ODDEEO And Why I Like Vocaloid
(Note: Someone told me to space out my paragraphs a bit more, to make them more readable. How's this? Also, sorry for no update last week. I think I've got it under control now, but thanks for your patience.)
Here is the YouTube page of a Vocaloid Producer I've gotten into:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHf9og9JlOD7YNYezW_tVew/featured
He's much more active on his SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/oddeeoofficial
His general style is a mix of 80's synthpop and whatever subgenre Porter Robinson does. Not only do I like that style a lot, another thing I like about him is his attitude towards Vocaloid- as a computer program, an art form, a collection of characters, a phenomenon in general. One of his videos is an "interview" with his characterization of the Vocaloid Avanna. Named MON1T0R, this fictional character that he made up was a computer program (presumably the Vocaloid program) that gained sentience through some kind of anomaly. Here was one of the questions in the interview:
“Do you have anything against human singers?”
“Oh, human singers? Oh nononononono, I don’t have anything against human singers. The role of computed vocalists will never replace human singers, though I believe there’s virtue in computer generated vocals that real singers don’t have. Robots have… artificiality that humans can’t express, yet we can express mood and emotion just like the real deal. We can never sound like real humans, but real humans can’t sound like us.”
-MON1T0R/AVANNA/ODDEEO
This is exactly what I've been trying to say on this blog. The engine noise, choppiness, and pronunciation issues are not flaws that somehow take away the meaning of a computer generated voice. Those flaws are simply the artificiality that humans can't express. For example, take this Portal fan parody. The parody in general is great, but it is still very obvious that the singer is human, no matter how many filters they put their voice through. That takes away from your enjoyment of the song. However, this Vocaloid cover of the same song has a much better feel to it, because the singer is truly a computer.
A vocalsynth's real strength is their emotion, manually, painstakingly put into them by the vocalsynth tuner's love and passion, but sounding so real, surrounded by machine. The paradox of human and computer, real and artificial.
This is also demonstrated when someone compliments ODDEEO on something like how “the Vocaloid you used sounds so real and expressive!” He replies that the emotion you hear is the love he put into the voice, not the voice itself- but thanks anyway for the compliment.
Oh, and by the way, some people have joked that "robots can sing! They'll take over the world, or at the very least the jobs of real singers!" For many of the reasons outlined previously, this is absolutely not true. Call me a "robot in disguise" as a joke, but if we're being serious, this is not going to be a problem, for a very long time at least. (1) It takes work to tune a vocalsynth, probably even more work than just singing it yourself, for most people at least. (1) Even if it were easy, vocalsynths can't sound exactly like real people yet anyway. (3) It's not that robots can sing, a handful of expensive (well, either expensive or low-quality like UTAU) computer programs can sing, when used correctly.
I am not trying to insult vocalsynths, their users, or real singers when I say that Vocaloids will not take over the world or human singers' jobs. That doesn't mean that they are bad. It just means that they are not what some people think.
In conclusion, this is why I love Vocaloid and other programs like it. Because, as MON1T0R says, "We can never sound like real humans, but real humans can’t sound like us.”
Here is the YouTube page of a Vocaloid Producer I've gotten into:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHf9og9JlOD7YNYezW_tVew/featured
He's much more active on his SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/oddeeoofficial
His general style is a mix of 80's synthpop and whatever subgenre Porter Robinson does. Not only do I like that style a lot, another thing I like about him is his attitude towards Vocaloid- as a computer program, an art form, a collection of characters, a phenomenon in general. One of his videos is an "interview" with his characterization of the Vocaloid Avanna. Named MON1T0R, this fictional character that he made up was a computer program (presumably the Vocaloid program) that gained sentience through some kind of anomaly. Here was one of the questions in the interview:
“Do you have anything against human singers?”
“Oh, human singers? Oh nononononono, I don’t have anything against human singers. The role of computed vocalists will never replace human singers, though I believe there’s virtue in computer generated vocals that real singers don’t have. Robots have… artificiality that humans can’t express, yet we can express mood and emotion just like the real deal. We can never sound like real humans, but real humans can’t sound like us.”
-MON1T0R/AVANNA/ODDEEO
This is exactly what I've been trying to say on this blog. The engine noise, choppiness, and pronunciation issues are not flaws that somehow take away the meaning of a computer generated voice. Those flaws are simply the artificiality that humans can't express. For example, take this Portal fan parody. The parody in general is great, but it is still very obvious that the singer is human, no matter how many filters they put their voice through. That takes away from your enjoyment of the song. However, this Vocaloid cover of the same song has a much better feel to it, because the singer is truly a computer.
A vocalsynth's real strength is their emotion, manually, painstakingly put into them by the vocalsynth tuner's love and passion, but sounding so real, surrounded by machine. The paradox of human and computer, real and artificial.
This is also demonstrated when someone compliments ODDEEO on something like how “the Vocaloid you used sounds so real and expressive!” He replies that the emotion you hear is the love he put into the voice, not the voice itself- but thanks anyway for the compliment.
Oh, and by the way, some people have joked that "robots can sing! They'll take over the world, or at the very least the jobs of real singers!" For many of the reasons outlined previously, this is absolutely not true. Call me a "robot in disguise" as a joke, but if we're being serious, this is not going to be a problem, for a very long time at least. (1) It takes work to tune a vocalsynth, probably even more work than just singing it yourself, for most people at least. (1) Even if it were easy, vocalsynths can't sound exactly like real people yet anyway. (3) It's not that robots can sing, a handful of expensive (well, either expensive or low-quality like UTAU) computer programs can sing, when used correctly.
I am not trying to insult vocalsynths, their users, or real singers when I say that Vocaloids will not take over the world or human singers' jobs. That doesn't mean that they are bad. It just means that they are not what some people think.
In conclusion, this is why I love Vocaloid and other programs like it. Because, as MON1T0R says, "We can never sound like real humans, but real humans can’t sound like us.”
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