VOCALOID Miku V2 English - Ballet Mecanique

[sour_supreme]

I don't know if this is something that is worth posting, but I just listened to this demo again, and I really want to talk about it.

So I joined the fandom around summer of 2011 and so this was one of the first VOCALOID songs I'd heard and initially I did not like it. I felt that the instrumental was too loud, and I was not really into this style of music back then, not to mention I was too fresh in the fandom to be interested in VOCALOID development cycles. I would come back to it every once in a while, I think to kind of get an idea for what was in store for 2013's Miku V3 English, as this and a handful of 2012-2013 demos were all we had to go off of. After her V3 release, I started to appreciate this song a LOT more, and I also got more interested in the development process of Crypton's VOCALOIDs, including her V3 English.

First of all, I've come to really enjoy the song. Its a very chill song with a great guitar sound, and yes, at the end things get a little bit crazy, but its honestly great (sorry to those who were at the live demo of this)! Yes, the vocals are being smothered by the instrumental, and yes this is a demo of the voicebank, so it should have been showcased more. However I think my ears have been trained to listen more carefully, and I can hear a lot of the nuances of this version of the voicebank. It sounds very Miku-like, sharp and confident, and very accented, but not muffled at all! Its all very clear. This is because the voicebank uses some of Miku's V2 JPN samples along with newly-recorded Miku English samples, so it was not made up entirely of English phonemes. It also used Luka V2 ENG to fill out whatever samples had not been provided by Miku (Saki Fujita). I remember hearing that at this stage the VB was about 40% complete.

Since I love this song so much, I have purhased "ポップ・ザ・初音ミク☆", which is the compilation album/magazine that this song was featured on. The magazine is very interesting and details VOCALOID's history up to that point. The album is half VOCALOID originals like "Chaining Intention" and "Melancholic", while the other half is VOCALOID arrange/covers of popular Japanese pop songs, which I've never heard anywhere else! They are actually all really good, interesting uses of VOCALOID. That's where "Ballet Mecanique" comes into play. VOCALOID producer whoo created the arrange and cover of the song that I love so much.

I have worked on a cover of this song for some time with Megurine Luka V2, and I have carefully recreated an instrumental using the original with Miku. It was actually quite easy since Miku's vocals are so quiet, but it was still not perfect. This lead me to contact whoo via email in regards to this cover, and he actually responded to me which surprised me! He stated that his computer died on him some point after this, so he was not able to provide an instrumental or VSQ, and Crypton were actually the ones who tuned and rendered Miku's voice (of course) so he could not provide an acapella of Miku's alpha English voice.

Anyways, I just felt like purging a bunch of information I learned throughout my time as a VOCALOID fan. I hope someone will find it interesting! lol

 

[Nezuh]

Ohhh, I also quite like this song :D

This is because the voicebank uses some of Miku's V2 JPN samples along with newly-recorded Miku English samples, so it was not made up entirely of English phonemes. It also used Luka V2 ENG to fill out whatever samples had not been provided by Miku (Saki Fujita).

Has this ever been confirmed though? I'm just saying it because every time a Crypton engloid comes out, people say they're using Luka samples for some reason.

I have worked on a cover of this song for some time with Megurine Luka V2

That's a nice idea. I was thinking of doing one too, but with MIKU V4 English + V3 Eng with XSY. I don't know. It just seemed like an interesting idea.
Also, I was sorry about this voice, although unfinished and with very rough edges, was technically lost, sleeping maybe forever on some hard drive.
It's a very nice voice and I don't want to consider it lost. And I wanted to know if it could be reconstructed(?) with the voices we have available today :D

Sorry for rambling a lot here, I'm very happy that someone else is still listening to that song :3

Side note: Was it not Miku's first English song? It would be nice if appear in some official concert (like Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, or Hoshi no Kakera) <3

 

[sour_supreme]

Ohhh, I also quite like this song :D
Has this ever been confirmed though? I'm just saying it because every time a Crypton engloid comes out, people say they're using Luka samples for some reason.


That's a nice idea. I was thinking of doing one too, but with MIKU V4 English + V3 Eng with XSY. I don't know. It just seemed like an interesting idea.
Also, I was sorry about this voice, although unfinished and with very rough edges, was technically lost, sleeping maybe forever on some hard drive.
It's a very nice voice and I don't want to consider it lost. And I wanted to know if it could be reconstructed(?) with the voices we have available today :D

Sorry for rambling a lot here, I'm very happy that someone else is still listening to that song :3

Side note: Was it not Miku's first English song? It would be nice if appear in some official concert (like Miku Miku ni Shite Ageru, or Hoshi no Kakera) <3

So, in regards to the Luka V2 ENG thing, I don't have any tweet or statement from Crypton or wat to go off of, but if you listen closely to Ballet Mecanique you can here Luka peak through here and there. Also in this video which has her voicebank at an earlier state of development, you can definitely here it. Listen to when she says "WORDS of wisdom", there are definitely Luka samples there. I do believe this is the first time we hear Miku's English voicebank in development.