Vocaloid Descriptions: LEON and LOLA

     (Note: I know I promised to do the Big 8 first, but their descriptions are actually slightly painful to write. I can't really... appreciate them. They're kind of annoying, honestly. Well, mainly the CV series, and I think it's because people think they're THE BEST Vocaloids EVAH but they really aren't, mainly because they're voice acted. But enough about them! Leon and Lola are awesome, so I'm doing their descriptions this week to take a break from that.)
LEON and LOLA

     Voice donors: Two anonymous soul singers.
     Engine: V1
     Company: Made by Yamaha, sold by Zero-G
     Release date: January 15, 2004
     Updates and/or additional voicebanks: Nope:(
     Language: English, although I have seen Leon sing French once.
     Voice type: LEON is a tenor with, in my humble opinion at least, awesome falsetto. He has a British accent. LOLA has a deeper voice, almost deeper than Leon's, and appears to have a British accent as well, but when singing soul, her natural Caribbean accent reveals itself.
     Strengths: LEON fits incredibly well with Daft Punk, and did I mention that falsetto? Both of them fit really well with songs that don’t necessarily want a realistic voice, such as Creative for example.
     Weaknesses: There are sadly so many that I think I’ll have to number them... (1) They were only partially based on human recordings, and the technology for that wasn't very advanced at the time, so they lack some qualities of the human voice.* (2) They struggle with low notes. (3) There’s a ton of engine noise in V1. (4) They can sound muffled and bored. (5) V1’s interface is overall hard to use. (6) Their pronunciation is weird on some words, which makes them difficult to understand. Overall, they were good for the first Vocaloids, but the technology has improved since then.
     Examples: Take On Me, Get Lucky, Instant Crush, The World Tonight, Party Junkie, Invisible Being, Athena
     Reception: At the time they were pretty advanced, and they even won a few awards, but they missed their audience, American music producers. Two reasons were their bugs and their non-American accents. Some wish for a V5 update, but it’s really not going to come.
     My opinion: I think that, when used properly, they sound really cool. Well, they are certainly unique, anyways, which is one of the things I really like in Vocaloids. I am really impressed with them when they’re tuned properly.
     AtH History Of the Vocaloids video- this is a much better description of them than I gave. Go watch it if you’re not satisfied. Actually, go watch it anyway, because there is some really cool information in there that I was too lazy to put in here.
     *I say "at the time" because it has advanced massively since then. Synth V uses the same technology now, and look at Eleanor Forte.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

     Ah, actual content! Yay!      Ever since their invention, computers have been made to do amazing things, so much that they do some things better than humans. Computers surpassed the entire human race in raw computing power in 1977* and since have bested us us in chess, GO, and other games. But computers do have a definite advantage in those kinds of things, they are made to input, store, and use concrete information, which, compared to them at least, humans are inherently not as good at. How about we give them a real challenge, an unfair one, one that is the most biased towards humans’ skills as possible, so we can feel good about ourselves for at least a decade or so… How about singing? The human vocal cords are just so weird and so unique that anything other than humans singing will be a real challenge. I mean, they’ve been able to do that since 1961, but that certainly doesn’t mean they sounded human. The IBM 7094 sounded like a cross between a ro...
Read more

Vocaloid Descriptions: Megpoid (Gumi)

Image
     (Note: I have realized that, ya know what, I don't have to describe Vocaloids I don't like. So there. Oh, and about Gumi vs Megpoid, Megpoid is her product name and Gumi is her character name. I know, it's confusing, but it it what it is.) Gumi has a lot of different boxarts so I just chose this one. Eh. Gum i Voice donor: Megumi Nakajima Engine: V2 Company: Made and sold by Internet Co. Release date: June 2009 Updates and/or additional voicebanks: V3 update, extends, English voicebank, V4x update Language: Japanese, English Voice type: Slightly “scratchy” high-ranged female voice. Sounds about in her late teens to early twenties. Strengths: Gumi honestly has the best English of the Big 8. She is a professional-quality product, with a lot of different voicebanks (the most of any Vocaloid, in fact), each suited to different genres, to choose from. Weaknesses: Her design is… Hmm. She has a slight Japanese accent. Her English especially has a bit of a “percussive”...
Read more

Updated Music I Like Post

     I did one of these a while ago, except in two separate posts, so that was weird, and I put my Vocaloid music in an unusual format, and I have more music I like now, so in summary, I'm doing another one. Wow, that was one sentence. Anyway, let's get started.      I like most electronic music in general, although I don’t like songs with nothing going on in them, musically, like this one . It’s just boring and harsh. That’s probably a result of my extremely classical/folk musical ear.      I like the music labels Monstercat (especially Tristam): Disconnected , Saturday Morning Space Ride , Frame of Mind , Bone Dry , Till It's Over      ...and The Arcadium. Luminous , Until We Fall , Sugar High , The New Beginning , Levitation , Delphinium , Ball Bounce , Around You , Flute Gamer , Lights , Awe , Our Last Time , Never Let Me Go , Keystone      I got into JJD and Skylike from The Arcadium. I haven’t listened...
Read more