SeeU

SeeU (시유, シユ) is a voicebank for Vocaloid3, the first Vocaloid capable of Korean and the first "Korean/Japanese bilingual" Vocaloid. The voice provider is the artist Kim Dahi (17 year old member of the K-pop girl band "Glam"). Her release was October 21, 2011 (South Korea) and December 16, 2011 (Japan).

History
A demo called I-Fantasy produced by Bang Shi Hyuk (a.k.a. Hitman Bang) was originally released introducing her to the Vocaloid fandom during the Vocaloid3 announcement. On August 30, 2011, her name and appearance were revealed. There will be a limited edition version of her software as a starter pack.

Preorders for SeeU took place on the 14th of October and a community called "CreCrew" is being opened for her. She was released on the 21st with a Vocaloid 3 starter option or without. She also has a limited edition with just her voicebank and a book. SBS mentioned they are keeping the prices down on SeeU. Overseas buyers will have to purchase through eBay. A third demo "Shining Star" was also released.SeeU's release date was announced on SeeU's official site as well as on the SBS Artech_vocaloid twitter page. She was released in Korea on the 21st of October. SeeU was released in Japan on December 16, 2011.

Demo Songs

Korean Demos

 * Run YouTube Broadcast
 * Never Let You Go_Remix YouTube Broadcast
 * Shining Star Youtube Broadcast
 * I=Fantasy Youtube Broadcast
 * Umbrella Youtube Broadcast
 * I=Fantasy Breathing Effect Youtube Broadcast
 * Mission Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)

Japanese Demos

 * 願いを込めて Youtube Broadcast
 * 明日を向いて Youtube Broadcast
 * Mission Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * ITA BASAMI Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * 神話色のミステリイ Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * こんなアタシDOでShow!? Nicovideo Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)

English Voicebank
There were some issues with SBS's claim about SeeU's level of English made during the promotions for her. Finally, after a fan asked SBS about it, they explained that English samples were included in SeeU's Korean library and that they did not have time to make a full English voicebank required to make high quality English results, arguing that it was uneeded since most of the sounds were in the Korean voicebank already. They have stated they are working on a high quality English voicebank and will be tryng to release it within the next year.

Marketing
SeeU was given a moe-esque design and is aimed more specifically to the general and Vocaloid Otaku fandom. A limited edition with illustration book was also produced for her during the 2011 period.

SBS also claimed SeeU was capable of using her Korean voicebank for English and asserted her as having enough capablities to be called a trilingual Vocaloid; even though she has capablities only for Japanese and Korean.

Competition
An art competition was held related to her. According to SBS Artech, the winner receives a limited version of her software and a Intuos tablet, second place will win the normal software package and the Vocaloid 3 editor, and third place will just receive the limited edition voicebank. The winners of the competition were revealed on September 17, 2011. All winning and notable entries appeared in SeeU's newest demo PV. On the 23rd, her official first demo song was uploaded, featuring all the winners and honorable mention artwork.

On November 17, 2011, SBS Artech announced 1st UGC competition for SeeU. The winners of the competition were finally announced on Febuary 3, 2012.

Crecrew
The website Crecrew (A combination of the words "create" and "crew") was opened for Vocaloid artists and fans alike by SBS Artech. It is much like Crypton Future Media's Piapro website in that it provides a hub for users to collaborate, however the conditions are different for the artwork and videos uploaded onto the website; third-party content is allowed to a greater degree.

SV01 SeeU

 * Using SeeU to create Konglish
 * SeeU tips and tutorials

SeeU has both a Japanese and a Korean voicebank, allowing her to switch between the languages where needed. Her voice is light-hearted.

SeeU: Korean

 * Optimum genre:K-Pop, Pop Ballad
 * Optimum tempo:60 ~ 170BPM
 * Optimum range:C3 ~ C5

Strengths
Her voice is light-hearted. SBS claim she is best at singing K-pop. SeeU is able to pronounce any sound that can be written in modern hangul.

Several English phonemes not native to Korean were added added with the fact many Korean sounds are similair or the same in English, this allows her to recreate a certain level of "English". This in turn makes her korean voicebank much more flexible for creating foreign words in comparison to her japanese voicebank. These phonetics are not listed in her Korean phonetic chart and their discovery was made by SeeU users after purchase.

Has slightly deeper and more powerful voice than her japanese voicebank.

Weaknesses
The phoneme system used in SeeU's voicebank may be difficult for non-koreans to grasp at first due to it being based on romanized hangul and not SAMPA script. The outcome of attempts at recreating foreign languages depends greatly on the user and his or her knowledge of korean consonant and vowel sounds; it is often easier to work with Vocaloids of that language than SeeU. SeeU's voicebank has some issues sounding out certain consonants such as ㄹ(r) and ㅈ(c). Her pronunciation of ㄹ varies in that in may sound too trilled (like a rolled spanish R) or not distinguishable enough depending on the vowels around it. Her pronunciation of ㅈ is too muffled and difficult to work around using only her Korean voicebank. Slight changes to her PIT values and vibrato may cause her to sound off pitch, which can be fixed using third party software such as Autotune or Melodyne; she is not the first Vocaloid reported with this issue and it has been reported from time to time with Vocaloids since Miriam.

Romaji syllables, or English alphabet syllables, will NOT work on SeeU's Korean voicebank in the lyric entry field, and will not output an equivalent phoneme syntax. The phoneme data must be manually entered in this case.

Despite having English sounds included to back up SBS's claim she can do English, SeeU is not well adressed for full English, and although she has the sounds for the language the results are relatively low quality.

SeeU: Japanese

 * Optimum genre:K-Pop, Pop Ballad
 * Optimum tempo:60 ~ 170BPM
 * Optimum range:C3 ~ C5

Strengths
Has a slightly lighter, sweeter voice than her Korean voicebank. As with Megurine Luka, those capable of using Japanese voicebanks can at least make use of her software package.

Weaknesses
She has a slight Korean accent in her pronunciation. She pronounces the vowels E and O more closed than the vowels in Standard Japanese, causing them to sound slightly closer to an I and rounded U respectively. She has difficulty pronouncing the sequence [w o], which however is no longer present in Standard Japanese pronunciation. Her pronunciation of [4] has similar issues to her pronunciation of ㄹ in her Korean voicebank, being either too weak or too trilled. Her pronunciation of fricative and affricate consonants (s, z, ts, j, and ch) has a Korean accent in which they are pronounced quickly and are slightly lisped. Her pronunciation of [s] is slightly aspirated.

Like many Vocaloid 2 voicebanks, SeeU cannot pronounce consonants alone except for ん.

SV01 SeeU English
SBS have announced they are trying to make a high quality English voicebank. The voicebank will make SeeU a true trilingual, giving her largest language capablities of any Vocaloid and will allow her to mimick English in a higher quality then using her other two voicebanks for the same results.

Notable SeeU Songs

 * Youtube List/SeeU Songs
 * SBS Artech 1st UGC Competition Submissions

Popularity
SeeU was popular with overseas prior to her release. However, within Japan some issues between Japanese and Koreans involving fan based opinions on political and racial issues made SeeU hit a rough start.

Trivia

 * Her name is read as "See you" as in "I see you". According to SBS, this is one of several meanings of her name.
 * About her design:
 * Her cat ears/nekomimi are speakers
 * Her neckband is a CD player
 * Soundwaves light up on the rectangle at her flat-shoes
 * There's a pause button at the back of her clothes
 * There's a power button at the ribbon on her neckband
 * There's an "on" button on of the buttons at the front of her dress
 * During a virtual interview staring SeeU conducted by SBS Artech, SeeU revealed her clothing size to be XXS, putting her bust size close to 31.5 inches according to standard US apparel size guide.
 * SeeU's design has been accused of following a "Miku formula".

Notable for...

 * First Korean capable Vocaloid
 * First female Korean Vocaloid
 * First Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First female Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First Japanese voicebank produced by a Korean company
 * First Japanese voicebank provided by a Korean provider
 * First trilingual Vocaloid announced to be developed (Korean/Japanese/English)