Vocaloid 3 Progress Report / Oy Vey
A linkdump is on the way, but after my computer royally blew up thanks to trojans trying to recover the links and update on a laptop is harrowing, to say the least. In the meantime I'll be pootling round in the backend doing some changes and updates to the primers.
The big news are the slew of release dates, and the addition of about a half-dozen birthdays to December and January. Expect to see a very varied set of linkdumps on the way into Christmas, with any luck. Here's a list of the known Vocaloid3s and their current status, as much for my reference as anyone else's:
Dec 12
Ring Suzune is reportedly set for a release on this date, which actually kind of blindsided me a little - we've heard so little from either of the Yamaha Vocaloid Festa pair since their earlier demos and art kerfuffle that I hadn't been expecting this at all - nor had anyone else, it seems, to such an extent that I can't even find a handier link as to any information on her, nor even anything on Yamaha's website. Note that Hibiki Lui is coming out considerably later.
Dec 16
Tone Rion, hyper moe fetish conglomerate of the future. Actually, I guess it's not all that much 'future' any more, since Project Diva Extend let slip in the intro video that it was also set around that time. Let's just go with 'eccentric', then. I'm not really a fan either of her looks or of the few demos that have been around, but the timbre behind her voice is certainly pretty unique. She may end up sounding more like a clearer Yuki, than anything, and may have her uses because of that.
SeeU is officially out the same day, although we're already starting to see music for her crop up on Nicovideo. Time will really tell how much she manages to stick to the eastern side of the fandom, but her reception so far has been better than expected and the kind of range we've seen her pull is very significant. With a strong core of support and so many demos, she's probably not going away any time soon.
Dec 22
Yuzuki Yukari is one to watch, if you ask me. Designed by a bunch of Vocaloid producers who set out to make their own, she's not only your standard vocaloid but has Voiceroid technology in there as well in hopes of being better able to do talkloid stuff. Her demo sounded fantastic, she doesn't look terrible, and she carries the distinction of being possibly the first new Vocaloid3 to have an understated amount of hype, as long as you don't count Mew, who barely seems to exist.
CUL is also out the same day. I'm a little bit torn, here; her demos were a bit underwhelming and the question that's permanently at the back of my mind is 'why did you ever switch away from VY1?', but I also think it's fair to say that the demo songs picked out for her were, um, Not Very Good and we probably haven't seen the last of her yet, especially given her strong backup via Lat MMD models and Vocarevo support.
Jan 27
IA - or IA -ARIA ON THE PLANETES- to give her her full name - is pretty much a complete wildcard at present. Coming out of nowhere just last week with an absolutely incredible sample song, it remains to be seen whether that was Vocalistenered up to the nines or not, but if everyone can produce that clear a sound out of her then between her and Yukari, Luka's official job as deep-voiced Vocaloid might be seriously on the rocks.
???
Akikoloid - aka Lawson's blue-and-white-and-bobble-headed Vocaloid mascot - is assumed to not be expecting a release, on the basis the company will probably want to keep her in-house.
Aoki Lapis and the i-style Project keep chugging on, doing... um... whatever it is they do. I'm fabulously against this Vocaloid, for a variety of reasons I've bitched about in the past, not least because they're substantially more interested in merchandising, body pillows and their TV spots than in actually making the robot itself sound good. They claim that Daydream Flight was only with a 5% done product...
Bruno and Clara are expecting a December release, but haven't had an official date yet. Frankly, I cannot wait, because these two might be my favorite Vocaloids out of all the new set. Yes, even above Yukari and IA, I am legit massively excited for these two. I also can't wait to see what their fanart contest brings up.
Oliver is said to be functionally complete, and I understand that the creators are currently negotiating and being supported by PowerFX in terms of getting demos out and wrangling any legal problems out of the way. I'm not sure if an official release date has been set yet, however. Anyone read the V-O thread and can chime in on that?
Hibiki Lui is expecting a Spring 2012 release, hopefully not quite as utterly low-key as his sister is currently managing.
Other News:
- Crivvens! Gumi's started showing up in Pangya as of today. Could this be the start of actual merchandising? (Probably not.)
- The internet is all a-buzz over DECO*27's latest work with marina.
- Nicovideo's rejigged their indexing a bit. If you see any links with a &source=whatever on the end slap me, since they're probably better removed for easy copy-pasting into nicosound or your nicoviewer of choice.
The big news are the slew of release dates, and the addition of about a half-dozen birthdays to December and January. Expect to see a very varied set of linkdumps on the way into Christmas, with any luck. Here's a list of the known Vocaloid3s and their current status, as much for my reference as anyone else's:
Dec 12
Ring Suzune is reportedly set for a release on this date, which actually kind of blindsided me a little - we've heard so little from either of the Yamaha Vocaloid Festa pair since their earlier demos and art kerfuffle that I hadn't been expecting this at all - nor had anyone else, it seems, to such an extent that I can't even find a handier link as to any information on her, nor even anything on Yamaha's website. Note that Hibiki Lui is coming out considerably later.
Dec 16
Tone Rion, hyper moe fetish conglomerate of the future. Actually, I guess it's not all that much 'future' any more, since Project Diva Extend let slip in the intro video that it was also set around that time. Let's just go with 'eccentric', then. I'm not really a fan either of her looks or of the few demos that have been around, but the timbre behind her voice is certainly pretty unique. She may end up sounding more like a clearer Yuki, than anything, and may have her uses because of that.
SeeU is officially out the same day, although we're already starting to see music for her crop up on Nicovideo. Time will really tell how much she manages to stick to the eastern side of the fandom, but her reception so far has been better than expected and the kind of range we've seen her pull is very significant. With a strong core of support and so many demos, she's probably not going away any time soon.
Dec 22
Yuzuki Yukari is one to watch, if you ask me. Designed by a bunch of Vocaloid producers who set out to make their own, she's not only your standard vocaloid but has Voiceroid technology in there as well in hopes of being better able to do talkloid stuff. Her demo sounded fantastic, she doesn't look terrible, and she carries the distinction of being possibly the first new Vocaloid3 to have an understated amount of hype, as long as you don't count Mew, who barely seems to exist.
CUL is also out the same day. I'm a little bit torn, here; her demos were a bit underwhelming and the question that's permanently at the back of my mind is 'why did you ever switch away from VY1?', but I also think it's fair to say that the demo songs picked out for her were, um, Not Very Good and we probably haven't seen the last of her yet, especially given her strong backup via Lat MMD models and Vocarevo support.
Jan 27
IA - or IA -ARIA ON THE PLANETES- to give her her full name - is pretty much a complete wildcard at present. Coming out of nowhere just last week with an absolutely incredible sample song, it remains to be seen whether that was Vocalistenered up to the nines or not, but if everyone can produce that clear a sound out of her then between her and Yukari, Luka's official job as deep-voiced Vocaloid might be seriously on the rocks.
???
Akikoloid - aka Lawson's blue-and-white-and-bobble-headed Vocaloid mascot - is assumed to not be expecting a release, on the basis the company will probably want to keep her in-house.
Aoki Lapis and the i-style Project keep chugging on, doing... um... whatever it is they do. I'm fabulously against this Vocaloid, for a variety of reasons I've bitched about in the past, not least because they're substantially more interested in merchandising, body pillows and their TV spots than in actually making the robot itself sound good. They claim that Daydream Flight was only with a 5% done product...
Bruno and Clara are expecting a December release, but haven't had an official date yet. Frankly, I cannot wait, because these two might be my favorite Vocaloids out of all the new set. Yes, even above Yukari and IA, I am legit massively excited for these two. I also can't wait to see what their fanart contest brings up.
Oliver is said to be functionally complete, and I understand that the creators are currently negotiating and being supported by PowerFX in terms of getting demos out and wrangling any legal problems out of the way. I'm not sure if an official release date has been set yet, however. Anyone read the V-O thread and can chime in on that?
Hibiki Lui is expecting a Spring 2012 release, hopefully not quite as utterly low-key as his sister is currently managing.
Other News:
- Crivvens! Gumi's started showing up in Pangya as of today. Could this be the start of actual merchandising? (Probably not.)
- The internet is all a-buzz over DECO*27's latest work with marina.
- Nicovideo's rejigged their indexing a bit. If you see any links with a &source=whatever on the end slap me, since they're probably better removed for easy copy-pasting into nicosound or your nicoviewer of choice.