General Discussion Thread

[Blue Of Mind]

Character items take me back! I noticed they started dying off around the time Lily was originally released on V2, and nobody could decide what her character item should be. I think the organic/meme nature of character items really trailed off by that point, because everyone was trying to assign an item to every Vocaloid coming out. Nowadays, you sometimes see mascot pets and items associated with a VB in official art (whether they're a Vocaloid or not), but fans never try to assign a fanon item to a VB anymore.

 

[Ceres]

Woo! Speaking of character items here's a link to an ongoing Kickstarter campaign to make some fanmade Vocaloid merchandise come true! It's Miku, Rin and Len with their iconic Leek, Orange and Banana plus there's also a Snow and Sakura Miku~

(I got permission from the forum staff to share this, thank you very much! )
It's around half-way through with its goal and time-wise, so if you'd like to see the project come true and get some super cute and unique charms too please take a look at the project!

I miss character items so much! I think they were a fun part of the early character traits. One character item I miss even though it was super silly was Rin and Len being associated with road rollers. All the character items have basically gotten dropped now but the banana/orange thing lasted a lot longer than the road roller gag. Which I thought was really cute that they included it in project diva.

Although it's definitely not as present the road roller still gets representation from time to time which is to be appreciated c': (Some apparel coming out next month has this cute logo, similar for Len!)

I personally have always loved that it's something both Rin and Len share? Yeah, Rin is more often depicted with it but it's the Kagamine's item, which I find really cute.

Additionally, I totally agree it was around Lily (Though Internet Co. did end up adopting Bees for her, right?) when it got dropped but the amount of Vocaloids that were getting created was steadily increasing and at the same time the number of Vocaloid fans too was getting larger, which back in the day I feel it created this sort of 'fight' to see WHO WAS RIGHT in the idea they had for a character item which in return... ended up not pleasing everyone. Up until Gumi, I feel, everyone sort of agreed easily like 'yeah, that makes sense' (Though I'm SUPER glad Rin's item didn't end up being onion hahahAHA) but down the line with fewer options and more opinions nothing sat well enough to make popular.

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

Ah, I always loved character items!! I know the trend has died off a bit, but even though I got into vocal synths around 2018, my first exposure was the classics that portrayed them with their character items. And yes, I always liked the idea of the Kagamines being associated with road rollers. It’s silly, but very charming in a way.

I do like how some companies assign their characters official items or mascots. I think Mayu’s little stuffed rabbit, Usano Mimi, is adorable and fits nicely with her whole aesthetic.

I’d love to see the character items trend make a comeback! It was a simple, but fun and cute little trend.

 

[DefiantKitsune]

I think you could say it was a bit before Lily, with the OG AHS trio?

Honestly, I feel like the trend never really had any longevity, and wasn't really super impactful/memorable, but some stuff with it can be kinda fun

 

[Pup-p]

I've always loved character items and helping decide on a characters has always seemed cool to me
I remember in the Synth V people were joking on how Sakis character item was the bag they were showing (or a bag in general)

 

[uncreepy]

Wait, a bag? XD What does it look like?

 

[crtstatic]

Honestly I feel like Anon and Kanon should get more attention. They sound really nice and are super underrated compared to a lot of the V3s

 

[Pup-p]

Wait, a bag? XD What does it look like?

This one (at 1:51:00)

 

[kozet]

Ah, now I remember! Brings back memories.

 

[Trevor]

I have a hard enough time remembering Nemu even exist tbh. Character items are out of the question.

 

[hamano]

I haven't looked too closely what Comic Vket is, but apparently a somewhat of a substitute for Comiket on VRChat. I wonder how do you buy stuff there? Just order like you would in an online shop?

 

[uncreepy]

I read the about About page (for some reason linking out won't work, on the home page, scroll down to ComiVketとは？), it looks like vendors will have a sample of their products on display, which customers will then be able to buy right away as a digital download or they can order a physical version to be mailed to them. The boots look like real tables with banners, a price tag, and books you can pick up.


This actually seems really amazing. I love looking at sample books in Japanese on Amazon, so signing up to attend would seem cool (I'd have to look into details about attending, though).

I haven't tried out VR Chat yet, but I did find out previously that you don't actually need an expensive VR headset to play VR Chat (you can just use a keyboard to walk around, but need to tweek the settings in Steam.

Here's some info I did find out about Steam + keyboard, will mark as spoiler:

Spoiler

YOUTUBE LINK
STEAM SETTINGS
steam > right click > properties
general > set launch options
-screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080 -screen-fullscreen 0

YOUTUBE LINK
MOVING AROUND THE WORLD
mouse to look around world
wasd = controls to move, can hold shift to run
can press c to crouch
z is sit (usually) or lay (good for sitting or talking to small avatars)

YOUTUBE LINK
GENERAL TIPS
turn off animations for untrusted users to avoid them crashing your game on purpose
use safety features
save good worlds for later (search is wonky)
don't walk through people, makes VR headset wearers dizzy

 

[Mika]

The Dokomi (a really big german convention) did this too! They rescheduled the convention to the end of the year but did a digital one in VR chat on the original date. They actually want to do another digital one on the new date. As far as I know it was free, so no sign up needed. I really want to check it out next time because the concept of a digital conventions seems really interesting. :)

 

[uncreepy]

I was curious about what happened with Vocaloid/Miku being on the Numa ni HAMAtte Kite Mita (沼にハマってきいてみた) show (this is the old VocaVerse post of exemplar talking about it/me providing some extra context). Here are some clips:

This is the ratings (I made up the color system lol):
Purple = Songs they wanted to listen to no matter how much they listened to it
Orange = Songs that are super peppy
Blue = Songs that are heartbreaking and make you cry
Sparkly = God-tier Vocaloid songs

Go to VocaSphere's article for translated song lists/very detailed breakdown of the episode:

Hatsune Miku, Fan-Voted VOCALOID Songs Featured on NHK Numa

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, you’ve likely heard that the NHK program, Numa ni Hamatte Kiite Mita (hereafter “Numa Hama”) tweeted on June 11th …

vocasphere.net

This is a clip of... #1 song from purple, #3 song from orange, #3 from blue, and #1 from sparkly

 

[DefiantKitsune]

YEEAH Ikanaide, love seeing that one get acknowledged!!!

Interesting how Melt is still THE Miku song in Japan, but never really took off in America as much.

I guess I must have different tastes than a lot of people, I only like 3/10 of the "catchy" picks, the rest I either find boring or annoying haha

 

[frankensalad]

I don't know if there are any other Drawfee fans in this forum, but there latest episode granted us with yet another evil twin for Hatsune Miku.


EDIT: The miku drawing starts about 17:40 into the video.

 

[uncreepy]

The website is Sony Music Shop and it is listed as SOLD OUT on the upper right corner.

SonyMusicShop

｢Sony Music Shop｣は､CDやDVD･Blu-rayはもちろん､各種ｱｰﾃｨｽﾄｸﾞｯｽﾞや雑誌･書籍まで通販できるSonyMusic直営ｵﾝﾗｲﾝｼｮｯﾌﾟです｡

www.sonymusicshop.jp

 

[Blue Of Mind]

The website is Sony Music Shop and it is listed as SOLD OUT on the upper right corner.

SonyMusicShop

｢Sony Music Shop｣は､CDやDVD･Blu-rayはもちろん､各種ｱｰﾃｨｽﾄｸﾞｯｽﾞや雑誌･書籍まで通販できるSonyMusic直営ｵﾝﾗｲﾝｼｮｯﾌﾟです｡

www.sonymusicshop.jp

Piko was never one of my favourite Vocaloids, but this is still sad to see. I imagine the discontinuation issue will get worse with V2s and even V3s in the coming years. V1 is already technically dead, but you can still buy secondhand physical copies of V1 banks, so digital Vocaloids will be completely screwed overtime.

 

[Stardust]

I imagine the discontinuation issue will get worse with V2s and even V3s in the coming years. V1 is already technically dead, but you can still buy secondhand physical copies of V1 banks, so digital Vocaloids will be completely screwed overtime.

And that's exactly why I'm planning on buying nothing but V3s soon. Even if V2s are still being sold, I still have a bad feeling that the V3s will start to vanish at some point. If anyone has any V3s or V2s they want, I recommend buying now before it's too late, especially since most V2s and V3s are only available digitally.

 

[___]

Id say dont worry about about V3 too much til Yamaha officially retires it and stops issuing any new serials for the voicebanks, V3s are still supported and I'm hoping for a longer lifespan seeing as they're less dated and even after they're retired we'll still have few years til they're completely gone.