SeeU

SeeU (시유, シユ) is a voicebank for Vocaloid3, the first Vocaloid capable of Korean and the first "Korean/Japanese bilingual" Vocaloid. The voice provider is the artist Kim Dahi (17 year old member of the K-pop girl band "Glam"). Her release was October 21, 2011 (South Korea) and December 16, 2011 (Japan).

History
A demo called I=Fantasy was produced by Bang Shi Hyuk (a.k.a. Hitman Bang) and was originally released introducing her to the Vocaloid fandom during the Vocaloid3 announcement. On August 30, 2011, her name and appearance were revealed. There was a limited edition version of her software as a starter pack.

Preorders for SeeU took place on October 14, 2011 and a community called "CreCrew" was opened for her. She was released on the 21st of the same month with a Vocaloid 3 starter option or without. She also has a limited edition with just her voicebank and a book. SBS mentioned they were keeping the prices down on SeeU. Overseas buyers will have to purchase through eBay. She was released in Korea on October 21, 2011. SeeU was released in Japan on December 16, 2011.

Demo Songs

Korean Demos

 * Run YouTube Broadcast
 * Never Let You Go_Remix YouTube Broadcast
 * Shining Star Youtube Broadcast
 * I=Fantasy Youtube Broadcast
 * Umbrella Youtube Broadcast
 * I=Fantasy Breathing Effect Youtube Broadcast
 * Mission Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)

Japanese Demos

 * 願いを込めて Youtube Broadcast
 * 明日を向いて Youtube Broadcast
 * Mission Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * ITA BASAMI Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * 神話色のミステリイ Youtube Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)
 * こんなアタシDOでShow!? Nicovideo Broadcast (Yamaha Promotion)

English Voicebank
Throughout pre-Vocaloid 3 release promotions, SBS stood by a claim that you can recreate English with SeeU's Korean voicebank. Since her release, producers working with her had discovered a number of unlisted phonetics that had been included in her Korean voicebank by SBS for English recreation. Such Phonetics were uneeded for the Korean language recreation and the matter also became a controversal issue over the claim and some producers questioned the need for them at all.

Finally, after a fan asked SBS about it, they explained that English samples were included in SeeU's Korean library and that they did not have time to make a full English voicebank required to make high quality English results. SBS had argued that a English voicebank was uneeded anyway since most of the sounds needed for English were in the Korean voicebank already. They have stated that they are working on the recordings for a high quality English voicebank but it is not determined how much the voicebank will cost. SBS will be trying to release it within the next year.

Marketing
SeeU was given a moe-esque design and is aimed more specifically to the general and Vocaloid Otaku fandom. A limited edition with illustration book was also produced for her during the 2011 period.

SBS promoted SeeU to the public by printing her illustration on face packs and on the side of taxi cars.

SBS also claimed SeeU was capable of using her Korean voicebank for English and asserted her as having enough capablities to be called a trilingual Vocaloid; even though she has capablities only for Japanese and Korean.

During Nico Nico Chokaigi 2012‘s “VOCALOID NEWS," SBS Artech stepped forward and claimed to be in the middle of producing an album for SeeU and is planned to be released for the summer.

Competition
An art competition was held related to her. According to SBS Artech, the winner receives 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 September 17, 2011. All winning and notable entries appeared in SeeU's newest demo PV. On the 23rd, her official first demo song was uploaded, featuring all the winners and honorable mention artwork.

On November 17, 2011, SBS Artech announced 1st UGC competition for SeeU. The winners of the competition were finally announced on Febuary 3, 2012. SBS Artech held an award ceremony for the winners and had famous Korean producer Bang Shi Hyuk attend the ceremony as well as SBS news announcer Kim MinJi (김민지).

A second competition is currently being held. It is a SeeU Product Design Contest held from April 23rd to June 1st by SBS Artech. Anything over 3rd place will be made and the 1st place winner will be given the opportunity to work as SBS Artech/11th street’s character goods designer. The download sheet to enter is here. The full information can be found on the VocaloidOtaku website.

Crecrew
The website Crecrew (A combination of the words "create" and "crew") was opened for Vocaloid artists and fans alike by SBS Artech. It is much like Crypton Future Media's Piapro website in that it provides a hub for users to collaborate, however the conditions are different for the artwork and videos uploaded onto the website; third-party content is allowed to a greater degree.

Crecrew was blocked for a day or two on April 9, 2012 due to construction and changes by the creator of the site. A new layout of the website was opened on April 20, 2012.

Game
SeeU songs were added to the iOS app game "Krazy Rain 2 Battle" (크레이지레인2 배틀), a rythym game. The app is free but the songs must be purchased seperately, since the app is set up as a arcade style, it will cost 25 or 30 points (you get 2000 points for $2) per play, although some songs are free to play. Songs included are some popular songs from CreCrew and a couple of her demo songs. More songs may be added later.

Twitter
SeeU has a twitter account.

SV01 SeeU

 * Using SeeU to create Konglish
 * SeeU tips and tutorials

SeeU has both a Japanese and a Korean voicebank, allowing her to switch between the languages where needed. By default her software is set to her Korean voicebank, users will have to manually select her Japanese voicebank. Both her Korean and Japanese vocals currently house the highest known optimum vocal range for released for Vocaloid 3.

Strengths
Her voice is light-hearted. SeeU is able to pronounce any sound that can be written in modern Hangul.

Several English phonemes not native to Korean were added, as SBS noted many Korean sounds are similar or the same in English so this allows her to recreate a certain level of "English" using her Korean voicebank. This in turn makes her Korean voicebank much more flexible for creating foreign words in comparison to her Japanese voicebank. These phonetics are not listed in her Korean phonetic chart. SeeU is not the first Vocaloid to have non-native phonetics, as English Vocaloids since Prima have often possessed the thrilled "r" phoneme (listed as [R]).

Her Korean voicebank has a slightly deeper and more powerful voice than her Japanese voicebank. SBS also claimed that Seeu's Korean voicebank is best suited for K-pop.

Weaknesses
The phoneme system used in SeeU's voicebank may be difficult for non-Koreans to grasp at first due to it being based on romanized hangul and not SAMPA script. The outcome of attempts at recreating foreign languages depends greatly on the user and his or hers knowledge of Korean consonant and vowel sounds. It is often easier to work with Vocaloids of that language than SeeU. SeeU's voicebank has some issues sounding out certain consonants such as ㄹ(r) and ㅈ(c). Her pronunciation of ㄹ varies in that in may sound too trilled (like a rolled Spanish R) or not distinguishable enough depending on the vowels around it. Her pronunciation of ㅈ is too muffled and difficult to work around using only her Korean voicebank. Slight changes to her PIT values and vibrato may cause her to sound off pitch, which can be fixed using third party software such as Autotune or Melodyne. She is not the first Vocaloid reported with this issue; it has been reported from time to time with Vocaloids since Miriam.

Romaji syllables, or English alphabet syllables, will NOT work on SeeU's Korean voicebank in the lyric entry field, and will not output an equivalent phoneme syntax. The phoneme data must be manually entered in this case.

Despite having English sounds included, SeeU is not well addressed for full English, and although she has the sounds for the language the results are relatively low quality. The reason is that many of the sounds needed for English do not have smooth or natural transactions between each set of sounds. As the voicebank was set up for Korean, it is not set up to attempt to make English word structures, and users have to work with their own phonetic based knowledge as there is no English word dictionary to aid with identifying methods of creating English words using the Korean phonetics.

Strengths
Her Japanese voicebank has a slightly lighter and sweeter voice than her Korean voicebank. As with Megurine Luka, those capable of using Japanese voicebanks can at least make use of her software package. The optimum recommendations for both voicebanks are identical and in theory they will work for similair types of music. Also, having both a Japanese and Korean voicebank greatly increases SeeU's language capablities.

Weaknesses
She has a slight Korean accent in her pronunciation. She pronounces the vowels E and O more closed than the vowels in Standard Japanese, causing them to sound slightly closer to an I and rounded U respectively. She has difficulty pronouncing the sequence [w o], which however is no longer present in Standard Japanese pronunciation. Her pronunciation of [4] has similar issues to her pronunciation of ㄹ in her Korean voicebank, being either too weak or too trilled. Her pronunciation of fricative and affricate consonants (s, z, ts, j, and ch) has a Korean accent in which they are pronounced quickly and are slightly lisped. Her pronunciation of [s] is slightly aspirated.

Due to the change of tone, users may have to switch the vocals to a different octave to get the same tone as the Korean voicebank. In comparison to the Vocaloid 2 voicebanks of Megurine Luka, who suffered the same issue on tone between her two voicebanks. however, SeeU's tonal difference between the voicebanks is much more noticeable and this increases the chances that the same types of music won't work for both voicebanks as well as they should.

Like many Vocaloid 2 voicebanks, SeeU cannot pronounce consonants alone except for ん. These issues make SeeU's Japanese voicebank is so far the weakest of the Vocaloid 3 Japanese voicebanks and her quality is more on par with early Vocaloid 2 voicebanks.

English SeeU
Unreleased

SBS have announced they are trying to make a high quality English voicebank. The voicebank will make SeeU a true trilingual, giving her largest language capabilities of any Vocaloid and will allow her to mimic English in a higher quality then using her other two voicebanks for the same results.

Notable SeeU Songs

 * Youtube List/SeeU Songs
 * SBS Artech 1st UGC Competition Submissions

Popularity
SeeU was popular with overseas prior to her release. However, within Japan some issues between Japanese and Koreans involving fan based opinions on political and racial issues made SeeU hit a rough start. Her overall popularity ranges per website from amongst the least to most popular of the Voclaoid 3 releases and is affected by the opinions and the politics of the fans within that circle of the fandom.

Trivia

 * Her name is read as "See you" as in "I see you". According to SBS, this is one of several meanings of her name.
 * SBS stated SeeU was created to be a "cute and lively, yet mysterious looking 17 year old girl."
 * Her outfit was designed with school uniform in mind.
 * About her design:
 * Her cat ears/nekomimi are speakers
 * Her neckband is a CD player
 * Soundwaves light up on the rectangle at her flat-shoes
 * There's a pause button at the back of her clothes
 * There's a power button at the ribbon on her neckband
 * There's an "on" button on one of the buttons at the front of her dress
 * During a virtual interview staring SeeU conducted by SBS Artech, SeeU revealed her clothing size to be XXS, putting her bust size close to 31.5 inches according to standard US apparel size guide.
 * SeeU's design felt "familair" to some fans.

Notable for...

 * First Korean capable Vocaloid
 * First female Korean Vocaloid
 * First Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First female Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First Korean/Japanese bilingual Vocaloid
 * First Japanese voicebank produced by a Korean company
 * First Japanese voicebank provided by a Korean provider
 * First trilingual Vocaloid announced to be developed (Korean/Japanese/English)