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Japan's Latest Rockstar Is a 3D Hologram

Posted by samzenpus on from the as-real-as-it-gets dept.

kkleiner writes "Hatsune Miku is a Japanese pop diva who's just started to play massive stadium concerts to sold out crowds. Her hair is blue, she dresses like Sailor Moon, and she'll only appear in concerts via a 3D 'hologram.' Oh, and did I forget to mention that she's completely fictional? Created by Crypton Future Media, Hatsune Miku and her virtual colleagues have gone on limited tours in Japan."

19 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. This isn't exactly news... by RogueyWon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Erm... yes, that's great and all. Except Hatsune Miku has been around since 2007, and versons of the the Vocaloid software that powers "her" has been around a good bit longer (since 2004 or so, I think). I'm pretty sure I heard reference to special-effects-heavy concerts more than a year ago.

    The software can be used, with a lot of practice, to do reasonably convincing versions of Japanese language songs. Attempts to use the Hatsune Miku vocaloid to do anything in English are usually hilariously awful. Fans of the game portal may be amused to note this rendition of the game's famous closing song... erm... Steal A Lamp.

    In fairness, there are Vocaloids which can handle English much better, but this story seemed to be specifically about Hatsune Miku.

    1. Re:This isn't exactly news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      In addition, the concert was months, if not a year ago. I recall getting my dvd about it months ago.

    2. Re:This isn't exactly news... by RogueyWon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Except as I said in my post, the concerts themselves, with all the special effects, have been going for over a year. I know it's a hassle, but do try to read before clicking "reply".

    3. Re:This isn't exactly news... by arivanov · · Score: 2, Informative

      Gorillaz have been around since 1998. They are mostly 2D though.

      --
      Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
      http://www.sigsegv.cx/
    4. Re:This isn't exactly news... by _KiTA_ · · Score: 2, Informative

      Except as I said in my post, the concerts themselves, with all the special effects, have been going for over a year. I know it's a hassle, but do try to read before clicking "reply".

      Actually, you mentioned "special-effects-heavy concerts". Which could describe anything, including Kiss, Gwar, Ramstein...

      Yes, Slashdot is LTTP, very much so, but... Well. Yeah. PIE. It's still neat to see the tech reaching this level. Didn't Japan predict this years ago with some mecha anime? And is this on Kurzweil's list of predictions?

      Here's my favorite Vocaloid video. Just in time for Halloween:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2RFcrreoE8

    5. Re:This isn't exactly news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Gorrilaz use the full 3-D version, I'm not sure what year they started. If you check them out on Youtube, they appeared at an MTV awards show with their virtual avatars in 3-D and had Madonna live onstage dancing with the virtual models. It looked really slick and from what I've heard it looks just as good if not better in person.

      It's basically an updated version of the classic "Pepper's Ghost" illusion (wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of the effect with diagrams). Essentially it uses semi-transparent mirrors to reflect an image of someone off-stage onto a slanted glass or mirrored 'screen' which creates the illusion of someone being on the stage. The modern version the Gorrilaz use does away with the off-stage room in favor of a semi-transparent display glass which is in front of the stage, as opposed to being on the stage in the classic version, and uses a digital projector to just pump the image out.

      But the 'hologram' part of this is really, really old news. And so is the whole bit about the virtual idol. In fact, if you read the article it's mostly just a fluff piece talking about how the Japanese like to freak out over the virtual idols. So it's really a piece about the audiences not the idol or the technology. And the only mention of the tech is a single phrase in the sentence which links to an article the same site ran in Dec of 2009.

      So while this is rather interesting if you've never come across it before, this article is Old News.

    6. Re:This isn't exactly news... by tenton · · Score: 2, Informative

      Admittedly, it uses an initial sample bank from a human singer for the seed phonemes (think an incredibly over the top application of autotune).

      For reference, Hatsune Miku's voice is done by Fujita Saki. Hatsune Miku is not the only famous vocaloid, but she's the most famous (and the one getting the concerts).

      (dressed like Sailor Moon? Really? It's not even a sailor uniform. Bad article author, bad. Go sit in the corner.)

      Having seen some questions asked of other vocaloid actresses, it's an interesting and involved process in recording the voices; it's completely different than normal voice acting (and hours of recording work).

  2. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Gorillaz already did this.

  3. FINALLY i get to make a MACROSS reference! by acedotcom · · Score: 5, Informative

    So Sharon Apple in Macross Plus was a hologram. She was an experimental AI but her emotions were provided by a human. Eventually she fell in love and gained her own emotions, and then tried to try to kill everyone after hacking into every military computer on the planet...

    what was my point......OH YEAH...dont trust singing Japanese holograms.

    --
    they say it is often more relevant then the comment above, all we know is its called the Sig!
  4. Re:Life imitates Art or Art imitates Life ? by Nursie · · Score: 4, Informative

    William Gibson's Idoru too, back in '96. I don't think the idea of having entirely synthetic pop-idols is that new...

  5. A good Hatsune Miku by afree87 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Let's use this thread to post our favorite Miku videos.

    Song of Grass and Snow
    Sinners in the Hands of God
    My Life is Over
    No Thank You
    Kurutto Odotte

    1. Re:A good Hatsune Miku by Requiem18th · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ok that was embarassing, corrected list:

      Ok here are mine

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  6. Re:Life imitates Art or Art imitates Life ? by dieth · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sharon Apple for the win. Information High

  7. Re:Life imitates Art or Art imitates Life ? by pchan- · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sharon Apple for the win. Information High

    Megazone 23 (1985) has that beat by about 10 years. The character of Eve Tokimatsuri is a computer-generated popular singer.

    Himitsu Kudasai - Megazone 23, Part II

  8. Re:Modern Women by zalas · · Score: 2, Informative

    So, you're saying she sounds like capsule and perfume? :p

    On a more serious note, a (paid) update to Hatsune Miku gives her 6 additional voicing styles. I find that one of them might be able to sound somewhat like a real person if programmed well. Megpoid, using the same Yamaha sound engine, sounds a lot more realistic than the other Vocaloid2 products, and also doesn't require as much tweaking.

  9. Re:Stadium Concerts to Sold Out Crowds? by Aereus · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm not really into the whole Vocaloid thing, but I remember there was something about a CD of Vocaloid music topping the charts there last year or such. A little Googling comes up with this excerpt:
    http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=211424

    Granted, it was only for one week, but still considering the "singer" is computer-generated, it's interesting.

    "According to Oricon news, VOCALOID Hatsune Miku's album "EXIT TUNES PRESENTS Vocalogenesis feat. Hatsune Miku" has won the top in the weekly album CD sales ranking for May 17th - May 23rd. It's for the first time that a VOCALOID CD is ranked first in the weekly CD sales ranking. The album also includes the songs of other VOCALOIDs such as Kagamine Rin, Len, Megurine Luka, Meiko and Kaito. The cover illustration was drawn by Miwa Shirow.
    Note that the sales of the CD, 23,000 copies, are the smallest number in Oricon's history among all the top sellers of the weekly CD rankings, reflecting the shrinkage of the CD market in Japan."

  10. English songs by abigsmurf · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hatsune Miku can do English songs fairly well if the people using her are smart enough, some of them are fairly listenable. As she only sings Japanese syllables she's always going to have a bit of a Japanese accent. Here's a sample of some of the better done ones, some:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HATpOha7DFg - Heaven is a place on Earth
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaSZ0siQjXA - Never ending story (duet with an english vocaloid)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6m2NzdN7o0 - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

  11. Re:Stadium Concerts to Sold Out Crowds? by slb · · Score: 2, Informative

    Really? What stadium?

    What about the Saitama Super Arena in front of 25'000 people during the Animelo festival ?

    1. "She" isn't, and has never been in any of the top music 50 charts in Japan.

    Vocalogenesi ranked #1 on the Oricon, and dozens of Vocaloid albums mostly featuring Miku all were ranked in the top 20. In which Japan are you living ?

    --
    http://www.transparency.org
  12. Re:It just keeps getting worse and worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    No, that was his point exactly... so what was your point?