The new and improved Vocaloid thread

[blkmage]

「ボカロ全員で『恋は戦争』」 by ユウノ

What is a Vocaloid?

Vocaloid is a program created by Yamaha that allows users to generate songs. Currently, there are six different Vocaloids, and of course, in the Japanese tradition of creating characters out of everything, each Vocaloid has a character and personality.

It's hard to believe, but the Vocaloid community is over two years old now. When I created the first thread back near the end of 2008, it was just under a year old. Since then, we've seen the addition of some more Vocaloids, as well as an increase in the production quality and maturation of the songs themselves. Back then, livetune was just releasing one of the first commercial Vocaloid albums. Today, most popular artists have Vocaloid CDs available on Amazon.jp and stuff.

And that's why I'm creating this thread anew, with a renewed purpose. The community has grown so much since then, both in composers and vocalists that cover Vocaloid songs. I'll be taking a more directed approach with this thread. What this means is that I'll be highlighting popular composers and vocalists in this thread every so often, while you go listen and find something new to appreciate and chat about here.

To best enjoy this thread, you'll want to get yourself a Nico Nico Douga account, which is required to view videos and mylists on Nico Nico Douga. Here's an English registration guide. I will try my hardest to post YouTube links, but I can't make any guarantees. You'll want to go to the Nico Nico Douga video for the best quality anyway.

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So I guess I'll start off with easily the most widely-known Vocaloid composer: supercell.

If you know me, you'll know I won't shut up about them. I even bought their (quite frankly, overpriced) album that came with a DVD I didn't want. And if you've talked with me for some length of time, I probably would have linked you to one of these songs at some point.

Technically, supercell is a group consisting of a composer, ryo, and several artists and musicians. nagi, their non-Vocaloid vocalist isn't a part of supercell, but honestly, she may as well be, being the voice behind every one of their non-Vocaloid productions so far. Every single one of supercell's songs have reached over 1 million views on Nico Nico Douga. In 2009, they released their first album, supercell feat. Hatsune Miku and their first single (featuring nagi), Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari, the ending theme to Bakemonogatari.

In terms of genre, they're pretty much rock, ranging from piano rock stuff like in Melt to more electronica stuff in LOVE & ROLL.

Melt: NND YT
Love is War: NND YT
Black Rock Shooter: NND YT
Hajimete no Koi ga Owaru Toki: NND YT

What does the future have in store for them? Well, just last week, they released a joint single with livetune titled こっち向いて Baby , Yellow. Earlier in the year, supercell released their second single, Sayonara Memories. In August, supercell will be releasing their double A-side single Utakata Hanabi/Hoshi ga matataku konna Yoru ni…, which will be the newest ending theme for Naruto Shippuden and the ending theme for the upcoming TYPE-MOON game Mahou Tsukai no Yoru.

Members: ryo, Shirow Miwa, huke, redjuice, Suga, Maque, Yoshiki Usa, Hei8ro, Guitar, Crow, Golv
Links: mylist, official site, staff blog

[blkmage]

Maybe someone I haven't talked about before will garner some interest? :3c

「モザイクロール」 by mirto

Compared to most other prolific Vocaloid artists, DECO*27 is relatively new. His first upload was Boku Mitaina Kimi Kimi Mitaina Boku in October 2008. Since then, he's achieved a fairly consistent following with his electronic-y pop-rock-ish style. More recently, his songs have featured videos by mirto and akka, and have been growing in popularity. He's one of very few Vocaloid artists who also sings, as he's shown in his own covers of his own songs. Most recently, he released his fourth Vocaloid album just last week, coinciding with Mosaic Roll's topping of the Weekly Vocaloid Rankings.

Kimi Ijou, Boku Miman: NND, YT, DECO*27 ver.
Nisoku Hokou: NND, YT
Yowamushi Montblanc: NND, YT
Mosaic Roll: NND, YT

Links: mylist, blog

[GeneD]

I'm possibly asking a silly question and I could probably google it, but since you made a thread; how does this program actually work? Do they record the vocals and add them to digital Vocaloid-made tracks or something?

Anyway, what peeked my interest is the great artwork I've seen of all the characters, both official and fan-made.

[blkmage]

Basically, Vocaloid is a program that generates vocals. So actually, the only thing that isn't recorded are the vocals, which are generated by the program. There's no one singing, it's the program that's singing. All the instrumentation and effects and everything else are recorded.

Here's a demo; note that the program corresponds with the vocals and nothing else.

So basically, after you have your Vocaloid track down, you just mix it in with everything else like you would in regular song production in Cubase or something.

[Alcuinus]

Awesome songs! Thanks for posting them, blk.

I ran across an amazingly poetic one today. Personally, it's my favorite story-concept-wise so far.

Kokoro
YT
NND

[blkmage]

OneRoom appeared near the end of September in 2008, bringing with him a bunch of songs. Since then, his output has been fairly continuous, bringing a stream of light rock set to a minimalistic background for the PV. So far he's released two albums, Resound and Toy Box, which are collections of his songs that he's uploaded plus a few extras.

from Y to Y: NND, YT
Starduster: NND, YT
Little Traveler: NND, YT
The 9th: NND, YT

Links: mylist

[Strafe]

YAY! I love vocaloids. Its such a cool concept.

My favorite songs are:

Kokoro- very sad but beautiful story. Namakonyuroko's voiceover dub is better than the Rin Kagamine program though... lol.

New Mellinium- This song rocks out pretty hard with a nice fast paced feel. Pretty profound tale of humanity and war. The guitar solos suck terribly though. lol. <_<

Toeto- Its just too kawaii, and the vocaloiding is the smoothest sounding I've ever heard.

Paradichlorobenzene- Its really... strange and nonsensically dark. But its really creepy in a cool way. And its funny hearing len as that creepy little kid from horror movies prophesying about the world.

[mechana2015]

I've not listened to a lot of Vocaloid before now, but it's pretty enjoyable! My only gripe is that the voices keep getting pushed to super duper high pitches on some songs and it's a bit uncomfortable, but is otherwise fine.

[Strafe]

Yeah that's one thing. And also, I start feeling like I can't breath, because the vocaloids don't take breaths. I guess I usually breathe to the music when the singer breathes... which is strange...

[blkmage]

Yeah, I find that the pitch thing is a problem that's common for Miku and Rin (and sometimes even Len). I've found GUMI and Luka songs sound a lot more natural because of their range. Although, that is a part of their appeal: that composers can push voices to do things that are impossible for human voices.

[LadyRushia]

The most I've really seen of Vocaloid are cute pictures, Miku doing the Love&Joy dance, and one set of songs/stories. I can't remember the title, but it was the one where Rin was a princess of yellow land and Len was her servant or something. Each character has a song that tells the story from a different prospective.

Oh, and I've also seen that one commercial where Miku dances and tells us to buy vegetable juice. It's only 200 yen. . .

[blkmage]

Cut 60 by utsushita

Hachi has a very, very distinct style and instrumentation. One of the first songs of his that I heard was referred to by me and my friends as the creepy Miku song, which was 結ンデ開イテ羅刹ト骸. Of course, that designation was rendered inadequate once he uploaded more creepy Miku songs. His creepier songs feature a lot of classical Japanese instruments that have names that I don't know.

Beyond creepy sounding songs with creepy looking PVs, Hachi's other claim to fame is his set of, well, non-creepy songs that have animated PVs. Even with more normal sounding songs using instruments that we're more used to, his composition style is still really noticeable. The most well known of these is WORLD'S END UMBRELLA which is about a girl and a guy in a city that's covered by a gigantic umbrella-like structure that's blocking out the sky.

結ンデ開イテ羅刹ト骸: NND, YT
clock lock works: NND, YT
WORLD'S END UMBRELLA: NND, YT
ワンダーランドと羊の歌: NND, YT
マトリョシカ: NND, YT

Links: mylist

[Dr.Faust]

Spooky tost is my fav song