What Crypton VOCALOID should I start out with?

[Luxie]

I’m being honest here, I only like Gumi in VOCALOID and the other ones I like are Crypton. I don’t know Japanese, so I’m mostly interested in doing English works. Luka is my comfort character, so I kinda want her, but is she overly hard to use? What about the Kagamines?
For the record, I have slight experience in Synth V with Eleanor Forte, but Utau didn’t work on my computer even though I changed the locale. Weird. I’m very beginner, and one final question: should I be even bothering because I have no musical knowledge yet? I’m willing to learn for my children.
Thank you!

 

[Ibis]

I would personally keep experimenting on Synth V or maybe trying to re-install Utau (there are some great tutorials out there) before dropping money on anything you might not like. If you are super adamant about getting a Crypton Vocaloid right now, I hear that Rin and Len are great for beginners. Still, I would continue to experiment with the free synths so that you have prior experience, and then when you are ready you can spend your money on Luka.

If you need some extra insight, there’s a thread I started "your first vocaloid + suggestions for beginners" that might help you. It would probably help to hear more from them then from me since I’ve only ever used UTAU.

 

[___]

I’m being honest here, I only like Gumi in VOCALOID and the other ones I like are Crypton. I don’t know Japanese, so I’m mostly interested in doing English works. Luka is my comfort character, so I kinda want her, but is she overly hard to use? What about the Kagamines?
For the record, I have slight experience in Synth V with Eleanor Forte, but Utau didn’t work on my computer even though I changed the locale. Weird. I’m very beginner, and one final question: should I be even bothering because I have no musical knowledge yet? I’m willing to learn for my children.
Thank you!

The options vary depending on whether you want to primarily work with either english or japanese.

The Kagamines are good if you want to focus on japanese, but they're more troublesome when it comes up to english. Luka is the other way around, I'm gonna be honest that her japanese V4 voicebanks have been, hands down, the most unpleasant voicebanks I've worked with personally, her english however, I've had good experience with, if that's what you want her for then there shouldn't be a big issue.

When it comes up to Meiko and Kaito, I don't think their english voicebanks are bad at all, but they're rather limited in their performance, and I dunno how worth it, it would be for you, when the better preforming vbs in the package are the japanese ones, that take up the majority of vbs they come with.

The other english cryptonloid that you'd be getting the most out of, would be Miku, so I'd say either go with Miku or Luka, you have the advantage of being able to only buy her english too.

 

[peaches2217]

Going off of what Pipp said, if you're focusing on English works, then I recommend Luka or Miku as well! I also love Kaito's English, as it's very pleasant to work with, but it is more limited in what it can accomplish compared to the ladies. If ease of use is something you're after, he'd be worth looking into for the future.

Reading that Luka's your Comfort Character, then, I say 100% her V4 would be worth investing in. Vocaloid English can be tricky to work with, but you'll have an excellent time with her, and using a bank that you already have a fondness for will make the learning process that much more enjoyable!

For what it's worth, there's trials available for Miku V4 English and Luka V4x Hard Japanese (though, sadly, no trial for Luka English). The trials comes with Piapro Studio, or you can get the V5 trial and test them out there (just a heads-up, you'll need to have your locale set to Japanese, though that seems to already be covered on your end!).

And don't worry about not having any musical experience. What matters is that you enjoy it. Experience comes with practice, and the more fun you have, the more you'll wanna practice. That's what it's all about!

 

[mobius017]

I think your question comes down to understanding what it is you really want to do. Which of these statements feels right to you?

1. I want to make music.
2. I want to make music with [insert name].

If option 1 is your motivation, then examining the relative capabilities of each synth could be important.

If option 2 feels better to you (i.e., you start to feel disappointed at the idea of chopping off "with [insert name]"), then I think you've answered the choice of synth already.

Every synth has its challenges, no matter which character it is or what engine (Vocaloid, UTAU, Synth V, etc.) it's on. From my own perspective, in learning to use a synth, as well as learning music to go along with it, I think you'll be well served to choose a synth you feel an affinity for, if you're in the option 2 situation. As you work to learn and grow, you'll be able to do it with a synth you enjoy, and that will be a source of motivation, determination, and pleasure.

 

[IO+]

I would recommend you stick with Synth-V due to it cost nothing and english bank is good, just forget about investment at the moment.
Once you gain some experience, then you can decided which one that suit you best.

Each editor and voicebanks are different but at the core they are the same, experience you learn with synth v is transferable.
For english voicebank, i heard that avanna, maika, cyber diva is really good and they all native english singer, except maybe maika. Although Luka english is good but i wouldn't recommend it, but if you like luka, then absolutely go for it.

 

[peaches2217]

Hey, on the topic of transferability, that’s actually a thought: since Luka doesn’t have a trial, you might try downloading a handful of English Vocaloid trials to work with so you can get the hang of it! English in Vocaloid is a little trickier to get the hang of but tinkering with some different VBs helps you pick up on it quickly. Don’t let the prospect of difficulty keep you from experimenting with your options. Everyone starts somewhere!

And if there’s a VB you wanna try that doesn’t have a formal trial, you could ask around and see if someone would be willing to loan you an installer! Running a Vocaloid installer without a serial lets you test the bank for a couple of weeks (basically just a trial with extra steps). I know plenty of people here would be more than happy to assist!

 

[___]

For english voicebank, i heard that avanna, maika, cyber diva is really good and they all native english singer, except maybe maika.

Ah! Just a heads up! Maika is spanish vocaloid, not english, you can just manipulate her phonemes into more convincing english because she has more of them than the average spanish vocaloid, but that all is manual and she's spanish first and foremost.

 

[mobius017]

For english voicebank, i heard that avanna, maika, cyber diva is really good and they all native english singer, except maybe maika.

Maika is Spanish. The company that makes her does offer a chart on their website that lets you make her sing in English, but using it means you would need to enter the phonemes manually--if you type in words, she expects those words to be in Spanish.

Edit: Oops, @Legally Pipp Petals beat me to posting--this is basically the same as what she said.

 

[IO+]

Ah! Just a heads up! Maika is spanish vocaloid, not english, you can just manipulate her phonemes into more convincing english because she has more of them than the average spanish vocaloid, but that all is manual and she's spanish first and foremost.

Maika is Spanish. The company that makes her does offer a chart on their website that lets you make her sing in English, but using it means you would need to enter the phonemes manually--if you type in words, she expects those words to be in Spanish.

Edit: Oops, @Legally Pipp Petals beat me to posting--this is basically the same as what she said.

I'm apologize for my lack of understanding, i'll be careful next time.

 

[___]

I'm apologize for my lack of understanding, i'll be careful next time.

Don't sweat it! All's well!

 

[Vector]

If you're a fan of Luka, there's nothing wrong with starting Luka. She also has the benefit of both the English and Japanese voice banks being bundled as one product.

Miku and Luka are known for being some of the easier ones to start with, though with Miku V4X the English and Japanese versions are separate (but available as a package deal with all of them) and Miku NT does not have an English version so far.

Gumi is also frequently available at a discount, if you keep an eye on the forum for vocal synth sales. Her English voice bank is considered to be harder to work with, due to sounding "choppy" unless you get creative with some phoneme substitutions, but I've also seen it come down to $50.

Go with what you like.

 

[mobius017]

I'm apologize for my lack of understanding, i'll be careful next time.

No need to feel bad--no one's expected to know everything!

 

[Luxie]

I’m currently downloading the Hatsune Miku V4 English trial. I’m definitely going to buy Luka one of these days!

 

[AmazingStrange39]

Miku V3 English!

JK, of course not. I'm pretty much known for my love of this voicebank, but I will admit she's not exactly beginner-friendly due to her very strong accent, probably the strongest next to Macne Nana. Though if you're up for the challenge she does have a very nice sound! But if you're gonna start with Miku English you're generally better off starting with her V4.

What you need to know is that she struggles on L sounds, mispronounces or over-pronounces Rs, can mispronounce "z" sounds like "ts", has "intrusive R" tendencies similar to Eleanor Forte, and just...overall her accent is extremely Japanese. I like her accent, so it's not as a big a deal to me as it would be for someone whose standards are like...native-adjacent.