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Monday, June 20, 2011

Synthesize EVERYTHING!


 I've been hanging around with Japanophiles for the past few weeks, mostly because of my research into Vocaloid and its applications.  A nice crowd, worth noting for their extreme tendency to synthesize everything.  Each Vocaloid voice bank, in the minds of many fans, has its own apperance and personality.  Each is a virtual pop icon, the avatar singing and dancing using programs like "MikuMikuDance."

"Real" instrumentals are rarely used, most everything being done through software.  Their anime-styled avatars and the less-than-perfect synthesis Vocaloid provides, however, might be considered barriers to more mainstream approval.

Enter AKB48.

AKB48 is a long-standing popular Japanese girl-pop group, often noted for having more active members (58) than any other pop group.  The newest member, Eguchi Aimi, has made no live appearances and has no real record of existence, as noted by fans.  Here is a video revealing the nature of the being:


The face, shown to the left in the latter half of the video, is a CGI amalgamation of the "ideal" portions of other popular band members.  This is not a CG representation of a single face, basically being a kind of cyberpunk Frankenstein monster.  Imagine!  This is pop icon synthesis perfected, aside from the distinctly human voice.  This, too, will be replaced, perhaps much sooner than we realize.

I, for one, welcome our new synthetic overlords.

If interested, here is a very popular Vocaloid-oriented forum which I am now frequenting.  There's also an IRC, sakura.tsukihi.net #mikuchan.

ETA: here is an article released just yesterday about the virtual icon.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Paper Mache Hubcaps and You



Made using test card music from test card music compilations featured on Cosmobells.  Most tracks are distorted beyond being recognizable, though the original pieces' names are kept.  Each track is around a minute long.

http://www.archive.org/details/PaperMacheHubcapsAndYou

Monday, June 6, 2011

Tower of Sunz



Somewhat vague and bewildering lyrics with unsettling imagery and a strange atmosphere.  This is one of the better uses of Vocaloid, especially Hatsane Miku, that I have seen, as it takes advantage of the inherent uncanniness of the program's output.

Vocaloid Honey


This is a thing man was not meant to know.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Tonio Unplugged

Tonio, a singing intelligence from the year of our Lord 2052, visited my illustrious government housing complex for some good old southern hospitality.  Though in need of repair, he managed to produce some tunes derived from his decaying databanks.  Here are the results:

http://www.archive.org/details/TonioUnplugged

Tonify your songs!

Tonio is taking requests from his "Old World" listeners.  Ask him to sing a song and he might put it on his next release, "Tonio by Request," after loading it into his (now rather vacant) lyrical memory.

Please make requests in the comments section of this post or email me at idemosaka@gmail.com.