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If you thought that the VOCALOIDs singing in other languages discussion was over, you are mistaken. While voice banks have designated languages, that hasn’t stopped people from making them sing beyond those. Some are successful, while others could use a little more work. Either way, it’s quite interesting when you hear VOCALOIDs singing outside the box.
In the meantime, let’s explore the languages that have been sung by these virtual vocalists. For this editorial, it won’t be limited to the foreign ones, which means that every voice bank that has sung beyond their designated language is fair game.
Polish
On December 13, 2013, Hatsune Miku was used by producer daniwell to sing a Polish folklore cover of To i hola. daniwell created the cover to be used by the Polish National Museum of Ethnography.
This would not be the last time Miku would sing in Polish, as she was used again by a different producer, Marvyanka, to sing Zanim Zniknę or Before I Vanish. Marvyanka used Miku Append for this song, which ended up being much darker of a theme compared to Miku’s first Polish song. Though it wasn’t used for a museum, it was still accompanied by a MMD video, which is available for public viewing.
Swedish
Believe it or not, VOCALOID has been used to sing in Swedish. And no, it’s not Caramelldansen (as awesome as that would have been). It might come as a surprise, but Clara was used to sing the song Utopia in Swedish. Producer EmmyKSama had entered this song for the Bruno and Clara Original Song Contest.
Italian
Let’s continue the experimentation of Clara (and to an extent, Bruno) where they sing for us in Italian. Producer Mi:Elen has used Clara and Bruno to sing the Italian song, Fiume. Wait a minute… hasn’t this producer also used MAIKA to sing in Italian? Fear not, MAIKA will get her time in the spotlight later in this editorial.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPASJ6DoOOc
Tagalog
The language of Tagalog has been experimented with by producer ensou. The VOCALOID ensou has primarily used for their Tagalog songs is GUMI for Time Traveler, Event Horizon, Coma, and Singularity. However, Miku Append has also been used by ensou for the song Entropy. KAITO has had his voice lent in this language by producer Kazaki for the song Ngayon.
Romanian
neutrinoP is a Romanian producer who often creates works in English and/or Japanese. However, he also brings Romanian to the table on rare but amazing occasions.
Promisiuni (“Promise”) featuring GUMI was neutrinoP’s first song in Romanian.
Since then, he has produced only one other song in Romaian. It originally featured kokone but was also covered using Tohoku Zunko.
The Case of MAIKA
MAIKA is a bit of a unique case when it comes to her languages. Officially speaking, she is meant to sing in Spanish. However, her creators had added phenomones to her speech pattern. Because of this, she is capable of singing in Catalan, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese.
In her Catalan category, producer Giuseppe used her for the song Fantasia, a song from the musical El Regne de la Fantasia. Another producer, Nil Prosciutto, used two different versions of MAIKA: one for Spanish and one for Catalan. These two MAIKAs were used for the song Te l’imagines, which is only available for viewing to those who have the link and comments have been disabled. What’s interesting about the video is that it displays a different art direction, with the art resembling more of a children’s drawing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOY5G4zUZAw&feature=youtu.be
In the area of Brazilian Portuguese, there are currently no original songs sung by her as all of her songs in that language are covers of other songs. Her most notable usage is by producer MattplusBC who has had her cover Xibom Bombom and Temporal.
And last but not least, when it comes to the Italian language, Mi:Elen used MAIKA to sing the original song Porta Magica.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3XvP_8lE-4
Are There More?
Well, sure there are more; some are even covers of already existing VOCALOID songs. But the thing that both producers and manufacturers of foreign voice banks need to realize is that they have to make sure these pronunciations and dialects are functional and understandable to the target audience. This can be tricky, especially if the voice bank was never meant to sing in a particular language to begin with. Does that stop producers from trying? Of course not! This is VOCALOID, a program that has been capable of making an impact on many people from around the world.
Featured Image by daniwae. Used with permission.
