Sasuke Haraguchi’s Voice Articulation of VOCALOID／20th anniversary of VOCALOID（YAMAHA VOCALOID）

Sasuke Haraguchi Interview/20th Anniversary of VOCALOID

Sasuke Haraguchi Profile & Comment

【Profile】Track maker/music producer/composer/arranger. Used to work under name “SASUKE”. He won No.1 on “VocaColle (Vocalo-Collection) 2024 Winter” with his song “Igaku”.

Thank you. I appreciate the birth of VOCALOID, the beginning of everything, which no one could have imagined that it would grow up to huge scene like today. I also appreciate every VOCALOIDs for continuing to update this culture after it was created. I hope they will continue to evolve.

5 years old kid Sasuke Haraguchi, who enjoys DAW and internet.

ーYou were born in 2003 so almost at the same age as VOCALOID. You said you had been doing computer music since 2008, at the age of 5, and did you listen Vocalo songs at that time?

原口沙輔　I was using computers when I was 5 years old, and I was using internet too so I think I had heard voice of VOCALOID at that time. There were several memorable songs, but the one I was glad to find out was imoutoid’s remix of kz’s “Finder”. I think that arrangement had fewer sounds than the original and was focusing on making Hatsune Miku’s voice stand out more.

ーHow did you feel when you listened VOCALOID’s voice at the first time?

原口沙輔　I had been thinking Hatsune Miku was an actual human when I was 5 years old. I was used to T-Pain like vocal sound of club music such as Perfume, so I thought that was the result of heavy use of Antares Auto-Tune.

ーI think at that time pop and club music and Vocalo music on the internet were different genre music, but do you remember how did you listen those kinds of music when you were 5 years old?

原口沙輔　I don’t think I differentiated professional producers and those who posted music on the internet as a hobby. Both were great to me. I had no idea even I could make some music and post it on the internet.

ーYou mentioned last time at “Vocalo-zine”’s interview, that you couldn’t tell your parents to give me Hatsune Miku when you were a kid, so you played with Hatsune Miku’s audio files you found on the internet.

原口沙輔　That was in 2016, when I was first grade at junior high school, and I was able to download an audio file of the VOCALOIDs part of the assigned song for the LANDR x Sleepfreaks REMIX contest. And that was my first contact with VOCALOIDs within DAW.

A Vocalo song that Haraguchi got influenced = “Touhi Care”

ーWhat Vocalo songs stimulated you until that time?

原口沙輔　 lumo’s “[Hatsune Miku] Touhi Care” left a strong impression on me. It has chopped up sound from the beginning of the song, and while listening to it, I became anxious that my PC might be broken since it was that much. I’ve liked to listen cut-up sounds made with a sampler, but this song was a bit too much maybe lol. There is no part in the song that doesn’t use cut-up, so it will satisfy those who like this kind of sound throughout the song.

ーDo you have any favorite Vocalo-P that you think his/her way of using Vocalo is interesting?

原口沙輔　Every Vocalo-P has his/her own way of Voice Articulation, but I think Kikuo’s voice of Hatsune Miku is great. His Voice Articulation itself is more like soft and breathy, but has kinda unstable feeling since her pitch feel fluctuates while singing a melody. It’s all about personality. Plus, it is also nice that he is making it with the sole intention of “making her sound cute”.

ーKikuo’s Hatsune Miku sometimes feel like she has difficulty in breathing a bit, right?

原口沙輔　Yes. But that’s not because of how he articulated Miku, but simply because the melody is too high, or using dubstep or horror-like soundtrack for Hatsune Miku to sing on. These kinds of music look hard to sing on at first sight.

ーYou debut in 2018 when you were at 3rd grade of junior high school, and I think you were making music with your experience in listening many kinds of music. You once said that you started your Vocalo-P activities with the intention of “do something I left to do”. Please tell us again why you chose VOCALOIDs.

原口沙輔　One of the biggest things I wanted to do, and existed always in my mind was to produce Vocalo songs. That is why the production of VOCALOID songs along with new album came very naturally, that was when I decided to go independent and do something different from what I had been doing.

His first post “Hito Mania”

ーYour first song was “Hito Mania”, and you said you produced it in three days before. How did you develop your skill to make Vocalo songs by then?

原口沙輔　Until I produced “Hito Mania,” I wasn’t sure whether my musical expression would match with machine voice, but I think it turned out to be a perfect combination. I had been composing music with VOCALOID in my mind since I was in junior high school though. It means I had been composing songs before I got my hands on VOCALOIDs, so I guess I had been doing simulation in my brain.

ーWhat is “Vocalo-like songs“ to you?

原口沙輔　Well, music depend on each Vocalo-P, but I think there is some kind of similarity between melodies. Those Vocalo songs’ melodies have something peculiar to them that are different from ones from regular pop songs.

Sasuke Haraguchi’s Voice Articulation of VOCALOID

Sasuke Haraguchi “Akotoba” x Hatsune Miku V4X

ーTell us about voice banks and editors you have.

原口沙輔　I’m using VOCALOID6 Editor for the editor, and for voice banks, I have Hatsune Miku V4X, VOCALOID5 stuff, and VOCALOID6’s AI Voice Banks. These are all ready and go.

ーWhen did you get Hatsune Miku and VOCALOID6?

原口沙輔　 I decided to join “Ichimaie Toukou Matsuri”(a Japanese online VOCALOID event) last year, and I set the production day 2 days prior to the posting day. So Miku’s voice in “Akotoba – Hatsune Miku” was the first voice I did after purchase.

ーWhat steps did you take to produce VOCALOID’s voice?

原口沙輔　I made the melody by synthesizers on DAW, and import that MIDI data onto VOCALOID6 and made Miku sing that. I tend to use really short notes for programming melodies, so often time I make them longer after I loaded them onto VOCALOID6. I adjust them not to be unsatisfying as singing voice.

ーYou make her sing with shorter phrases as if she’s speaking. You mentioned about cut ups before, so you might no be satisfied without chop vocals up too, right.

原口沙輔　That might be true. As well as Vocalo, I do chop sound up while singing by myself. Supposing my basis is strange, I was trying to make songs that are comfortable for me.

ーSo with the assumption singing is free, easy and comfortable for many people in mind, do you mean you can’t help chopping sound?

原口沙輔　Yeah pretty much. I listened funk music when I was dancing, so those funk vocal’s nuances might be reflected in my melodies. I guess I’m obsessed with the good feeling I get at the moment I stop the sound.

ーNot only Hatsune Miku, but I have an impression that you tune vocals to younger voice overall.

原口沙輔　Well, yes. I try not to put feelings too much, and I just use bending and vibrato at special points. I also try to separate each notes and not to make them unnecessarily long, to separate syllables.

ーWhat kind of parameters within the VOCALOID editor do you adjust?

原口沙輔　To be honest I don’t touch them at all. So they are all at default values. Of course I use effects for vocal mixing in DAW. Basically I wanted to make it simple and emphasize Hatsune Miku-ness. When you listen Vocalo songs you probably feel like “whose voice is this?”, don’t you? I didn’t want to lose the character of Hatsune Miku with over-usage of the parameters.

ーI think “Akotoba – Hatsune Miku”’s lyrics have pureness, and she sings with relatively gentle mood. What was your intention of the Vocal Articulation?

原口沙輔　For music I tried to create kind of undesirable quietness. Lyrics have a bit strong words, so I thought calm and soft singing would create disquieting atmosphere. Therefore I chose SOFT for VOICE parameter since I wanted her to sing softly, but eventually it felt wrong so I changed it to ORIGINAL.

Sasuke Haraguchi’s VOCALOID6 review

【Check this out too!】
What is VOCALOID? From explanation of Vocalo culture to how to use VOCALOID. instructor : KagomeP

Let’s learn VOCALOID culture and how to use VOCALOID6 simply by a Vocalo-P Kagame P!

ーDo you remember your feeling when you used VOCALOID6’s editor first time?

原口沙輔　At first glance I thought it was easier to understand sound by visual. By changing note length it immediately reflected back to waveform on the editor. It felt nice I could see clear waveform changes when I touched Dynamics or wrote precise pitch bends. Nonetheless to say, all parameters changed sound clearly, and I could hear fine change in voice sound quality. I think it is helpful.

ーYou mentioned you don’t adjust parameters, but can we try tweaking them together?　

原口沙輔　Absolutely. So lets tweak CHARACTOR parameter first. Hmm so I can write automations with pencil tool. Let’s try lowering down a lot…now it sounds like opera with wide open throat. How about bring it up a lot…now it sounds like “Hajimeteno Chuu” by Anshin Papa.

ーIt looks like Auto-Tune-ed nuance can be created with ROBOT VOICE function.

原口沙輔　When I turned on ROBOT VOICE function with normal mode it sounded really like with Auto-Tune, and also I could see waveform on the editor changed to sharper curve. So people can easily understand that T-Pain like effect is actually changing smooth pitch curve into sharper one. I’ve never heard Miku’s voice with this ROBOT VOICE on before, but it feels like good old Hatsune Miku and really cool. I should have used this function….

ーWhat else parameters are you interested in?

原口沙輔　I’m used to process real human’s vocal in DAW, so I’ve been doing volume control of Vocalo in DAW too. But I found that VOCALOID6 is really light and there wasn’t much wait time for processing. So I thought it would be really handy when I want to adjust mute precisely using Dynamics parameter.

ーYou mentioned one of the characteristics of Vocalo is vibrato. Speaking of it you can adjust amount of vibrato for the first and second half separately for VOCALOID AI tracks.

原口沙輔　The ability to change the degree and the starting position of vibrato is a feature that is more appreciated when I have the image of the vocal firmly fixed in my mind.

ーVOCALOID6 has VOCALO CHANGER function that enables you to load real vocal audio data into it and use it as source to sing with AI voice banks, including the voice banks come with VOCALOID6.

原口沙輔　I loaded my voice and it reproduced my performance except for the parts with strong quirkiness or weak pronunciation. I think this is a useful feature when making demos for female artists when I provide songs to them.

ーSo we checked some parameters of Vocalo Editor in various ways, do you think will you come up with new idea for Voice Articulation?

原口沙輔　I wanted to spend a little more time with VOCALOID6 as a single musical instrument, not for songs or works. When you are doing DAW things all the time, you are surrounded by things you have almost always touched, so it is very important to have a fresh presence.

ーYou started your VocaloP activities last year, in 2023, so you must have fresh and in touch with VOCALOID still. What do you find fun in making VOCALOID songs now?

原口沙輔　How should I answer……, but I feel that I am producing songs not only just as job, but also for myself, and at the same time, I feel like I am expressing myself as a part of the VOCALOID culture rather than something that satisfies only me. When I posted the first song, “Hito Mania” I felt like I was diving into the culture of my own, but now I feel like I’m talking to everyone while I’m making the song.

ーSo you mean it is fun to produce while feeling everyone else, not doing everything alone, don’t you?

原口沙輔　Yes, I do. Creating music is also producing communication. I feel very grateful for such a scene.

ーFinally, could you give a cheering massage to those who wants to be a Vocalo-P?

原口沙輔　You don’t need to compromise yourself. If you have someone who has extraordinary skills around you or your age, don’t hurry and please take your time thoroughly. Miku and other synthetic voices will be more than happy to sing your songs that you truly want to express, rather than music that are intended for listeners. Also there is no need to imitate me. It’s time for me to become a listener.

VOCALOID6 for Windows / macOS

■Bundled voice banks：16（VOCALOID6：AKITO、ALLEN、ASAHI、HARUKA、LUCAS、MICHELLE、SAKURA、SHION、ASAHI、TAKU、YUINA、NAOKI）（VOCALOID5：Amy、Chris、 Kaori、Ken）
※You can use VOCALOID3, VOCALOID4, VOCALOID5’s voice banks and project file（VSQX、VPR）
■Operating environment：Windows10, 11 （64bit）,macOS 13（Ventura）,14（Sonoma）,15（Sequoia）
■Specifications：https://www.vocaloid.com/en/vocaloid6/specs/