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Questions about downloading Hatsune Miku and demo

AMYLS

New Fan
Jun 10, 2020
7
Hello,

I stumbled upon your forum as I am looking for help with Hatsune Miku. I am attempting to set this up for my daughter who is a big fan.

I tried downloading the trial from the sonic wire to a MacBook pro. I seem to successfully install Piapro Studio and then Hatsune Miku V4X Demo, but then neither appear as applications that I can select to run.

I am wondering if I need to check some setting that is causing the problem? If it is a problem with the demo that would not happen if we purchased the product? If it doesn't run on Catalina?

Any ideas? I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thanks so much!
 

inactive

Passionate Fan
Jun 27, 2019
179
It's been a long time since I last used Piapro Studio, but I'm pretty certain that it can only be run as a VST hosted inside a DAW. Or at least that's the only way I ever used it.

If you don't have a DAW, I'm sure everyone on this forum can recommend their own personal favourite DAW.
 
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uncreepy

👵Escaped from the retirement home
Apr 9, 2018
1,618
(Sorry this explanation is a bit long, it will make sense by the end. Getting into VOCALOID is kind of confusing unfortunately.)

Piapro Studio is a VST plug-in that can not run without a DAW.
VST = a plug-in (basically a pop-up window), it is not standalone software that can run on its own.
DAW = music-making software.
When you buy Miku, she comes with a DAW called Studio One (artist edition). There are free DAWs, but so that this is not confusing, I recomment downloading the Studio One free trial (go to this page, under the "Studio One Demo or Prime" heading it says "Try Studio One Professional Demo", you have to make an account in order to download it, it's a 30 day trial).

There are 3 versions of Miku V4X.
1) Miku V4X Bundle: Includes 5 different Japanese voices, 1 English voice, Piapro Studio, and Studio One Artist.
2) Miku V4X: Only her 5 Japanese voices, Piapro Studio, and Studio One. Does NOT include English.
3) Miku English: Only her English voice, Piapro Studio, and Studio One. Does NOT include Japanese. (Note: Do not buy the library-only version, you won't be able to use it.)

Please let us know if this helps or if you need more information.
 

uncreepy

👵Escaped from the retirement home
Apr 9, 2018
1,618
Oh, I forgot to mention it, but if you do download Studio One's demo, this is how you get Piapro to run:

Create a new Song >
Click OK when prompted to make an Empty Song >
Go to the Instruments tab >
Locate the Piapro Studio VSTi (You might have to use the search function. Also, VSTi means virtual instrument) >
Drag it onto the timeline >
Piapro Studio will pop up and start to load

drop.png


If you get everything up and running, feel free to ask for help about how to make Miku sing. There isn't a lot of documentation in English, but a lot of users can point you to advice/tutorials.
 
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Sep 21, 2019
1,401
Reaper is probably a good choice of DAW since the trial is unlimited and you don't lose any features by having only the trial. You'll just have to buy a license if you plan to make money from anything you make in there (but I don't think that would include Piapro?).

I can't throw together a screenshot of how to load in Piapro rn, so maybe someone else could share how to....
 
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mobius017

Aspiring ∞ Creator
Apr 8, 2018
1,982
Welcome! The posts above do a good job explaining about how to get a trial working. If you do need further help with installation/having Miku sing, please do let us know, though!

For the latter, I'm pretty sure the installation email/materials might mention this, but here is a video on using Piapro to make Miku sing that I thought was really well done. It's short (10 minutes), simple, and covers the very basics of putting in music notes and adding lyrics. It features Miku and her friends doing the explaining, so your daughter might even enjoy watching it if she's trying to learn the software.

 

vocaloidcreatornoob

Passionate Fan
May 13, 2020
172
You need a DAW. As someone said, Reaper is a good one. If she wants to try the Vocaloid Editor 4 tutorial too she can (You don’t need a DAW for this) it lets her tune the song etc. I used the demo for Miku 4vx English and it is fun.
 
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AMYLS

New Fan
Jun 10, 2020
7
Hello all,

Thank you for all your great advice.

We downloaded Studio One and found the way to launch Piapro Studios. Unfortunately, it told us that our MIKU demo expired. We had tried this previously without understanding what we needed to do, and it hadn't occurred to me that the computer would remember the previous demo we downloaded and that we were out of time.

Now that I can see that this would theoretically work on our system if we bought the product, I am more inclined to make the purchase without actually trying the demo.

Now that we are at this stage, can I ask: do you have advice on downloading the MIKU Bundle from sonicwire versus purchasing the physical product from Amazon?

My thoughts are that downloading is faster but having the physical disk allows you to put it on multiple machines. Are there other advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks again for all your help!
 

uncreepy

👵Escaped from the retirement home
Apr 9, 2018
1,618
The main reason people buy boxes instead of downloads is because they are "nerdy" and like to display the box/box art like a collector's item and are worried about misplacing their installer/serial number. The box is more expensive than the download.

I personally prefer downloads because of the lower cost/ability to install instantly. Sonicwire saves your voice bank purchase along with the serial number (you also get the downloader and serial emailed to you) in a section called MY PAGE > LICENSED PRODUCT. If you buy a box, the serial is inside of the box along with an installation CD. Please make sure you keep the serial safe, you can only activate it 3 times and then the software becomes useless, UNLESS you properly deactivate the serial number when you intend to switch computers.

Because buying Vocaloids is a big cost investment and has a learning curve (making covers by downloading people's background music and VSQX files (this is the Vocaloid file format) is easier than making your own original songs, but learning to tune the singing to sound more human takes practice), if you haven't already, you could consider downloading the Meiko or Luka free trials for their Japanese voice banks to test the software before going ahead and purchasing Miku.
 

mobius017

Aspiring ∞ Creator
Apr 8, 2018
1,982
I would also point out that you may find it somewhat easier to get product support if you buy from Sonicwire. For example, I believe Big Fish Audio, who also sells Miku, has a notice somewhere that says they can't offer tech support for her. It only makes sense and probably goes without saying, but I've always felt a little more secure knowing that I got Miku from Sonicwire, which is an arm of Crypton Future Media, the company that made her. (Granted, I believe tech support requests would have to be made in Japanese anyway, but still, at least CFM would have direct knowledge of all the appropriate info about my purchase/etc.)
 

Älfa Dröttning

Aspiring Fan
Sep 17, 2019
75
I agree with mobius and uncreepy, and I just want to add that if you want to have a Vocaloid on multiple computers, you need to deactivate and reactivate it every time you switch which computer you’re using. If you want to have it active on multiple computers at the same time, you need two copies of the software. You can install it on multiple computers, no matter whether you have the disk or the download, but you always need the activation code to use it.
 
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AMYLS

New Fan
Jun 10, 2020
7
So, we downloaded the Luka demo, and Studio One allowed us to open Piapro Studio, and we could see and select Luka.

Now, our challenge is that when we use the pencil tool, it is highlighting the entire length of the keyboard instead of just one note. Any ideas?

Screen Shot 2020-06-15 at 10.35.44 AM.png
 

AMYLS

New Fan
Jun 10, 2020
7
Thank you all so much for your help getting us to this point! This has been huge for us!

I think my daughter is now at the beginning of that big learning curve that you mentioned.

The video that Mobius posted was really helpful to get her started.

If you have advice for other videos or resources to help with this stage, we would be most grateful.

Thank you all again. I truly appreciate your help!
 

mobius017

Aspiring ∞ Creator
Apr 8, 2018
1,982
That's great! Sounds like you're up and running now.

We have lots of items in our Resources section that can help. Two big areas that are worth looking into are tuning (which you could basically describe as controlling Miku's voice) and music theory (which you might describe as why certain sounds sound better together than others). Another big area is mixing, which is the kinds of alterations an audio engineer might make after the singers and instrumentalists are done making the basic music. Here are some links to items dealing with these areas:
Having said all that, it's just my opinion, but I think the best thing you can do now is start slowly, depending on your daughter's goals, of course. This field of music-making is a BIG one, especially if you're starting from scratch without any music theory or electronic music background. I think it would be really easy to look at all sorts of things too early and wind up feeling overwhelmed. So it might be best if your daughter starts off gently, tries to have fun putting together things she likes, and as she runs into things that she needs to know how to do or do better, have a look at things like the items above.
 

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