By Kodakami on May 16, 2012 |
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With all the existing English-Language Vocal-Synthesis Voicebanks, and new ones on the horizon, it’s sometimes hard draw a line between which are “Engloids” and which are “Engroids”.
Luckily for us, some people got together and decided to create an English Test for Voicebanks and figure out whcih ones can ‘passably’ sing English.
We like to call it the “Kit Kat Challenge”.
Continue reading “The English Test (aka the “Kit Kat Challenge”)” »
By Mini on Apr 23, 2012 |
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On a brief conversation with Zero-G team about the upcoming celtic vocaloid, they informed me that she should be released on the next summer.

I guess this is the time where we site and patiently wait. I have high hopes on this one! ^^

By Mini on Apr 18, 2012 |
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It’s been seven months since Yamaha redesigned the official vocaloid site adapting for vocaloid3. When that redesigned happened English was left behind, forgotten. After 4 months since the japanese website release, an user from VocaloidOtaku found that an english version of vocaloid.com was under development, calling you a dummy.
Fortunately, they filled the replacement text with actual info and the website is now, almost, in english. Motoichi Tamura announced that now official information from Yamaha will also be provided in english.

If you want to check out the new cool vocaloid website and Mr. Tamura’s official note here it is: Vocaloid Site / Tamura’s announcement
By Hentai on Feb 28, 2012 |
2 Comments

In an unprecedented move PowerFX has negotiated an official distribution deal for the physical release of the Full VOCALOID 3 Editor to the west as well as a discounted Oliver DVD Bundle that includes both the Oliver V3 voicebank and the full VOCALOID 3 editor.
Pricing for their physical products are as follows:
So for those interested in Oliver + Full Editor you can look forward to almost $70 in savings with a combo purchase. All prices should include shipping.

We are unsure if this “special offer” pricing for combo purchase is a limited time affair.
Source: Bill Bryant, CEO of PowerFX, via Twitter –
By Hentai on Feb 19, 2012 |
6 Comments

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.
For those interested in reading more on these developments you can visit the news thread on VocaloidOtaku or read the complete transcript after the jump below.
Continue reading “SBS Artech Reveals English SeeU Plans” »