Vanished in Thin Air: Korea’s ‘Adam’ Mysteriously Disappears, While Japan’s ‘Miku-chan’ Takes Center Stage with 100,000 Songs and a Thrilling Live Concert
Software that allows music composition without recording human voices
Creating a ‘virtual idol’ with a synthesizer motif
It seems like virtual idols have become quite popular these days. I also happened to see the virtual idol ‘Idol from Another World’ perform at a department store some time ago, and I was surprised to see so many fans gathered. Compared to Korea’s original virtual idol, cyber singer ‘Adam’, the current virtual idol seems perfect. Adam was gradually forgotten due to the story that he was somewhat crude and sloppy and eventually died from a virus. Does anyone remember Adam?
In Japan, the original virtual idols are still active and active. This is Vocaloid’s ‘Hatsune Miku’. Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku If you are interested in Japanese culture, you must have heard this word somewhere. In fact, this is the Miku whom Japanese culture enthusiasts called ‘otaku’ call ‘Miku-chan’. Today, I will tell you the story about Japanese Vocaloid and the original virtual idol born as a Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.
Hatsune Miku. (Photo source = Vocaloid homepage)
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Vocaloid, a program to create songs without recording
Vocaloid is voice synthesis software developed by Yamaha. It appeared in 2003. Its characteristic is that anyone can synthesize voices and create music. Each hiragana sound, such as ‘aiueo’ and ‘kakikukeko’, is read, divided, registered, and combined by a machine to be sung. For this reason, it is said that the software that creates vocals was named ‘Vocaloid’, a combination of ‘vocal’ and ‘Android’. Initially, it was not a hot topic, but it became very popular with the release of the 2nd generation Vocaloid software.
It uses the 2nd generation Vocaloid as the engine, and a media company called Krypton Future Media in Hokkaido creates songs using a music accompaniment database set. Here, the Miku-chan we know appears in 2007. Hatsune Miku, a cute character who looks like she came out of an animation, became incredibly popular when she was able to sing in a girl’s voice through the Vocaloid engine. In short, Hatsune Miku can be said to be a composite created by overlapping a virtual character with a song created by software.
Making music using Vocaloid. (Photo source = Vocaloid homepage)
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The software itself, Hatsune Mikuro Vocaloid, is also attracting attention again. In fact, it is said that it was considered a revolution by music creators. This is because if a composer purchased the software, he could easily create a song with vocals. Even if you already composed a song, in order to release it, you have to sing it yourself or ask someone else to sing it and record it, which is not always easy. However, if it is a Vocaloid, you can easily add voices to it using a PC, and modifications are also simple. They can even produce high-pitched sounds and speeds that humans cannot produce.
With the advent of video platforms such as YouTube, the number of places where people can release their own music has increased significantly. As a result, many songs are released without going through a record company, and hit songs are created one after another. The existing method of distributing music has changed dramatically.
Creators who have made their name known in this way are called ‘Vocaloid Producers’, shortened to ‘Vocaloid P’. Among these Vocaloid Ps, there are quite a few who have made their names known in Korea as well. Singer Kenshi Yonezu, who topped Korea’s karaoke charts with the song ‘Lemon’, and Yoasobi, who became famous through the animation ‘My Favorite Child’, are from Vocaloid P. It’s amazing that it serves as a gateway for artists.
‘Hatsune Miku’, the first generation virtual idol created by Vocaloid
So how on earth did Hatsune Miku become famous? Does anyone know the video of ‘Padolgi Song’ that was once a hit on the Internet in Korea? This is a classic video in which a man who looks like a farmer perfectly recreates the animation character dancing with green onions. The character that appears in this wave-twirling song is Hatsune Miku.
Hatsune Miku performing at the 2024 North American Miku Expo. (Photo source = Hatsune Miku YouTube)
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In the case of vocals made with Vocaloid, the color of the original human voice takes on a slightly different color during the process of smoothing the recorded sound. Wataru Sasaki, an employee of Crypton Future Media who first created Hatsune Miku, listened to all the voice actor CDs belonging to the three voice actor companies, and chose Saki Fujita, a young voice actor with a strong high voice, as the base voice for Hatsune Miku.
Hatsune Miku’s green hair and other appearances are said to be inspired by Yamaha’s synthesizer ‘DX7’ model. Since the DX7 was a model characterized by a high-pitched electronic sound that felt like a metallic sound, it is said that the high-pitched sound of Miku’s somewhat mechanical voice matched well with Yamaha’s characteristics. In particular, the DX7 is characterized by an arrangement of green switches on a black background, and this unique color was so famous that it was called ‘DX Green’. Hatsune Miku’s appearance can actually be seen as the personification of this synthesizer.
Yamaha synthesizer DX7 model. (Photo source = Yamaha)
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Hatsune Miku held a concert in 2009 and has continued to hold live concerts ever since, showing off her fan following. It is said that over 100,000 songs have been released. It is said that it is currently a mainstream part of Japanese culture, with marketing collaborations with major companies underway. It can be said that it is a rejection of the original presidential election of virtual idols that appear these days. It seems that various attempts are being made to move away from the view that only humans should become idols.
Reporter Jeon Jin-young jintonic@asiae.co.kr
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