BIG AL

Big Al was announced on January 21, 2007. A plugin version was released on the PowerFX site on December 22, 2009, with a DVD version that was available after Christmas.

History
An early demo song of Miriam and Big Al was personally requested by Bil Braynt and Alexei Ustinov, whom started testing Big-Al in January 2007 with "Help Me Understand You" for the MusikMesse fair. The female vocals were provided by Vocaloid Miriam, “Make Me Feel”, was prepared by Alexei Ustinov for the Frankfurt MusikMesse 2007 fair and was made on the spot as part of a demonstration of the software. Big-Al's release was pushed back numerous times, though the demos of him were available and uploaded, examples (I Feel Good and PowerFX) were uploaded in late April. Al's first voice bank was recorded by Michael King, a singer/artist and award winning Elvis impersonator.

Change of Voice
As the Vocaloid was in the editing process PowerFX tried to fix the pronunciation, and even though demos were posted on the net, they felt it was not good enough to be released. So in an attempt to re-record King, they found that he was too busy touring. Frank Sanderson, a professional voice over artist, studio engineer/owner and former PowerFX employee then did the voice over which was used for the program.

New boxart was done to match the new voice given for him. Because of the initial reaction to Sonika's noticeable anime influenced look, he was given a look split between anime and a more western style. The picture was done by artist Ash(Accelagirl), who also illustrated the Sonika comics. The artist stated that the color scheme (red and white) were chosen by PowerFX, while black was added to avoid looking like ChoiWARU-P's Leon.

On December 11, 2009, a demo of Big-Al's voice was leaked on youtube, the demo was Al singing small parts to the song "When the Saints Go Marching In", but apparently this demo was beta and not meant to be leaked, yet PowerFX did give permission to YT uploaders to post the demo. Another demo was also released on his day of release.

Downloading Problem
When he was first released, users were unable to download him, leading to complaints from both English and Japanese fans. The problem was corrected by PowerFX switching download providers and the report on his problem was that his file had simply been too big. PowerFX then put up a notice that they will make sure buyers received the program no matter what, even if the company had to post it to them. Those that had pre-ordered him were given a $50 gift certificate for the PowerFX shop as compensation for the downloading problem.

Marketing
Like Sweet Ann, Big-Al's original boxart bore similarities to early 20th movie posters, the background is the same as Ann's except its blue.

Big Al's original boxart was a monster morph of Elvis. The monster he is based on is Frankenstein's Monster, according to PowerFX, their Vocaloids are more like Cyborgs than Androids.

Unlike Sweet Ann, Big Al did not gear himself up to be reviewed by normal means (software reviews) and relied upon the Vocaloid fandom more to promote and use him, building on the growing interest in English Vocaloids that was now occuring. Despite setting up a MySpace page for Sweet Ann's promotion, Big Al did not have a social networking outlet.

Soundation Release
Amongst the releases for Soundations loops and sounds for Christmas 2010 was also included some samples of Sweet Ann and Big Al, a contest was also included with a chance to win both Vocaloids.

The new box art was a more loose representation of such a monster and was aimed more towards the Vocaloid fandom then Ann was, marking the switch of focus for PowerFX from souly that of professionals to that of the Vocaloid fandom.

2011 Taiwanese design
On 04/01/2011 PowerFX's website went down. When it reopened on 04/06/2011, both Sweet Ann and Big Al were sporting a new look.

04/08/2011 A PowerFX employee noted that the designs seen on the PowerFx website of both Big Al and Sweet Ann were that of a Taiwanese distributor of PowerFx products and were not the official designs of Big Al or Sweet Ann.

The Taiwanese designs were removed during May, with Big Al's boxart returning to his original design during this period, later they returned to the new version of Big Al. According to PowerFX, they put the Taiwan boxart on their website to try the oblong shape as they preferred it and were thinking about switching to this shape for their Vocaloid products. The boxarts placement was temporay until they could run a Sweet Ann/Big Al competition, however they noted the fandom had insisted that boxart be on the page and had to switched back.

A 28 second demo was released for Big Al, however he was not featured singing in the demo. A second 60 second demo was released of the same song, the full "On the Earth" was then later released. Later Sweet Ann and Big Al were featured in the song "at your side 2010".

Vocaloid 2

 * Contrast between Leon, from Vocaloid and Big Al, from Vocaloid2. 

Big Al

 * Optimum genre:
 * Optimum tempo:
 * Optimum range:
 * Language; English

Strengths
Big-Al was designed originally to be "rough and harsh" as a contrast to Leon. As it was noted when Leon was used for the album "A Place in the Sun", some of the songs were designed for a male with a rougher timbre than he offered, and Leon was unable to provide the needed vocal results for the songs. So Big Al was originally designed to be just such a voice. He had more keys recorded for him than Sweet Ann.

He is considered one of better english Vocaloids for clarity. Big-Al is typically geared for early-mid 20th century classic rock although he has been used for a wide variety of genres such as blues, disco, and pop. Amongst western producers, Big-Al is considered one of the easiest English voices to use and is not known for any major glitches or flaws beyond the typical Vocaloid 2 engine restrictions. His accent is American. His voice favors singing in the range (in classical music terms) bass to baritone, but also has a good tenor range. He was the only English capable male Vocaloid with breath samples in the Vocaloid 2 range.

According to some reports, Big Al is the only Vocaloid capable of hitting notes as far as E1 without any troubles.

Weaknesses
He is capable of reaching higher octaves, however it is generally accepted that his voicebank is more suited for the lower octaves. His heavier vocals make his voicebank unstable on some beginning sounds, giving a croaky result, this can be fixed.

Big Al has some issues with his R phoneme. He can only roll his words if the R is at the end of the phonetic data. This makes his use of the R the weakest of the English only capable Vocaloids with this ability. It also makes his voicebank more limited than theirs in its capabilities for some non-English words. Also, although he had breath samples, they were more like grunting noises and were placed as the weakest of the Vocaloid 2 set of breath samples.

Reception
Big Al's original voice did not appeal to many, but the sudden change of vocal and boxart redesign pleased many fans. These changes caused much confusion at first, but also a great deal of excitement. Big Al has a strong fan following amongst both Japanese and English "Engloid" fans, and has over time become the more popular of the Engloids overall, possibly even the most popular English only Vocaloid. An example of his popularity was seen during the Sweet Ann and Big Al redesigns for Taiwan. When there was no explanation on the PowerFX site as to what the new designs were for, fans were left in the dark over the new apparent redesigns, although the Twainese designs were not without their share of fans and jokes. The Western English Vocaloid fans in particular were outraged at the redesigns and it was particularly Al's that received most attention, while the reaction for Ann's "redesign" was mixed. Some youtube comments within the western fandom aimed towards his more deeper end of his vocal range call him "scary", often also combined with his appearance. He is also accused of sounding like the character Kermit the Frog, even though this effect occurs only on some short, higher note pronounications and is only barely a match to Kermit's voice.

For Japanese fans, he was also the best received of the engloids, who noted how "handsome" his avatar was now in comparison to his old one. On top of this, tweets amongst fans also mentioned that his usefulness overall, with one commenter even stating that it was "almost as if he came out of the same factory as Miku". In the Nico Nico Douga International Vocaloid ranking 2010, Big Al was noted to have dominated the rankings and appeared in 18 of the top 30 International Vocaloid related songs, the second highest being Lola with just 5 songs. Also, his vocals were used in 8 of the top ten songs of 2010, the only exceptions were two songs where Lola was the sole English Vocaloid singing, Big Al was the only English Vocaloid in the top 10 with solo songs. Considering how little often a English Vocaloid makes it into any Nico Nico Douga ranking overall, Big Al has also been one of the more likely English Vocaloids to enter the rankings.

PowerFX noted with the change of boxart that it is the comic style of characters that the fans most want. PowerFX preferred the style they were using before, but due to the expectations of the fans, this was not possible. It was noted that if they did not use the style they used for Big Al, they risked alienating their Vocaloids from their target audience so had to comply with what the fans want. In note, future PowerFX Vocaloids would have a similar boxart and that Sweet Ann would be redesigned.

Trivia

 * Sonika has tweeted about Big-Al, questioning that would his release mean that she is his big sister or little sister. This is a joking reference to their release date and ages. She also tweeted about wanting to do a duet with him. She later would with Auld Lang Syne, she joked Al's high-pitch was due to the tight trousers he wore. She also made another joke regarded his late arrival in an earlier tweet and in Dec 2010 when snow fell that she made a snowman that looked a bit like Big Al. Later, when asked which Vocaloid she spoke to the most she referred to Big Al as her best friend. She also commented that he was pretty scary but friendly once you got to know him.


 * Miriam, Lola and Big-Al were featured in the freeware RPG "AD Lucem"


 * Big Al has also been associated with penguins due to the video "Born Again", as his hair and attire make him vaguely resemble a Crested Penguin.


 * QQCosplay made a custom outfit so fans can cosplay as him, Big Al is the first English Vocaloid to have this type of attention.


 * As a joke held within the Japanese fandom, there are often references towards the popular manga Kuso Miso Technique in songs of Al's. This joke exists mostly because Al's left hand pose almost matches Takakazu Abe's right hand pose as he sits on the bench in the manga when Abe is seen for the first time in the storyline. As well as this, a joke that his breathing sounds "like he is in a gay porno" exists.


 * Notable on the fact his original voice provider was an Elvis impersonator, The New York Times report on the original Vocaloids was titled "Could I get that song in Elvis please?".


 * Amongst the western Vocaloid fans, Al's lateness gave birth to the term "Big Al's syndrome". However, its only because of Tonio's lateness this term exists.


 * Big Al's scythe in his Taiwan design resembles a musical note.

Notable for...

 * First male vocal by PowerFX
 * First English male vocal in 6 years
 * First English male vocal for Vocaloid 2
 * Currently the most popular English Vocaloid
 * First Vocal known to have a sudden change of provider
 * Gave birth to the term "Big Al's syndrome"