Talk:Megurine Luka V4X/@comment-37712315-20190310200235/@comment-53539-20190311153720

Ah Software did the same thing with Miki, Kiyoteru, Iroha and Yuki. The difference between V2 and V3 or V4 is quite a leap, so in my books they just had to update before V2 was retired and they were fine.

Its better then jumping from V3 to V4, as there was almost no difference except XSY and GWL for those who did. Especially those that came without additional voicebanks. The most major difference with Japanese vocaloids was recording techniques changed. Even in terms of things, there is little difference in V4 and V5 except things like technology progression and so a lot of the older vocaloids aren't much different to the newer V5 ones. This is the problem with Vocaloid going forward and I feel myself Vocaloids are better if they release every other engine instead of every engine. If you take away EVEC from Miku V4x, you basically have a package that isn't too different to Miku V3, except some voicebanks have slightly bigger ranges.

Overall a lot of the post V2 vocaloids have bigger tempo and vocal ranges. Even now Luka's vocal range isn't on par with V3 and V4s newer vocaloids. There are only oddball releases like LUMi or Rana who are more like the V2 in terms of tempo and/or vocal range size. So almost every V3, V4 or V5 vocaloid can actually outclass just about all f the Vocaloids in V2 in range. As I said with Megpoid V4, Internet added 5 new voicebanks to Gumi, but she still has the same vocal range and tempo as her V2, meaning it almost doesn't matter which voicebank you use.

Going to put a line here to talk about things for a moment on a separate trail of thought. Saves a second post on the matter entirely.

The CFM Vocaloids are not so unique at this point. Here is the list of problems they face summed up;
 * With Meiko for example, not only could you find real life singers to replace her (which sadly was a better idea for many situation in Vocaloid), ut from Lily V2 onwards there were vocals that could replace her. Even at the end of V4, Mirai was released who basically was like Meiko but she has her single voicebank, that 1 outclassed Meiko's straight voicebank.  Of all the CFM Vocaloid, Meiko is the 1 with the most Vocaloids who can simply replace her at this point to the point of stupidity, and even if you thought she was good for rock and the queen of rock... Eh... There are Vocaloids now who run rings around her voicebank, meaning she has lost that point about her voicebank.  There were at least 5 Vocaloids who were better then Meiko at this genre released before the end of V3 (VY1, IA Rocks, Flower and I forget the last 2).  And V4 saw the release of yet more who could.
 * The Kagamines are the same, there are actually Vocaloids within Vocaloid who are either now sounding like 1 of the pair. Sweet Ann alone had a chance to sound like Len.  So the Kagamines have never been so unique, except when it came to their twin thing and then along came Zola and Anon & Kanon who basically did something similar with multi-vocaloid releases.
 * Kaito saw a introduce of a possible rival vocal in Kiyoteru, whose high notes sounded a lot like Kaito and still do to a point.
 * Vy1 competed with some of the Miku Appends and a lot of people said in V2 she sounded like an Append vocal for Miku due to a certain undertone. Miku's mostly hanging on as the best CFM because of how much support is for her voice and there isn't many that can do what she does overall.  CFM can afford to put priority into her Voicebank over all other Vocaloids, and often does when they eventually gear up to release her next update set.
 * Luka's not really been replaced entirely and is about the most unique left of the Vocaloids among the CFM lot, but there are Vocaloids who do everything Luka does but better, perhaps not in two languages but definately in either. Yukari can pull off ballads better and with more emotion, and Luka doesn't have the strength of power in her vocal to compete with better Vocaloids elsewhere.  So she has competition with every single thing she does, whereas Miku can still somewhat compete due to the overwhelming support she has as a Vocaloid release.

So what made CFM unique is no longer true, and hasn't been for a long time. Their popularity is because people consider them "the original" vocaloids and they pretty much founded the Vocaloid franchise. So they support them because their well known. Many western Vocaloid fans alone thought of them as like the "main characters" and turned a blind eye to the existence of all other Vocaloids, they still do now. A lot of misconceptions have come out of the CFM Vocaloids. While they often have some sparkling looking things like EVEC, there are always Vocaloids who have outclassed them in every engine.

Even in V2, Miku's original voicebank was dated b the end of 2009, when AH software released Vocaloid that begun the start of Vocaloids main "MQ era" of Vocaloid. Miki for example was the most adaptable Vocaloid and was able to outclass Miku in this, who had been the previous and had Miku not been easier to use miki might have impacted things more. The Ah Software lot then gained Iroha, and that was the only Vocaloid outside of the VY series whose first release is classified as "HQ", with CFM only having Luka as the LQ of the HQ range and the Appends to compete with the VY series. V3 was like a big reset button for all studios and it has been a lot hard to tell where Vocaloids rank now overall. But the original V2 era had the pleasure of being easier to rank.

The Vocaloids either way for CFM are not so special anymore, but producers and fans are reluctant to put faith in newer Vocaloids. Mirai, who as I said is the same vocal type as Meiko, can do everything Meiko can and better. But she barely got any support because people already had Meiko. There were also other issues like her being a late V4, but while a lot of interest was in her pre-release, she barely gets noticed post release. So the popularity of Meiko has damaged Mirai somewhat. To top it off, the golden age of Vocaloid is over and we're now expecting the software to level off in popularity and sales for some time. So while its getting sales, the growth is a lot less then it has been in previous Vocaloid generations. Only Una got any large amount of popularity in V4 out of all the newer Vocaloids its been reported.

Ah Software did report growth on a global scale, so the answer to the long term solution of a stagnated franchise is "go global" which is why Miku English and Chinese exist. Megpoid English was the same attempt and AH Software took on Nana partly it seems to gain access to a English voicebank in the process. They plan to actually do Luka "Appends". All V4x really represents is the  Luka V2 voice being updated, with it being split between a "Soft" and "Solid" vocal, with "Solid" being more or less the main voicebank of the two. And EVEC doesn't fully replace the need for extra Append vocals. And it doesn't really sound like Luka V2 overall, they went for an update that sounded more like the provider as that was a complaint of V2.

Sorry for the long reply to this part of the post. Its been an issue a long time that because Vocaloids for CFM like Len exist, some fans and producers won't look at other Vocaloids like Fukase. And while Len English wasn't good at all, many bought the Kagamines over native English Vocaloids because its Len. Etc, etc. Their popularity hurts other Vocaloids, but Vocaloid is hurt if the CFM Vocaloids don't get updates, Miku contributes to over 1/10 of all Vocaloid income at times and is the biggest contributor to the Vocaloid franchise remaining strong. So... Expect a Miku V5 at some point. Miku's only real failure so far is the Chinese voicebank... Apparently, the Chinese Vocaloid fans were not impress with it as it was the worst Chinese voicebank released. Luka V2 English did get away with what it did because it was aimed at the Japanese fans who didn't know better... And English fans in V2 were... bias (to annoying levels, and some of it still exists even now) against all English vocals so we had a real lack of support there overall and Luka English basically got away with existing because people didn't seem to care about English Vocaloid.

(Sub-note; I often find when you mention the V2 era you have a issue not mentioning the problems with English Vocaloid compaired to Japanese ones... Because that era because its something that held back English Vocaloid for years and we're still paying for. With forums like Vocaloid Otaku being a breeding ground for hate against English Vocaloid, so despite Luka V2 English being bad, it was given love because it was Japanese and Sonika got labelled as the worst English vocaloid. Even though that was Luka V2, the reason Sonika gets mistaken for it is because no one can understand her mumbles... Me included as I own her and regret her purchases.  It can be impossible to talk about anything related to the V2 era for the English Vocaloid version simple because its the 1 era that the anti-Engloid part of the fandom could get away with what they do because we didn't know enough on the engine to prove otherwise, and the damage they dealt English Vocaloid took several years and releases to overturn and they STILL will deny it. So the golden era of Vocaloid only applies to the Japanese vocaloids and it was one of the worst eras for English Vocaloid. Its a real dark shadow on our version of Vocaloid... Alongside the failure of Spanish Vocaloids being the only other side meant really for the western markets)