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Other Summary of upcoming projects & controversies for all active vocal synthesizers

uncreepy

👵Escaped from the retirement home
Apr 9, 2018
1,618
Thread inspired by this tweet:


AITalk:
The engine behind things like VOICEROID and GynoidTalk, it was announced in September that it is getting a deep-learning update, which will be available in April 2020. Its features include a more human/natural pronunciation and the ability to switch between emotions like joy, sadness, and anger.

This month, VOICEROID announced they are working on English VOICEROID. They revealed Tohoku Zunko is getting an English VOICEROID and there will be a male Japanese VOICEROID who has a soft and cool voice.

flower is getting a talk voice, which was demoed in October.

💚 Verdict: This popular software will get more popular and even higher quality while expanding its reach to English-speaking fans.


Alter/Ego:
ALYS (a French vocal) has a counterpart named LEORA who has been in development since 2017. Their creators had a livestream that revealed LEORA's voicebank has a release date goal of before Christmas.

💚 Verdict: Alter/Ego is deader than dead, but LEORA finally releasing will be a nice end note for the software which was previously riddled with controversy and give fans closure.


CeVIO:
Deep-learning update coming possibly next year (they had a working demo running on a laptop in October). Will for sure feature a more emotive Satou Sasara.

💚 Verdict: Probably going from pretty dead/unpopular to catching a lot of attention.


DeepVocal:
Note: I am not an expert on what's happening with DeepVocal, so my summary is a bit vague.
This is a deep-learning-based successor to Sharpkey that was released this year. Many UTAUs were brought over to this new engine. Fans complain that it is confusing to get started due to lack of guides.

💚 Verdict: It's free, it's new, it can only improve.


Emvoice:
Emvoice released Emvoice One and Lucy in November, but the release was met with criticism. Fans weren't pleased with the marketing, the lack of range, the trial being limited to 7 notes, lack of MIDI support, and Emvoice being cloud-based. It is unknown when the demands of fans will be met or how long it will take for another vocal to be developed.

💔 Verdict: Met with cold reactions, the future does not look bright.


M. Morise's mystery synthesizer:
Masanori Morise (creator of STRAIGHT and WORLD (real-time vocal synthesizers, with WORLD powering UTAU and current CeVIO)) released Tohoku Kiritan's a cappella singing data this month for the general public to use to further vocal synthesis research and it's related to a new singing synthesis engine. Little else is known about the project.

💚 Verdict: Benefitial to the community and something to keep an eye on.


Next Generation Piapro:
Prices of the Appends will be anounced this year and then sold some time during January ~ June (all Cryptonloids are recieving tweaked voices based on their V2/V3s). The new Piapro will feature plug-ins such as VocalDrive (for growls) and Cherry Pie (a vocoder so you can convert your voice into a Cryptonloid's). Not much has been shown in terms of demos (only 1 official demo from March)/screenshots, so it is very mysterious software. The relationship between Yamaha and Crypton is even more mysterious, with fans wondering if non-Crypton Vocaloids will work in the new Piapro.

💚 Verdict: It's Crypton, so it's going to shake up the industry.


Synthesizer V:
Synth V has been working on a version 2 of the software, which includes a whisper ability and updated interface. They have been looking for Japanese and English-speaking business partners, but it seems they have found a "big" Japanese company to work with this month (we're not sure if it's an existing company in the vocal synth scene or an unrelated newcomer). Fans have been criticizing Synth V for its free vocals being stuck in development underworld (Genbu, who had his new voicebank demoed in April but still not released, and Yamine Renri, have been marked as demo versions since August 2018). It has also been difficult for non-Chinese fans to purchase voice banks from the website, so an improve store is in dire need.

The Qaudimension girls are almost complete, with either Stardust or ZERO English and a mysterious male vocal remaining.

💚 Verdict: Slower/rockier start than some fans would like, but this young software (only a year old) seems to be on track to improving in its vocal selection and overseas availability.


UTAU:
Note: I am not an expert on what's happening with UTAU, so my summary is a bit vague.
Fans were shocked when UTAU creator, Ameya, appeared to be active again, stirring up hopes for a modernized UTAU (which is getting harder to run on modern computers). But it appears to be just a false alarm.

💔 Verdict: No fancy modern UTAU update appears to be on the horizon.


VOCALOID:
VOCALOID5 came out in July, 2018 which included starter Japanese/English Vocaloids and Haruno Sora. In March 2019, Meika Hime and Mikoto were released and suprised fans. Vocaloids in development underworld: Zing, Yao Luniang, UNI Append/English, Cocorobo. The only Vocaloids that might actually be released: YANHE update. VOCALOID: AI also came out, but is probably not for normal people to use. People working for Yamaha have stated they downsized the Vocaloid department, further indicating the end of a reign.

💔 Verdict: Pretty dead. Don't have much hope for new voicebanks.


Virtual Voice Incarnation (Also known as Tensei Koe Uranai):
Developed by GREE VR Studi Lab, this is a vocoder that uses M. Morise's WORLD. It currently offers 13 voices that are being developed by the community, users are asked to read dialogue to help teach the engine how to pronounce better. I'm not sure if it will end up being a software people can use for VTuber activities in the future, but their Twitter doesn't really have a lot of info.

💚 Verdict: Competition in the vocoder world is a good thing! Hopefully it will continue to develop and bring us more news.


Voidol:
Voidol is a deep-learning-based vocoder that had been around for iPhone for a while, but this year a Mac version released in April. It suffered repeated delays for a Windows version, which finally released in August. The add-on voices weren't released until this month. Fan reaction was generally poor, with Voidol receiving 2/5 stars (almost 50% 1 stars) on Amazon Japan, due to the software not running at all or having poor, crackly quality worse than a normal voice changer (for changing pitch) and definitely useless for serious singing/narrating projects.

💔 Verdict: A general disappointment, though novel.


Let me know if I missed anything and feel free to share your humble opinion on the current projects/controversies!
 
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Twillby

Longtime Listener
Apr 8, 2018
392
33
US
Personally I think it's too early to give up hope on Ameya. Why would he bother posting those screenshots of new features if he wasn't planning on releasing an UTAU update? I don't really expect it to be fancy or anything, but he did just release an update for UTAU Synth so it can run on the new Mac OS, so I'm thinking he's just taking his time. Even with the shareware version I'm sure UTAU's not what's paying his bills.

I still haven't given up complete hope on Zero-G releasing something, although the more I hear about Yamaha even that small flame starts to flicker. It's sad and a bit existential crisis inducing to think Vocaloid might not be actively developing anymore, but I've mostly come to terms with the idea so I'll be pleasantly surprised if something new pops up.

I have the most hope in CeVIO and SynthV, not gonna lie, because in the end I think I like using them more anyway, and we do know they have rather solid plans (Kanru's made it clear he's working on an update plus the whole "famous Japanese company" coming out with something next year, and we've seen evidence of the new CeVIO in blog posts and such).
 
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Prism

Enthusiast
Jul 18, 2019
524
I think deep vocal is going to be the new utau. I have all my hope in synth v and crypton. The only thing I can see vocaloid doing is a zero g bank and Chinese banks but it's pretty much dead. I'm excited to see new ai snyths
 

peaches2217

Give me Gackpoid AI or give me DEATH
Sep 11, 2019
1,930
26
Arklahoma
As bittersweet (though mostly bitter) as Vocaloid's slow and agonizing death is, I am happy that Crypton's characters aren't going anywhere, and it'll be a while before V3/4 VBs are outdated to the point of being hard to use. While the voices are either harder to access or not as good in variety, I really do like SynthV and CeVIO's editors more, so I'm very excited about their future growth! I can honestly see SynthV taking Vocaloid's place within the next few years.

(Also, "emvoice lmao" that- that about sums it up. :ROFL:)
 
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First Sound Future

Passionate Fan
Apr 8, 2018
144
AITalk:
The engine behind things like VOICEROID and GynoidTalk, it was announced in September that it is getting a deep-learning update, which will be available in April 2020. Its features include a more human/natural pronunciation and the ability to switch between emotions like joy, sadness, and anger.

This month, VOICEROID announced they are working on English VOICEROID.
Here is a site where AITalk can be heard in three languages other than Japanese. ( it's under <AITalk International> ) There's both a male and female voice and It gives an idea of how an English Voiceroid could sound like.

I personally think it sounds really cool and I have a lot of hope for it doing well in the English fandom, mainly because it will be much easier to just type what you want the Voiceroid to say vs. forcing a Vocaloid to talk (and sometimes having it sound awkward compared to Voiceroid sounding nicer and actually understandable.) I point this out because there's a lot of Vocaloid fans making talkloid videos for fun, it's going to be interesting to see what comes out of Voiceroid, there's so many possibilities with it I feel. :0
 

Blue Of Mind

The world that I do not know...
Apr 8, 2018
699
I'm now getting ready for a potential funeral for Vocaloid if Yamaha decides not to bother with V6 or something. I can't wait to see the fandom obituaries. Though I am looking forward to the future capabilities of Piapro (I'll follow the Cryptonloids to the grave lol), CeVIO and SynthV. Not holding much hope for UTAU though, and lmao at Emvoice - I'm expecting that to die out within a year or two considering the fan reaction to it and the staff trashing Vocaloid.
 

Aia

DDR-tist
Jul 14, 2019
374
20
The Internet™
Seeing Vocaloid's status kinda makes me a little sad, I just hope it's still around by the time I can actually get it (who knows how long that'd be)
 

uncreepy

👵Escaped from the retirement home
Apr 9, 2018
1,618
Personally I think it's too early to give up hope on Ameya. Why would he bother posting those screenshots of new features if he wasn't planning on releasing an UTAU update? I don't really expect it to be fancy or anything, but he did just release an update for UTAU Synth so it can run on the new Mac OS, so I'm thinking he's just taking his time. Even with the shareware version I'm sure UTAU's not what's paying his bills.
Thanks for clearing that up. I think your explanation makes sense and you might be on to something. (Unfortunately, I'm just not familiar with UTAU so I didn't realize about this stuff.)


I'm happy with all the thoughtful replies so far, everyone!
 
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