With technology becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence in our daily lives, we find that computer technology is advancing faster than anyone had ever predicted. Compared to the start of the 21st century, computers can do almost everything. However can it imitate a language? A program that has blown in popularity is a Japanese 'synthesizer' program known as VOCALOID, a program used to create songs. With this program, you type out sounds phonetically to create lyrics for the program to sing. Producers all over the Internet make songs, and release them on Youtube and a Japanese site called 'Nico Nico Douga' These programs take the form of characters, which adds creative grounds for music videos. vocaloid is a huge sensation in both Japan and the Internet. In recent years there have even been vocaloid concerts.
Kagamine Rin and Len singing 'Migikata no Chou' (butterfly on your right shoulder)
This was sung at at Miku's 39 giving day, a vocaloid concert held in Japan.
Though the most famous vocaloids are Japanese,there are vocaloids that have been released in Chinese, Korean and even English. However, to someone who doesn't speak or learn Japanese, the pronunciation of the twins Rin and Len in the above video sound fine. However, vocaloids actually have quite poor pronunciation. Most vocaloids are limited to Japanese, however one is bilingual, and can speak English. However her English is not perfect either. The English vocaloids that were released also have bad pronunciation as well. One reason for the bilingual vocaloid Luka, is the absence of phonemes in japan. In japan 'L' 'V' and 'TH' do not exist. On top of this, all consonants in Japanese are followed by a vowel, save 'N', which can stand alone as a sound. This causes problems for English pronunciation, and the Japanese language is so restricted to certain sounds. as phonemes in English are quite varied and do not certain follow rules, English is hard to imitate completely. However last year patches known as 'append' were released for three of the vocaloids, improving Japanese pronunciation and clarity immensely. As well as this it has allowed the vocaloids to sound more human. With enough advancement in synthesizer technology,these vocaloids will become capable of imitating their native language completely. The most popular of the vocaloids, Hatsune Miku is soon to have an English release. I wonder how well they'll be able to imitate English?
Kagamine Rin and Len singing 'Migikata no Chou' (butterfly on your right shoulder)
This was sung at at Miku's 39 giving day, a vocaloid concert held in Japan.
Though the most famous vocaloids are Japanese,there are vocaloids that have been released in Chinese, Korean and even English. However, to someone who doesn't speak or learn Japanese, the pronunciation of the twins Rin and Len in the above video sound fine. However, vocaloids actually have quite poor pronunciation. Most vocaloids are limited to Japanese, however one is bilingual, and can speak English. However her English is not perfect either. The English vocaloids that were released also have bad pronunciation as well. One reason for the bilingual vocaloid Luka, is the absence of phonemes in japan. In japan 'L' 'V' and 'TH' do not exist. On top of this, all consonants in Japanese are followed by a vowel, save 'N', which can stand alone as a sound. This causes problems for English pronunciation, and the Japanese language is so restricted to certain sounds. as phonemes in English are quite varied and do not certain follow rules, English is hard to imitate completely. However last year patches known as 'append' were released for three of the vocaloids, improving Japanese pronunciation and clarity immensely. As well as this it has allowed the vocaloids to sound more human. With enough advancement in synthesizer technology,these vocaloids will become capable of imitating their native language completely. The most popular of the vocaloids, Hatsune Miku is soon to have an English release. I wonder how well they'll be able to imitate English?
Hatune Miku APPEND singing 'Hirari Hirari' (flutter flutter)
Append is a good example of how well vocaloids are able to imitate japanese, with clear and concise pronouncitation
Hatsune Miku means First sound of the future (hatsu,first;ne,sound;miku,future)
Who knows, maybe vocaloids really are the sound of the future?
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