Talk:VOCALOID5/@comment-108.21.181.52-20181004200615/@comment-53539-20181004212141

No, this likely basically so it can compete with rivals. CeVIO for example comes with a voicebank included. And considered CeVIO is cheaper with speech included, its become Vocaloids biggest rival in Japan. And since Japan is where Vocaloid does well... Basically... Yamaha wants to make sure its doing well. Why buy CeVIO with its 1 included vocal for a fraction of the price when you get 4 HQ vocals and a better engine for a bit more?

People think UTAU is Vocaloids biggest rival, reality is since 2014 its not. UTAU is almost dead in Japan and CeVIO now has taken some of Vocaloids market. Until CeVIO was released UTAU was Vocaloids only real competitor and since it was LQ it basically never seriously competed. TAU died in 2013 and by 2014 dropped usages by over 60% compared to Vocaloids 40% (all vocal synths took a nose dive in 2014, so CeVIO came into the market and became relevant as a rival just as this was occurring). Few western fans realise how much of a threat CeVIO has been in the last few years, just its download had 1/4 of a million downloads.

In V2 every voicebank had the engine included which is why V2's were so expensive and why they did away with the engine being automatically included. Now the combo is back, the price has gone back up... And we're back where we were in V2 with the price back up high. ITs not achieved much, but it means the incentive to buy 4 voicebanks for a fraction of the price they would be separately in two languages none the less with 4 different singers... Plus if you buff it up thats 8 for a really good price... Its Yamaha trying to tempt Producers big time over CeVIO and get producers to see value in the offer. Least this is my theory none the less.

Plus Yamaha can't really just rely on Japanese producers to keep buying Vocaloid. I just wrote elsewhere since 2014 Vocal synths have been on the decrease, there is no doubt about it, Vocaloid has some long term problems. I am glad they included it as CeVIO has only just gone into English and with a non-native which can create problems selling IA English. Yamaha has a stronger hold because we do have more English vocals available. Unless your a fan of IA... Going after CeVIO in English isn't worth it and making English CeVIO was a mistake I feel. But... Regardless, time will tell. Its still not been a year on either. I do understand the pressure to keep Vocaloid on top Yamaha must be feeling though.

CeVIO has also been a mini-hit to Voiceroid, but I think by the looks of it, Voiceroid is fairing better. ITs never been too expensive compared to Vocaloid and if you want vocals for speech, Voiceroid just is better then CeVIO at this task for its money. If your after speech, you have 0 reasons to chase after CeVIO and most wanting Voices aren't producers, their gamers who want a narrator for gameplays or actors for stories. So they have no need for the music side of CeVIO at all. :-/

Synth V also just entered the scene, though its far too early to see if this impacts Vocaloid. But definately, I think there are elements of V5 that are responses to CeVIO.