From its subtle ambiance, to its determined drive, this song delivers more than it promises. Quite a few VOCALOID originals that try to achieve this feel, but aren't able to nail down that difficult combination of melancholy and drive.
In a Q&A session on the official website SBS Artech fielded a question regarded SeeU’s English capability and highlighted their plans for a full English voicebank before the year’s end.
The fan wrote in asking why an English voicebank wasn’t included with SeeU’s when early reports stated she was planned to be tri-lingual with Japanese, Korean, and English as the planned languages. Then the fan then mentioned specific examples including an early demo of Shining Star which featured English, some aspects of which not possible with release SeeU.
The questions were fielded by SBS Artech’s Vocaloid development manager who went on to explain how they had planned to include English, but due to time restraints they weren’t able to. He went on to highlight how they included some sounds such as /f/,/z/, and /v/, which are unpronounceable in Korean, as a sort of stopgap measure so that SeeU would have at least limited English with her release. He also directed the questioner to the forums where there was an unofficial guide on how to use the Korean inputs to help achive passable English.
At the end of his response he went on to highlight that the English SeeU is still in development and was never completely scrapped, just delayed, and even revealed a tentative timeframe of “within this year”. He went on to explain that they wanted a full and complete English voicebank, of the highest quality possible, and how that was the cause of the delays.
He then ended the article thanking the person for their question and their continued interest in Vocaloid & SeeU, hoping that the fandom would continued to make more awesome songs featuring their products.
Its nice to see that SBS Artech is taking their English voicebank so seriously.
From the way the development manager phrased his response he emphasized how important the English language is to them and how it was something they weren’t willing to rush out, and how dedicated SBS Artech is in making sure they released quality.
Hopefully English SeeU’s actual English is more than just ‘passable’ and is something English natives can enjoy. No word yet as to if this English voicebank would be an expansion of her existing capabilities or if this will be a separate purchase, targeting westerners specifically.
Yesterday, Baggagelizard uploaded the song that showed me how poorly I’ve been using Oliver in my own works. From its subtle ambiance, to its determined drive, this song delivers more than it promises. I’ve heard quite a few VOCALOID originals that try to achieve this feel, but aren’t able to nail down that difficult combination of melancholy and drive.
In the end, the best way to describe it would be to just say, “watch the video above!”.
Anime Los Angeles was a great convention for us here at Engloids.Info. We got to meet up for the first time IRL, shared pizza with some random people from VocaloidOtaku, got to hang out with Tempo-P of VocalektVisions for a night, and met fellow bloggers Henry & James from MissionStartPodcast.
Overall ALA is less hectic than AnimeExpo and other large conventions. Being a small Hotel Anime Convention lets it be very intimate and have many fan driven, fan focused, events. Beyond your usual anime, manga, and gaming focused events it also featured A TON of Vocaloid-related stuff. There were no less than 2 cosplay gatherings, a cosplay dance competition, a fan panel, and a ‘concert’ of sorts.
Vocalekt Visions, a collab group of western producers and their various support staff have been touring the country refining their technique and hosting impromptu ‘concerts’ at anime and Japanese media conventions. In his most recent event Koda-P was invited to take part as a ‘special guest’ and his Engloid original Headline Love feat. Sweet Ann & Big Al was shown on stage as part of the concert’s main event.
Beyond the concert footage I also have in-depth coverage of the Vocaloid panel “Vocaloid: The Fan Phenomenon” on VocaRant. In there I posted video of the panel, embedded the presentation slides, and shared my opinion on the topics discussed.
All Zero-G Vocaloid 1s & 2s are on Sale this Month
For those that missed it Zero-G kicked off February with massive month-long sale on a lot of their download products, this includes the downloadable versions of all their Vocaloid 1 & 2s. Pricing for their Vocaloid 1s is $49.99 and their Vocaloid 2s are $89.99.
Sonika, Prima, and Tonio are available for at their respective websites:
There is still no new news about their upcoming Vocaloid 3 but last I spoke to Zero-G they were hard at work making sure that they are releasing the best product possible.
For those of you concerned about the lack of news, don’t be, you can find out more about why on my sideblog article VocaRant: In Defence of Zero-G.
DVD Oliver is priced at $149.00 and comes with with free shipping.
Also for those that missed it Oliver did indeed get his physical release.
This DVD version of Oliver will set you back $149 and will include free shipping to the US & Europe. You can find him at PowerFX.com or by clicking the image above.
A large-scale collaboration project is now underway between some of the top names in the Western VOCALOID community. Participants in project “Behind the Curtain” are working to create a series of new original songs designed to spread awareness of bullying and sexual harassment. The deadline, February 29th, known in Canada as Pink Shirt Day, is a day set aside to draw attention to the victims of bullying and other forms of harassment.
Organized by VOCALOID Community member Aelita via YouTube (YouTube channel “meganekkoAeli”), the invited participants have now moved to Skype and are well on the way to completion.
”I’ve named the project ‘Behind the Curtain’. The curtain is a representation of the media and how they hide and even dehumanize social issues such as bullying and sexual abuse to the point where it becomes more of a literary tool than an actual issue. My intent with this project is to lift that curtain, by showing that such pain is REAL, and that it is one of THE MOST painful things one will experience.”
~Aelita, Project Organizer
Despite being a collaboration of VOCALOID fans, there is no requirement to use the software at all. The members are divided into two groups: Producers who write the music, and EVVs (English VOCALOID Vocalists, also called Utaites) who sing the music. On the whole, the group has been organized into pairs; one Producer, and one EVV per team.
The list of participants has changed a bit since the project began and is likely to shift here and there, but here is the roster at this moment:
Videos for the completed songs will be uploaded to the Producers’ YouTube Channels, with a compilation of previews on the project’s own channel, btcvocaloidproject. You can also find information about their progress on the group’s Twitter feed, btc_vocaloid.
