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

Preorders for SeeU took place on the 14th of October and a community called "CreCrew" is being opened for her. She was released on the 21st with a Vocaloid 3 starter option or without. She also has a limited edition with just her voicebank and a book. SBS mentioned they are keeping the prices down on SeeU. Overseas buyers will have to purchase through eBay. A third demo "Shining Star" was also released.SeeU's release date was announced on SeeU's official site as well as on the SBS Artech_vocaloid twitter page. She was released in Korea on the 21st of October. 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

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

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.

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 and winners are expected to be announced on January 31, 2012.

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.

SV01 SeeU
SeeU has both a Japanese and a Korean voicebank, allowing her to switch between the languages where needed. Her voice is light-hearted.

SeeU: Korean

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

Strengths
Her voice is light-hearted. SBS claim she is best at singing K-pop. SeeU is able to pronounce any sound that can be written in modern hangul.

Several phonemes not native to Korean were added into her voicebank to back SBS Artech's claim that she can recreate a decent amount of English. This in turn makes her korean voicebank much more flexible for recreating foreign languages in comparison to her japanese voicebank.

Has slightly deeper and more powerful voice than her japanese voicebank.

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 her 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 and it has been reported from time to time with Vocaloids since Miriam.

SeeU: Japanese

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

Strengths
Has a slightly lighter, 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.

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.

Like many non-Crypton Vocaloid 2 voicebanks, SeeU cannot pronounce consonants alone except for ん.

Notable SeeU Songs

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

Reception
Out of the Vocaloid 3 releases, SeeU has had quite a bit of interest in her pre-release form because she was the first Korean Vocaloid. Despite a general praise for her design and vocals, there have been some pre-release complaints.

Mostly, her demos have proven to be the single most controversial issue about her. While it is not uncommon for auto-tuning software to be used for demo songs SeeU's demo "i-Fantasy" has been criticized for heavy use of auto-tuning software to the point where some argue it is impossible to actually tell how good the Vocaloid 3 engine is or really hear how her vocals truly are. When demos of Vocaloid 3 Megpoid, Mew and Akikoroid-chan surfaced, comparisons were done and SeeU sounded remarkably realistic compared to them which won her merit. However, it was revealed after a fan reduced the vocals on her demo until only the backing was left that a real vocal was used alongside the Vocaloid voicebank. Both the real singer and Vocaloid voicebank had been blended together to make the song smoother, in theory this hid any robotic results her voicebank produced. The result of the reduction revealing the use of a human singer can be heard here (if you have trouble 0:52-0:59 is most obvious point a human can be heard).

The demo has been rated a misleading song by veteran fans within the overseas fandom. However, despite the heavy criticism, the song has been very popular and has already seen a large number of covers by other Vocaloids. Her next demo and her official "1st demo" "Run!" was more focused on the voicebank and SeeU was able to be heard more clearly as a Vocaloid. The issue with this song, however, was that the pitch was dramatically different to i=fantasy. Further more, the second demo song "Never Let You Go" displays yet another pitch range, though more on par with i=fantasy, was also different to "Run!". The constant change of tone of SeeU caused some backlash by fans, who complained that you could not hear the true SeeU voice. Later, a clip without the auto-tune was released.

Furthermore, there were concerns about SBS's early claims of being able to recreate English with the Korean voicebank, when it has been pointed out that Korean doesn't have all the phonetics for English. Some are not impressed with the results and critise SBS's insistance that SeeU is "trilingual", when a proper English voicebank would have produced much more cleaner results for English then what her Korean can produce without the need to learn how to twist Korean to sound English, producing better quality lyrics and smoother singing results.

SeeU was also subject to pro-Crypton fans within the overseas fandom who disliked the idea of Korean Vocaloids. However, this was nothing new and this kind of treatment was also found already in anti-English Vocaloid fans. Also, within the Japanese fandom there has been a lot of reported hate spread on Nico Nico Douga and 2chan, which has left her hitting a hard pre-release start. It has been pointed out, it is harder to judge an unreleased Vocaloid let alone one for a new version of the software, although the criticism towards the inconsistency with the first set of demos has been her hardest issue amongst fans.

Of all the Vocaloid 3 voicebanks, SeeU has grabbed some of the biggest attention seen thus far in the overseas fandom, however in the Japanese fandom overall she hasn't caught much attention.

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.
 * 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
 * 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.

Notable for...

 * First Korean capable Vocaloid
 * First Vocaloid by SBS Artech
 * First female Korean Vocaloid
 * First female Vocaloid by SBS Artech