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General Discussion Thread

aru ii

Your Neighborhood Tianyi Enthusiast!
Feb 12, 2021
1,017
VOCALOID4 Editor


Ken's the most accessible of the Standard vocals, I think, so I'm happy he's the one they've chosen to include! I do hope the English site hosts a trial download as well, maybe with Chris and/or Amy, but whether they do or not, this makes all previous V3/4/5 trials accessible again, and I'm happy for that!
how does it makes the previous trials accessible again?
 

peaches2217

Give me Gackpoid AI or give me DEATH
Sep 11, 2019
1,930
27
Arklahoma
how does it makes the previous trials accessible again?
Ah, I just mean now people can actually use trials. After the retirement of V4, the only way to make use of trials was by owning a copy of the Vocaloid editor; V5 finally gaining a trial means people who are just getting into Vocaloid and don't have access to previous editors/trials can try their favorite VBs before deciding whether or not they wanna take the plunge with V5, that's all I meant! I'm sorry, I worded it badly 😅
 
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Mika

crying over Rune Factory 6
Jul 5, 2018
286
26
Germany
Mayu will be 10 years old at the end of this year too! Man, I still remember how excited I was for V3 and all of it's early vocals and now it has already been 10 years... time flies.
 

MillyAqualine

Hardcore Fan
Apr 11, 2018
286
30
FINALLY (Goddamnit Yamaha, why did you do it now right whe"n YANHE V5 Beta testing closed ???!!! òOó )

Well, seems at least I can get the consolation to try out Sora and Ken now //runs DLing the V5 trial now
 

MillyAqualine

Hardcore Fan
Apr 11, 2018
286
30
It always crack me up (not because of the whole Kévin memes we have over here but rather because it's the name of a sibling ^^"' )
 

Tortoiseshel

Aspiring Fan
Aug 23, 2021
54
Seems like people outside our little bubble have been talking more and more about vocal synthesis technology lately, and it's generally not very positive. Between that whole nonsense with Troy Baker and "voice NFT's" last week or so, and now apparently some Star Wars show using a neural network to synthesize a young Mark Hamill's voice, there appears to be a growing fear among the general media-consuming public that voice actors are at increasing risk of being replaced by these automated systems. I'm currently reading the replies to a Twitter thread about the Mark Hamill situation, and I keep seeing terms like "dystopian", "bone-chilling", "nightmarish", "bleak", "horrifying", etc. Several are even outright saying that the underlying technology is wholly terrible in and of itself and shouldn't exist, which I'm sure most here would disagree with, myself included. But I do think there are legitimate ethical concerns about the potential uses for this kind of software. VOCALOID et al. come with end user agreements for a reason.

I'm generally of the opinion that technology itself is morally neutral*. It's the things that people/corporations do with that technology that can be good or bad. It's just a tool. An easy example is nuclear power: One the one hand, it can be used as an incredibly clean, safe, and efficient source of electricity. On the other hand, it can be used to create some of the most devastating weapons humanity has ever conceived. It's not the technology itself that I think people should be fearful or distrustful of, rather we should be concerned about what people, particularly those with power, do with it. And really, that has much less to do with any given tech itself than with the wider societal systems that we live in. Specifically, ones that value profit and growth over literally anything else, and are willing to screw over as many people they need to do so. And given that context, I completely understand and empathize with the immediate gut reaction many are having to the idea of Disney and other giant corporations using computers to recreate their most beloved and iconic characters in a way they find uncanny. I just wish people would direct their anger where it really belongs: at the rich assholes using every tool available to get as much money as they can while sharing as little of it with the rest of us as possible. Not at a computer.

*There are exceptions to my rule, like uh, electric chairs... or blockchain :B
 

Blue Of Mind

The world that I do not know...
Apr 8, 2018
728
Seems like people outside our little bubble have been talking more and more about vocal synthesis technology lately, and it's generally not very positive. Between that whole nonsense with Troy Baker and "voice NFT's" last week or so, and now apparently some Star Wars show using a neural network to synthesize a young Mark Hamill's voice, there appears to be a growing fear among the general media-consuming public that voice actors are at increasing risk of being replaced by these automated systems. I'm currently reading the replies to a Twitter thread about the Mark Hamill situation, and I keep seeing terms like "dystopian", "bone-chilling", "nightmarish", "bleak", "horrifying", etc. Several are even outright saying that the underlying technology is wholly terrible in and of itself and shouldn't exist, which I'm sure most here would disagree with, myself included.
Westerners have always been creeped out by voice synthesis in general, let alone singing synths - just look at some comments on any videos featuring the IBM 7094 singing 'Daisy Bell', or that one meme featuring Miriam singing "I feel fantaaastiiic~". (Admittedly, the latter is pretty sinister even to this Miriam stan, but overall I find it more amusing if anything). Even the more recent videos utilising AI for recreating fictional characters' voices treats the tech as nothing better than a meme at best. That's why some of us here have had such a hard time introducing vocal synths to people who aren't already into otaku culture to begin with - the technology is inherently 'uncanny valley' to them.
 

morrysillusion

v flower enthusiast
Jul 14, 2018
847
25
Socal
morrysillusion.net
Westerners have always been creeped out by voice synthesis in general, let alone singing synths - just look at some comments on any videos featuring the IBM 7094 singing 'Daisy Bell', or that one meme featuring Miriam singing "I feel fantaaastiiic~". (Admittedly, the latter is pretty sinister even to this Miriam stan, but overall I find it more amusing if anything). Even the more recent videos utilising AI for recreating fictional characters' voices treats the tech as nothing better than a meme at best. That's why some of us here have had such a hard time introducing vocal synths to people who aren't already into otaku culture to begin with - the technology is inherently 'uncanny valley' to them.

reminds me of this article from 2004 where they had the first vocaloid concert, and how the response was very mixed then. some thought it was interest but it did seem there was likely more confusion or distaste than anything. even way back when vocaloids were not nearly as good as they sound now, there still seemed to be concern about them taking over human singer roles...
 

TheStarPalace

Hardcore Fan
Apr 8, 2018
485
Tortoise's story actually explains a lot of why singers and voice actors often don't want to involve themselves in vocal synthesis tech-too much room for misuse, probably. Like if anyone here was a musician who knew nothing about vocal synthesis, would they want some random people to have a digital copy of their voice they can do whatever with?? That's why so many English vocal synths have anonymous voice actors. It was incredible to me that Emma Rowley saw potential in vocal synthesis tech and wanted to use Solaria! Even people who are aware of vocaloid without being fans or knowing anything about the tech assume it faded into obscurity and completely ignore or discount synth v and cevio. And just at the same time AI synths are becoming a new fear among voice actors who think it might replace them. I guess that's why obscurity is "better" for these types of vocal synths to reduce any prospect of harm or misuse.
It also makes one think about how and why vocal synthesis even exists if we have the capability to sing and talk already. I guess that's like asking why cars exist when we have legs though- it's to simplify and speed up a process. I can't sing in the exact way Miku or Avanna or Eleanor Forte can, and don't have the professional training Solaria's voice provider does, and definitely can't sing the same in any language-thats why I buy these things and use them, and I'm presuming that's part of why others do too. I don't know how this post will come off, but I sympathize a lot with people who find vocal synths uncanny and with the communities and companies keeping them alive.
I've wondered for a while how or if newer products would change the way this technology was perceived. I guess it has....but not in a positive way.
 

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