My Eighth-Grade Vocaloid Essay

(Note: I homeschooled for middle school, and for writing class in eighth grade I took a very good writing class from someone local who hosted writing classes for homeschoolers at her house weekly. She was an incredibly good teacher, and in some ways I owe this whole blog to her. To be honest, I was occasionally annoyed by how much of a stickler she was on avoiding "to be" verbs and not repeating words. Only one of those lessons have I eventually taken to heart, as you can see... But one of the things I liked about her was how freely she allowed us to interpret the prompts. As you can see from the title, I wrote an essay about Vocaloid. I'm posting it here, along with (my commentary in bold and parentheses, like this) because it's actually pretty good, at least for an eighth grader.

Since their invention, people have manipulated computers and computer programs to accomplish incredible tasks, things once thought only accomplishable by a human. To name a few, computers can create some forms of art, speak, and even sing. The IBM 7094 sang its first notes in 1961; however, it sounded like more of a cross between a robot and a pipe organ than a human (I still hold that opinion lol, its singing is still cute though). By far the most realistic and popular version of this technology is Vocaloid, a program first released on January 15, 2004. The technology, history, and advantages of Vocaloid are fascinating.

Well, how do Vocaloids work, then? A company that decides to develop a Vocaloid first finds a voice donor, a real person, and records all the phonemes for the language in which the Vocaloid will sing. The person must record phonemes, diphones, and sometimes ("sometimes" meaning after V2) triphone combinations. Phonemes are the basic sounds for any language. Japanese has only 500, due to a simpler syllable-to-sound system, a small amount compared to the 2,500 demanded by the bumbling, cobbled-together, mismatched elephant of a language we call English (well, it's true- I liked writing that). After that, the samples are entered into the synthesis engine, a complex bit ("bit") of programming with the ability to stitch together the phonemes. A user interface gets slapped on, and the product is ready to sell (I remember frantically trying to make this shorter, even as long as it is it's very simplified).

Beginning at Pompeau Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, Vocaloid originated as a non-commercial research project, led by Kenmochi Hideki, but then Yamaha (yes, that Yamaha) (yes, I put that parenthetic remark in a paper and my teacher didn't mark it out) started backing them. The first Vocaloids released, LEON and LOLA, were released on January 15, 2004. Marketed as “Virtual Soul Vocalists,” and aimed primarily toward a professional Western market, they did not sell very well (this was mainly because the technology wasn't that advanced/easy to use at the time, and also they missed their audience, American DAW Producers, with the Vocaloids' British accents), nor did MIRIAM, the third one, even though she was released on a slightly updated version of the software (also because she was competing with CANTOR, a popular rival software in Britain at the time). The next two Vocaloids released, KAITO and MEIKO, the first Japanese Vocaloids, sold a bit better. Although Kaito initially failed financially (oof), Meiko sold very well, and this encouraged other companies, such as the Swedish music software company PowerFX. Sweet Ann, the first Vocaloid released on the improved Vocaloid 2 engine, has been relatively forgotten. The one released after Ann in 2007, Hatsune Miku, a name and image probably familiar (now I would probably replace "familiar" with "known") even to those who have never heard of Vocaloid at all, nearly single-handedly made Vocaloid technology popular. She has gained the notoriety of a pop star. Many other Vocaloids released in the V2 era have become near-forgotten (SONiKA, Big Al, Prima) (<my babies) while others (Kagamine Rin/Len, Megurine Luka, Megpoid: Gumi) have become some of the most popular. V3 added triphone support, making voices much more realistic and smooth. Most V3 Vocaloids (Oliver, Avanna) have not been updated since their release, but, because V3 sounds pretty realistic, why bother? V4 added a bit more functionality to the interface, the growl effect and cross-synthesis, but otherwise did not change. V5 added even more technical control over the voice, as well as a new effect called vocal fry, but, as the engine is relatively new, only a few new vocals have been released on it so far: Amy, Chris, Kaori, Ken, and MEIKA Hime and Mikoto (The engine has a lot of bugs as well, so most are sticking with V4. I didn't really know that when I first wrote the essay).

Not counting Appends, Extends, additional voicebanks, retired/restricted access Vocaloids, and updates to different versions, there are now 85 (by my count at least, it's complicated) Vocaloids released, each with a unique voice. Intended to act as simply an “imitation” of the human voice, they nevertheless possess some advantages over humans (I only got to include two, and the second one I don't really consider a big advantage any more). One example is my personal favorite Vocaloid, Oliver (oof Oliver, you've been since replaced by Avanna as my favorite). Cute and high-pitched, his voice comes from a 12- to 13-year-old British choirboy, and he is one of the more popular and frequently used sounds (cringe) in the Vocaloid community. However, will you find a real 13-year-old British boy singing everything from pop to folk for seven years and counting with the exact same voice all the time? Of course not. Additionally, there exist several Vocaloids with the voices of prominent singers, such as YOHIOloid, with voice donor YOHIO; Fukase, with voice donor Satoshi Fukase (I misspelled it as Satori in the original, oops); IA, with voice donor Lia; Utatane Piko, with voice donor Piko; and Gackpoid, with voice donor Gackt. This allows enthusiasts to compose their own songs with the voices they like and consequently adds another layer of interest to the fan community.

Vocaloids in general are captivating musical forms to learn about, talk about, write about, and listen to. They have impacted the music-making community in many ways, mostly positive. They use a state-of-the-art technology, feature a rich history, and even hold numerous advantages over real humans. Certainly, computers can now produce absolutely incredible phenomena (she kinda hijacked the conclusion so I wouldn't repeat words, and I didn't really care).