Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6433273-20150105221153/@comment-96.234.177.242-20150120052505

It's unfortunate for those involved in this whole mess, but I think this is a lesson - not only for them, but for the fandom as well (Vocaloid and UTAU alike). When those who agreed to do this "project" signed up for it, they should have asked plenty of questions that obviously were overlooked (whether it was due to excitement, naivette, or a combination of both):

"Why is Stella going to be released in Japanese if the target audience is Americans/Westerners? She should be in a language people will understand."

- Answer here is simple: There's not enough English vocals that sound identical like there are Japanese vocals. Many Japanese vocaloids have an overlap in voicetype/timbre. That's what made this whole frankensteining with XSY so easy.

"May we see the official letter from Yamaha giving their stamp of approval on this project?"

- Emails can be easily doctored if all that's provided is a picture. What you want is the actual forward of all correspondence in your own personal inbox. I would have also asked the "charity" about their involvement with this project along with Yamaha themselves.

"Wouldn't a less Anime style of art appeal more to the American public?"

- Anime is very niche and doesn't appeal to everyone. It still has a negative stigma attached to it. If it's meant to appeal to professional American producers who wouldn't know much (if at all) about Vocaloid, it could have been a turn off (though the artwork is very well done - even if the vocal wasn't going to be marketed, it was still meant to capture attention from those that wouldn't have otherwise payed attention to synthesized voices).

Does this mean only trust companies that are already established? Yes and no. Yes, because we know their track record. No, because who's to say these companies will be the only ones around for as long as Vocaloid sells? Suppose a legit American company decides to go through with creating a Vocaloid truly meant to appeal to western sensibilities? We can't write off everything done by the west because of a few bad apples. This will no doubt haunt Planty because it was quite the elaborate ruse, but I hope to see legit American/western companies and a more widened pool of Vocaloid creation. I doubt it, but I hope this also opens the eyes of Vocaloid studios and how they approach creating vocal after vocal of similar sounding voices. If it's this easy to fool so many people with XSY vocaloids, what's stopping people from doing this with the intent of scamming gullible hopefuls out of their money? It wouldn't have been so easy if vocals coming out more variety.