BIG AL

BIG AL VOCALOID2 | Songs Albums Notable Originals

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BIG AL
General information
Sex	Male
Age	25 :: V2 Standard 21 :: Taiwanese
Height	6'4" / 193 cm :: V2 Standard 185 cm :: Taiwanese
Weight	190 lbs / 86 kg :: V2 Standard 73 kg :: Taiwanese
Voice	Frank S. Michael King
Product information
Company	PowerFX Systems AB.
Release	December 22, 2009
Language	English
Illustrator	Unrevealed :: Debut Ash :: V2 Standard Loiza :: Taiwanese
Type	VOCALOID2
Code	PFXV2
Affiliation	Yamaha Corporation E-Capsule Co. Ltd.

BIG AL, originally codenamed "RONIE," is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by PowerFX Systems AB., and was released in December 2009 for the VOCALOID2 engine. He was announced on January 21, 2007, but experienced numerous development setbacks. After the setbacks were cleared, the released voice bank was voiced by a voice actor named Frank S., whose last name has been obscured due to privacy concerns.

Concept

Etymology

There is no known explanation for why PowerFX chose the name "BIG AL" or its intended meaning.

The name "Al" can be both a masculine and feminine name, and is usually shorthand for longer names. When it is shorthand for the masculine form, it typically is referring to names such as "Alfred", "Albert", "Allen", and "Alphonse".

In his Taiwanese distribution materials, BIG AL's logo is stylized with a dash, making it "BIG-AL." Within materials published by YAMAHA, they have often written the name as "BigAl" with an exclusion of the space in-between.

Appearance

BIG AL's design is based on Frankenstein's monster. According to PowerFX, their VOCALOIDs are more like cyborgs rather than androids. The original image of BIG AL was created from an old Frankenstein photo. The hand on the image came from an old poster of Uncle Sam. The original box art features the RCA-44 Ribbon microphone, or a variant of it, a microphone that was first released in the early 1930s. The illustrator for this version of BIG AL remains unknown.

BIG AL's artwork was revised and finalized by an artist named Ash. On BIG AL's 10th anniversary in 2019, Ash revealed some early design concepts for AL that revealed some more information about the process behind the redesign. For example, there were many attempted attributes such as "crazy eyes", "fangy evil smile", "snakie tattoo" and "cleavage out." However, these attributes were toned down to make AL appear friendlier. In an early concept, he had a light/dark red button down shirt, grey pants and silver bullet belt with a bracelet on his right hand. Additional expressions were shown of the design with drafts for "glare", "evil smile" and "smile" expressions. Following this tweet were several further drafts of the redesign process showing what would later be the official outfit for the finalized design, it was also noted that other concepts for his facial expressions were tested such as "snake teeth/shark teeth/dog teeth" and "snake eyes". Later on, Ash stated BIG AL's box artwork pose was a reference to the hentai bara manga Kuso Miso Technique, also known as "Yaranaika". The tweet also suggested that BIG AL was originally supposed to be sitting, but was altered to a standing position to avoid direct referencing.

Promotional Design for E-Capsule's Distribution

BIG AL's design for his Taiwanese distribution retains many similar attributes to his official design; most notably his color scheme and general aesthetics. However, a notable divergence from his official design is the adoption of a more futuristic and cybernetic motif. Additionally, he was provided a scythe in his Taiwanese design which resembles a music note.

Relations

For more on VOCALOID relationships, see the FAQ.

• Sweet ANN - A complementary feminine voicebank.

History

Marketing

Like Sweet ANN, BIG AL's original box artwork bore similarities to early 20th-century movie posters, depicting him as a monster morph of Elvis. The new box artwork was more of a loose representation of such a monster, and was aimed more towards the VOCALOID fandom than ANN was. This marked a switch in focus for PowerFX from solely professionals.

Unlike Sweet ANN, BIG AL was not geared up to be reviewed by normal means (software reviews) and relied more upon the VOCALOID fandom to promote and use him, building on the growing interest in English VOCALOIDs that was now occurring. While a MySpace page was made for Sweet ANN's promotion, one was not made for BIG AL.

Voicebanks

BIG AL

BIG AL is a masculine voicebank that excels in classic rock, and with his deep tones is able to reach very low octaves comfortably. Due to development issues, at least 3 different versions of the voicebank exists: the first being sourced from an unknown vocalist during the "RONIE" era, the second being sourced from Michael King, and the third (final) being sourced from Frank S. All of them had the same goal of giving a rough timbre to contrast that of Zero-G Limited's vocal, LEON.

• "RONIE" (VOCALOID), unreleased
• BIG AL (VOCALOID2), unreleased
• BIG AL (VOCALOID2), December 22, 2009

Music featuring BIG AL

• On this wiki, BIG AL is featured in 53 songs, 19 albums, and 1 series.

• There are listings for notable and original songs.

HIM

Translation	HIM
Featuring	BIG AL
Producers	Original song
Categories	Crusher-P

Little Toy Robot

Translation	Little Toy Robot
Featuring	BIG AL
Producers	Sasasa-P
Categories	Original song

Ashtray

Featuring	BIG AL
Producers	sat
Categories	Original song

Pitch Black Refrain

Featuring	BIG AL
Producers	Ms.Constantine
Categories	Original song

Search for music featuring BIG AL [show/hide]

• "VOCALOID BIG AL" on Niconico Video
• "VOCALOID BIG AL" on YouTube
• "VOCALOID BIG AL" on bilibili
• "VOCALOID BIG AL" on SoundCloud

Reputation

Status

Google Trends

VOCALOID+BIG+AL

Sales

In 2010, Crypton Future Media produced a ranking of the VOCALOIDs they sold on their storefront. BIG AL was ranked the 8th most popular VOCALOID available on their site, and thus was the most popular of the imported VOCALOIDs they offered overall. In 2014, Crypton's digital storefront SONICWIRE reported that BIG AL had been the 10th most sold VOCALOID product for the year.

Reaction

BIG AL's original voice sourced from Michael King was poorly received. However, with the sudden change of voice actor and the redesign of the box artwork, many fans were pleased. While there was some initial confusion regarding such drastic alterations, it also led to much excitement in online communities.

Impact

BIG AL's box artwork revision marked the beginning of character-based presentations becoming the norm for PowerFX's VOCALOID releases. PowerFX stated that this decision was due to fandom reception and their perception of what was wanted most. It is also believed that BIG AL played a significant result in the overshadowing of Tonio's release. As one Japanese reviewer commented at the time, despite Tonio producing more "beautiful" results, BIG AL's vocal had more "personality" to it.

Misc

In the Nico Nico Douga International VOCALOID Ranking of 2010, BIG AL notably dominated the rankings and appeared in 18th place of the top 30 international VOCALOID related songs, with the second highest being LOLA with just 5 songs. Furthermore, BIG AL's vocals were used in 8 of the top 10 songs using within the year, and AL was the only English VOCALOID in the top 10 with solo songs. With how little English VOCALOID products make it into the Nico Nico Douga ranking overall, it was a significant achievement that AL was present with songs such as Little Toy Robot."海外組VOCALOIDランキング2010（仮）" by あっちゃん ft. English VOCALOIDs An independent search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in 2011, spanning between July 1st and December 15th. BIG AL fell into this category. In 2015, a survey was made regarding the popularity of VOCALOIDs on the website Nico Video. For the year 2014, BIG AL was the 41st most popular VOCALOID, and the 4th most popular "Engloid." In 2016, a cover by Giuseppe of the song "Sway" managed to gain 1,000,000+ views. This made BIG AL the first VOCALOID2 English-only release to have a video reach 1,000,000 views, and made him the 3rd English-only vocal to get 1 million views on a YouTube video.

Trivia

SONiKA's Twitter account has made various jokes about BIG AL, such as questioning whether his release date would mean that she is his big sister or little sister, referencing the disparity between release order and character ages. She also tweeted about wanting to do a duet with him, which she later did in Auld Lang Syne. Other posts included a joke that AL's high pitch was due to the tight trousers he wore, more jokes about his late arrival, and in December 2010 she said she made a snowman that looked like BIG AL when the snow fell. SONiKA also made a post describing BIG AL as her best friend, and the VOCALOID she spoke with the most, further commenting that while he was pretty scary, he was friendly once you got to know him. LOLA, MIRIAM, and BIG AL were intended to be featured in the original soundtrack of the freeware RPG, Ad Lucem. This project has never been finished. Within the Japanese fandom, there is a popular joke which reference the popular manga Kuso Miso Technique in songs featuring AL. This joke exists mostly due to the pose of AL's left hand, which almost matches Takakazu Abe's right hand pose as he sits on the bench in the manga when Abe is seen for the first time. There are also various jokes that his included breath samples sound pornographic (specifically, gay porn). BIG AL's official illustrator Ash noted that this was intended to be a subtle reference, though found that Japanese fans immediately picked up on this. It is notable that his original voice provider was an Elvis impersonator. The New York Times report on the original VOCALOIDs was titled "Could I get that song in Elvis please?". Amongst the Western VOCALOID fans, AL's prolonged development troubles and subsequent "lateness" gave birth to the term "BIG AL's syndrome". However, this term would not be coined until Tonio's own "lateness."

Achievements

First male vocal by PowerFX First English male vocal in 6 years First English male vocal for VOCALOID2 First male VOCALOID to have a box art redesign First English VOCALOID to receive voicebank upgrade First male English VOCALOID to receive voicebank upgrade Inspired the term "BIG AL syndrome"

External links

Language	Description	Site
English	PowerFX Systems AB. official homepage	Link
English	VOCALOID2 Big Al product page	Link
English	deviantArt, art and media community	Link
Japanese	Pixiv, art and media community	Link