Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25563055-20141024231726/@comment-29714788-20160524225950

@NeevaDash How does it make sense to compare IA, a Japanese vocal, to any English vocals? In my opinion IA isn't really the most natural sounding among the Japanese vocals, she only sounds like Lia in her high range. Ruby does sound artificial, but Gumi English sounds even more unrealistic and robotic combined with her choppiness.

1. The reason that not many Engloids have been voiced by famous singers is because in North America, or the Western Hemisphere in general, Vocaloid still has a negative stigma behind it. Conversely, in Japan where people are accepting of technology, they think of it as a sort of, advancement, that the voices of several artists like Sachiko, Lia, Fukase, and Gackt are available to musicians. In fact, this is why initially Crypton decided to go with voice acting for their Vocaloids, so famous/professional singers won't have their career "stolen" by Vocaloid itself. For more info read this comment.

2. It's more expensive to obtain the licenses that are required for updating a preexisting vocal than to create a new one. This is why Crypton updates their vocals to be compatible with each Vocaloid engine upgrade and companies like Zero-G produce new vocals. Also, a vocal update is not always guaranteed for success, so it's risky to update a vocal that's not in high demand. Companies like Crypton are able to profit off their Vocaloids as "characters", which is why even if the update is complete shit, they'll still buy it for being the "character" and not because they're looking for a professional virtual vocalist. Luka V4X is considered a low quality and lazy update in the western fandom, but Japanese producers will buy her for being "Luka" when there are better vocals like VY1v4 or Yukari V4.

3. Again read the comment mentioned in my response to the first listed reason.