All The Announcements from Anime NYC 2024

Keyboard Macros and World Building: Vocaloid P

ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2024 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!

In the sixteen years since Hatsune Miku has been around, Vocaloid production has gone through peaks and valleys, through paradigm shifts, and adapted to the changing tides of streaming. While there will always be a commercial appeal to the “characters” popularized by the original voice packs, it's become more of a synth tool, allowing producers to create music easily and find a ready audience, hungry for more music and content.

The Vocaloid P – Learn to be a Vocaloid P panel featured two special guests, producers *Luna and Nito., the latter of whom has also produced music for the 2022 Urusei Yatsura series. Before delving into the weeds of music production, the panelists chatted about the various elements that make Vocaloid culture so popular. Among them is the ready availability of tools and software, and the large community of Vocaloid producers that allow newcomers a baseline to reference and learn from. Other creations, such as original artwork and videos, add to the appeal too, as well as just the general widespread popularity of Vocaloid music and products. Streaming platforms have drastically helped as well, allowing for greater accessibility for producers and consumers alike.

Asked what made them fall in love with Vocaloid music, Nito. said he was in a rock band in high school and enjoyed writing his own music. It was then that he learned about Vocaloids, and was fascinated not only by the process of creating music but also by the world-building that exists in the Vocaloid ecosystem. *Luna agreed and said that he, too, enjoyed the process of creating music. He was introduced to Vocaloid when it was just getting big on Nico NicoDouga and was immediately drawn to its ease of use. “I can make music even if I can't sing. And I don't have to find a singer.”

The producers took turns showing examples of their track maps, giving attendees a brief rundown of the production software they liked using. *Luna demonstrated how the Vocaloid synth works, with keyboard inputs that let producers input the melody, while simply typing in lyrics generates the words. Nito. took over the screen and shared one of his tracks as well. Asked whether or not aspiring producers needed to be classically trained in music, Nito. shook his head. “You don't need that much music theory knowledge. You can just input it and see how it sounds.” He mentioned that his writing process often involved just thinking of a melody line first, then reprising until the song was created.

He gave one big piece of advice to those new to Vocaloid production—“Learn your keyboard macros!” he said, referring also to his art process. “It's hard at first, but those shortcuts will make everything easier.”