User blog comment:Angel Emfrbl/Vocal clones/@comment-5665682-20140110161644

This remembers me a comment my sister did sometime ago (she don't like vocaloid but thinks that is interesting), just when YOHIOloid came out, and I didn't knew how to answer her.

When I show'd her the demo of Miku V3, she said "meh, sound like every japanese pop singer". Then I tried to explain her about voicestyles and Nekomura Iroha and Lily and etc. and I showed her the difference, putting some Lily/Iroha songs vs. Miku/Gumi songs. She just smiled and said "you know something, I think I discovered the reason why I don't like japanese vocaloids too much"

"Japanese female singers have a very particular way to sing. Even if they have different voicestyles, the way they manage the voice while singing is almost the same. They don't reach high notes like western singers. While western singers reach higher notes "throwing" the voice (I think she refered to the head voice) average japanese singers tend to "squeak" the voice to make it sound "treble" (nasal voice) and, even if their voices are deep or sweet, vocaloids remarks this quality too much and that's why, at the end, same voicestyle vocaloids sound very similar, and only well trained ears can hear the difference".

Obviously, this rule is not applied to english vocals, she says english vocaloids sound very different between them, but they share the "choppy" pronounciation.

And then I realized that IA and Iroha, in certain notes (specially on low/high ranges) sound pretty similar. Of course, they don't have the same results, and we all can discover wich vocaloid is singing. But we need to hear more than one or two notes to discover wich vocaloid is singing. Obviously, a non-producer or newbie fan will not distinguish one vocal from another and they will compare the vocal based in an existing one.

I don't find annoying vocal comparisons. They are somehow useful for producers and possible buyers. The comparisons turn absolutely annoying when fangirls/boys state that the voice is a total "copy" of another one. Yes, Aoki Lapis sound pretty similar to Miku in her raw state, and last demo of Macne Nana sounds like Miku English, Yuzuki Yukari sounds sometimes like GUMI Adult and Piko sounds like Lily in the mid range. But is not a "COPY" is just the same vocal style, and the result will never be the same because vocals have different strenghts (Miku sounds sharp/Aoki is softer; Nana English has strong japanese accent/Miku English has a soft pronounciation; Yukari sound sweet on higher notes, while GUMI Adult is more powerful, Piko can sound manly, Lily is still feminine) sadly, vocaloid fanbase have no time for explanations, and they prefer to keep listening their "original and unique" favourite vocals.