SynthV SynthesizerV Musical Isotope KAFU

[mary34]

Well it seems the speculations on it being delayed because of the voice sounding too similar to the vp turned out to be true huh.
Thought if I'm being honest, I would rather have this than them pressuring Kaf into something she doesn't want. I do have to wonder what the hell is going on at Kamitsubaki's management because it's not like this is the first time this happens with Kafu, if I recall correctly there were similar concerns with her Cevio.

 

[Leon]

Maybe it's uncharitable of me, and I apologize if so, but I don't really understand why people agree to voice a synth if they are nervous about the synth sounding like them -- unless it's a particularly voice acted bank from the start, I guess. Especially since we've seen by now that even famous singers don't get "replaced" by their synth banks

Regardless, I hope it can be figured out in a way that makes everyone happy

 

[Twillby]

To be frank, I'm beginning to wonder if someone could have put some pressure on her to make a bank from the start, but then again, I could have sworn she DID say at one point she wanted to voice a synth, just something not realistic?? But then why a bank on the engine that prides itself on realism after the Cevio drama????? Gods, at this point I wish they had just made something akin to a Windows 100% UTAU and been done with it

Like I am genuinely failing to see how they got far enough to accept preorders before this became an issue when it seems like Kaf's opinion never changed. I had hoped it had (I get being nervous but like Leon said, plenty of people have done it and it doesn't seem to have hurt their careers as far as I can see from a fan perspective), but oh well. Honestly not optimistic about this, but who knows.

 

[blackout]

I’ll always respect Kaf’s wishes when it comes to this, it’s her voice being replicated and singing is her whole career. If the close resemblance is uncomfortable for her it’s more than understandable.

At the same time it’s odd that this situation is happening for a 2nd time now after pre-orders and a demo were already up… think they would’ve been better off starting any SV releases with the other Isotope members who seem to be a bit more open to the idea given they all have Voicepeak banks now I hope she still gets released and that they work out any issues & the end result is good

 

[Leon]

Several people have pointed out, and are probably correct, that it's more the company pushing a young woman (a minor at the time of the CeVIO poll fiasco) into doing something that she wasn't totally comfortable with. I do think it's frustrating that it's happening again, but my blame will lie with Kamitsubaki rather than Kaf

 

[wrong_thyme]

i am honestly losing my respect for them as a company, both for the unprofessionalism and for making kaf do sth she is not rlly comfortable with

 

[lIlI]

I know Kamitsubaki has a history of questionable organisation and confusing delays, my 'company with management who doesn't know what they're doing' senses are tingling.

Glass half full: Their willingness to cancel the product if Kaf isn't comfortable with it shows good commitment to basic moral standards.

Glass half empty: Opening pre-orders for a product known to perfectly replicate voices with a VP who has already expressed discomfort with a perfect recreation of her voice is clownish behaviour

Kaf's voice is beautiful and unique, so I hope we can get a SynthV that she's comfortable with! The plus side is that it's cool to see Dreamtonics pushed towards more experimental, robotic voices; as that's a very interesting unexplored avenue for them.

 

[Twillby]

Here's a full translation someone made of the announcement.

 

[WyndReed]

I do feel like having the vb not sound exactly like Kaf shouldn't be a big issue at this point. Gumi and Teto's Synth V vbs have realistic qualities while still having a vocaloid sort of feel. Honestly their development direction should have kept in mind that Kaf doesn't want Kafu to sound exactly like her and it shouldn't be so hard for them to keep Synth V Kafu from being too close to Kaf. I mean they've done it before with CeVio AI.
(The Phony demo they posted definitely sounds too much like Kaf and not enough like Kafu and I understand why she has issues with it)

 

[Nezuh]

They should have made a VOCALOID from the get-go.

Although I guess this also shows that it must have too many downsides over the competition to produce one.

 

[Chuchu]

I'm positive for now that they'll resolve the issue somehow, if not it's good to know that they might consider cancelling Kafu SV entirely.

I think it would be good for them to still work closely with Techno-Speech, and get all the isotope girls on voisona, too. Maybe they can ask them to implement something like cross language support, but that's just me being delulu .

 

[Infoholic]

That reminds me of something I read about Gumi Synth V. They used the exact same data to make her Vocaloid 6 and Synth V banks, so it makes sense she has a Vocaloid feel. I can't find the exact source anymore but I remember someone saying that Vocaloid 6 uses less data than Synth V usually does. Philo said in an interview that she recorded 25 songs for Fuiro. (Though the info is only in the Japanese version of the interview for some reason.) I couldn't find a source for how much data Synth V uses but I would be somewhat surprised if it isn't more.

All that to say, I wonder if the solution could be to try to retrain the bank on less data, if Dreamtonics/AHS doesn't have an issue with it. (Which, other than the pain of having to retrain it, why would they if Gumi was able to be released with V6 levels of data?)

I wasn't even really planning on getting Kafu I don't know why I'm suddenly so interested in trying to think of ways this could work :'D Although I think I was tempted to preorder her so maybe I was deep down... Though that was when I mistakenly assumed Kaf had become comfortable with the idea of a realistic bank sooo

Late, but they confirmed that Gumi has 40 songs on Gumi radio. This is the same amount as Popy, Seika, Rose, etc. VOCALOID6 outside of Philo has never been confirmed to have less data, it's simply that the engine is garbage.

 

[Leon]

Oh, thanks for that info! I had heard it so many times that I was certain Gumi really did have very little data. Is Gumi radio an official thing? Sorry, I hadn't heard of it

 

[Infoholic]

Oh, thanks for that info! I had heard it so many times that I was certain Gumi really did have very little data. Is Gumi radio an official thing? Sorry, I hadn't heard of it

Gumi radio is an official Twitter podcast that InternetCo hosts often discussing new events, merch, and progress on voicebanks!

 

[blackout]

Kaf has posted a bit of a statement on SV Kafu’s postponement, basically explaining that while she was initially fine with the output during development and had consulted with the devs regarding the samples used, after listening to the “Phony” demo she began to have doubts regarding SV KAFU’s voice, but still approved the demo to be released as she assumed it was too close to release in any case and not much could be done.

Following the public reaction to the demo her concerns grew even bigger, and so she decided to bring this up to management & devs which resulted in SV Kafu being postponed indefinitely as she also didn’t feel good releasing SV Kafu in its current state. No word on release yet, but she reiterates that all is still being discussed internally. She also apologises to everyone who was looking forward to release and they will do their best to ensure this does not happen again.

All in all I think Kamitsubaki made the best call they could prioritising Kaf’s wishes instead of focusing on release. I don’t think this situation is anyone’s fault and especially not Kaf’s, I think matters like these with AI replication consent should be prioritised and she’s more than in the right for changing her mind & having concerns no matter how late in development. They’re still providing cancellation & refund requests for anyone who has already pre-ordered btw.