User blog:MeerkatQueen/Thoughts on VOCALOID5

So I guess that enough time has passed where I can give my thoughts on VOCALOID5. (I posted a review on Equipboard that will basically sum this up if you don't wanna read allof this: link)

For those who don't know, VOCALOID is my favorite thing in the world. I love every single one of them (even the ones that I "hate"). Infact, it is a obsession and I may have a problem. So I guess if someone like me says that they have a problem with a VOCALOID product, something must be up.

VOCALOID5, as nice as it may look with some cool new features it has had a abundance of bugs and glitches that can make it unusable. The software would fix a glitch in an update, however would also introduce a new one in that same update. The first most noteworthy glitch upon release was the glitch that would crash the editor if you tried to export a wav file. Sometimes upon crashing you may be able to salvage one wav file but that was quite rare. The next noteworthy bug that would appear was that if you tried to move parameters the program would crash. Both the previously mentioned glitches were fixed in their respective next updates. The next main bug was the one that was introduced in ver 5.2.0 where thje software would crash upon opening a vpr file. There are specific circumstances that this bug need to occur however. This bug happens if A: your computer is low on space and/or B: your computer has little memory left. The only way to avoid this glitch is to make sure that your computer still has a ton of free space, and to close all other programs that are open. Then it might work. As of ver 5.2.1 this update has not been fixed. (I did have a long back and forth with YAMAHA on this issue as we were struggling to figure out what was causing the problem. Hopefully the data I provided them with will help in future updates.)

The removal of some features however is rather irksome. A notable removable of Cross-Synthesis for example is another one of the main problems people have with the software. The removal of support for VOCALOID2 vocals, as much as I hate to say it is well understandable. As the years go on older software becomes more unpredictable on newer hardware and OS. Killing off support for older software is just a common practice by companies and I'm not surprised to see it here at all. Another feature that was removes was the "Draw like V2" option for parameters. The removal of this is actually a real pain in my book as now if you draw a parameter it affects the entire part and there is no good way to stop this. The only way to stop this is to draw a dot a bit farther down from where you initially draw the parameter. Then you have to move the dot as close to 0 or 64 (depending on the parameter) as possible. And for some parameters (notably Pitch Bend), this is impossible as there are too many variables. Then there's also the change to the Vibrato Editor. Instead of being able to fine tune and customize your vibratos like a parameter, now you have to adjust it on a graph which does not allow the flexibility as the previous version did.

There is also the issue with the "updates" for the VY series. The only one of them that had a notable update was VY2. As for VY1, they removed all of their VBs that were created for their V4 release except for their Normal VB. VY1, CYBER DIVA, and CYBER SONGMAN's updates are all exactly the same as their V4 releases. A while back a friend of mine even compared the code of SONGMAN's VBs and the code was near if not identical. (I don't know how to properly search twitter though so I can't find the tweet. OTL) You'd think for DIVA they'd of at least gave her the [4], and [@l] phonetics but they did not.

I recently made a poll on twitter asking which was the bigger trainwreak: V5 or (which is also infamous for it's problems). Though only a few people voted, it did not look good for V5. (And saying that V5 is worse that F76 is really saying something.)

TL;DR: VOCLAOID5 has a lot of problems and I suggest that you do your research before buying it. However, something else to note: if you wish to get the V3 or V4 editors, due to being discontinued the prices for them have skyrocketed and at this point it may be cheaper to get the V5 editor. Or go all the way back and get a later V2 vocal if you hate V5 that much.