Things you weren’t aware were vocal synth!

If you’ve been on the internet for a long period of time, you’ve heard a vocal synth. I don’t necessarily mean vocal synth music, but you’ve definitely heard a vocal synth (barring any vocal synths you’ve heard in this blog, of course). They pop up in all sorts of media: TV shows, memes, video games. I am so confident in my claim that I decided to list out some popular uses of vocal synths that don’t include Miku. Shocking, I know. But I believe I’m up to the challenge. Now, on to the list!

Nyan Cat

There are a lot of iconic posts on the internet. But you’d be making a pretty safe bet if you said that Nyan Cat is one of the most iconic symbols of the internet. For those who aren’t aware, it’s a 2011 GIF of an 8-bit cat with a Pop-Tart flying through outer space with a rainbow trail, to the tune of a repetitive “nya nya” (nya being the onomatopoeia in Japanese for the sound a cat makes). But few people actually know that the song that plays in the background was actually sung by an UTAU (same as our diva, Kasane Teto). Specifically, it feature Momone Momo. Even in the early days of the internet, we have vocal synths defining the scene from behind the scenes.

Bee and Puppycat

Next, we have the TV show Bee and Puppycat. Originally a web animated series, it later received a reboot/continuation of the series on Netflix. It centers around young woman Bee and the mysterious creature she finds, Puppycat – voiced by Oliver, a Vocaloid! I personally haven’t had the chance to watch this series, but I included it as it is a rather unusual case Even when vocal synths are used for voice acting, they usually voice themselves. For example, Miku voices herself in her video games. So it is refreshing to see a Vocaloid voice a character unrelated to their own persona.

Jackbox Party Pack

This entry is a favorite of mine. Jackbox Party Pack is a yearly video games series of party games. featuring several minigames. One of the games in the series, Jackbox Party Pack 8, features a minigame known as The Wheel of Enormous Proportions. The credits theme is actually sung by Eleanor Forte, a Synthesizer V (Like Kasane Teto’s newer incarnation).  I never realized this fact when I had first tried the game, but knowing this fact only made me love the game even more. This example sticks out the most in my mind due to the fond memories I have of playing Jackbox with my friends. I would highly recommend this game to anyone, even regardless of the vocal synth being featured.

 

They sing for us. They voice act for us. They humor us. What more could we ask of the wonderous technology that are vocal synthesizers?

The Power of Teto: Unusual Tracks

After profiling Kasane Teto a few weeks ago, I feel it would be a shame to not list some of the unusual tracks in her catalogue. After all, she’s quite the bizarre character. Do bizarre characters not beget bizzare music? I would like to believe they do. And I’ve given our beloved idol Hatsune Miku the same treatment (there will never be an blog entry in which I do not mention her). So in no particular order, I’ll be listing some of the recent weird songs I’ve listened to featuring Kasane Teto.

Tetoris by Hiiragi Magnetite

As one may infer from the title of this song, it samples “Korobeiniki”, known far more commonly as the theme for Tetris. Unfortunately, I can’t speak much on the lyrics – because of how recent the song is, there are no English translations released yet. But if I were to restrict myself to only listening to translated music, I would miss out on the gems that aren’t popular enough to receive a proper translation. Wouldn’t that be a disservice to my ears? But back to the song. It’s a very upbeat take on the iconic theme. The spinning Teto animation is also adorable.

A single word that would define this song is chaos. It’s a hyperpop (meaning that it takes tropes in pop music to the extreme) denpa (meaning that it is a song that is dream-like or disconnected from reality) song. The tempo of the song changws throughout, making it even more striking. The music video is very reminiscent of early 2000s animation – the rough drawing, repeated use of certain frames, and use of bright neon colors all bring me back to my first experiences with the internet. All of these features combine to form a sickly nostalgic video beckoning to the average early internet user.

Love Love Nightmare – optikaros

This song is admittedly a cover of a different song, but I thought it was unique enough in its own right to be included on this list. For one, Kasane Teto’s modern SynthV voice, usually known for sounding pretty realistic, was tuned in a way to be robotic to fit the theme of the song. The lyrics themselves are somewhat sparse, making them more haunting. The accompanying art of Teto also helps cement that idea. Personally, I enjoyed this song because the instrumental reminds me somewhat of Cyberpunk 2077’s soundtrack. Overall, a stellar cover of an already great song.

 

I hope this will help some of my viewers further their own tastes in music. Even if you don’t necessarily enjoy these types of music, it is still a testament to the sheer diversity that exists for vocal synth music.

Crossovers

Crossovers can create comedic and charming combinations of commonly-seen creations (Hey, seen doesn’t start with a c!). They’re a fun way to generate popularity for one piece of media using another’s audience. A good crossover can become a respected entry in its own right, separate to the franchises involved, such as with the Super Smash Bros. series. And those creations include Vocaloid, and definitely include Hatsune Miku. So this blog entry will be focused on a non-comprehensive list of the different crossovers that include Hatsune Miku.

Fitness Boxing feat. Hatsune Miku

This is a full-blown entry in the Fitness Boxing series of games for the Nintendo Switch. Like the name suggests, it’s an exercise-focused game centering around punching and maneuvering in a manner that imitates boxing. How would one possibly incorporate Miku into this? Well, the game is mainly a rhythm game, meaning that your punch along to the beat of a song. So it’s not as absurd as you may think to include Miku (alongside other Vocaloids) in the game. It is still rather unusual to be punching along to tracks like Romeo and Cinderella.

You probably won’t be taking out Joe Frazier anytime soon, but this game is a fun way to get a little exercise in while also supporting your favorite characters.

Project Voltage

Now to include a crossover that I personally loved. Starting September 2023, Pokémon and Crypton Future Media (the company that owns Vocaloid) collaborated to create artwork and music combining the worlds of Pokémon and Vocaloid. One of my personal favorite tracks from this collaboration would have to be “I Got You!” by Giga. The song features numerous references and samples, focusing around the Kanto region – the first region featured in Pokémon. I specifically love the reference to the Lavender Town Theme (Anyone who’s been on the internet for a long time will remember why that theme is significant). Even if you don’t have the patience to listen to all the music, I’d still recommend looking at the artwork.

Magic The Gathering

I’ve never been a big fan of collectible card games, but Magic The Gathering is so influential that I felt I would be remiss in not including it. There are 6 cards in this drop, and there will be a total of 4 drops featuring Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloids. Granted, I know nothing about the the MTG meta or the viability of these cards in actual games, but it’s still amazing to see vastly different audiences embrace vocal synths.

 

I really enjoy crossovers of all kinds. Even if I don’t personally engage in all of these franchises, I can still admire the hard work put into the artwork and music that results from these crossovers.

 

 

Teto Territory: A Brief History

Image of Kasane Teto

Some of my most observant readers may notice that I tend to a slight, miniscule amount of bias towards talking about Hatsune Miku. Shocking, I know! But I cannot allow for this bias to define my entire blog. Variety is the spice of life, after all. And so I must branch out, by profiling my favorite non-Vocaloid vocal synth, Kasane Teto!

Kasane Teto is a joke. Or at least, that’s how she started out. She was created by the users of Japanese image board 2channel (similar to 4chan in the West) as an April Fool’s Day Prank in 2008. Teto was made to fool viewers into thinking she was a Vocaloid (a part of the most well-known vocal synth company). She didn’t even have an actual voice software back then! But fortunately for twin-drilled idol, she was later provided with a voice based off of Oyamano Mayo, and was later released as an UTAU, a free vocal synthesizer software.

Her origins as a joke have defined some of her well accepted character traits. She is canonically around 31 years of age. But she’s a chimera, so she’s actually 15 and a half. If this doesn’t make much sense, that’s by design. She loves baguettes, and has bright red drill-like twintails as her signature hairstyle. Her own website states that her best skill is getting extensions on rental DVDs, and that she’s really bad at singing.

Her first original song is called “Teto for Go”, and features no lyrics. She later released “Song of the Eared Robot“, an updated version of which I featured in a previous blog. But perhaps one of her most well-known appearances would be in “Triple Baka”, featured alongside Hatsune Miku and Akita Neru:

The song is a simple love song without terribly deep lyrics. The animation is that accompanies it is both adorable and hilarious. Even as a reupload, the song still has over 19 million views!

Kasane Teto later received an SynthesizerV AI version of her voicebank, which allowed her vocals to far surpass not just her older songs, but most modern vocal synths in comparison.

To illustrate this, I’ll end this blog with a SynthesizerV AI version of one of her most famous songs, “Teto Territory” (I’ve also linked the original version for those who wish to listen to it).

The song is mainly about her desire to become a Vocaloid and make music for the world. It features a lot of the character traits I previously described within the music. Although she may have not become a Vocaloid, she still became one of the most popular vocal synths in her own right. As they often say, aim for moon. Even if you miss, you’ll still land among the stars.

The More Unusual Miku Tracks

I believe that I’ve upon my readers the importance of Hatsune Miku as a worldwide musical sensation. But a worldwide sensation must be well-versed in variety of genres and cultures, not just the ones they’re most comfortable. I’ve alluded to the diversity of vocal synth music, but I have not proven it. Yet, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Therefore, I shall provide to my audience a small glimpse into the variety that the followers of Miku are privy to.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a foremost leading expert on metal as a genre. But I do occasionally dabble in the genre, specifically into metalcore (Electric Callboy is a particular favorite of mine). And 骸Attack (or Corpse Attack, roughly translated) is a particular favorite of mine. I interpret the translated lyrics as a girl who was the victim of sexual assault getting revenge on her rapist, and haunting him from beyond the grave. It’s one of the darker entries in the Miku’s library, but it’s still a great listen.

MTG – BAILE DA MIKU (ASTROPHYSICS & DJ DENGUE)

Being entirely honest, I only discovered this song because I saw the thumbnail art and thought it was funniest/coolest image I had ever seen. For what little I know of metal, I know even less of Brazilian funk. But listening to Kasane Teto describe the vulgar acts she performs on maternal figures in Portuguese makes for a highly entertaining song. The unusual rhythm also adds to this oddity of a song. There is also a sequel to this song, although it hasn’t stuck in my mind nearly as much as this one.

I’ll Sing Your Song – Louie Zong

To end on a more lighthearted note, I present a Miku rendition of a barbershop quartet. To my knowledge, this is the only Miku song that Louie Zong has produced, yet it was still wonderfully made. The lyrics are simple, yet still reflect themes seen in more traditional Miku songs, such as her desire to find a purpose, and how she is dedicated to bringing music to the world. To me, it’s a fairly comforting and heartwarming. The illustration he made for the thumbnail is adorable! And it fits the song extremely well.

 

Miku’s legacy as an international star was cemented years ago. I only hope that I was able to convey that through my small curated list.

The Hatsun-istory of Miku

An image of Hatsune Miku

I’ve written two blog entries already. I’ve dabbled in the history and debate surrounding vocal synths, but I forgot the one key part of any self-respecting vocal synth blog an entry about a vocal synth! So for this week’s blog, I shall be singing the praises of the most well-known vocal synth: Hatsune Miku.

I’ve already mentioned her in my previous entries, but for those not caught up to speed, Hatsune Miku is a Vocaloid, a vocal synth belong to Crypton Future Media. But it’s more apt to say that she is the Vocaloid. She’s a worldwide sensation, bringing sweet tunes to us lowly, undeserving peasants. Her design consists of her iconic cyan-bluish hair put up in twintails. While her designs and clothing may vary, those two elements will often make any of her iterations instantly recognizable to her fanbase.

Another part of Miku’s eternal appeal is her malleability. Her standard character is a 16 year old Japanese girl, but she isn’t restricted to that age or culture. Case in point, a recent trend online of people depicting Miku from different cultures around the world. As a character, her vocal cords help wire her across continents. This map by u/H_A_M_E_D on Reddit helps illustrate this by matching countries to fanart of Miku from their culture.

Her character has spawned innumerable merchandise – figurines, plushies, clothing. She’s been the titular character of several games, and has been featured in just as many. She even has her own violently blue ramen!

Perhaps not all merchandise are created equally. Moving on!

It would be a crime not to discuss her purpose for existence: to bring music to the masses!

Since she is a software at heart, there are numerous “producers” who create the bulk of her media, whether it be audio or visual. Even if her voice is computer-generated, the lyrics and composition for her music and her music videos are not. So she gracefully glides across genres, ranging from her traditional J-pop tunes like Viva Happy by Mitchie M, to heavier genres like metal, with 骸Attack!! by Utsu-P. Crypton reports that there are over 100,000 songs featuring Miku.

My favorite Hatsune Miku song as of right now would have to be Mesmerizer by 32ki.

It’s a fast-paced, almost overwhelming, song about being hypnotized and distracting oneself from modern society. The song also features Kasane Teto, another popular vocal synth. Part of the reason I enjoy it is because the song is formatted in a fashion similar to short-form video content a la TikTok or YouTube Shorts, which helps advance the themes. It also features numerous easter eggs, such as SOS signals given by Teto throughout the video. Overall, this isn’t the most conventional Vocaloid song, but it plays to Miku’s strengths well.

Miku isn’t the most human-sounding vocal synth. But she still maintains a strong fanbase regardless through her own distinct charm.

 

The Origins of Synthesized Singing

I laid in my bed on a boring Monday night. I was trying to think of a good idea to write a blog about. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to procrastinate by listening to 32ki’s Mesmerizer. And in a flash, inspiration decided to grab me by the throat and calmly, yet firmly, whisper into my ear, “Spread the gospel of Hatsune Miku. Share her glory with the world.” And thus, with renewed spirit, I began to think about what topics I could write about to spread the good word.

But one cannot know what Hatsune Miku is without knowing about Vocaloid. And one cannot know what Vocaloid is without knowing about synthesized vocals. And so we find our defining question for this week’s blog: What are synthesized vocals, and where did they originate?

Vocal synthesis refers broadly to technology used to create artificial human speech. For example, Google Translate makes heavy use of synthesized vocals to help people learn to pronounce words. But as long as we’ve been making computers mimic human speech, we’ve been making them mimic human singing. Case in point, in 1961, Bell Labs used an IBM 7094 to create the first example of a computer that could sing. Below is the audio of it singing “Daisy Bell”.

Admittedly, it isn’t quite at the level of perfectly mimicking human singing. It’s often looked back upon as uncanny or creepy, due mainly in part to its robotic and nearly emotionless singing. But I, as well as many others, take a different perspective. Synthesized singing is not meant to replace traditional vocals in singing, but is rather meant to branch off to create its own unique brand of music. Otherwise, we would have seen the takeover of human musicians ages ago! So listening again from that lens, we can hear more than just an uncanny robot. I personally view him as a grandfather to modern vocal synths. And his singing does reflect that: it doesn’t rise to the standards set by today’s programs, but he’s trying his best! And regardless of his talents, he still earns respect among many for planting the seed that would blossom into the behemoths like Vocaloid and UTAU that exist in vocal synth spaces today.

To compare and contrast with today’s vocal synths, below is a rendition of Daisy Bell sang by Hatsune Miku, a vocal synthesizer program from 2007:

To the average person, this video would come off as a slightly odd part of Miku’s library. But this cover simultaneously tracks the progress vocal synths have made, and acts as a touching tribute to the progenitor of synthesized singing.

I would highly recommend looking at the earliest songs made with vocal synths. They may not have the polish or quality that modern covers have, but they still hold relevance in paging the history of this technology.

Passion Pitch

My two pitches for the passion blog are a blog concerning Vocaloid/vocal synth music, and one concerning political cartoons, specifically right-wing ones.

Vocal synthesizer music is a form of music that makes use of computer-synthesized vocals. The most popular example of this technology would be Hatsune Miku, but many other vocal synths exist. A blog covering this topic would primarily be concerned with reviews of vocal synth music and news. A topic such as this could reach a more casual audience, since those who do not already know the topic may not know of the vast variety of music that comes under this umbrella.

My second idea for a passion blog would be one meant to criticize political cartoons, especially right-wing ones. Cartoonists such as Ben Garrison, Hedgewik, and Stonetoss propagate far-right views in the most hideous fashion possible, combining a lack of style with a lack of substance. The blog would primarily be bashing creators of this nature, while also featuring political cartoonists who make more succinct and well thought out pieces of art. I believe that the appeal to this type of blog would be large, as extremists are viewed rather unfavorably by the masses.