Poging GOUD - Vrij
Robopop Teen star who does not exist
The Guardian Weekly
|December 06, 2024
Miku is a 'Vocaloid' -a holographic avatar that represents a digital bank of vocal samples-performing sellout tours for thousands of very real mega-fans
Countless flowing green wigs risked spontaneous combustion on a 36C Melbourne evening as thousands of J-pop fans queued outside John Cain Arena on a recent Friday night. But the heat was irrelevant to the night's headline pop attraction, Hatsune Miku. She can't sweat because she's a digital animation - a 16-year-old "Vocaloid" virtual pop-star on her first Australian tour.
Miku, as she's known to fans, is a 157cm-tall avatar of a teenage girl with green pigtails. She represents a digital bank of vocal samples created by the ominous-sounding Crypton Future Media using Yamaha's Vocaloid voice synthesiser technology. Users input lyrics and melodies that are "sung" by the bank's sampled voice (Hatsune Miku is voiced by the actor Saki Fujita); some Vocaloid producers "tune" the software to be convincing, while others embrace its artificiality.
Dit verhaal komt uit de December 06, 2024-editie van The Guardian Weekly.
Abonneer u op Magzter GOLD voor toegang tot duizenden zorgvuldig samengestelde premiumverhalen en meer dan 9000 tijdschriften en kranten.
Bent u al abonnee? Aanmelden
MEER VERHALEN VAN The Guardian Weekly
The Guardian Weekly
Heaven made
With a towering new album about female saints in 13 languages, Rosalía is pop's boldest star-and one of its most controversial
6 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
How Milei's 'chainsaw' cuts have hit the most vulnerable
Argentinians are used to the large rubbish containers in Buenos Aires.
3 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
"The Peace Corps volunteers were just doing small things. Not what really needed to be done'"
On school holidays, when he went back to his village, David began to notice unwashed young Americans hanging out with his friends and family.
10 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
Bumpy ride
Epic western with a brilliant plot is let down by having one eye on literary immortality
3 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
Smash it up: finding new ways to use up excess lasagne sheets
I've accidentally bought too many boxes of dried lasagne sheets. How can I use them up? Jemma, by email
2 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
The best way to end this '6-7' obsession? Adults get on board
Don't tell your kids, but “6-7” is Dictionary.com’s “word of the year” for 2025.
3 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
Net zero gains A Cop30 minus Trump is better than one with a US wrecking ball
For years, countries around the world pressed the US to engage with them in addressing the climate crisis and to show it was serious about taking action.
2 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
'Matt's too sexy for my show'
As his scandalous novel The Death of Bunny Munro lands on our screens, Nick Cave and the show's star Matt Smith discuss Kylie, bad dads and child actors
5 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
When the president is groped in public, women know who to blame
'Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe,\" said Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist, when I talked to her in Morelia, a city west of the Mexican capital last week.
3 mins
November 14, 2025
The Guardian Weekly
Zohran Mamdani built the greatest field operation by any political campaign in New York's history-by getting citizens to talk to each other.Can Democrats learn from his success? 'Unstoppable force' that drove victory
A WEEK BEFORE ZOHRAN MAMDANI'S convention-shattering victory in the New York City mayoral election, members of his vast army of youthful volunteers were amply aware of what was at stake.
8 mins
November 14, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size

