Phoneme List

The ponetic system forms the basis of speach play back in the Vocaloid software.

Using the Phonetic System


Note: The following applies to the Vocaloid 2 system, while both programs work in a similair fashion, some things may not apply to Vocaloid or working differently to Vocaloid 2.

A note is that some of the Vocaloids simply do not have all the phonemes, such as [br1]- [br5] the breathing phonemes. There are also some phoneme that found only in one language so not all of the Japanese and English Vocaloids will share the same phonemes. Also, while a Vocaloid's help guide will list the alphabets of the languages they may not include additional notes. If a user allows the program to auto-find phonemes, if it has a particular word it simply cannot identify, it will automatically write it as the phoneme u: by default. In addition, if the user enters a phoneme manually that the Vocaloid simply does not have in its voicebank, there will be no sound at all when the Vocaloid is played back.

To create and edit phonemes a user must right click on a note click and press "Note Properties". Here they can edit a phoneme and add additional effects. For instance, to roll the phoneme U: we would edit to read U: R, making sure there is a space between U: and R so the program knows they are different phoneme effects. When a user is entering a phoneme they must take care as capitalisation of a letter may not have the same effect as a lower case letter (example: Z and z do not produce the same result).



A Vocaloids dictionary will attempt to match the correct phonemes with the word the user enters, although a note is that not all words are able to be found by the dictionary. To be able to write the word "bungle" if you do note know how to use the phoneme system, an easier way if to find a few simuiliar words and work from there, in this case "bangle" and "bun" can be used to enter manually the word "bungle". "Bun" gives us the phonemes bh V n and bangle bh { N g V l. Bungle will be formed from "bun"s bh V n with the addition of "bangle"s g V l, giving us bh V N g V l for "bungle".

A user can use the phoneme system to create languages from scratch, so long as it is within the Vocaloids capablities. For this, a note is that due to the set up of the Japanese Vocaloids, they are more limiting for the use of other languages. They will often retain a heavy Japanese accent even if they do manage to sing in the correct language. English Vocaloids have a greater language compacity then their Japanese cousins and are therefore easier to make sing in other languages. However, regardless it is difficult for any Vocaloid to sing in the langauge they are not intended for and may take hours to do. A user may have to make the dictionary for another language from scratch, this however also allows for a user to be creative, even going so far as to invent languages of their own if they desire. Essentially, the more time a user spends working to get famliar with the phoneme system, the more they can get out of the Vocaloid program. A additional note is so far Sonika is the only Vocaloid who is regarded as truly able to "sing in any language" due to her unique set up. Luka will also work according to which language of the program the user is working in.

English Phonetic System
The following is a list of phonemes needed to make the Vocaloid sing in English.

''Special note: This was the list provided by Big Al's help file, however there were some incorrect entries within the released list. Entering some of the words provided here as examples for the phoneme usage will not result in the expected phonemes that were used for the list. In addition, the list did not indicate which particular letters the phoneme applied to; the wikia has underlined the relevant letters for the benefit of readers. Of the Japanese Vocaloids, only Luka will be able to use this system properly and she has some missing phonemes that Japanese Vocaloid simply do not have. ''

Japanese Phonetic System
The following is a list of phonemes needed to make the Vocaloid sing in Japanese.

''Special note: as this is taken from Big Al's help file, please be aware like his English guide there may be some mistakes. As this guide is meant for a Japanese user working with a English Vocaloid, the phonemes will only work in the Japanese version of the software. Unlike how the Japanese Vocaloids cannot use the English phonetic system properly most, if not all, English Vocaloids will be able to use this system if the user is using the Japanese version of the software, however aditional work will be needed regardless to perfect phoneme usage.''

Note Effects
The following is a list pf phonemes that will alter the effect of a note in a certain way.

''Specaial note: Not all Vocaloid will share these particular effects. Sweet Ann, for instance, does not have the breathing phonemes.''

Additional Help
Also note, both Zero-G and PowerFX also have tutorials of their own.


 * Explaination on how some of the Japanese Vocaloids sound when you use the breathing effects
 * full phonetic list for both Japanese and English Vocaloids, including notes on if the vocaloid has this phoneme. List also includes information on how to transform Japanese and English into the opposite language effectively.