Today on July 31st, just one month before Miku’s 5th anniversary, we’ve been treated to another song that’s been created using a beta version of Miku’s English voice bank. Because this is still the beta version, this does not reflect any changes that would be present in the finished product.
The song is titled “NICE AGE”, and comes from HMO a.k.a PAw Lab. The music was done by Yukihiro Takahashi / Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the video was done by y0c1e. There’s far too many other credits to list here, so be sure to read the video’s description here.
The song itself is honestly not too bad. I see many people complaining about the accent, but this is something that had been confirmed by Crypton as a feature well over a year ago at Anime Expo 2011. It’s an English voice bank coming from a Japanese company using a Japanese voice actor, so there will be some accent to the voice. I personally think it adds to her character.
My only real complaint is that the song could have been mastered better. The music suffers from some heavy crackling, static, and loss. This makes it hard to enjoy, and also makes it hard to hear Miku at all in some areas of the track. Have a listen for yourself, and let me know what you think. Be sure to also express your thoughts on the video on youtube.
EDITED 8/10/2012: A newer version has been uploaded with better audio. This one doesn’t drown out the voice as much.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2zzy5-R5g8]
About jrharbort
A Hatsune Miku fan since December 2007, jrharbort joined MikuFan as the Head Writer in October 2011. Follow on Twitter at @jrharbort.