Fire your singers folks, Vocaloid 5 is here!

[SirkusPi]

Okay, here are my first impressions....

Thanks - as someone who has never used Vocaloid but is thinking about it (now that it’s Mac/Logic compatible), this is all useful to know. It sounds, both from you and from other reports I’ve seen online, like there are still bugs to be worked out.

[wagtunes]

Okay, here are my first impressions....

Thanks - as someone who has never used Vocaloid but is thinking about it (now that it’s Mac/Logic compatible), this is all useful to know. It sounds, both from you and from other reports I’ve seen online, like there are still bugs to be worked out.

The only thing I can't live with is that the sync between DAW and Editor doesn't seem to work as far as bringing the play position back to the beginning. Moving the pointer in the editor does not move the pointer in the DAW and you end up playing from where the DAW left off and not from where the editor is pointing.

This is beyond infuriating.

Right now, there is no way I am working with this thing.

[Hink]

Okay, here are my first impressions....

Thanks - as someone who has never used Vocaloid but is thinking about it (now that it’s Mac/Logic compatible), this is all useful to know. It sounds, both from you and from other reports I’ve seen online, like there are still bugs to be worked out.

The only thing I can't live with is that the sync between DAW and Editor doesn't seem to work as far as bringing the play position back to the beginning. Moving the pointer in the editor does not move the pointer in the DAW and you end up playing from where the DAW left off and not from where the editor is pointing.

This is beyond infuriating.

Right now, there is no way I am working with this thing.

Shouldn't have fired those singers, now they'll want more money

[wagtunes]

One last thing. Amy and Chris' diction is terrible. No amount of editing is going to fix it.

I get that they couldn't put the amount of time into these stock voices as they did for Cyber Diva and other voices, but really, this is the BEST they could do?

My gut tells me this is going to be $156 thrown out the window.

Right now, very disappointed.

[wagtunes]

Okay, here are my first impressions....

Thanks - as someone who has never used Vocaloid but is thinking about it (now that it’s Mac/Logic compatible), this is all useful to know. It sounds, both from you and from other reports I’ve seen online, like there are still bugs to be worked out.

The only thing I can't live with is that the sync between DAW and Editor doesn't seem to work as far as bringing the play position back to the beginning. Moving the pointer in the editor does not move the pointer in the DAW and you end up playing from where the DAW left off and not from where the editor is pointing.

This is beyond infuriating.

Right now, there is no way I am working with this thing.

Shouldn't have fired those singers, now they'll want more money

I still have V4, as they install side by side, so can always go back to it.

Can only hope they make V5 better as time goes by.

[SirkusPi]

One last thing. Amy and Chris' diction is terrible. No amount of editing is going to fix it.

I get that they couldn't put the amount of time into these stock voices as they did for Cyber Diva and other voices, but really, this is the BEST they could do?

To be honest, I’ve yet to find a Cyber Diva track I can really consistently understand either. Of all the (many) Vocaloid tracks I’ve listened to over the past few days, I’ve found Ruby and Cyber Songman the most reliably intelligible to me, at least in skilled hands. I know Songman is available on Mac in Vocaloid 5, direct fromYamaha; I’ll definitely be checking with PowerFX (Ruby’s third party creator) to make sure she is too before making a purchase decision.

[wagtunes]

One last thing. Amy and Chris' diction is terrible. No amount of editing is going to fix it.

I get that they couldn't put the amount of time into these stock voices as they did for Cyber Diva and other voices, but really, this is the BEST they could do?

To be honest, I’ve yet to find a Cyber Diva track I can really consistently understand either. Of all the (many) Vocaloid tracks I’ve listened to over the past few days, I’ve found Ruby and Cyber Songman the most reliably intelligible, at least in skilled hands. I know Songman is available on Mac in Vocaloid 5, direct fromYamaha; I’ll definitely be checking with PowerFX (Ruby’s third party creator) to make sure she is too before making a purchase decision.

I'm not talking about clarity of speech though. I understand that because of the artifacts. I am talking words that are flat out pronounced incorrectly. I understand what they're saying. They're just saying it wrong.

It's inexcusable such horrible diction. Not at this stage. All my older Vocaloids have better diction. ALL of them.

[benheman]

Bought it...upgrade version. Actually does sound better than previous releases, I think! Seriously, the upgrade price wasn't as sweet as it could have been!

[SirkusPi]

I'm not talking about clarity of speech though. I understand that because of the artifacts. I am talking words that are flat out pronounced incorrectly. I understand what they're saying. They're just saying it wrong.

It's inexcusable such horrible diction. Not at this stage. All my older Vocaloids have better diction. ALL of them.

That's certainly not good. I was like 90% sure I was going to take the plunge. But now the needle is definitely moving downward.

My problem is that I have GAS bad. I want this to be a great product so badly that part of me is discounting all the negative things people are saying, even when I hear it with my own ears. It's like a sickness!

[wagtunes]

I'm not talking about clarity of speech though. I understand that because of the artifacts. I am talking words that are flat out pronounced incorrectly. I understand what they're saying. They're just saying it wrong.

It's inexcusable such horrible diction. Not at this stage. All my older Vocaloids have better diction. ALL of them.

That's certainly not good. I was like 90% sure I was going to take the plunge. But now the needle is definitely moving downward.

My problem is that I have GAS bad. I want this to be a great product so badly that part of me is discounting all the negative things people are saying, even when I hear it with my own ears. It's like a sickness!

The problem is, the sound quality of the sampling is improved but the diction of the stock voices is horrible. Now I haven't made in depth tests of my old Vocaloids to see if they sound better in the new engine but my gut tells me they won't because they weren't built to take advantage of the new engine.

As I work with it more, I'll have a better idea.

But right now, as much as I love Vocaloid (obviously) my recommendation would be to not get V5 until a few things are improved.

If there is a dedicated forum or something for V5, I'm going to go over there and list all my complaints. Hopefully, they will be echoed by others and Yamaha will do what needs to be done.

But right now, I expected more from V5.

[WinterdrivE]

I'm not talking about clarity of speech though. I understand that because of the artifacts. I am talking words that are flat out pronounced incorrectly. I understand what they're saying. They're just saying it wrong.

It's inexcusable such horrible diction. Not at this stage. All my older Vocaloids have better diction. ALL of them.

That's certainly not good. I was like 90% sure I was going to take the plunge. But now the needle is definitely moving downward.

My problem is that I have GAS bad. I want this to be a great product so badly that part of me is discounting all the negative things people are saying, even when I hear it with my own ears. It's like a sickness!

Different libraries have different quirks about their pronunciation that take some getting used to. If learning to use VOCALOID is like learning to play an instrument, then learning to use a particular library is like learning the specific tendencies of your particular model of that instrument.

Part of the reason for weird pronunciations is that they don't include round robins for alternate pronunciations. Also, we on the user end have no idea how the library was recorded. Its generally believed (if not confirmed) that English libraries are recorded with a word-based script. however, if a word is pronounced differently from how the script designer intended, it could cause mispronunciation. these factors combined mean that VOCALOID libraries tend to sound... really bad out of the box.

The upside of that is since it gives direct control over the phoneme input (ie, you're not stuck with how it reads the words you give it) there often is something that can be done about it. It may not be totally fixable, but you're not necessarily just locked in.

For example, if I have the word "here", which would be phonetically spelled [h I@] in VOCALOID and I don't like how its pronounced, I can access different recordings and effectively fake a round robin by using other similar phonemes such as [h i: r] [h i: @r] [h i: @] [h I r] [h I @r] [h j I@] [h\ I@] [h I@ r] [h i: I@] and the list of options goes on and on. This does, however, require familiarity with the phonetic system used by VOCALOID, which is a weird derivative of SAMPA for British English, and what phonemes are similar and interchangeable, as well as the patience to sit and try all these potential alternatives until you land on one you like or face the not entirely uncommon reality that there may not be one that you're totally happy with.

If you have access to a Windows PC, there are a few trials floating around that might help you get a better idea of how VOCALOID works. If you're interested, PM me I might be able to point you in the right direction.

[BMoore]

This sex doll is real to me, damn it!

late to the party here but this is at least the second time you've jumped in with nonsense to flame and troll, kindly stay out of this thread. (I'll delete any further nonsense and you know the rest)

Rosy happy everyone. Go do your job on other posters.

[SirkusPi]

For example, if I have the word "here", which would be phonetically spelled [h I@] in VOCALOID and I don't like how its pronounced, I can access different recordings and effectively fake a round robin by using other similar phonemes such as [h i: r] [h i: @r] [h i: @] [h I r] [h I @r] [h j I@] [h\ I@] [h I@ r] [h i: I@] and the list of options goes on and on. This does, however, require familiarity with the phonetic system used by VOCALOID, which is a weird derivative of SAMPA for British English, and what phonemes are similar and interchangeable, as well as the patience to sit and try all these potential alternatives until you land on one you like or face the not entirely uncommon reality that there may not be one that you're totally happy with.

Wow, that sounds complicated. I know I myself wrote above that Vocaloid clearly requires effort and is not a "plug the lyrics in and go" solution, but I don't think I fully appreciated how right I was! It's apparent that getting quality results takes real work (as most things do in life). I guess I really should give some genuine thought to whether I'm willing to put in that effort before I spend a couple of hundred dollars getting V5.

(And thanks for offering to point me in the right direction; I do have access to a PC, so may take you up on that at some point if I don't go running in fear in the other direction first!)

[BMoore]

This sex doll is real to me, damn it!

late to the party here but this is at least the second time you've jumped in with nonsense to flame and troll, kindly stay out of this thread. (I'll delete any further nonsense and you know the rest)

He just called me an idiot in another thread. I am done with this asshole and will not take anymore shit from him.

Because you are. You blamed PayPal, and like a Vocaloid tune from you, it was just bs.

[chk071]

I really liked this BTW:

It won't be able to replace singers until it can pout, look cute, provide celebrity 'news' writers with easy copy and attract the money of members of the opposite sex.

Can it do that? Can It? Huh?

I didn't think so.