@Lystrialle You put the argument for supporting Crypton breaking away from Yamaha in a very good, well-thought-out explanation. I feel like most arguments against Crypton seem weak in my humble opinion, such as "But I don't want Vocaloid to die!" or "I don't like how Miku sounds based on one untuned demo!" or "I want a new character!" There are just way too many ways that Crypton (and thus Crypton customers) got the short end of the stick because of Yamaha being stupid/selfish.
I wrote down a bunch of my own arguments to support Crypton, but didn't know when it was a good time to post it, so I think I'll do it now.
My number one argument is that Crypton has always tried to be innovative (even if they sometimes miss the mark). The new Piapro will be unlike anything currently on the market. It will have tuning/notes that Vocaloid/Synth V/UTAU users are familiar with, it will also include deep learning (which seems to be the upcoming standard for vocal synths like upcoming CeVIO and assistants like Amazon Alexa), and it will even include a vocoder (like Voidol). None of Crypton's competition has this many features for such a broad range of customers' demands.
New Piapro will resurrect VocaListener by AIST in the form of Cherry Pie for those who missed out on it.
Yamaha tapped out of the vocal synth market and isn't even going to let the average person even look at VOCALOID AI. Of course Crypton would want to keep selling voice banks on their own terms when the paywall for V5 is so stinking high and the software turned out underwhelming to fans. (They took away features fans liked, stripped the ported V5loids like VY1 and VY2 of their extra voicebanks, made super slow software with a high price tag.) Who would want to be associated with fan betrayal and a dead synth? Doesn't a brand new synth as a new chapter for everyone sound better?
I am SO sick of people acting like Crypton is responsible for Yamaha's business decisions by somehow making sure Vocaloid doesn't die. They are two businesses, not stinking husband and wife. I bet Crypton couldn't care less at this point what Yamaha does after having to work with them and their illogical ways for so long.
Crypton is actively hiring graduates of vocal synth/deep learning/music and science colleges. A lot of them have huge and innovative projects they've been working on, which they present at conventions along side actual businesses like Crypton and Yamaha. Why in the world would Crypton hire these students and then force them to waste their talent and knowledge by doing the same old thing? Complaining that they shouldn't create Miku NT is kind of twisted in my opinion. There are Japanese students on Twitter sharing their files relating to vocal synth and deep learning, figuring out how to make emotive and realistic singing/talking, this is what the current generation is working on, so let the industry grow and change!
Crypton and other vocal synth companies (like 1st Place and Techno-Speech) actually get money from the Japanese government and even their own towns because they know vocal synths/virtual idols are bringing in money to their community and Japan. Why wouldn't Crypton want to be innovative when it comes to promoting their characters and making changes to their software in order to pump out talking collabs for products faster while simultaneously making the workload easier for producers?
As a side note, I seriously doubt Teto will be on new Piapro. UTAU is going to get updated soon. I think if Crypton were to release a new character, we will have to wait until all the current Cryptonloids get their NTs released (and for those who somehow missed it, they ALL are getting updated, please be patient, Miku NT isn't even out yet!).
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