Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-53539-20180419155907

So without knowing when V5 is coming but know it can't be more then a year or so away... There are a few things plaguing my mind and that's just this generation of Vocaloid.

Pros;
 * XSY means that newer vocaloid producers with only a few vocaloids can benefit from having a few vocaloids and get many tones out of them.
 * There is a huge number of new vocaloids this generation
 * The issues with English vocaloid are starting to be erased, this is great due to V3 having expanded the English version of Vocaloid greatly already so English vocaloid is on a roll.
 * The Chinese vocaloids are expanding, this is good because expansion means that improvements will be occurring and possibly next engine Yamaha may think "hey we need VY Chinese".
 * Updates to the AHS V2's, this was really good and the best Japanese development this generation overall in my opinion.
 * Japanese vocaloids finally addressed the issue with sound-a-likes, bothing making the situation officially acknowledge and fans having to consider the issue was real after all. The new development in recording practices means even sound-a-alike vocals won't behave the same.
 * New mobile editor is almost as good as the full software.
 * V3's imported got to also use XSY, meaning the transaction from V3 to V4 was smoother and you have reasons to have the V4 engine without buying a new Vocaloid.

Let downs;
 * No real difference between the overall functions of each individual vocaloids of V3 and V4... Except GWL and XSY
 * PowerFX is gone, leaving people as to confusion why and many believe its related to Ruby's disaster, and not to PowerFX focusing on Soundation and Bil leaving
 * Spanish Vocaloid is basically dead
 * The lack of new Japanese vocaloids versus updates
 * The lesser improvements to the newer V4 voicebanks meant you actually had less reason to move over to V4 vocals in a hurry anyway compared to V2. Sure, it benefited to own V4 itself, but if you owned V3 Gackpoid, you were basically buying the V4 version for slight adjustments and GWL.  So you could sit there and use V4 but not move onto V4 voicebank buying if you wanted for about a year or two.
 * Japanese vocaloids seem to have come to a stop almost, not in terms of number of voicebanks but rather their overall improvements. While the new method of recording addresses the older issues of sound a like vocals, there doesn't seem to have been any major huge changes to improve the vocals otherwise. So whereas Chinese and English have had improvements and what not, Japanese vocaloids have stagnated this generation.  I know there are plenty of Japanese vocaloid fans out there who love and adore them... But unless your looking at the V2->V4 updates, there really hasn't been too much excitement
 * I mean where is Internet co, they were on fire and suddenly... Their dead post Una.
 * XSY means you have to now plan your path into vocaloid somewhat to take advantage of it as not all vocalodis can XSY with each other. Of course you maybe had this before but Cul and Miku can't XSY so... Yeah... IF you want full advantage of XSY, you really have to figure out your moves.
 * Single voicebanks, that is those with out XSY, are at a huge disadvantage anymore with the existence of XSY.
 * The large XSY groups we have now means even the smaller 1 extra vocal ones can be in the same boat
 * CFM, gave us a mixed bag of experiments, but some of it was disappointing. Ignoring the bias for or against, the EVEC function and releases were sloppy.  IT was good they god Luka out, but it wasn't what we promised, they had to re-release Miku but without EVEC there isn't much to note. The Kagamines got rushed out pretty much... On the one hand, they didn't repeat the situation with V2, on the other... Eh... Could have been better.
 * Still only 1 new Korean Vocaloid this generation
 * Arsloid's lazy XSY voicebanks... If you ask me, they should either just have made 1 full voicebank and a XSY compactable voicebank, or not bothered with the two extra mini voicebanks that don't do a lot.
 * Vocaloid cloud service went bye-bye
 * While V2 and V3 could be imported, not much improved when you imported them... And V2 was removed later taking with it the iconic voices that made Vocaloid.

Basically, the one thing I hope above all else that happens in V5, is just things turn out for the better.

If you take away the it picks that I feel have been a drawback of this generation like the Arsloid and EVEC stuff and CFM tossing out the Kagamines to get to Miku... That still leaves more negative stuff then positive.

If I had to say what the single best thing to come out of V4... I'd actually say the most exciting (though needs far more work as it sounds rubbish and crude right now) is prob. the Vocaloid keyboard. I'd say its the Vocaloid for Education, but... ITs around but quiet post release since its not for the general public and kinda is not something we're going to get a lot of info tossed at us over. Outside of the initial Enginge release, nobody really gets excited for the core engine anymore since we know what it does. And non-voicebank developments for the core engine don't get much attention overseas.

In comparison to V2-V3;

Pros;
 * Triphone support for Japanese (English had them already)
 * plug-in support
 * 3 new languages
 * Lots of new vocaloids
 * Lots of new English voicebanks
 * Overhaul of the Vocaloid interface and a larger noticeable difference of the quality of the core Vocaloid engine.
 * It was exciting times and we didn't know what was being thrown at us next.
 * New cloud service
 * All areas of Vocaloid for the most part had things you could be excited for, especially early on.
 * Improvements to the iOS apps and additional apps including Vocaloid first meant that Vocaloids entry into iOS was strengthened a great deal.
 * V2's could be imported into V3 and we got a larger improvement to them then if they sat in V2.

Let downs;
 * Voices became very same-y over time, which fans tried to deny was going on and this began to get an issue as V3 releases were tossed out. The Japanese vocaloids were mostly the ones with the issue.
 * The numerous vocaloids ate into each other, so there were clear winners but also losers
 * We didn't know what was going on a lot of the time, allowing especially early on for speculation and rumour and false information to get mistaken for official stuff.
 * SeeU promotion, Japanese and Korean politics, voice provider jailing, all meant Korean Vocaloid started rough.
 * Chinese vocaloid scandal.
 * Spanish Vocaloids may have ended on a high, but then they went bye. They also started with a rough start since the boxart for them got anger.
 * Never got Avanna's partner.

It was just the things that were positive to be thrilled about, it was they were overwhelming compared to V4. I get its quieter release is become the found of Vocaloid retired and it was not only released early but tossed out with far less improvements... But the more you weigh in the overall progress of V4 and V3... V3 was just the better engine to be hyped with.

I've left out the positive and negative stuff caused by fans alone, since I really don't want to drag out the English V2 myth stuff still holding back the English version at this point. OR the "Vocaloid fan not knowing what Vocaloid" situation. These are also not engine specific and have been around for a while. Plus honestly that's not what I'm creating this topic for.

I will say I won't do V1->V2 because most of us weren't here for that, but the issue is still overall positive, maybe more so overall then V3 since V2 was where the engine took off. So most of us wasn't here to pay attention to it. 