2009/12/09

Vocaloid Character - Hatsune Miku 「初音ミク」



Other Names初音未来 (Unofficial name in Nico Nico Douga Chinese broadcast)
DeveloperCrypton
Release DateAugust 31st, 2007
Age16
Height158 cm
Weight42 kg
Optimum GenrePop idol, Pop dance
Optimum Tempo70 to 150 bpm
Optimum RangeA#3 to E#5
Character ItemNegi (Leek)


Miku Hatsune (初音ミク Hatsune Miku) is the first installment in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series created by Crypton Future Media and the most popular and well-known Vocaloid, released on August 31, 2007. The name of the title and the character of the software was chosen by combining Hatsu (初, first), Ne (音, sound), and Miku (未来, future) thus meaning "the first sound to the future." The data for the voice was created by actually sampling the voice of Saki Fujita, a Japanese voice actress. Unlike general purpose speech synthesizers, the software is tuned to create J-pop songs commonly heard in anime, but it is possible to create songs from other genres.

Before Miku was released, Vocaloid was not much more than an obscure program. Nico Nico Douga played a fundamental role in the recognition and popularity of the software. Soon after the release of the software, users of Nico Nico Douga started posting videos with songs created by the software. According to Crypton, a popular video with a comically-altered Miku holding a leek, singing Ievan Polkka, presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation. As the recognition and popularity of the software grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborate content creation. Popular original songs written by a user would generate illustrations, animation in 2D and 3D, and remixes by other users. Other creators would show their unfinished work and ask for ideas.

On October 18, 2007, an Internet BBS website reported that she was suspected to be victim of censorship by Google and Yahoo!, since images of Miku did not show up on the image searches. Google and Yahoo denied any censorship on their part, blaming the missing images on a bug that does not only affect "Hatsune Miku" and related keywords but other search keywords as well. Both companies expressed a willingness to fix the problem as soon as possible. Images of Miku were relisted on Yahoo on October 19.

A manga called Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix began serialization in the Japanese manga magazine Comic Rush on November 26, 2007, published by Jive. The manga is drawn by Kei, the original character designer for Miku. A second manga called Hachune Miku no Nichijō Roipara! drawn by Ontama began serialization in the manga magazine Comp Ace on December 26, 2007, published by Kadokawa Shoten. Miku sometimes wears glasses in the manga, and Rin and Len call her "onee-chan" (big sister). A yonkoma webcomic made by artist Minami called Chibi Miku-san can be found on his webpage, as well as on Danbooru(the site itself is 18+), but for a safe search of Danbooru, try Safebooru.

Miku's first appearance in an anime is in episode 13 of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei in which she (and other Vocaloids) auditioned to dub Otonashi Meru's voice. For online multiplayer games, the Japanese version of PangYa started a campaign with Hatsune Miku on May 22, 2008 in which she is included as one of the characters. Her first appearance in a video game is in 13-sai no Hellowork DS (Job Placement for the Age of 13) for the Nintendo DS where she is included as one of the characters. Miku Hatsune also star in a video game of her own, Miku Hatsune - Project Diva on the Playstation Portable (PSP) in Japan.



Append Version


On April 30, 2010, Miku Append, a data library which consisted of six new Miku voicebanks, was released. Both the Miku product and the Append product exist and are sold separately, and the voicebanks of Miku Append are different from the voicebank the original Miku has. All the new voicebanks were voiced by Saki Fujita: Soft, Sweet, Dark, Vivid, Solid, Light. Crypton announced that this is an append disk (an addition which offers extension to computer softwares and is similar to expansion packs in English) and users need the original Miku to utilize Miku Append. It costs collectively slightly under the original Miku price.[14] While they had been announced on Miku's second birthday, they were released over eight months later. The different appends are meant to capture the "moods".


Source : Vocaloid Wiki
Picture © Kei

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