VOCALOID introduces ‘Po-uta’; Porter Robinson’s voice in the anime world

Porter Robinson and Yamaha have come together to release a voicebank that can be used for VOCALOID6. Titled ‘Po-uta’, the voicebank uses a pitched-up anime version of Porter’s voice to produce 13 different presets.

Robinson reflects his love for all things Japanese through the collab’s title — Po-uta is a combination of Porter’s name and the Japanese word for song, ‘uta’.

From his past few releases such as ‘Worlds’ and ‘Nurture’, we can see that this particular vocal style has been a constant for the producer with the software being nothing new for him either.

Po-uta includes a multilingual option that allows you to sing in English, Japanese and Chinese. In an ode to the release, Porter created the track ‘Humansongs’ to display its potential and showcases a story on the future of AI in music.

“This kind of thing is just as meaningful to me as any award...the opportunity to be involved in the world of VOCALOID that's brought me so much inspiration, I hope I, too, can inspire someone else,” Robinson mentions in an interview.

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VOCALOID was created in 2003 by Yamaha and has since been an integral part of music creation —it’s also usually related to anime.

Last year in October, the company integrated the use of AI and with that, their newest release for VOCALOID6 includes a more natural humanistic singing voice (as well as its other known tones).

Another highlight of one of its features is the Vocalo Changer. With this, users are able to change their own singing voices through the voicebank.

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“Vocals are the most powerful element in music, because they convey both melody and meaning. It's an indescribably powerful combination. And variations on the human voice are extremely interesting — some of my first exposure to electronic music was through Daft Punk, who have used the vocoder and talkbox extensively, as well as other voice-shifting techniques,” Robinson adds.

The software is available from March 7 onwards and will cost you around US$108. However, you’ll need to have the VOCALOID6 program prior to purchasing — check it out here.

Miki Kitasako is Mixmag Asia’s Social Media and Content Producer, follow her on LinkedIn.