Unpopular Opinions

[morrysillusion]

i agree! seeing lots of demos lately for recent synth v releases i realize i feel that way a lot. tuners can tune all kinds of ways, so the outcome on demos that are tuned by numerous artists can really vary and become subjective. even if it was one person tuning all the demos, id still want to know what theyd sound like without that tuner's influence i guess? having a few of each- minimal tuning/auto tuning from the software, along with demos tuned by really good tuners- is ideal to me. i love seeing the potential voices show thanks to someones great tuning. but i also like knowing what im gonna get 'right of the box' because i know im not gonna be tuning like those people at all. i also am the type to throw my new voices into all kinds of plug and play situations-- its also what i like hearing after releases and it really helps me know the range of the voice- its hard for me to get that from demos often catered to specific genres and styles.

in general i wish we got more "raw" samples of the voices prior to their release, or just more demos of the tuning options the software provides, like synth v's auto tuning, with few additions. because while i can and do tune by hand, im also lazy, and honestly those kinds of examples may help give new people/uninformed people the idea of what can be achieved even if they don't have much experience.

i feel like an ideal situation would be one or two great demo songs with intensive tuning, followed by a lengthy video demo of various renders of the voice untuned/with little tuning. oddly i keep thinking of the dreamtonics demo video with the cross-language stuff? even though it was about that- i liked the format of just a ton of raw samples after the other, no bgm, just the voices and auto-tuning.

 

[Bluepelt]

She doesn't sound outright moe to me, but she's definitely a lot more youthful than people like to admit to. People say that she sounds really mature, but she's never sounded mature to me, just like a mid-teenager.

Um yeah she sounds very much mid-teenager to me. (And this may be a weird way to describe it but a high pitched shota female when her gender factor is less high or whatever you call it.) I think people call her mature because our default tends to be more classic girly type VOCALOIDs so when we pick up on the boyishness we take it as mature in comparison. I think she's pretty moe in my opinion except when like Hiiragi Kirai tunes her hehe.

I'm not even going to say anything about piracy because I will sound like a blunt jerk if I do, so I'm keeping my mouth shut, I don't want to start any arguments with anyone

V Flower's voice is something I can't really listen to sometimes. Like, She needs to clear her throat lol
Also, I like her V3 design more, her V4 looks like She came straight out of Kingdom Hearts

That's a really funny description of her voice hehe. I never thought of that. Most people have an issue with her more higher register screechy songs so it's of interest to see a different critique.

I only dislike when a producer uses a popular voice bank when it doesn't fit the song ie flower for a soft ballad. I do wish you could get the English banks in bilingual vocaloids cheaper like half of the banks will get unused. I also feel that v5 needed to have a English and a Japanese set where you get the cybers Cris and Amy in the English and vys and ken and katori. Especially if they were going to promote it in the west.

Yeah for example a lot of people prefer Close to you Flower version (and while of course I like that version as I'm biased towards her).

The more simple powerful vocals of Flower are okay but I think the more tender and soft vibe the original had is just the direction niki wanted.

 

[aru ii]

On the topic of flower, I like the tone (and the design, but that is out of topic) of the talk design way more than I like the tone of her voca. If her voca had the same tone as her talk, then she would probably be my second favourite Vocaloid (after Tianyi ofc)

Another opinion about Flower. I would rather prefer her to be on Cevio AI, than SynthV. I just don’t think that SynthV ai can keep the traits of her voca. We haven’t yet got a very unique sounding SynthV ai, but we did get some unique Cevios (Yukari, Kafu, IA, ONE). In my opinion Cevio could keep Flower’s tone, while SynthV couldn’t. Ofc it means that it will sound not as hq, she would not be able to sing in English and Chinese and be overall not as realistic as she would be on SynthV. But realism was never something that defined Flower in the first place. So, I really hope that Flower for Cevio is not dead, but rather has some difficulties with production, that will hopefully be resolved sometime soon

 

[___]

idc about voice synths becoming mainstream, specifically in the west, it's a wish I've seen people express a lot as of late but I'd honestly prefer they stay this quirky lil thing, besides, if voice synths were to be mainstreamized here, I imagine they'd appear in a form that's alien and unappealing to majority of the fandom

 

[aru ii]

idc about voice synths becoming mainstream, specifically in the west, it's a wish I've seen people express a lot as of late but I'd honestly prefer they stay this quirky lil thing, besides, if voice synths were to be mainstreamized here, I imagine they'd appear in a form that's alien and unappealing to majority of the fandom

I can very much agree with patuk. I kinda like that it’s a small community, that isn’t too small at the same time. Although, what I wish for is that the general public would gain some general knowledge about vocal synths (idk how, but that would be nice). It’s always very hard explaining what vocal synths are to a person not familiar with them. So, I guess public awareness would be something I’d like, rather than mainstream

 

[Blue Of Mind]

I can't ever see vocal synths taking off in the Western mainstream the same way they did in Japan. Many people still see text-to-speech programs as something amusing or sinister, let alone singing synths. A good example might be the explosion in AI TTS programs that use samples from fictional characters and celebrities - obviously created for meme purposes rather than anything useful. I think every so often, we'll get a popular song that just so happens to use a vocal synth like 'Sad Machine', but aside from that, I can't see the West vibing with voice synths as legitimate technology.

 

[WyndReed]

I don’t particularly like Solaria. She’s a bit too nasally for my tastes and she seems kind of unsteady.(probably not the right word, but I can’t really describe it properly)

 

[peaches2217]

I don’t particularly like Solaria. She’s a bit too nasally for my tastes and she seems kind of unsteady.(probably not the right word, but I can’t really describe it properly)

Honestly, I’m with you. I made a status about it a while back (then deleted it for fear of excommunication ), but all of her power sounds really… I dunno, artificial to me? It’s like she’s pushing all of her air out as fast as she can in order to sound louder, rather than singing with a genuinely supported tone. It’s not even that she sounds breathy in an intentional way, it feels very forced. She always sounds winded and unstable to me, especially when she goes above C4.

Basically, she sounds to me like someone took a vocal like Avanna and tried to make her a power VB. It just doesn’t work.

 

[Jupiter]

I don't like SOLARIA that much either.

I'm glad that we have an English AI bank that can be powerful, but despite how many people have been saying that her voice is unique, I don't 100% agree with that. She sounds like any other Broadway singer to me.

(They probably mean "unique by vocal synth standards", which is not incorrect, but if you put her in a Broadway-style piece with other Broadway singers, I don't think she would really stand out, so... Is she really that unique? A truly unique voice always stands out no matter where you put them.)

Again, I'm not saying she's bad, just that I don't find her voice interesting.

 

[DefiantKitsune]

I love listening to and admiring the work of expert tuners; however when it comes to voicebank demos, I prefer to hear how the product sounds with minimal editing. If a vocal synth needs a lot of work to sound impressive, I want to know that before I invest in it. A demo by someone who can make any voicebank sound good may unintentionally mislead. It's good to know a voicebank's potential, but knowing the baseline you'll have to start from is vital too.

The most useful voicebank examples are for me, the wave of plug-and-plays that come immediately after a product releases. Genres that don't fit, tempos that are much too fast, little tuning: this is legitimately the most revealing and informative period for me as a buyer. It shows the limits of what the product can do, and what will need extra elbow grease to work.

I understand why the prevailing idea in the fandom is 'the best tuners should make demos', and I don't expect a company to intentionally show a product's limitations. However, for practical reasons I most appreciate a demonstration that shows what a beginner could achieve!

This isn't really an opinion, but bringing this up makes me wonder if this played a part in screwing over Anri Rune? Her first and only song was by kikuo, who isn't noted for ...well, for doing much tuning at all. I wonder if reception would have been better if a more "polished" producer had made the song.

 

[sapplerx]

I don’t particularly like Solaria. She’s a bit too nasally for my tastes and she seems kind of unsteady.(probably not the right word, but I can’t really describe it properly)

Honestly, I’m with you. I made a status about it a while back (then deleted it for fear of excommunication ), but all of her power sounds really… I dunno, artificial to me? It’s like she’s pushing all of her air out as fast as she can in order to sound louder, rather than singing with a genuinely supported tone. It’s not even that she sounds breathy in an intentional way, it feels very forced. She always sounds winded and unstable to me, especially when she goes above C4.

Basically, she sounds to me like someone took a vocal like Avanna and tried to make her a power VB. It just doesn’t work.

I don't like SOLARIA that much either.

I'm glad that we have an English AI bank that can be powerful, but despite how many people have been saying that her voice is unique, I don't 100% agree with that. She sounds like any other Broadway singer to me.

(They probably mean "unique by vocal synth standards", which is not incorrect, but if you put her in a Broadway-style piece with other Broadway singers, I don't think she would really stand out, so... Is she really that unique? A truly unique voice always stands out no matter where you put them.)

Again, I'm not saying she's bad, just that I don't find her voice interesting.

I guess you might say she's overhyped? I actually like her illustration, though

 

[peaches2217]

I guess you might say she's overhyped? I actually like her illustration, though

100%. I don't begrudge her for that, and I'm happy to see how happy she makes people! But I think people are overblowing the quality of her voice. I'd personally put her at MQ: perfectly usable, but nowhere near the God Status I see some people assigning to her.

 

[Kona]

I'm actually relieved to see other people dislike Solaria too...I felt really bad sharing any opinions because she has so much hype to her

There's just something about her voice that I really do not like and I can't quite describe it, but she's definitely not my cup of tea.
I'll also add I don't really feel like she's a "powerful" voice more so than just a "strong" voice, or rather, in comparison to the other native English SynthV VBs, and most SynthV VBs in general, she has a more standard/strong one. The best comparison I have is like....Dex/Daina or Lily, they have a pretty strong tone, but they aren't naturally powerful voices. Tuning helps, obviously, but Solaria's voice isn't one that jumps at me as "oh, her voice is perfect for this powerful song"--just that if I were picking a SynthV VB, she's probably the most capable/easiest to tune for the job other than Saki AI. Though the usages I've heard both raw and tuned, she still comes off as more fitting for more chill or pop songs.

 

[___]

I'm actually relieved to see other people dislike Solaria too...I felt really bad sharing any opinions because she has so much hype to her

There's just something about her voice that I really do not like and I can't quite describe it, but she's definitely not my cup of tea.
I'll also add I don't really feel like she's a "powerful" voice more so than just a "strong" voice, or rather, in comparison to the other native English SynthV VBs, and most SynthV VBs in general, she has a more standard/strong one. The best comparison I have is like....Dex/Daina or Lily, they have a pretty strong tone, but they aren't naturally powerful voices. Tuning helps, obviously, but Solaria's voice isn't one that jumps at me as "oh, her voice is perfect for this powerful song"--just that if I were picking a SynthV VB, she's probably the most capable/easiest to tune for the job other than Saki AI. Though the usages I've heard both raw and tuned, she still comes off as more fitting for more chill or pop songs.

That's actually what I've been thinking but was afraid to say out loud I personally wouldn't call her a power vocal and I feel like she falls short when actually used in anything heavier like punk rock, loudness and a deeper timbre is what gives a sense of solidness but in effort to be loud a lot of air is being pushed out as Peachy described, and that airiness, ironically, works against her if intended for anything heavy.

Definitely with you on that she's lends herself well into pop and chiller stuff, which is 100% understandable since that's pretty much what you'd find on Emma's channel, ultimately Solaria's biggest shortcoming is that she wasn't inherently recorded with Emma's strongest points on mind, but to have as much of a solid tone as possible.

 

[peaches2217]

Definitely with you on that she's lends herself well into pop and chiller stuff, which is 100% understandable since that's pretty much what you'd find on Emma's channel, ultimately Solaria's biggest shortcoming is that she wasn't inherently recorded with Emma's strongest points on mind, but to have as much of a solid tone as possible.

God, I remember being so excited listening through her YouTube covers, because her lows are so good. I was excited at the prospect of Solaria having similarly sultry lows! But Solaria's lows are... well, they are. They're very solid and heavy and not particularly pleasant. So I definitely agree that Solaria just wasn't tailored as well to her skills and strong points as she could have been. It would've been interesting to see. As she is, Solaria sounds kind of like a vocal who was meant to be one thing and simply isn't.

 

[-GlitchedSalvation-]

Vocaloids can feel more real than people
Oliver is not just an innocent bean

 

[ikaroll]

Oliver is not just an innocent bean

Pretty sure the fandom already established that in 2012 lol

Because it’s been a while since the designs were revealed, and now I have time to mull over them….I’m not sure how I feel about Yanhe’s V5 design now. I do like the jacket, but overall, her V5 design doesn’t look quite as iconic as her V3.

I just can’t explain why….

 

[DefiantKitsune]

Ngl a bit nervous to post this one but

I'm not too enamored with the sv cross lingual abilities.
Like
it's drastically better than manually tuning a non-english vb to english would be
but I don't think it's good enough to stand up to a voicebank made for that language (save maybe really weak ones).

 

[Prism]

I agree I think cross lingual has a long way to go and isn't perfect. I hope they improve it like they did with ai auto tuning. A accent slider like what was seen in Google's multilingual tts would fix a lot of the problems. Audio samples from "Learning to speak fluently in a foreign language: Multilingual speech synthesis and cross-language voice cloning"
I do think cross lingual can be as good as some of the non native English voice banks like Crypton's and Macne nana. I do hope English banks still get made for characters who have voice providers with a decent level of English because it hasn't replaced them in quality yet. It's a massive step in the right direction and breaks down a ton of language barriers. I am excited for new languages to come to synth v.

 

[Blue Of Mind]

I like the idea behind Chris's voice type (suitable for RnB songs, and can pull off falsetto notes to boot), but in execution, he sounds like a male V5 version of Sonika without the attributes that made her charming. It's kinda hard to explain if you haven't heard him extensively. orz