2022 Vocal Synth Predictions (plus bonus poll)

[lIlI]

Only ten days left in the year, which means we can rev up the speculation engines and cast our predictions for 2022! As this era marks the end of Vocaloid's typical engine cycle, I've made a special poll regarding the status of VOCALOID6.

For a refresher on what happened in 2021, check out this excellent summary by TheStarPalace.

Here's last year's prediction thread, did any of your guesses come true?

In which i discuss my powers of prophesy

2021 predictions
DeepVocal 2 comes out, and a new voicebank is released by Boxstar to accompany it.

Correct! Well, I'm not 100% sure how much direct involvement Boxstar had with the vocals that released with DV2, but there were launch vocals to be had.

Yet another AI based vocal synth is announced, my brain explodes.

Correct: AmadeuSY, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were others I've forgotten.

New male SynthV? Well probably not, but.

Of course not you silly goose! Although there's still time for Dreamtonics to shadow drop the Male AI before the year is up.

Maki Eng AI is released and becomes the most used English vocal synth for a few months.

I don't have the numbers, but based on her buzz I believe this was correct! People were hyped for the first English AI on Synth V.

One more NT voice is released.

I could be generous and give myself Miku's appends, but let's be real, I was hoping for Meiko.

1st Place announces a singing voicebank for CeVIO AI

They sure did, two in fact. Past me played it safe with that one.

My 2022 predictions

• Not one, but TWO new male vocals are released for Synth V! That's right, I want to get more predictions wrong next year. Screw you, future me.
• A Vocaloid literally no one expects makes the jump to AI on Synth V or CeVIO. Not Gumi (sorry y'all).
• Maghni AI succeeds its crowdfund. The goal isn't too high, as Vocatone and Misbah Studios are able to raise some of the funds themselves.
• Sonika and Oliver are announced for Maghni AI.
• Yan He and Ling are finally, finally, finally released for VOCALOID5. Yamaha immediately stops supporting the software, as is their prerogative.
• A voicebank is revealed that has a design I really like (SSR event).
• The gods look favourably upon the land and a powerful alto is released for Synth V. Like Prometheus breaking from his chains, at last I am free.

 

[Silver1063]

BEHOLD MY CLAIRVOYANCE (FOR THE NEXT 10ISH DAYS)

• Dreamtonics will announce something on Christmas as they usually do (2018 -> SynthV R1 release, 2019 -> Web SynthV, 2020 -> SynthV AI release)
  My money is on QingSu and "Teaser - male English" being released in the West.
• Maybe we hear something the Dreamtonics Talk Software, probably too soon for a surprise release. It probably won't have a similar name to SynthV like "Synthesizer T" or something. Something more unique like Dreamtalk, Voicepeak, or Syllaflow lmao.
• Maybe news on Seika, AHS maybe announces a new SynthV/CeVIO AI

OK NOW FOR THE 2022 STUFF

• Crypton releases more updates that are very large (6+GB) while adding minor/unnoticeable changes to Miku NT
• Wat continues to name drop their characters and how they are tweaking, and improving their voices, but we aren't going to see another NT voice released until at least November of 2022
• Maghni AI funds, but doesn't make release until October. Oliver is definitely going to be there at launch with Aurum and Audine. The other three launch voices are going to be made by Misbah Studios and be Original Characters.
• CeVIO AI continues to release only young (minor characters) female vocals. Most of them are Talk Voices with only a handful of Song Voices
• Quadimension releases Stardust Infinity there is no sight of the English bank that we heard of way back in 2019, we hear about Quad? Quaid? however his name is getting a SynthV
• Dreamtonics Talk Software gets released this year, Tsuina-chan gets a talk voice, we get a Dreamtonics talk voice who has no design as tradition, AHS would definitely support it and likely has something of their own in the works for it.
• Audiologie releases ANRI Japanese and Chinese and around this time next year we may hear about a new character from them.
• Volor and Virvox may or may not release or continue trying to make Genbu AI happen.
• VOLOR RELEASES A NEW CHARACTER ASDFASDFASDFASDFASDFASDFSDAFASDF(Probably not)
• Eclipsed Sounds continues to retweet fanarts and fanworks of Solaria, if they have the funds to make a new voice, I expect we would hear about it in the latter half of 2022.
• Vocaloid 5 does nothing
• OpenUtau continues to steal kidnap users from utau

Unless I forgot something this all seems right. Anyways I gotta return back to 2023 don't tell the time police I was here.

 

[Blue Of Mind]

I can't see Yamaha dropping V6 next year - in fact, we haven't heard any internal rumblings or leaks about a V6. Yamaha's current plans for Vocaloid seem to be leaning more towards experimental projects like Charlie, which don't necessarily need engine updates to stay fresh. The traditional Vocaloid release model seems good as dead, unless I'm proven wrong next year.

 

[MillyAqualine]

Not sure those are guesses, probably more things i'd like to see but iunno why I feel it



-A random or hidden Vocaloid bank kicks in (probably a new character) in a similar manner to Sachiko or Mirai ; bonus points if he's male
-H/Hippi gets granted a Cevio AI x SynthV package
-Or she ends up as being a virtual idol with her voice actress performing in cosplay of her in concerts like Yume 100 Princes
-Cevio suddenly announces a song update for Tsuzumi and Takahashi out of the blue to accompany their long-available Talk
-There's a new Cevio project with a third language
-French is finally into Synth V (or Spanish or Korean)
-SeeU gets some brand news that are different from just her 10th anniversary's celebration
-There is something regarding NATA that is going to occur
-Lorra got some news
-MiKa voices an utau or a synthv to bring back Ring
-VOCALOID6 features a well-known singer as VP
-The AI Vocaloid project will feature this time an English-singing experiment but only as a demo like the JP
-There will probably be a new collaboration between a voicebank and a brand (no matter if it's an existing or a new bank) à
-An idol-themed anime of Project sekai could be in the works
-Another non-synth producer à la Porter Robinson or Mike Oldfield will become famous in the community for starting using 'loids in their songs instead of singing them or getting real singers to do so

May update this if I've some others

 

[peaches2217]

My correct predictions:

• CeVIO Yukari and Flower are released. General opinions will be mixed, but their fans will latch on hard, and we’ll see a major boom in content from them.
  • RIP CeVIO Flower.
• Something new happens with Xingchen’s voicebank. Either she receives an update on V5 or she’s formally retired.
  • (I'm counting this one, since we got her AI announcement!)
• Maki isn’t immediately loved, but fans warm up to her eventually. The Western fandom criticizes her English VB for being cutesy and Japanese-accented, but otherwise view her favorably.
  • Sorta-kinda? Only a handful of people really had an issue with her accent or cutesiness, but she WAS ultimately viewed favorably, so hella!
• Rikka and that other VB are released to widely positive reactions. Seika’s VB is just barely funded.

And my predictions for 2022!

• We get a new Vocaloid. Promotion isn't that wide-spread, so it mostly flies under the radar, and it's criticized for not being on SynthV instead, but otherwise received well, at least in their language's target country/countries.
  
  
• Crypton announces a new NT release, either Meiko or Rin/Len, and continue making adjustments to Miku. Fans continue to complain that they exist.
  
  
• Tianyi, Ling, and Yanhe see release on Vocaloid5, or at the very least Yanhe and Tianyi go into public beta. They'll be beloved in China and hated here in the West for being on filthy, filthy Vocaloid. Yes the overt Yamaha/Vocaloid hate has left me bitter and annoyed, forgive me
  
  
• Solaria sees a massive boom in content and competes with Eleanore Forte's Gen1 bank as the most beloved English synth in the Western fandom. Actually, I can see her getting more leverage now that SynthV is in the public eye more than it was when Ellie was the big thing, honestly.
  
  
• A few Pitagoe voices receive either AI Voice/CeVIO banks or song banks. Strong contenders are Mary and the Ririse sisters. I beg of you give me more Shuo
  
  
• Audiologe teases and/or reveals a new VB in the works, possibly Anri Japanese/Chinese.
  
  
• SynthV releases both that male AI bank and another Saki-esque, avatar-less AI bank.
  
  
• AHS dips out of the SynthV scene in favor either of CeVIO or collaborative efforts like AI Voice.
  
  
• VirVox releases more speech content with their characters. Genbu AI will be brought up again, but ultimately nothing will come of it.
  
  
• VocaTone remains hard at work on reclists. They continue pushing their characters and tease at something major happening. That’s the most news we hear from them.
  
  
• Yamaha will do something with Vocaloid AI once more, in a similar vein to Arekara.
  
  
• Xingchen AI is released. She's received warmly by the Chinese fandom as well as the Western fandom, and she'll receive a content boom like Yukari Rei did.

 

[Kiritanpo]

my list of predictions, stated as if they're facts 'cause i just FEEL them in my HEART!

-GHOST drops their demo song for Solaria. Several thirteen-year-olds manage to generate drama over this event, as thirteen-year-olds are often wont to do. The tides retreat, the frothing masses of children settle, and GHOST returns to their peaceful solitude for another year. The demo song itself is pretty darn good.
-Vocatone crowdfund finally drops. There's Aurum and Audine plushies. They're on a pretty expensive reward tier, and years later can fetch up to $3000 on auction. The crowdfund ends up being moderately successful. In 2025, I bitterly regret not paying the KS price for the plushies.
-In another Vocatone-related vein, a VT staff member misspells "sheep" as "sheeb" when explaining some of the inspiration behind Audine's design. Fans fixate on this, as they darn well should, because "sheeb" sounds hilarious.
-Medium2050 comes out. It is a largely disappointing gacha/rhythm game, but a piece of utterly deranged lore involving Shian's earthly parents being raging alcoholics and cultists who attempted to sacrifice her to the Resonancers, inadvertently drawing out her godly power, is generally agreed upon to have made up for the failure.
-oliver update
-Yamaha releases Vocaloid V6. It's just V5 except it crashes more and costs $600.
-Emv*ice's CEO starts a multi-week-long harassment campaign against some guy who said the program was 'ok, they guess'.
-An English masculine SynthV voicebank drops. Everyone rejoices.

 

[sapplerx]

I don't think Yamaha will make V6, they'd focus on other products like Charlie instead

 

[aru ii]

I guess I have some predictions as well. Not sure how accurate are they tough…

。Another Miku append, or a an update for a new character will be announced/ released.

。Tianyi, Ling, and Yanhe will release, and Longya will be announced for V5 along with that Power vb that was planned, but not released for V4.Qingxian and Moke wouldn’t be announced very soon, because there isn’t really a need for them to be updated (not counting the fact that they are lacking appends)

。 If Sekai wouldn’t be delayed for as long as Kafu did, then Kamitsubaki Studio would announce yet another project with a vtuber from their team being the voicer.

。Solaria will become the next big thing in the western fandom, and will bring many new producers and fans with her.

。 SynthV talk would probably not move a bit, or will have very little progress.

。Though Karin and Chifuyu would be popular, but will not receive Rikka’s levels of popularity

。 Ado will voice a cevio or synthv

。Some character that hasn’t received an update Or wasn’t released at all would be announced. Or some character related to them will be announced

。 Genbu AI?

。A Spanish vb will be announced for SynthV. If not Spanish, than French, German or Korean

。 ACE would continue to grow in China, and will start expanding to the west

。 A Very realistic Chinese Synth will release and get a lot of attention in China, but will be left unnoticed everywhere else

。 Some Tianyi collaborations

。 Some private vocaloid ""releases""

。English Male vb for SynthV will be released with an avatar in the Saki/ Qinsu style. Also I kind of feels that his name will start either with a J or with a T



And now my hopes that probably won’t happen in the next 10 yearswawazdxdw

。 JoyMe would make a vb for Lorra. Although I can’t really think on what synth she will be due to the large amount of synths popular in China

。 Tianyi English?

。 A new member of VSinger or another character in coloboration with Henian and some other company (aka Xingchen, Lorra) will be released for V5

。 A commercial Russian vb is released for SynthV or CeVIO or any other synth In general please

。 Miriam for Mighani AI

 

[choripan]

Predictions (its long)

OOOOOOOOOOO-K.

Predictions for Christmas!!!
- A proper Synthesizer V Talk announcement (Silver1063 left svt brainworms)

2022

Synthesizer V
- Genbu AI gets announced, Kotaro AI possibly mentioned
- Korean voicebank drops out of nowhere, with the weird svs X-SAMPA as it's phonetic system
- ANRI JP gets announced, ANRI ZH mentioned, with possibility of ANRI KR?
- ROSA starts her Sing crowdfund, with a proper CUL plush and announcement of another CUL sister joining CeVIO... someday.
- A random ass VOCALOID makes the jump to SVAI out of nowhere (LUMi AI pleeeaaaassseeeee).
- No. 7 makes the jump to Synthesizer V AI
- Shiki Rowen gets announced as a Standard voicebank, furries make the crowdfund go smoothly... so much that they have money for an AI bank.
- Possibly Spanish? please dreamtonics im begginb-

VOCALOID
- A random V5 drops before the VSinger updates, shocking everyone, but their voice is unique enough that people actually buy them.
- The trio of Chinese V5s drop, Yamaha instantly drops V5, possibly without a V6 announcement.
- Maybe another VOCALOID:AI demo?
- CHARLIE UPDATES!!!!! Maybe with proper talkloid functionality (VOCALOID-flex revival?!?!?!)

Maghni AI
- A proper engine + alpha frontend is showcased, with Audine, Aurum, Oliver... and a completely new character?
- The crowdfund starts, and it goes well enough.
- Yohio whines about cancel culture, and some dude ratios him so hard that he deletes the tweet.

A.I.VOICE
- A.I.VOICE Sing gets announced, OFC with the Kotonohas being the banks showcased. It's... not good.

CeVIO
- Technospeech drops support for CS7 because they want that AI money.
- FEE drops and she's bad, but her... "market focus" buys her enough for her company to make a loli-bait bank.

DeepVocal
- A minor update happens, maybe CC support.

Piapro NT
- Miku NT updates! Crypton actually gets its shit together, hires a proper dev team, and wat can finally rest. She now sounds like V2 with bad transitions.
- Rin and Len NT drop at the end of the year.

NEUTRINO
- MAYBE a new vocal?

Emvoice
- The CEO tries doing another harrassment campaign, and people in combat of that do a campaign where they spam support for Synthesizer V AI that not even his alt accounts can defend the... software anymore.

UTAU
- Ameya comes back saying they forgor about utau (skull emoji) and that they're actually discontinuing it, telling people to use OpenUtau

XStudio/AISingers
- They exist! New voices get released.

ACE Virtual Singer
- Japanese support comes out, and people enjoy it.
- PC frontend also comes out, and almost all western users migrate to it.

YAROID
- The YAROID company gets it's shit together, and they properly explain the product line, and YAROID for ACE gets released to lukewarm reception.

Others
- Maybe a new engine? Hopefully its good.

 

[REDD]

Well, i guess I'll take a whack at it.

PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT YEAR:

-SynthV continues to be OP and continues to add revolutionary features that completely change the vocal synth game
-Zero-G releases/announces a vocal for SynthV.
-The upcoming male English vocal for SynthV will get a really cool design and LOTS of usage.
-YAMAHA stops work on V5.
-Somehow, Sonika gets an update either released or announced.
-Maghni AI gets funded, and Oliver comes out as a release vocal (or close to release)
-Lots of new, unique Japanese vocals come out that get a LOT of usage, and a LOT of cool songs get made with them and hit millions of views on Niconico.
-Miku, though she will remain the leading vocal synth by far next year, will start seeing other vocals gaining traction... and she has much less of a totally-dominating presence on the Niconico lead rankings.
-We will (unfortunately) have at least one major incident of drama/discourse relating to somebody involved with vocal synth development.
-Medium 2050 comes out, and it turns out to be a harem/dating sim-eqsue game where Muxin (the playable character) goes on a rhythm/gacha related adventure with the M5 girls, and there's a bit of gross fanservice with the girls. (please be wrong) It gets teared to shreds by people on Twitter, but regardless the Chinese vocal synth fandom either eats it up, or kinda plays it for about a few months and then forgets about it.
-A Vocaloid anime either releases or we see it nearing release.
-Miriam gets an update either released or announced.

PREDICTIONS FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS:

-Crypton has no luck with the NT technology, and signs on to have their Crypton vocals on SynthV.
-YAMAHA completely drops out of the commercial vocal synth market. If they do have a presence, they only make software for use for private, corporate-level companies.
-Most, if not all native English Vocaloids receive updates on various new vocasynth platforms and sound 10000x better. (please, Lord, pleeeease)
-Miku, though still very popular, now is no longer the most popular vocal synth.
-We will see a LOT of Japanese Vocaloids convert to new synth platforms and sound 1000000x better.
-SynthV finally, FINALLY manages to make vocal synth technology mainstream in the West. After 20 years of vocal synth technology existing, it FINALLY manages to be commonly used among professional producers in the English-speaking market. (i will cry if this happens)
-This triggers a vocal-synth RENAISSANCE among the Western vocasynth fandom, and we see awesome English vocal after awesome English vocal being released.
-The Western fandom FLOURISHES, this part of the fandom becomes waaaay huger than we ever could have dreamed, and SOOO MUCH GOOD MUSIC IS MADE.
-We have at least one new company attempt to enter the vocal synth market but fail spectacularly.
-A really, really big company enters the vocal synth market. They see relative success.
-Leon finally, finally, finally gets an update. (This prediction is probably the least likely one to happen. But if it happens it will make my week.)