User blog:Angel Emfrbl/End of Year Vocaloid most/least favs

So once a year I write my least and most favourite vocaloids. Its my tradition. I'm not going to look at last years list this year because when I'm done I'd like to compare. I wll admit I'm getting a little tired of repeting things about the vocaloids when it comes to my thoughts on some of them.


 * Note; these are my opinions, I don't expect anyone to agree with them. But I am always curious to know how things have changed for everyone.

Most favourites
Okay so start with the good and move to my least favourites... Okay as those who remember last year, I can't ranked my top 10 vocals except the top 3. When I picked out these 3, they pretty muh stayed there, and it will take a lot to shake them down, and if a vocaloid does this all that will happen is I get the top 4 fixed instead of just the top 3.


 * 1) Tonio; So topping the list is my favourite male vocal and my favourite singer of Vocaloid. I know his not the best of V2, but I still stand by the guy.
 * 2) Big Al; Okay, still here, no.2.
 * 3) Macne Nana; and still in third is Nana. My dark horse. The vocal I shouldn't like because she isn't the type I like, but I do.
 * Lola; Okay, I'm now onto the bit where I don't have a ranking position. Lola's been one of my fvs for a while. I just like her potential even for an old tech.
 * Bruno; more my type of vocal. Male and mature.
 * Sweet Ann; I like voices with character and V1 an V2 were full of them. Sweet Ann's the type of vocal that can sing a song like "Killing me Softly" and sound like a nightingale, yet sing a song like that Succubus song with sass. Not every vocaloid pulls this off easy.
 * Avanna; kinda like how things have gone for her in the last few years. She certainly broke a lot of the ideas that had formed over Engloids.
 * Kaito; still the only CFM I like. Moving on.  There really isn't much to say here.  I find its hard to explain why I like a vocal most of the time the why I dislike one.
 * Daina; I like her. Go figure.
 * VY2; I like him also, go figure.;-)

Meiko *meh* List
For those who don't know. This is the middle list, the vocals that are not my favs, not my least though.


 * It all starts with Meiko, the Vocaloid I can never hate nor dislike. I find her... Boring... Before anyone goes off to defend her, I'm not saying she is bad, on the contrary, I'm saying she is a good solid vocal.  The trouble is I disagree with those who try and say she is *unique*.  This is awkward, all Vocaloids are unique, in terms of VBs themselves.  This falls not her vocal type, which there re now a number of vocals around her type.  And even though AtH called her "the queen of rock..." I've pointed out, there are now at least several females who can do rock better then her. And this is the start of this list... But honestly this is why I' growing tired of repeating myself.  Every year I have to explain why I call the middle range "Meiko meh", when I don't mean it as an insult.  I just feel you risk insulting Meiko fans, even when you aren't necessary running Meiko herself down. :-/
 * Lily. The first vocal to really cross paths with Meiko's type... I've not really like her.
 * Chika; I said last year... V3 wasn't good for Megpoid. ITs clear Chika was a experimental vocal, and I honestly believe that she was purposely put out to judge things for V4. So her type being similar to Gumi feels like they were really trying to leave feelers for future vocals, and not meant to be a stand out vocal for this reason.
 * Gumi; As much as I like Gumi, after Kokone, Chika and 5 new vocals... I'm sick of Gumi's vocal overall. I tried to explain the issue with having 10 vocals for XSY purposes that share the same range and tempo, but that lead to a argument with someone who wasn't understanding what I was trying to explain about the problem with XSY when you have 10 similar vocals to each other.But for those who don't want me to go over that topic.  I just think at this point we have so many choices when it comes to Gumi's range, that she and Meiko are more or less the standard overall vocal range for the engine itself.  Which is not good.  Internet co has basically made Gumi... Well less unique as a vocal type with this many vocals. :-/
 * Luka; so last year I can vaguely remembering hating her because the V4x thing was disappointing. This year I find she is kinda on par with Gumi's 10 vocals.  You can use EVEC and vary those two extra versions of Soft and Hard, and it works better for Luka then the 10 vocals do for Gumi. But... I kind feel the effect is countered by the kinks of EVEC right now.  So the software grew on me, but disappointed me at the same time.  Saying that, I kinda never found the Luka voice even in V2 that fantastic.  her merit was being the first bilingual, but the actual English vocal wasn't as good as even Sonika since it went on sale with many samples missing, though Sonika as we know has a tone of problems. What made Luka LQ was a underdeveloped vocal, basically. But V4x... In terms of English they give and take once again.  They give her an Append and then make it a disappointment.  They give a better English vocal, but leave it paling in comparison to the Japanese version instead of equal like in V2.  And the seesaw way the package is in V4x, just leaves me unable to like her.  It takes her off my least list, but doesn't impress me.  On the other hand, I can talk about her a lot.
 * Mew; unique realistic voice... Sadly release t a time when a lot of mid-range females were also being released. I find there are good songs out there for her, but none that really make me make up my mind on her.
 * Kokone; another vocal clone of Gumi, but one that doesn't tend to sound like an exact clone of her like Chika. Thank goodness, but Kokone's problem always lay in the fact she was designed to fill the one gap Gumi couldn't do.  This doesn't really give her much of a chance to really break out, if not for her falsetto there I wouldn't find myself really paying attention to her.  The falsetto itself though... Has issues... It either works or fails, because its not separated.  So her voice either sounds lovely particularly on high notes... Or really off.  She does give a lovely set of tones which is fortunate.  Of the Gumi-type vocals internet has thrown at us in recent years, Kokone is overall the best of the lot.  It has its own traits.  I hope they give her XSY abilities, to really break her out of the problem that hits Chika and Gumi right now.  I'd love a vocal built the same, but without the falsetto ability to get around that problem with the falsetto-normal range overlap being sometimes awkward.
 * Gackpo; Okay I think this is the first time I've grown out of Gackpo. Over the course of the year his vocals have become mellow.  Fine, I feel Gumi having 10 vocals was over kill, but a V4 that basically is just a revamp of V3 with gwl and some extra triphones... Doesn't really change enough.  Proposal; instead of giving Gumi 10 vocals, why not get Gackpo to have just 1 more new vocal to give reason to update to V4 other then a slight overall improvement and GWL. It makes me feel Gumi was prioritized over Gackpo to the point where Gackpo got a short end of the stick.  So this is why I'm disappointed in his lost the spark of interest. There is no reinvention of Gackpo, if you own V3, there is no rush to own V4 and you're best waiting on other vocals.  :-/
 * Flower; So Flower has always divided me, I love a vocaloid was released the same day I have my birthday and I love she feel like I once was. Almost at least.  But though her update was a quality improvement and added gwl, she wasn't yet older enough to really need it. I feel this generation, unless there was a lrge gap between the original release and the V4 engine release, there alost is no warrant for the update unless there is at least 1 extra vocal for XSY. :-/
 * Kanon & Anon; Basically, two vocals of the same vocal, no ability to XSY and within the same sort of range a lot of vocaloid females have.  Unless the par has a really stand out voice, there is that problem of two other vocaloids could fill the same range or role.  Twins are fine within Vocaloid but I'm glad they did the girls versus the Kagamine pair the way they did.  Its just, as the vocals are so similar and as separate vocals can't stand out... Youreally re just buying them for that same "two for one" or "duo" pack.  Like other vocaloids, they really need another XSY vocal to really give the pair some more stand out qualities from other vocaloids and more from each other to escape that "common girl" range a lot of V3 girls fell into.

And the least fav
This is not only the list of the vocaloids I like, but also the lest favourite list to write. You always feel you're either going to insult someone or have them rant and rave at you for "putting their favourites" at the bottom. But again, this is just my tastes.


 * SeeU; so lets start it off with the vocal I've never stopped face palming since the day we knew her. i don't get why people make a fuss over Ruby and yet didn't quite react the same for See when in reality there is more scandal behind her then any other vocaloid.
 * Tone Rion; no change there. Still dislike her.
 * Ryuto; lots of sympathy, dislike the voice.
 * Cyber Diva; I wanted better, but I think a lot of the Engloids had more personality to their vocals and Diva has the dullest vocal in terms of character. I also dislike nasally vocals.
 * Ruby; ignoring the drama, I feel she has the personality Diva lacks, but has a nasally voice. She is the only PowerFX voice I've not liked how they sounded at all.
 * Rana; just not my type of voice. Thats all.  :-/
 * Sonika; one thing that has changed from last year is I now consider Sonika my 4th least favourite vocal. Its odd, because despite knowing how bad she is, I have more songs I like from her then any other vocaloid on the least favourite list.  My dislike of her voice coes from buying her and pretty much "urgh" the moment I touched the vocal.  I found my projects became duets every time I used her because this was the best way too hide her flaws was to just mix in a little bit of Prima there to hide that nastiness. I never soloed her because I just didn't want to work with the bugs.
 * Miku; lots of respect, several songs I like, but I dislike the standard Miku voice and thats not good. Liking 1 vocal is fine out of several but the core voice to me has always been te thing you should focus on.  So even though I dislike Gumi havinng a 10 voicebank and two similar designed vocaloids from her company, I still like the core "Native" voice and whats ruined it for her is just the overdone.  So for any Vocaloid, not liking the core voice is more important then liking Miku's "Dark" voice.  Reason being is that Dark is a bonus vocal and can be cut from the package at any point CFM desire, but Miku's core vocal is going to be the focus of the package no matter what.
 * Kagamine Rin... I'll write it below with Len. Aside from Baby Bear, as I've said that before.
 * Kagamine Len... Yay, its the English vocal release in a few days... Yay its a update which pales compared to Luka's and is already overshadowed by Miku's. Yay, Len sounds less like a boy in the English update.  All the reason to bury my head in several days time.  its not I hate the pair, its that I don't like them.

Lastly
I didn't feel like adding any honourable mentions this year, but every vocaloi that is not mentioned on any the lists either falls between my least favourites and "Meh" list or my "meh" list and favourites.

I don't truly hate every vocaloid and believe every vocaloid can sound good in the right hands. I have my taste in Vocaloids though, I have a particular set I like and dislike. As I likely said last year, I like male vocals with mature tones an dislike the cute girl vocals, but I make exceptions to these rules if the vocal has something I really like about it due to one stand out quality or dislike because of the same reason. Prime example is my "dark horse" Nana.

Now I've finished, I'm taking a look at last years list and you can too here;

http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Angel_Emfrbl/Most-least_favourite...

The difference is I did a mid-year list this year because it was on the talk by another user and didn't do a list last year at this time of year. I think I didn't know what to really say that time as not much changed. This is why I did this one blind to see if anything did change in 6 months.

And this was the year before;

http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Angel_Emfrbl/How_my_top/least_10_Vocaloids_stand

Its nie to really compare vocals, I will note sometimes the reason I liked a vocal or disliked a vocal changed as well as the vocals on the lists.