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Hikaru Utada Praises Synthesized Version of Herself
posted on by Egan Loo
On Monday, singer Hikaru Utada reacted on her Twitter account with surprise and praise after listening to a song synthesized from her own voice. A producer under the pseudonym "Kuroūroncha" created a synthesized version of Utada's voice and uploaded a cover of "Kokoro" (a song made famous by the Vocaloid virtual idol singer Kagamine Rin) on Monday.
In less than a day, the video garnered over 88,000 views and an article by Niconico News. Thanks to a link to that article from one of her Twitter followers, Utada personally listened to the song and wrote:
This is well done! Kudos to the producer. But, it's a weird feeling, like I'm looking at a collage of photos of my own face. (laughs)
Utada is an internationally known, bestselling pop artist born in New York City and raised in Japan and the United States. Her debut album, 1999's First Love, is still Japan's bestselling album ever with about 8 million copies sold. Bandai Visual used Utada's "Kiss & Cry" and "This is Love" songs for the Freedom anime project. Utada has also sung the theme songs for the Casshern live-action movie remake, the Hana Yori Dango 2 live-action television adaptation, and the upcoming live-action film version of the Ashita no Joe manga.
Utada announced last August that she will go on an indefinite hiatus from her musical career in 2011. As a result, Niconico News noted that people will not be able to hear new songs from the real Utada for the foreseeable future.
The creation of synthesized songs from a real singer's voice is known on the Nico Nico Douga streaming site as "Jinriki Vocaloid." However, people do not necessarily use Vocaloid (Yamaha's software engine that is responsible for the most well-known virtual idol singers from Crypton Future Media such as Hatsune Miku); instead they use other software such as UTAU.
Source: ITmedia News
