Midterm: Vocaloid

I probably should have posted this a couple days ago, but anyhow, I documented most of my project on my blog. I haven't posted the track I demoed in class yet, but I have a number of other attempts/experiments up if anyone's interested.

Just some general stuff: Vocaloid is a piece of commercial software developed by Yamaha (you didn't hear it from me, but cracking it is ridiculiously easy without any special programs). A number of other companies have produced voice libraries for the program (Crypton is probably the best known, having produced the character voice series, including Hatsune Miku). Unfortunately there is no demo of Vocaloid 2 and the CV series (I believe there's one for Vocaloid 1 though), though, for some reason, if you don't crack a pirated copy register your copy it gives you a 14-day trial. There isn't a lot of English documentation about actually using the program (aside from things like "This is the DYN button, it stands for 'dynamic' and adjusts the dynamic parameter" which really doesn't tell you anything useful), so it's pretty daunting to start using.

There is a freeware alternative to Vocaloid called UTAU. I haven't tried it myself yet because it looks pretty sketchy, but UTAU is gaining popularity in the international community because it's possible to produce your own voice library with it (Vocaloid only has English and Japanese voices--I've seen a number of Spanish-speaking UTAloids lately).