User blog:Serza5/V3 - Looking back

A response to Angel's blog which I didn't want to bombard in the comments. So basically this is my opinions on the V3 release, the one where I actually bought a vocaloid for it, and still only have that one vocal as I now await the V4 engine to come with a good English voice.

V3 Megpoid (All the vocals) - Gumi has been a funny vocal for me as I have nothing I ultimately dislike about the voice but I found little songs of her I actually like, except for when this generation came where I found the likes of Giga-P's songs and Crusher's Echo. Of all her banks i'm particular fond of her English bank mostly for the songs I like with it, my only wish is that if a V4 is in the works, is that it brushes up on some of the errors as she's one of my favourite English banks, period.

Mew - A gorgeous vocal and face with the unfortunate fate of being ignored by most fans, heck Mew is the only reason I like a Dixie Flatline song. Appends for V4 would do wonders for Mew although I do ponder if they'll ever consider a "cute" bank for her which would make her appealing to those sort of fans, but I myself would be happy to see her with what VY1v4 currently has.

SeeU - A flop of a product but admitably I am fond of her, mostly for her particular voicetype. For the first ever Korean vocal it's a shame she never made it far and with the unfortunate state of her VA I can only but hope that Uni can make up for her, although I doubt she'd have the voicetype which made me like SeeU which will be a pity but alas. English SeeU I could also see being one of my favs if it actually existed.

VY1v3 - Similar case to Gumi only i've had little reason to like VY1 nor have I found anything I liked beyond basically EZFG's songs as well as HAKUMEI. VY1v4 sounds promising enough to give some life into this faceless vocal which has clearly done nothing for her and shows the sad yet unfortunate truth that the character is important for vocals to sell, but even then it's not like VY2's "Fake face" is doing much for his sales either.

Tone Rion - A vocal I adore because it's Miku but not as annoying as Miku and much more HQ than what she'll ever be. Shamefully though familiar faces do tend to be the preferred cause, or maybe it's as Angel said in that the design is too OTT (While I can't say it bothers me all that much). Will she be V4? I could only hope so as well as hope that the Vocaloidol thing that they had plan would take of because I do believe that she would've done better if they had all those vocals and had an "Idol Group" series which I do believe is still trending in Japan (With Idolm@ster still being hot and now competing with the newcomer Love Live).

Oliver - For those that don't know Oliver is the VOCALOID I own because I was fortunate enough to have a VO account and receive a coupon to get so much off him. Do I like the vocal though? Eh. I can certainly see why it's appealed to so many and am delighted for him to bring a sparkling new shine to English VOCALOIDs but I can't say that i've liked all that much of him, especially because I own him. I guess I would need to own the full editor to see him at his full potential but otherwise I most enjoy him as Puppycat.

Cul - Shameful confession; I love Cul, I love her enough to dare say I consider her one of my favourites. But unfortunately her voice is so darn poor although I can see good qualities in it. I just wish she would get a new voicebank like with Lily when she upgraded to V3, in an attempt to save this poor soul.

Yukari - Another favourite who has ranked up even higher thanks to her V4 update but on her own in V3 she was great and nothing more needs to be said beyond I can't wait to see more of her.

Bruno - One of the first for Spanish, but do I like him? Hmmmm he's alright? He's good in the sense I find nothing wrong with him but he fails in the aspect that I care little about him regardless, due to lack of oomph factor.

Clara - Do I prefer the other one then? Eeeeeeh. While Bruno fails in the oomph factor one point I can give to him is that the quality is much better with him than with Clara. It's hard to say exactly how, other than it feels like she has a foggy voice, but if it weren't for that i'd like her more but as she is I do prefer her to Bruno.

IA - One that fans seem to love but personally felt no real connection too. Granted I do think her voice is lovely but that's as far as it goes. Her ROCKS bank had me much more interested but fizzled out once it was released, that and I found little songs with ROCKS.

Lapis - As soon as I heard Clean Tears song with her (No not the winter one, the puppet one) I feel in love with the voice having a nice mix between Zunko's softness and Rion's cuteness. Her design is also cute as heck too. Shame i've not found a song I like with her since.

V3 Lily - Always liked Lily as the better quality MEIKO and with her new bank she sounds much better and more appealing than she did back in V2. It's only a pity she only makes appearances in niki and sele-P songs which aren't bad but eh.

Luo Tianyi - Out of the two Chinese vocals this is the one I prefer half because I only found a bunch of songs I like with her but also because the voicetype is more appealing than the others quiet tomboyish one. It's at least enough for me to ignore her "eh ish" design.

V3 Gackpoid - Another unfortunate Gumi-like case who does even less than what VY1 does for me. It's the more well balanced male vocal and one of the better quality one which just fails in trying to find the songs I like with him.

Galaco - Do I like galaco? Do I heck. Her NEO update was a big improvement on her prize one as not only did we get a second lovely bank but a much better quality version of her original. I would love to see more of galaco.

VY2v3 - Remember the fake VY2 I linked above in VY1's section? He has essentially ruined VY2 for me as I can't find a video of him that doesn't use that character despite the author saying not to. Pity as (besides his failure of a falsetto bank) it's a lovely masculine vocal but even without the dreaded face paint I can't really go beyond "eh" factor with it.

MAYU - A VOCALOID that deserves more popularity than what she gets. I won't deny her giant marketting scheme was a bit on the irky side but I can't say it's put me off her at all, only that I can only rely on Utata-P for songs with her.

AVANNA - To be honest I expected more from Avanna given that she's a celtic themed VOCALOID but then her voicebank basically ended up being a softer Miriam with a celtic accent and heck I would choose Miriam over Avanna. That is to say I don't dislike her just expected more of her, I can least enjoy both Silence and Sad Machine from her.

KAITO V3 - Out of the Crypton updates Kaito is shamefully my favourite despite still having issues with it. Main crit being the obvious "All the voicebanks sound too damn similar" since let's face it; even if they are different they lack variety in what KAITO can do and there's essentially nothing stopping KAITO straight from doing any of the jobs the other ones do (besides English of course). Regardless KAITO is still a nice voice which is why I do consider him now to be my fav Crypton VOCALOID.

ZOLA - I remember talking to a friend who was semi going back into her VOCALOID phase and I showed her ZOLA explaining them to be my favourite male voices, which I do hold up to. While i'm not one for having packages without the option of buying individually I can at least say that I do like all of the voices in ZOLA with Wil being the favourite. Although yet again they suffer the dreaded Gumi case with lack of songs I enjoy from them.

YANHE - As described with Tianyi I am not too fond of YANHE, as she just reaches "eh she's alright" quality. Nothing too good or too bad about her but this could be that I lack any songs to listen to with her.

Miku V3 - It may be surprise to some that I don't overly despise Miku as an individual voice mostly because i'm a trance sucker and like Lapis I do enjoy Miku in such songs. What I do despise about her though, is first of all her popularity, but this isn't anything new so i'll skip by this one. Second is her flop of an English bank which is still one of the poorest banks to date, although I will admit this is mostly due to the accent but unlike most Japanese -> English voicebanks this one is too unbearable and makes her so unclear. Her other banks? Not much to say, same as last ones, great.

YOHIOloid - One of the things I never mentioned about IA is the fact it disappointed me how little IA sounded like Lia, but I could forgive that as IA still sounds nice anyway. And then we have YOHIOloid who not only doesn't sound like his VA but also shares the misery of being only better than Sonika when it comes to voicebanks from the West (and that's giving him a lot of credit). There is just nothing at all going for this poor voice even though it could've been great.

MAIKA - The first time a multi-lingual voicebank actually does no bad for itself, despite the accent being too much when transcending into other languages, not to mention fully completed langaages. Only pity is that it's so hard to find good originals in Spanish.

Merli - I prefer her over Lapis because the voice could only be described as beautiful and I just need so much more of her, just so much more.

Nana - Believe it or not I did go through an UTAU phase which is was mostly spent with Nana and the other Macnes since they all had voices I very much liked but never listened too much because they were mostly used on UTAU (As most producers do use them more in UTAU, before you start with the garageband/reason thing). Nana coming to VOCALOID was needless to say a blessing and is currently my favourite English banks despite the accent, even so it's one of the better quality ones because they weren't trying to hide it (See Miku Eng for a failed attempt at hiding it).

MEIKO - MEIKO held as one of my favourite Crypton VOCALOIDs for a long time until V3 came about where I finally heard something in her voice that puts me off. I can't entirely describe what it is though, just the way she sounds is....eh. Only credit she's getting is that her English was a step up to Miku's.

Kokone - Ah yes, the whispery falsetto Gumi. Now I know they don't sound exactly alike but there's no denying they sound that close to each other and that is one of the reasons why i'm not too invested in her, the other reason being even if she wasn't so Gumi-like there's very little to like about her. Her design is lovely but the voice just lacks much of anything beyond her falsetto capabilities but even then she's too soft too take full advantage of that.

Anon/Kanon - They were alright at first but then I adored kanon's particular voice because it was beautiful and strong and leaves anon in the dust for having what i've seen described as "nasally gumi voice". I would like to see more of kanon alone but I can't complain too much with duets since they do sound nice together....in the only 2 good songs with them.

flower - It took a while for me to like her but now she's one of my favourites for having a unique and charming voice and she definitely needs to take advantage of the V4 editor with growling especially.

Zunko - One I don't look up too much despite the fact I think her voice is adorable and lovely. But does she even have that many songs? Pity though because I would love more of her.

Rana - She was cute and I loved her at first but like most things it fizzled out after a while because as you'd expect given the nature of her she is mostly used by amateurs and there's not any professionals touching her. Which is a pity because I would like her more if I have more reason to like the voice.

Gachapoid V3 - I am still amazed this came to be after saying it isn't. I do like Ryuto though, his voice does tend to be offputting for some but I appreciate the charm of it a lot and i've seen- well one song that used his voice amazingly well.

Chika - I could say she's just another Gumi sounding vocal but I must admit I do actually like Chika, mostly due to the design being in a gorgeous artstyle but also because the voice in itself is actually appealing, a lot more so than kokone's. But there is the un-denying fact that because she's so similar to Gumi that Gumi is going to be the more popular choice despite Chika's better range.