Now we dive into a short history about Vocaloid.
Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer program developed by Yamaha with the idea of helping people practice their singing much in the same way they did with their keyboards teaching people how to play.
To do this they use an A.I with a distinct voice whether it be male or female, English or Japanese to act as the Synthesizer voice. Now this doesn't sound very spectacular does it? Well when the second version came out, history was made.
Hatsune Miku along with Len & Rin Kagamine and Megurine Luka became icons of the brand, later becoming virtual idols in their own right, with Miku leading the group.
These idols were created for the Vocaloid system by Crypton Future Media, with the idea of having a virtual person help with your singing; with Japan's industry of cute idols, Miku and the others were accepted members of the pop industry which would start the idol and mascot trend which still continues now.
Shows like Aikatsu owe it's existence to Vocaloid and Miku.
But what about Miku herself?
Well here's Cryton's profile of her.
Birthday: August 31
Age: 16 years
Zodiac sign: Virgo
Height: 158 cm / 5.18 ft
Weight: 42 kg / 93 lb
Suggested Music Genre: Pop, rock, dance, house, techno, cross over
Suggested Tempo Range: 70–150bpm
Suggested Vocal Range: A3–E5, B2–B3
Her career includes: Mascot for Super GT Championship with Good Smile Racing, Toyota, Sapporo Snow Festival and even Domino's Pizza to name a few.
There's even ongoing plans to get her into space, Britain's own fashion magazine "Clash" used her as a cover model, she helped Nico Nico Douga's popularity massively, Sega has a range of rhythm games dedicated to her, the thousands of homages in anime, most notably Black Rock Shooter where the lead is based off her design and to top off her ongoing achievements, she opens for international singing sensation Lady Gaga.
All this and still no anime series, she practically is Anime's mascot.
So that's Vocaloid, a simple voice program that has created the biggest virtual stars of our time.
