The One Where Mike Shows His Otaku Roots

Way back in the day, I used to play with the voice synthesizer software that came with sound cards. This was not canned vocals, but vocals that were generated using frequency and delay. The result of these non-canned vocals was closer to what one might expect of a Speak'n'Spell than actual human speech. In the mid-80s, the anime Megazone 23 popularized the idea of a virtual singer, and in 1996, Japan created virtual idol singer Kyoko Date:

True to the idols of that era, Kyoko Date did not last long, and was quickly surpassed by real idol singers.

Now otaku everywhere have an opportunity to create their own virtual idol with Vocaloid 2, a Japanese software package that takes in lyrics and a melody, and generates the vocals. Many of the results have been posted on the internet, and in the Japan's Geek Mecca (otherwise known as Akihabara), the $100 software package is flying off the shelves. The first printing is already sold out, and it is tops on Amazon Japan's software charts as well.

Here are a sample of some of the more interesting things to come out:

The Leek Song:

Someone thought to combine the videogame Idolmaster and sync it with Vocalizer 2 (The result actually sounds really synthetic):

Here's another videogame mashup with the Konami classic Gradius:

And a well done rendition of Princess Mononoke:

And a crazy duet with Solid Snake of Metal Gear Solid: