So recently I've had some doubt on things about extra vocals being added to Vocaloids. In V3 I expressed that stepping into different languages offered more potential then extra voices and this is over time becoming more and more my general consensus.
I'll start with XSY. XSY is a wonderful addition to V4, giving a Vocaloid even more reason to support the need for extra voices per Vocaloid. With just 1 extra vocal a Vocaloid's tones are double and their potential with it. That said... Two factors impact the Vocaloid. Firstly if the voices are greatly different the maths needed for the factor don't produce a HQ result. Secondly if the two voices are very different they produce a lot of variation and its like having another voicebank entirely.
So this leaves me divided on whether or not a Vocaloids additional voices are worth it. For example... Do we really actually need 10 Megpoid Japanese voices? Okay there are about 100 variations now you can do for her, but she STILL does the same genres of music. Her range and tempo aren't effected so much. Yukari V4's power tone voice on the other hand when its used for XSY with the other voices... Its like a lot of variation in her voice occurs when XSY... But the quality dips. Yet the more I hear Yukari the more I prefer the more different result then Megpoid v4. Its basically the same I feel for Luka V4, at the end of the day really you don't ness. have as much as you think, EVEC or not.
So this is why I'm more skeptical on extra voices more then ever. If you can get more out of 10 Vocaloids, then there is still little worth in 10 vocebanks of the same Vocaloid. Okay its cheaper then buying 10 Vocaloids, but you aren't getting you're moneys worth perhaps as you think? When it boils down to the core, Chika still covers more genres then Gumi does. Gumi's voices just lean towards one of the genres she covers, she *might* cover slightly better... But thats it, she still covers that genres anyway with or without that tone of voice.
XSY will likely get better with time. So some of the current concerns will disappear. This is also the other thing about quality will likely vanish as the code is adapted and results become better. So the sharper differences between a Vocaloids tones will improve over time, so this is why I've got my doubts to begin with. Thinking into the future, on the long term impact on voices will be that there will be less and less advantage on offer to similar VBs then different ones.
So this is why I'm still leaning on Extra languages being more useful. Sure its nice to have a slightly bolder version of a Vocaloid, but its also nice to have that Vocaloid in a language you can actually use too. There are so many Vocaloids off limits to so many producers, and with some aspects of Vocaloid becoming strong now (English, Chinese), its a shame that there are still potential producers cut off. Despite all my issues with the Japanese->English versions, or any adaptation into another language for that matter, they still give off HQ results then butchering the sounds of another language to produce a half decent quality at best result. And producers who could be the next best thing or bring in the next big iprovement or feedback that helps Vocaloid itself are off the radar. To me thats going to change the game for that Vocaloid then adding a slightly bolder version of them, or slightly softer voice... Because quite honestly... You can buy another Vocaloid with the tone you need and get more from it.
About all there is to say is *maybe* that other Vocaloid might not be the one you wanted for that song or the same quality... But look... s I said to people wanting a Luka "power" voice... Luka's still quite soft even in her "power" evecs. If you wnt "power" you switch to the Kagamines as they were built for that job. Whereas Luka was a more expressive intended vocal. You may like Luka and want her in that voice, but it goes back to that idea of the "right tool for the right job" crit I had when people give "advice" to buying Vocaloids. Its better to have the right Vocaloid that fits the song then have to fore the wrong Vocaloid to fit the song. The vocaloids aren't humans, they have built in limits, and you may not be able to get around them. ITs the same as in real life... When looking for singers, the right singer singing the song is better then the wrong singer saying the song. :-/
I'd love Yamaha to come up with a tool now for multiple languages that will carelessly blend the two voices together as a lot of the time you still can hear the voices switch tone when they switch languages. So this is my high hopes that at some point in the future Yamaha will take advantage of this... But for now... I've got my concerns alone with XSY.
I wish the XSY thin had completely over writting my opinions on the extra voices... This would satisfy my concerns I've had for a while now on extra voices. My old concerns were just centred, at least, on the fact switching mid-song made the vocaloid sound like their mimicking a human more and me questioning why producers didn't take advantage of that more. At least its not just that anymore.