Talk:Utatane Piko/@comment-2607:FB90:1D01:B166:7777:731E:174A:8309-20170720003307/@comment-53539-20170720092734

To me, all of the English vocaloids from V1 and V2 need more urgent updates, with the soul exception being Sonika as we pretty much have a % of replacements including Oliver, Avanna and Daina. Everything Sonika can do in fact, Oliver and Avanna together cover better then she ever did.

Meanwhile we have no Big Al, no Sweet Ann, etc, etc.

Lets put it bluntly, we needed a Kaito/Meiko update and we got it, we didn't need a Miku V4x update as we had her V3, and in terms of voicebanks themselves there is much difference between versions except gwl. All they were basically adding was EVEC to Miku, plus a couple of tweaks to a few of her voicebanks, but otherwise without these things its the same vocal more or less.

Every since Gumi V4, I've been really cynical on the value of an update though. I don't feel Gumi v4's new 5 voicebanks really did anything significant compared to her first 4 add-on voicebanks, which were addressing an issue with her V2 version. That issue being Gumi's reluctance to change and her resistance to sound differently to how she sounds in her default raw voice.

To sum it up, adding more voicebanks is only worth it if your adding something significance, updating engines is only worth it if your renewing a dated voice from an older engine that is retired. The voicebanks should be more then Rana V4, which is just a GWL adder. Though Rana V4 was a release to make her official commercialized beyond her magazine release... So it wasn't a loss.

M.Queen summed up a problem that English vocaloid has become a lot less varied over time and I agree and disagree. We had 8 voices from the natives in V2, while in V4 we have 3 from V3 and 5 from V4 itself. Yes, we still have 8 voices, but in V3... We also had the 8 V2's still with us, making there more voices. And yes, there are now more English vocals then ever thanks to Japanese -> English adaptations, but these come with a heap of problems. And they bring with them the issues plaguing Japanese vocals, such as the fact Japanese vocaloids are struggling to sound unique at this point. And unless you know how to get the V2's on V4 still, the issue remains with the lack of vocals from native companies. A lot of the issue is that nobody has jumped on the Vocaloid bandwagon since PowerFX in V1. The only new vocals outside were Yamaha's VY English vocals Diva and Songman.

Other then that... I point out that Piko wasn't even the best vocal in V2, in fact he was not only lukewarm received thanks to clashing with the Kagamine release, but a MQ vocal. The beauty of V2 was it was easy to rate all vocals against each other then it is now so you had a more solid estimate from Act1 to the Appends on where everything was placed. Not to mention at the time of the release, V2, the vocal range of most vocals wasn't that big compared to the average release now. Its been a legacy of Gumi and Miku both that neither really has their vocal range extended to match modern vocals, whose ranges are enlarging over time, allowing such vocals to fill more roles then they do within a single voicebank without needing appends to lean on.

I do not understand with the obsession with Piko, though I likely feel it is the same as what Galaco had with her prize version. As in, the more off limits a vocal is, the more people fuss about it. Galaco was a LQ/MQ vocal, but because she was not given out to everyone, the demand for her was high. And since release official... Not many have played much attention to her... In fact I've seen more interest in Maya this year then Galaco and Galaco has XSY in V4. I get the idea the same will happen to Piko, as not many were that interested in V2, and once released for a newer engine they would loose interest again.

In fact, I myself only consider at this point Leon, Lola and Miriam the 3 vocals more desperate of an update, because there was no way to get them off of V1. Meanwhile every V2 has had he option to be transferred to V3 and V4 one way or another. And so far despite Miriam Stockleigh willing to update her vocaloid, Zero-G hasn't shown an interest in it, as it costs more money to update a vocal then make a new one.