Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-6433273-20160713122023/@comment-4704113-20170119035740

I checked out that VoiceText thing that Angel posted about on VO (I'm pretty sure you're somebodyrandom? Please correct me if I'm wrong!) and I have to say, I like it quite a bit! Although from my digging around their official website, the "main" VoiceText product isn't commercially available to just anyone, it's mainly for use by businesses. They do have a lite version though, but it's noticeably lower in quality, having quite a bit of engine noise not noticeable in the "pro" version.

The most interesting thing I discovered though was the "Onseigosei no Seiyujimusho", aka "Voice Synthesis Voice Acting Office". While the VoiceText voices are represented by simple, minimalist cartoons with their only characteristics being a name, gender, and language, the Onseigosei vocalists have full anime-style illustrations more typical of voice synths these days, probably as a way to try to reel in the fans of Vocaloid, UTAU, etc. Also interestingly, three of the characters seem to be the same as some VoiceText characters, namely Hikari, Takeru, and Show (yes they spell it that way, also he's the only one who keeps his minimalist VoiceText design. It's kinda odd.)

The other characters are Shogo, a radio DJ; Hina and Kouta, voiced by real 8-year-olds and described as "Dialogue Robots"? Whatever that means; Emma, an English-Japanese bilingual and biracial 12-year-old girl; Kanna and Nao, the obligatory high school girls, complete with improbably short uniform skirts; and Tuna, a cat. Of the characters, Hikari seems to be the only one capable of singing, the rest of them can only speak.

All in all, it reminds be quite a bit of CeVIO, although with, in my opinion, more interesting and diverse characters, both in terms of design and voice. I give it a thumbs up! I know speaking-only synths tend to be far less popular than singing synths in the overseas fandoms, but they tend to do pretty well in Japan. I'm gonna keep an eye on these guys, see if anything cool comes from it :)