It's been two years since I wrote one of these. When I wrote the last one, I wasn't sure I'd write another one.
But this year, I feel like talking a bit about why I'm a member of the community, why I work to become a musician.
It's simple: I do it for the love of it.
Many of you who will read this have probably seen me describe how I got into vocal synths originally. You know that I was introduced to it at a low point in my life. That Miku concert video was a sorely needed gift of hope and strength.
I often credit Miku with that experience; indeed, one reason I try to make songs is as a way of thanking her for what was given to me 5 years ago. But the experience went beyond her, too. It wouldn't have been possible without the band members on the stage also; the audience members screaming with an adoration like I couldn't believe; the producers who made the songs; the broader community who probably helped them learn; Crypton; the film crew; the event staff; and on, and on, and on.
There's a good chunk of this that is for my own personal satisfaction--I want to develop my creative ability, and I've always wanted to write a song--hopefully something that will express me, that some others will enjoy, and that some people might even find beneficial somehow. But my more self-related aspirations aside, I do this why I said before: for the love of it.
I love Miku. I love the many kind, accepting, and helpful people I've met in the community. That includes the folks here. It also includes folks in the chats before/during online events, where beginner and established producers mix in a common passion, the former encouraging one another, and the latter joining into conversations as easily as you please. I love the process--I love being creative, as well as the puzzle-ish aspect of figuring things out, and then doing my best to give that knowledge away.
I wonder.... If Miku AI became a thing, and we're worried about it sounding like her, why not train the AI partly on her classic songs? Ask the big classic Miku producers-- Deco*27, kz, Mitchie M, etc.--if they'd be willing to have their 2000s-era songs used to help train Miku's AI. CFM's probably the only company with the necessary relationships with its fanbase to try something like this. Some of the producers might decline, but maybe a bunch of them wouldn't mind--maybe in exchange for modest one-time compensation, or a grateful thanks on the box. The songs are over 10 years old anyway, and producers' primary output is songs, not tuning (though it might be a somewhat bigger deal for Mitchie, who's known as a tuning god). (Or open things up and ask for volunteers to have their songs used.) Throw those songs from all those different classic era producers together, along with the human training material that would've been used anyway, into a blender and see what the AI comes out with. Shouldn't it be less AI-sameness and more of what Miku's iconic sound has come to be?
In that scenario, you have Miku and her fanbase teaching the next generation of Miku. What could be more appropriate than that?