Fire your singers folks, Vocaloid 5 is here!

[jacqueslacouth]

I have just discovered there is a Vocaloid voicebank called Arsloid.

I cant help but think they should focus on vocal products first.

I think 3rd party vendors are going to be all over this and we're going to see a slew of Vocaloid voice banks.

sorry; purely crass humour.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio ... glish/arse

It went riiiiiiiight over his head, that one.

I think it would work better for yanks if it was called Assloid

[WinterdrivE]

Do they provide any demo to try ? Does this work in Bitwig ?

As far as I'm aware, there's no trial for VOCALOID5, but there are trials for VOCALOID2, 3, and 4.

Previously, YAMAHA had trials available for a lot of VOCALOIDs, but a year or two ago they removed them for reasons unknown. The individual companies that've developed the libraries have their own trials available here and there available for download. (mostly Japanese libraries) A list with links can be found here:https://vocaverse.network/resources/all ... rences.16/

Do note that VOCALOID2 and VOCALOID3 products come with their own trial version of the engine (the standalone host software for the libraries), but VOCALOID4 products do not; you need to own VOCALOID4 (or presumably 5, now) to use a VOCALOID4 trial.
_________________________
And on the subject of intelligibility, I think there are a lot of problems with understandability in VOCALOID, especially in English. By default, a VOCALOID will sing and pronounce everything with very cookie-cutter, clear pronunciation and will pronounce all consonants the same length with the same emphasis, and its up to the person using the software to touch up the vocals and try to make them sound more natural by swapping out phonemes and changing the timing to make them more natural.

As an example, here's DEX singing a few lines from Nik Kershaw's Wouldn't It Be Good: https://clyp.it/5rjwkinw

And an image of what each looks like in the program:


First is "out of the box" and second is with phoneme editing, dynamics, and pitch editing. I'm not saying its perfect or can replace a human singer, but its definitely possible for the user to edit the VOCALOID's singing and tweak how they sound.

And I think that's where the value of VOCALOID 5 lies. Previously all of that pitch editing on that bottom green track had to be meticulously edited by hand (or maybe not so meticulously) in order to introduce any kind of natural pitch variation, but VOCALOID 5 lets users just click a button and it adds in the pitch editing for them. It no longer takes 100 man hours of work to get something remotely resembling natural singing, and in my opinion that's the big selling point of VOCALOID5.

Also, in case anyone's looking for another English example of VOCALOID, I'm just gonna self-plug this and backward shuffle my way out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Db1Hg4_BHY

[wagtunes]

Try this. It sounds better than Vocaloid to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDHaTz62Fs&t=1337s

Because it's samples, just like Realitone Ladies which I bought for background vocals.

But it's limited. You can't make a whole song with this with any lyrics you want because you only have the combinations of words that they give you.

Untrue -- it was a word builder

Watch the tutorial video. It's a limited word builder. It can't do everything. That's why I didn't bother getting it.

Also, the interface is a train wreck. You have to build words phonetically like you do with EWQL Symphonic Choirs, which is a royal PITA.

And finally, if you really think this sounds dramatically better than Vocaloid, well, whatever. I don't. In fact, I think Vocaloid sounds better.

Regardless, Vocaloids ability to copy and past entire lines of lyrics makes working with it 100 times easier.

Thanks but no thanks.

[wagtunes]

One last thing about Blue. Listen to all, and I mean ALL the demos. It's a one trick pony. Not one pop song. The voice is essentially a Coloratura Mezzo-Soprano, which is essentially light and airy and the highest. Listen to every demo. She's essentially doing Enya doing flowing background vocals. I've heard nothing of a center stage lead line. Try having her do any kind of dance, pop or rock track and it will be laughable.

She has her strengths as a backup singer for Enya type music but that's about it.

Maybe some people can find a use for that. For me, as far as using as a lead singer for the kind of music I make, she's useless.

Believe me, I listened to tons of demos and while she has a pleasant voice, it's extremely limited. Avanna from Vocaloid has more range than she does and Avanna is also limited to an extend because of the softness of her voice. But Blue is literally a one trick pony.

[wagtunes]

Like this track.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... wall-remix

Was this done with Vocaloid 5?

No, that was done with Vocaloid 4. I haven't purchased 5 yet. I have some finances to take care of because I'm making a big purchase of VSL orchestral stuff. So I'm selling some VSTs and keeping an eye on the Euro/Dollar exchange rate. As soon as it starts to tick back up, I'll make my purchase and then, if I have enough left in my Paypal account, I'll be getting Vocaloid 5 and then that's IT. I am done buying stuff. I have to upgrade my PC in order to run VSL and I just can't afford anymore musical purchases. But Vocaloid 5 is a must have for me. I have no doubt it will be an improvement over V4

[lingyai]

Try this. It sounds better than Vocaloid to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDHaTz62Fs&t=1337s

Because it's samples, just like Realitone Ladies which I bought for background vocals.

But it's limited. You can't make a whole song with this with any lyrics you want because you only have the combinations of words that they give you.

Untrue -- it was a word builder

Watch the tutorial video. It's a limited word builder. It can't do everything. That's why I didn't bother getting it.

Also, the interface is a train wreck. You have to build words phonetically like you do with EWQL Symphonic Choirs, which is a royal PITA.

And finally, if you really think this sounds dramatically better than Vocaloid, well, whatever. I don't. In fact, I think Vocaloid sounds better.

Regardless, Vocaloids ability to copy and past entire lines of lyrics makes working with it 100 times easier.

Thanks but no thanks.

No need to "no thanks" me, I'm not trying to get you to like, dislike, or otherwise do anything. It's clear you really like Vocaloid. Great, enjoy. I'm not here to sell you Realitone Blue or to get into matters of taste here -- I already sense we're kind of far apart on that -- I'm talking about a matter of fact.

You said that with Realitone "you only have the combinations of words that they give you".

This is just false. I don't need to watch the video, I own it, I know. It does not come with any preset words at all, in fact (unless you count ooh and aah as words.) It has a word builder.

You do seem very opinionated about a piece of software you've never used.

[lingyai]

Like this track.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... wall-remix

Was this done with Vocaloid 5?

No, that was done with Vocaloid 4. I haven't purchased 5 yet. I have some finances to take care of because I'm making a big purchase of VSL orchestral stuff. So I'm selling some VSTs and keeping an eye on the Euro/Dollar exchange rate. As soon as it starts to tick back up, I'll make my purchase and then, if I have enough left in my Paypal account, I'll be getting Vocaloid 5 and then that's IT. I am done buying stuff. I have to upgrade my PC in order to run VSL and I just can't afford anymore musical purchases. But Vocaloid 5 is a must have for me. I have no doubt it will be an improvement over V4

Thanks, good to know, because if that was Vocaloid 5 I'd skip it for sure. The walkthorugh video for 5 is intriguing. Does seem to be a major step up.

[wagtunes]

Try this. It sounds better than Vocaloid to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goDHaTz62Fs&t=1337s

Because it's samples, just like Realitone Ladies which I bought for background vocals.

But it's limited. You can't make a whole song with this with any lyrics you want because you only have the combinations of words that they give you.

Untrue -- it was a word builder

Watch the tutorial video. It's a limited word builder. It can't do everything. That's why I didn't bother getting it.

Also, the interface is a train wreck. You have to build words phonetically like you do with EWQL Symphonic Choirs, which is a royal PITA.

And finally, if you really think this sounds dramatically better than Vocaloid, well, whatever. I don't. In fact, I think Vocaloid sounds better.

Regardless, Vocaloids ability to copy and past entire lines of lyrics makes working with it 100 times easier.

Thanks but no thanks.

No need to "no thanks" me, I'm not trying to get you to like, dislike, or otherwise do anything. It's clear you really like Vocaloid. Great, enjoy. I'm not here to sell you Realitone Blue or to get into matters of taste here -- I already sense we're kind of far apart on that -- I'm talking about a matter of fact.

You said that with Realitone "you only have the combinations of words that they give you".

This is just false. I don't need to watch the video, I own it, I know. It does not come with any preset words at all, in fact (unless you count ooh and aah as words.) It has a word builder.

You do seem very opinionated about a piece of software you've never used.

1. I could buy that software now and get results out of it immediately. I know exactly how it works. It is almost identical to EWQL's Wordbuilder though with a little better interface. In fact it's pretty much similar to Realitone's Ladies which I have and love, for background vocals.

2. What I said about the quality of her voice still stands. Nothing I have heard shows me that she can do anything other than what she's been displayed doing. It's all ambient and light in nature. Again, she's probably great at Enya type stuff or anything "New Age"

3. If she can be more versatile and you do in fact own her, let's hear her versatility. I'm dying to hear if she can do an uptempo pop song or dance track. So please, share your music with us.

4. Yes, I am opinionated about things when I know what I'm talking about. I've been dealing with software like Blue for years, which is why I didn't buy it. It doesn't do what I need it to do.

[lingyai]

(yawn)

[lingyai]

Given what you consider to to be good music, based on your examples, I'm quite sure I cannot convince you of anything.

[wagtunes]

Given what you consider to to be good music, based on your examples, I'm quite sure I cannot convince you of anything.

There you go making assumptions. How do you know what I consider "good music?"

You have no idea what artists I've listened to over the years. So how do you know anything about me musically other than a few songs I posted?

Again, play me what you have and let me decide for myself. I can actually be quite objective about music.

[djanthonyw]

Look at what I started.

I don't remember claiming that Blue could do it all, but it definitely sounds more realistic than Vocaloid.

Please post some examples of Vocaloid that sound anything close to this:

https://soundcloud.com/realitone/matthe ... blue-demos

[SirkusPi]

And on the subject of intelligibility, I think there are a lot of problems with understandability in VOCALOID, especially in English...

WinterdrivE, your Kershaw before-and-after is very informative in showing how skilled editing can increase intelligibility, and your cover song at the end of your post is incredible; something like 95% intelligible to me, as opposed to the (literally) 10-20% most Vocaloid songs hover at (again for me). You’ve single-handedly nearly convinced me to go for Vocaloid 5, and if I do, I’ll be asking you your rates for Vocaloid lessons, because you have some serious skill at it.

[wagtunes]

Look at what I started.

I don't remember claiming that Blue could do it all, but it definitely sounds more realistic than Vocaloid.

Please post some examples of Vocaloid that sound anything close to this:

https://soundcloud.com/realitone/matthe ... blue-demos

Okay...

They bury her voice in a big arrangement so you REALLY can't hear her flaws. This is smart marketing. And every track of hers I've heard is like this. Big arrangement and airy vocals. If this is what you do and it's ALL you do, then she is an amazing product that probably has no competition because she's sample based with a very specific sound built into it that has no artifacts. But it's worthless for anybody who wants any kind of variety at all.

Try getting away with something like this, where the voice isn't buried in arrangement without tons of reverb and instead up front and naked in the mix.

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... sets/divas

I guarantee you, GUARANTEE YOU, that she will fail MISERABLY at something like this because she's not at all built for it. She's built for a specific thing and that's it.

I'd have very limited use for her.

[lingyai]

Given what you consider to to be good music, based on your examples, I'm quite sure I cannot convince you of anything.

There you go making assumptions. How do you know what I consider "good music?"

You have no idea what artists I've listened to over the years. So how do you know anything about me musically other than a few songs I posted?

Again, play me what you have and let me decide for myself. I can actually be quite objective about music.

What part of "Given what you consider to to be good music, based on your examples" do you not understand?

You seem fanatically defensive about about Vocaloid. As though you need others to validate your choice to use it. And no criticisms or corrections allowed. Your demos and attitude I think make you something of an unwitting anti-ambassador for the product.

Just keep doing what you're doing, for goodness' sake. I don't care what software you like or dislike, it has no bearing on my life. But you shouldn't make false claims about other products. Owning software which you think is like Blue is not the same as owning Blue. If you owned Blue, you'd that it doesn't give you groups of words or any words at all for that matter. Simply does not. This is all pretty straightforward. You seem to have a Trump-like fondness for inventing your own "facts".