sound bank to improve its quality. However, last week, he […]
I forgot how to do the Vocaloid Ranking.
It appears that VOCALOID producer 40mP has written a song that will be aired on NHK’s music program Minna no Uta in the August to September timeframe. The song, titled “Shounen to Mahou no Robot” (A Boy and a Magical Robot), was specifically written for the show and will be sung by GUMI. Minna no […]
Jin (Shizen no TekiP)’s latest album, Mekaku City Records, has managed to top Oricon’s daily album rankings for three consecutive days with a total of 58,122 copies sold (as of May 31). Initially debuting at the number two spot, consistent sales allowed it to easily overtake the number one position the following day. The album […]
On day 2 of Niconico Chokaigi 2, Yamaha held an hour-long panel talking about their latest VOCALOID-related developments. Front and center was ZOLA Project; more background was given about this three-person male VOCALOID sound bank, and voice samples were played as well. Other products featured were DAW plugin VOCALOID Editor for Cubase, VOCALOID3 Job Plugin […]
On the first day of the second ever niconico-oriented festival, Chokaigi, INTERNET Co., Ltd. presented a Megpoid-centered panel giving out the latest information. As this was part of a niconico event, the panel was broadcasted live as well. Amongst other things, the panel demonstrated Megpoid English, hinted at a new GUMI speech synthesis project, and […]
After hints from the official Project DIVA Twitter account, more details about the sequel to the Nendoroid-inspired Project mirai has been revealed. A short article on Famitsu’s website talks about two different game modes — a touch panel mode and a button mode, with the 3D display active in both modes. Furthermore, all included songs […]
According to an article at DTM Station, a Japanese news site about desktop music production, Yamaha demonstrated a Mac version of VOCALOID Editor for Cubase, slated for a release this autumn. This new entry, unveiled at a publicity event for upcoming products on April 15, will mark the first Mac-native product using the VOCALOID engine. […]
Yamaha today announced the version 1.0.0 release of their VOCALOID Deactivation Tool, which allows users to deactivate a currently activated piece of VOCALOID software so that the license can be activated on another computer or a different configuration of the same computer, in essence allowing easy transferring of licenses without burning through activations. The tool […]
MMDおんだ式ミクバージョンアップ（＆ポニテモデル）公開中 Character models for MikuMikuDance seem to get constantly released, especially for the titular Miku, but one particular release on Christmas Eve of 2012 seemed to have a bit more interesting history behind it. On that day, 3D modeler On_Da released the “On-Da-style Miku” model, but that wasn’t the first time his handiwork had shown […]
According to an announcement (PDF) posted on VOCALOID CHINA’s website, the character for their next sound bank will be designed by fans through a contest. Entries received online by April 31 will be vetted and placed on the contest page for other fans to comment and vote. Several winning designs will be chosen based on […]
Japan’s branch of pizza chain Domino’s brought its collaboration with Hatsune Miku to a fevered pitch last weekend by launching a special retail campaign featuring Miku, coinciding with Miku Day. They introduced a new Miku-themed pizza ordering app for iOS, along with a demonstration video featuring CEO of Domino’s Pizza Japan Scott Oelker talking in […]
Recently, on VOCALOID forum VocaloidOtaku, several users in the US complained about being unable to start VOCALOID3 Editor due to the software expiring. What seemed to fix the problem for the time being was to either uninstall galaco or disable automatic daylight saving time adjustment in Windows. There is currently no official statement or fix […]
Ever since its introduction back in late 2010, the English version of the Hatsune Miku product page on Crypton Future Media’s website had remained largely unchanged, even as recently as February 16 of this year. However, by March 9, Crypton had updated the page with fully rewritten text, including a lengthy section detailing how people […]
A panel titled “Miku: The Open-Source Girl Who Conquered the World” was held at SXSW this year, hosted by Alex Leavitt (social media academic researcher), Hiroyuki Itoh (CEO of Crypton Future Media), Kanae Muraki (US/EU marketing for Crypton) and Tara Knight (creator of Mikumentary). SXSW (South-by-Southwest) is an “annual music, film, and interactive conference and […]
Volume 10 of the mook VOCALOID wo Tanoshimou came out today, containing information about the upcoming VOCALOID3 sound bank ZOLA. Some people who managed to flip through the pages have posted information about ZOLA on Twitter. Twitter user “You_T_from_BMC” recalled from his hazy memory that ZOLA consists of three males either in their teens or […]
PowerFX is going to be holding a design contest for artwork that will be on the cover of their upcoming bilingual English/Japanese VOCALOID3 sound bank, YOHIOloid. According to the official product page, the contest will be held between March 12 and April 15, with winners to be announced on April 22. A photograph of YOHIO, […]
While the big event over in Japan for Miku Day (3/9) was Mikupa Wakayama in Knasai (also broadcast on WOWOW), there were also a lot of other events going on, such as VOCALOID Cinema Party, where fans had a chance to watch 4K resolution promo videos. For fans wondering about the upcoming English release of […]
On March 3rd 2013, NEW PEOPLE and Vocalekt Visions hosted a special VOCALOID3 Megpoid English launch event in Japantown of San Francisco, California. This was a free event consisting of software demonstration sessions, a merchandise booth and live concerts that ran from noon to 6pm. Overview NEW PEOPLE was created by the founder of VIZ […]
As part of Tokyo Polytechnic University’s ongoing activities related to Yamaha’s vocal synthesis technology VOCALOID, the university had recently conducted a study via mobile web surveys aimed at avid music listeners in Japan between the ages of 12 and 39. The survey asked the target demographic various VOCALOID-related questions, such as how they came to […]
Yamaha has announced on their website the opening of a teaser site for their upcoming VOCALOID3 library titled “ZOLA PROJECT”. This library is being developed in commemoration of the 10th year anniversary of Yamaha’s announcement of VOCALOID and may be the “multi-singer” library announced by Kenmochi during an episode of Dream Creator. The teaser website […]
In an apparent bid to encourage more use of Megpoid English, INTERNET is holding a song-making campaign titled “VOCALOID3 Megpoid English Release Contest”. Submitting an original Megpoid English song to nico nico, tagging with “GUMIENGCONTEST” and locking the tag before March 31 is all that is needed to enter. The song can be made using […]
Megpoid English Launch Event (San Francisco, CA, USA on March 3, 2013) New People will be hosting a Megpoid English launch event at their Japantown venue. Demonstrations of the software will be held in the lobby from noon to 5PM, and Vocalekt Visions will be holding two one-hour shows at 2PM and 4:30PM. The actual […]
During a recent episode of Dream Creator, invited guest and head of the VOCALOID project team Kenmochi Hideki talked about the history of VOCALOID and then revealed details about an upcoming project they’ve planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of VOCALOID. The project will allow the user to create the effect of three male singers […]
Aniplex USA has finally announced release details for Mikunopolis concert footage in the US. Mikunopolis, held during Anime Expo 2011, was the first large-scale VOCALOID concert held outside of Japan. The video release coming on April 16 will come in a combo package that contains both a Bluray disc and a CD recording of the […]
A new post on the Project DIVA Arcade website has announced details for an upcoming recruitment drive for new songs to use in the arcade game. A special upload page will be open on niconico at 3PM on March 6 and the contest will run through the end of May 6. Winners will have their […]
According to a tweet from INTERNET’s Noboru Murakami, the official Megpoid English website will reveal an all-new character illustration specifically for Megpoid English on February 28, when the sound bank is scheduled to be released. A followup tweet states that this new illustration will be very different from the illustrations up until now and suggests […]
On his official Twitter account, Swedish singer YOHIO has confirmed that he will be voicing an upcoming English-Japanese bilingual voice bank for music software company PowerFX, the company behind English VOCALOID voice banks Sweet Ann, Big Al and Oliver. PowerFX CEO Bil Bryant also confirmed with us the news, stating that recording had already begun, […]
Crypton Future Media CEO Hiroyuki Itoh visited Singapore to attend Manga FESTIVAL in Singapore held on February 15-17, 2013. He gave a short presentation and held an autograph session at a stage setup inside a Kinokuniya book store. Enthusiastic fans brought their own goods to get signed, and Kinokuniya also set up special sections in […]
With the release of KAITO V3, Crypton has set up a special site for Piapro Studio, the bundled VOCALOID editing software package. Currently there is not much there except for a link to the original demonstration video and a list of frequently asked questions. The FAQ page does include some useful information.
Round1 on its official Facebook page has announced the start of a playtest run of Project DIVA Arcade machines at their Puente Hills location after many photos of the machines had started popping up on social networks. This confirms previous rumors of the presence of these arcade cabinets at Round1, although instead of being permanent […]
Universal Music Japan has announced that they will be including a remix track by livetune on well-known electronic dance music producer Zedd’s upcoming Japanese release of the album Clarity. Zedd has previously made many remixes of his own and had also written songs for Skrillex, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga; he’s also producing her upcoming […]
According to a new post on the official Hatsune Miku Facebook page, the official Hatsune Miku channel, now dubbed “39ch” or “MIKU channel”, will start syndicating weekly content. A teaser video (featuring the song Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!) shows off the various types of content that will appear on the channel, including art, music, live performances and interviews, […]
Word has been spreading on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites with unconfirmed reports about the appearance of SEGA’s Project DIVA arcade cabinets in an arcade in Southern California. According to one post on Facebook, the machines have been spotted at a ROUND1, although they are currently not out on the gaming floor yet, […]
As was noted in a pamphlet being passed out at NAMM, INTERNET is making available a demo version of their upcoming Megpoid English sound bank. As of now, people interested in trying out the new VOCALOID3 sound bank for 14 days can register to obtain a download link via email, with an unique user identification […]
The official Mikupa website has now announced that MAGES. in cooperation with WOWOW will be holding a concert in Wakayama on March 9, 2013. The event, titled “Hatsune Miku Live Party 2013 in Kansai (Mikupa♪) -39’s Spring the 3rd Synthesis-” will be held at the Wakayama Big Whale and is expected to start at 2PM […]
Production group Vocalekt Visions, who have written several VOCALOID songs and previously held a few concerts in the United States, has just put up a KickStarter campaign to raise money in an attempt to improve the quality of their concerts. They hope to raise 50,000 USD in two months, with most of the money going […]
In a recent article on Yomiuri Online, Kenmochi Hideki, head of VOCALOID development at Yamaha, talked about various things regarding VOCALOID, including its humble beginnings, how it became a hit and what role subculture plays.
As many companies get back to business in Japan after the New Years break, company staff often post greetings for a new year. The VOCALOID team at Yamaha was no exception. What is interesting, however, is that this year marks 10 years of VOCALOID, and the team wanted to kick off projects to celebrate this […]
INTERNET Co., Ltd. has now unveiled a website for the upcoming Megpoid (GUMI) English VOCALOID3 library release as well as a full version of the demo song “You Are the Reason”. A snippet of the song was previously posted as the first demo of the English soundbank, and the full version even includes a portion […]
