SeeU

SeeU (시유, シユ) is an up coming voicebank for Vocaloid3 and the first Vocaloid capable of Korean and the first "Korean/Japanese bilingual" Vocaloid. The voice provider will be artist Kim Tahi (17 year old member of the K-pop girl band "Glam"). Her release is set for the Autumn 2011.

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

An art competition is being held related to her. The winner will receive 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 17th of September 2011. All winning and notable enteries will appear in a demo PV.

Usage for Music
She will have both a Japanese and a Korean voicebank, allowing her to switch between the languages where needed. Her voice will be light-hearted. According to SBS artech, her Korean voicebank can recreate a fair amount of English.


 * Note: Until the release,, the exact level of English she can create is unknown using her Korean voicebank. One would presume this is how Sonika can recreate 90% of the Chinese language using just an English voicebank. Until more information is released, what exactly her level is can only be speculated upon. Read Phoneme List for more information on phonetics for English.

Reception
Out of the Vocaloid 3 releases, SeeU has had quite a bit of interest in her pre-release form because she was the first Korean Vocaloid. Despite a general praise for her design and vocals, there have been some pre-release complaints.

One of the biggest was aimed at her demo song. While it is not uncommon for auto-tuning software to be used for demo songs SeeU's demo "i-Fantasy" has been criticised for heavy use of auto-tuning software to the point where some argue it is impossible to actually tell how good the Vocaloid 3 engine is or really hear how her vocals truly are. In another report, it was revealed after a fan reduced the vocals on her demo until only the backing was left that a real vocal was used alongside the Vocaloid voicebank. Both the real singer and Vocaloid voicebank had been blended together to make the song smoother, in theory this hid any robotic results her voicebank produced. The result of the reduction revealing the use of a human singer can be heard here (if you have trouble 0:52-0:59 is most obivous point a human can be heard). A version of the song without the human back up singer can be heard in the Vocaloid 3 introduction here (provided link set to start@4:25, song begins@4:27). This version reveals that SeeU is actually singing quite flat, a common issue with Vocaloids voicebanks due to the monotoned recording styles for their samples, but is very smooth in comparison to past Vocaloids. Another note is as well that the song itself lack clarity. Overall, the demo has been rated a misleding and low-quality song by veteran fans within the overseas fandom. However, despite the heavy critism, the song has been very popular and has already seen a large number of covers by other Vocaloids.

SeeU was also subject to pro-Crypton fans within the overseas fandom who disliked the idea of Korean Vocaloids. However, this was nothing new and this kind of treatment was also found already in anti-English Vocaloid fans.

Trivia

 * Her cat ears/nekomimi are speakers
 * Her neckband is a CD player
 * Her name can be read in English as "See you" its Korean pronunciation is along the lines of "shi-yu".
 * Soundwaves light up on the rectangle at her flat-shoes
 * There's a pause button at the back of her clothes
 * There's a turn-off button at the ribbon on her neckband

Notable for...

 * First Korean capable Vocaloid
 * First Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First female Korean Vocaloid
 * First female Vocaloid by SBS Artech