Vocaloid vs. Natural Voice

Vocaloid: a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation.

In other words, a vocaloid is a program that synthetically creates a voice that is capable of changing volume, pitch, and articulation.

The first thing that people say when they hear about vocaloids is, why bother having them? Why is there a need for songs made from synthetic voices when you can simply have real people sing them with natural voices. Almost everyone that is new to the idea of vocaloids asks this question first, and it's a valid question. It is true that the majority of people would agree that listening to a natural voice is much better than a synthetically produced one.

The reason that this question is asked is because we are still only used to the American system of music where big companies make music and those songs become popular nationwide and everyone loves them, this is different in Japan. In Japan, there is a site that is called niconico(To use niconico, you need to create an account). It acts very similar to YouTube as people can create videos and post them for everyone to see. The only big difference here is that niconico has an extremely large section dedicated to music and not just music from big companies but also from budding composers and singers all over the country(Japan). The vocaloid  program is made so that people can create songs without any talent in singing, they only have to know how to make music and they can give their own songs lyrics without having to sing it themselves. That is the true purpose of the vocaloid program. It is all about letting individuals all around Japan show off what they have and that they can make music. Once someone makes a song they can post it to niconico and hope that their song rises in popularity and reaches top ranks on the site. If they do, it will be easier for bigger companies to realize this persons work and hire them on a job or cooperate with them to create a song.

(From this point on I will have alternative links that link to the niconico website in case you do have an account and would like to access the original work.)
Vocaloids come in all shapes and sizes, they also come in all forms and types of voices. One of the most popular vocaloid being Hatsune Miku. Her most popular song SenbonZakura(NicoNico) was created by someone called Kura Usa(黒うさ). Kura Usa started off as a typical user on niconico posting songs that he created until he made SenbonZakura, where it went down in history as one of the best songs out there. The next most popular vocaloid is actually a pair. Kagamine Len and Kagamine Rin are brother and sister, Rin being the sister. They were released at the same time in the same program. Usually they do solos for songs even though they are sold in the same package. One of the more popular Rin songs is called Lost One's Weeping(NicoNico.) One of the more popular Len songs is Servant of Evil(NicoNico.) The next on this list would be GUMI with one of her biggest songs being Donut Hole(NicoNico.) After this point it's debatable but IA is usually the next one up with Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story(NicoNico.) The thing to remember about all theses songs is that they are made by individuals or small groups of people. These are all people who have gained a lot of popularity via niconico.

Don't get the wrong impression that all songs in Japan are made with vocaloids. People in Japan will also agree that normal vocals are a lot better. If you have talent and you can sing, you end up being a Utaite. A Utaite is someone who covers songs. People do covers of famous songs that are sung by vocaloid and they get famous when people like them. Some popular Utaites include Soraru, Kradness, 96Neko, Reol(Note: I could not find a YouTube link for this one sorry.) There are various Utaites that have obtained official jobs by becoming famous on niconico, one of these is Yanagi Nagi who has started creating her own original songs. Another famous Utaite is Nano known for incorporating English into her songs.

Vocaloids miss out on the passion that a human voice. The thing that they do right is that it helps people open up to music without needing the ability to sing.

The human voice is something that cannot be truly recreated, no matter how much one tries to recreate it, the passion that it possesses when it sings is something that no one can come to. If you take a comparison of two of the same songs that one a vocaloid sings, while in the other a human sings, you will notice a big difference.

In Japan vocaloids and humans are both valued at the same level, if you still are having trouble grasping the concept of vocaloid, the best way to think of it is that a vocaloid is an instrument. While if you are a budding composer and want to use vocaloid, they do sell English vocaloid, the only problem is that to use a vocaloid, you first need to buy a base program in which you can run the vocaloid algorithm. This base program costs around $110, then you need to buy the actual vocaloid you want. For example the Japanese version of Hatsune Miku(V2) would cost around $164. Then after that you would need the ability to record instruments and play instruments.

As time goes on new vocaloids will keep releasing, the next one to release releases on February, 14th 2014. Her name is Kokone.
Sample Kokone Song

Below is a list of vocaloid songs (With their singer) that are some of my favorites. There are plenty more vocaloids out there, it's just that these are big ones.
(Hatsune Miku) Mono Poisoner
(Hatsune Miku) ODDS & ENDS
(Hatsune Miku) Star Story
(Hatsune Miku) Black Board
(Hatsune Miku) Online Gaming Addicts Sprechchor
(Hatsune Miku) Kagerou Days
(Hatsune Miku) A Solution for Jealousuy -Another Story-
(Megurine Luka) Just be Friends
(IA) Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story
(IA) Imagination Forest
(IA) Otsukimi Recital
(IA) Kisaragi Attention
(IA) Ayano's Theory of Happiness
(Kagamine Rin) Lost One's Weeping
(Kagamine Rin) Idola Circus
(Kagamine Len) Embarrassment-Hiding Adolescence
(GUMI) A Solution for Jealousy
(GUMI) Confession Rehearsal
(GUMI) Diagnosis: Love-sickness
(Lily) WAVE
(Lily) START
(Lily) -ERROR

Note to those that know about vocaloids, I'm neglecting a lot of big ones.

I guess you can get to know me a bit more from this.