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>>36003
I prefer this guy...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=O3ZjkHHt48g

>>36004
All Leons are based. I have a particular sentimental affinity for damaru Leon but i appreciate anything and everything made with him. Even the really weird shit. Especially the weird shit.

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I wish they would update LEON or LOLA, especially considering how important they are to Vocaloid history. But I feel like Zero-G no longer wants anything to do with Vocaloid, especially their older voicebanks.

>>36004
Adam Sandler

>>36008
I think we're more likely to see new versions of anything they've made past V2 (excluding Sonika who's basically their mascot), and that's assuming they'll ever update them in the first place.

Was never a big fan of the generic white dude Leon tbh. It just looks like an adult Len to me. Or maybe that's intentional given the similar names.

>>36004
What's the story of this guy?

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>>36011
The face is that of Girolamo Panzetta, an Italian celebrity living in Japan who also appeared in a magazine called LEON (hence why people associate him with Vocaloid LEON).

The body is a character from some anime that I can't remember the name of right now. Not sure what it has to do with LEON, but I assume it was chosen because it looks funny.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xw97BPtqfag

>>36008
I'm still upset at Yamaha for V5. We were THIS CLOSE to Sonika V4.

I prefer more synthetic-sounding vocals, so I dont particularly mind that Leon is on a particularly dated engine, the only problem with that is that it makes him particularly cumbersome to use and makes him not very accessible to what most are willing to do. Which can also be a plus, depensing on how you look at it.

>>36010
The design originated from old 2008 Niconico fandom, back when there were like only 12 or so Vocaloids to work with and JP users had more reason to use him. It wasnt public knowledge back then that his VP is black, and in the minds of JP otaku, overseas foreigner = blonde and fair skinned. And because the Western fandom generally did whatever the JP counterpart did at the time, the design caught on and thats the one most people got attached to.

>>36012
The body of that design is from Parco Folgore from Zatch Bell. It originates from that one cover Choiwaru made with Leon of Chichi wo Moge, the song the character from the anime sings. Vidrel.

>>36013
I wish the faceless loid project that was proposed here a while back actually went somewhere and we got new designs for Leon and Lola. Honestly kinda surprised that Vimalion doesn't have one yet.

>>36013
For me the issue isn't really that they sound robotic, because that's part of the appeal of Vocaloid to me. It's that they're discontinued and therefore hard to obtain (as you mentioned) and the fact that even if you were to get a copy of them they wouldn't work on modern versions of Vocaloid. V6 from what i understand only works with voicebanks from V3 and up and I'm not sure if there's a way to force-load older voicebanks.

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>>36014
There's been a lot of redesign attempts, but I don't think there's a definitive fan favorite out of all of them. I like Oxymoroff's designs tho

>>36016
Something about these reminds me of Pop'n. Guess it's the eyes. I really like this LOLA tho.

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A slightly more obscure Leon (+Lola)

>>36018
I like how this one is literally just Leon Kennedy

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xw97BPtqfag

>>36014
Unfortunately Leon and Lola, as well as most V1-V2 Engloids tend to get ignored in the face of all the new AI vocals that can cross-lang. Most people arent willing to put
up with old software where you really have to fight with the phonemes to get the vocals to sound natural, and I don't blame them.

What does suck is that since Leon got discontinued and damaru Leon became taboo in western fandom, nothing has really replaced the former fanon interpretation and because of those two reasons the only time the fandom seems to remember him and Lola is when the topic of black Vocaloids get brought up.

>>36015
Wellllll actually they're only hard to obtain through LEGAL means. But that depends on your own moral hangups. V1 DOES work on Win11.

>>36016
Again, thats because even if you make a good design, to REALLY solidify a new fanon, you have to use the design in a song and have said song become popular. Which, is understandably hard given the vocal we're talking about.

Samefagging but oops didnt mean to repost the video

>>36020
I don't mind damaru Leon's existence tbh, i think all interpretations are valid, but it'd be nice if we got some new ones.
>V1 DOES work on Win11
Yeah but i highly doubt someone who owns V5-V6 will bother buying V1 as well unless it already comes with the voicebank. TuneLab is also an option i guess lol

>>36023
Seconding, i think we should focus on giving all the V1's a design. There were some MIRIAM proposals in the thread but they didn't go anywhere.

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>>36023
All V1-V2 Vocaloids come with their full respective editors regardless of which voice you get. TuneLab also makes things easy as well, even if it as of yet doesnt let you use the 1.0 V1 synth engine but i dont think most people mind that LOL

Somewhat related topic, but some other Leons i think are cool are 77's Leon, DaifukuP's Leon, Nei's Leon, and this one weird blue looking Leon from an askblog that had like 3-4 posts and was never seen again, picrels respectively.

>>36029
Blueon

>>36029
I kinda like the blue one the most

>>36029
I like 2nd. First one looks a bit like a Puyo Puyo character.

>>36029
Second is my favorite, but I love the blue one. Back before I knew who his VP probably was, I made my own blue Leon, just with blonde hair. I made him a vampire and Lola a werewolf because it was around Halloween but I really liked the idea.

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What about proto Leon? The hoodie and visor combo should be iconic

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>>36014
I wanna see the Miriam one finished. She already has this design which is kinda ero but it doesn't a new one won't hurt. I personally like the idea of making her look gothic, but actual 80's goth and not the bastardized "black hair and black dress big titty goth girl" thing that's popular nowadays.

>>36037
holy typo. i meant that having a new one won't hurt.

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>>36036
Honestly reminds me more of Method Man from the Wu-Tang Clan than a soul singer.

>>36037
>>36038
Same

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>>36039
I think he's supposed to be a guy like D'Angelo or Usher. Basically a Y2K pop star, like some of the other loids back then.

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>>36037
Rice's partner made a Miriam fan-design for an april fools prank a while back and I think it's the closest thing we have to a Vimalion Miriam. It's a nice design.

>>36008
we have a fanloid based on someone mistaking him for adam sandler

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>>36050
There's this other design i found by animeaiko1 on Deviantart. Apparently it's meant to be a 22 year old MIRIAM.

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>>36036
I do sometimes think about why they decided to not have the vocals be visually represented at the time. Judging based on how they were marketed, it seems like while they were soul vocalists on the box, they were also suitable for a wide range of genres, and maybe they wanted the idea of the vocals to be faceless so you could use them for whatever you wanted.

>>36032
Thats how he looks in that particular instance!(i like puyo puyo) Daifuku was more of a musician than an artist at the time so he often got other artists to draw his design interpretation. Picsrel.

>>36056
Is the blonde guy in the third pic meant to be Leon with tits

>>36057
Nope, thats Miriam, the art is from the Strikes Back EP, which also features Miriam as well as Leon.
https://vocadb.net/Al/870

>>36056
>I do sometimes think about why they decided to not have the vocals be visually represented at the time
They were the first voicebanks to be made and i don't think they ever imagined that Vocaloid would become such a massive cultural phenomenon. When you're making a VST software for producers that's meant to imitate human vocals, a mascot is probably the last thing you think about. Kaito and Meiko basically changed everything.

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>>36048
Not sure if I'm schizoposting but I'm getting really convinced they're canonically neo-soul

>>36059
Hence why you wouldnt want any visual representation of the vocals. The concept of selling a vocal with a face wasnt a thing yet, and it was just intended to be a VST you could use for anything. Hence why the only stock image on the final boxart is a pair of lips.

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>>36059
Thank you Kaito

>>36062
Technically MIRIAM exists but she's meant to be a virtual version of Miriam Stockley

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>>36064
Don't forget the legend

https://youtube.com/watch?v=jrVqab6Mg3s

I think besides the beta boxart and LeLik, the third earliest instance of Leon being portrayed as a person has to be in this. Somewhat cursed but ok

>>36070
RIP Giuseppe. I didn't know he had been around for the V1 era.

>>36072
Such a shame hes gone but i understand why after the whole Luan thing. Still dont know what was up with that. Guy really knew what he was doing when it came to Vocaloid.

>>36073
>but i understand why after the whole Luan thing
He didn't quit, he actually died

>>36074
wait WHAT??????
I never knew about that WHAT
Thats horrible. What an absolute shame.

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>>36075
Passed away in 2020, 6 years ago. No cause was ever revealed. A friend of his confirmed it on Youtube.

>>36077
Also worth noting is that this went under the radar until last year, so a lot of people don't know.

>>36074
He did leave the fandom a few years before he passed, so not a lot of people knew about it for a while. Sad situation all around

>>36073
What happened with Luan?

>>36079
Horrible. I think his channel is gone too. I think a few people archived some of his stuff but i know for a fact that he had a lot of Sweet Ann and Yohioloid stuff that i couldnt find after looking for it. I hope someone nabbed those somewhere

>>36083
there are a couple channels archiving his stuff but i'm not sure if ALL of it has been archived

>>36080
I forget. I think there might have been something sketchy about it but i dont remember the specifics do i dont wanna spread misinfo accidentally

>>36080
>>36085
If i'm not mistaken he couldn't find a company to distribute Luan and Lucia. He reached out to PFX,Zero-G and Voctro but they all turned him down due to the costs of obtaining a Vocaloid license. A lot of members of the Spanish Vocaloid community also criticized the voicebanks for having an European Spanish accent. By the time Lucia and Luan were announced there were already 3 voicebanks with European Spanish accents and you gotta remember that a majority of the Spanish fandom lives in Latin America. It's kinda like if there had only been British English voicebanks and no American English ones.

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>>36066
They could never make me hate you Delay Lama

>>36087
The difference is you can barely tell that some of the British vocaloids are British. I'm sure a lot of people have no idea that Sonika is meant to be British for example.

This is my fav depiction of Lola!
I tried to make my own Leon a while back but the clothes are boring, I’m not good @ male clothes xd

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm6653434 [Embed]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2I3_nBNjABw

>>36094
Legendary video. One of the best usages of her. Most of the really good V1 Engloid original songs are made by JP producers in the heyday of the fandom, funnily enough. Even though the english is somewhat broken as a result, its still awesome what they made with them.

On the topic of Leon, this original was pretty well liked among Leon enjoyers at the time. Muzehack made a lot of house music with the V1 Engloids, but this one was his most popular. Sad to see the guy mostly just does Suno AI autogen songs now. : (

>>36097
This is the type of music video you'd see during an ad break on TV in the middle of the night as a kid.

>>36013
What if we just start a GoFundMe or something to get Zero-G working on Sonika V6?

>>36107
I'd email Zero-G first if you're serious about it. But even then my trust in English vsynth developers has been shattered with all the things that happened behind the scenes during the VO days and now this stuff with Maghni AI.

>>36018
Leon motherfucking Kennedy

>>36102
Somehow i know exactly what you're referring to but my brain immediately went to Cartoon Network Groovies

>>36107
Not too sure about this

>>36107
Whatever works i guess

>>36107
I think I'm being realistic when I say this: The only way they'd consider getting back into Vocaloid is if it was less expensive to do so. Most English Vocaloids were propped up by their developers' love for the craft, but even then there comes a time where it's not fiscally responsible to create one. Coupled with the fact that OG Vocaloid devs are mostly absent, and modern vocal synth devs pursue other engines, it would take strong tenacity and a miracle for Zero-G to sell a new Vocaloid (much less develop one themselves, as they generally worked with 3rd parties like Anders to program them).

>>36125
Is there any transparency around the relative cost/effort of developing a Vocaloid product versus SynthV or other engines?

>>36126
Different anon and I don't remember my sources, but I recall it was something like $10,000 for a V6 and $50,000 for a SV1 bank, which would explain why a lot of newer and smaller companies have still been hopping on the V6 train.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vmCZLDikMho

>>36107
Gofundmes, petitions, and the like very rarely work when it comes to getting Engloids to be updated, i would know, there was one that happened when Leon Lola and Miriam were about to be discontinued in 2013 that went nowhere.

Sadly for a company to want to do anything, there understandably has to be a significant financial incentive to do so. And while theres a lot of us that want vocaloids like Sonika to come back, the amount of people who even know about her existence in modern day is a subsection within a subsection of the wider english speaking Vocaloid fandom, and the vast majority of those producers have largely moved on to making stuff in SynthV. It might be possible if Zero-G gets into SynthV, but i dont honestly know how interested they are in that considering how they got burned by Yamaha last time. I'd be happy to proven wrong, though.

Completely unrelated but here's an old Jasmine demo from 2004 of Leon moaning.

Samefagging but lol that was the 69th reply LOL

>>36127
Yeah, choosing Vocaloid could be wise depending on the circumstances. Though, you'd need a foot in the door. In Japan, practically anyone with a little notoriety and the upfront cash can get a Vocaloid off the ground. For Western devs, however, Yamaha seems to point towards Zero-G. So, can you convince Zero-G it's a good idea beyond just the nostalgia factor?

If you had a pitch and maybe even a decent prototype and Zero-G was still unwilling, you could approach other distributors even if they haven't had a hand in vocaloid development (think Big Fish Audio?), but the hurdles scale with the distance, so our best chance to get new English-accented vocaloids is through Zero-G. That, or by our own bootstraps (with upfront cash).

The advantage of another company's support is that the immediate funds aren't always required, but there's no way around the fact that someone is going to have to stomach a loss at first. If Zero-G didn't have to take on the cost (or the full cost) of a VA (~$1500), vocal configuration (Per complete pitch it used to be ~$1500, so $4500 for 3 pitches, but with AI training the price has decreased drastically), character design and marketing, then it's more likely they would consider distribution if they *just* had to pay the licensing fees. Securing a partnership with someone willing to develop products for them is ultimately what they'd want, and if the work proves itself, they may be willing to put more resources towards Vocaloid.

So, any Anons got a plan?

>>36130
This might actually be the first Vocaloid sex song ever made. And it's pre-Len.

>>36136
Plus Boy fears Leon

>>36140
Plus Boy vs. Plus Man

>>36134
>So, any Anons got a plan?
I'd love to be wrong but i don't think anything we do will bring Sonika or any other Zero-G's back. Unless someone happens to have connections i guess?.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2uWMTRq63O0

>>36142
if some user in the community could talk with powerFX so he could make an RVC out of big al's beta VP, anything's possible

>>36143
Actually this guy temporarily worked for Vocatone or at least was involved with Maghni AI's development in some way (not sure if he still is?). Either way i don't think that RVC model is legal (likely trained on very early demos and Michael King performances) so it's understandable that he's never released it.

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>>36107
>>36134

>>36145
Any Sonika sound-alikes HMU. I'll need 1 Arpasing UTAU recorded with cadlaxa's ver 2 list and your understanding that most likely nothing will happen! You also have the option to record a 1,450+ line word-based reclist designed for Vocaloid specifically. Oh, and I'll need at least 3 full pitches + 6 - 9 pitches of just vowels to complete the voice's range.

(I'm joking... please do not hit me up.)

>>36136
Leon has a lot of firsts for Vocaloid, first male Vocaloid (and only male english Vocaloid until Big Al), first Vocaloid album (A Day in the Sun), and first erotic song made with Vocaloid. I think in another thread someone shared an old Japanese thread talking about Vocaloid getting announced and people were already talking about getting it to make sex noises. We really were doomed from the start LOL

>>36142
The conditions for a Sonika update would have to be:
-Shed have to be at least somewhat relevant in the fandom again (shed need like a popular usage by a popular producer that blows up and makes her viral at least somewhat)

-Zero G would either have to be willing to give someone else the rights to her, or work with another synth platform like SynthV. Vocaloid is a no go because Yamaha screwed them over.

-We'd need either another Anders type guy or some other third party who could actually develop said voicebank, and we'd have to find people in the fandom competent enough to not have a schoolgirl catfight on Xitter or money embezzlement in the process. Which is possible, in theory.

So it is possible, but it would take a lot of good Sonika content, a synth platform reaching out to ZG, and people who can do the job. Or someone can just make a spiritual successor to Sonika on UTAU or something

>>36143
IIRC he just got in touch with Bil, who i think left PFX by that point and i dont think he ever did get those original King samples. I think the RVC model he has is a mix of his demo and actual samples of King singing. If im not mistaken that is.

>>36156
>I think the RVC model he has is a mix of his demo and actual samples of King singing. If im not mistaken that is.
correct

>>36156
>Shed have to be at least somewhat relevant in the fandom again
We're getting there somewhat. Interest in her seems to be higher than ever, might even be a direct consequence of people memeing her on this site for 2 years straight. But it's only small producers right now. Big P's like Menace, Flavor Foley, Sawtowne, etc have yet to acknowledge her existence but I don't see that happening. At least we got that collab album.
>Zero G would either have to be willing to give someone else the rights to her
Most likely options to me seem like VoiSona and (god forbid) ACE Studio.
>We'd need either another Anders type guy
lol

>>36159
Anders but good, surely anon meant that!

>>36159
Alright how do we convince big producers to use her

>>36162
I don't think it necessarily needs to be a big producer. She just needs a catchy song with a memorable music video, that's all you really need for a 'loid to blow up. It happened with Yuki, it happened with Yi Xi and just a few weeks ago it happened yet again with Calogado.

Vocaloid1 has an indescribable charm. I think it actually sounds much more natural than V2–V5 at times. Shut's songs perfectly exemplify this for me.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hj5vYddbw [Embed]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=URZ9QmQSWOA

>>36175
Shu-t is the GOAT.
I also really like Feel the Pain and Forever You as far as Lola stuff from him goes. Absolute peak. This is actually Sweet Ann but Night of the Magic goes pretty hard imo. I heard comments say it was a Project Diva arcade attract mode theme and thats really striking to me. Shu-t is a very prolific producer i know but its very interesting that a non-Cryptonloid song was featured in PJD. That makes me happy. : )

He’s really good. I find it fascinating that he was already active in the scene even before Miku was released. It’s cool to see that he’s still active to this day.

>>36178
Can shu-t be considered the first actual vocaloid producer? I know there's the guys that made the demos for V1 around 2003-2004 and Mike Oldfield who made a few songs with Miriam but is he the first producer to consistently make Vocaloid songs like the people we now refer to as "Vocaloid producers"?

>>36179
As far as Niconico-side people go, definitely.

>>36176
So you're telling me that Sweet Ann was featured in the PJD Arcade Opening? I always thought that was English Luka's voice.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ec1Ro14bjBs

I like this Miriam song and it makes me sad that the producer only made this and then disappeared

>>36184
The story of this song is also pretty wild. The OP of this video basically found it on The Pirate Bay, downloaded it and posted it as a reprint. OP also disappeared without a trace.

>>36156
It is possible, yes, but you basically have to pray that the stars align for a miracle like that to happen

>>36156
Ironically I have never seen anyone use Vocaloid to make sex noises, and no Iku doesn't count, she was a soundboard

>>36206
There's a few mmd animators that have. Don't ask me to find the animations in question though, i saw them years ago.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iqde9NAw62E

>>36185
See things like this just make me wonder just how much lost stuff of the V1 Engloids there is out there because they all came out in a pre-YouTube world. Most of the stuff made with them that wasnt super high profile stuff like Mike Oldfield and more well preserved stuff like the Jasmine demos are lost because they were all shared on ooolllld ass file sharing sites like Vocaloid-User and personal websites that are all now defunct. But i never thought to check piracy apps/sites. I might look into that more.

On a different note, recently someone found this uncredited usage of Lola on an italo-disco playlist by a guy named Doctorjam. This guy has like next tp nothing about his discography online. The video and a lot of the comments are wrongly attributing it to Leon though LOL

https://youtube.com/watch?v=umL2TlocEyU

Samsara is still one of those Vocaloid songs you need to hear before you die to me.
Sad that CALFO retired, but at least he's still active on Twitter, posting about Love Live lol.

>>36215
>Jasmine
Who? All that comes up when i search Jasmine Vocaloid is Rana's mascot

>>36215
Time has come was also shared on ufo-scientific.com
Whatever that site was

>>36242
looks like a site for VSTs from what i've seen on the internet archive

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>>36242
Looked it up on Wayback and it looks like it was an old VST developer. As to where the song would have been shared, beats me.

>>36241
Jasmine Music Technologies, aka Virartech, aka Alexei Ustinov. You have to go put the URL on Wayback
Machine to see all the old demos (or alternatively just look them all up on Youtube) but yeah. The guy is responsible for a lot of old Leon demos (and some Miriam stuff) as well as the first Vocaloid album. He was also developing a program called YV Enhancer that could automate tuning in V1 to be way more natural and significantly cut down the workload, and IIRC he shared some demos of the software on the now defunct Vocaloid-User site. So the demo versions of that software are lost and it was also never finished. The amount of lost stuff from Vocaloid-User is astounding.

>>36239
Peak Miriam usage. 10/10

>>36247
>YV Enhancer that could automate tuning in V1 to be way more natural and significantly cut down the workload
That sounds a lot like the automatic tuning feature in SynthV wow

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>>36248
Seems like reception of YV Enhancer may have been mixed at least at the time of early development. Theres another thread about a questionnaire for said software, implying it was definitely sent out to people at some point.

Heres an archived thread:
https://web.archive.org/web/20050128175006/http://www.vocaloid-user.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=140

>>36249
Wonder what Alexei is up to these days

>>36249
V-U is such a fascinating piece of Vocaloid history. I'm surprised there isn't much documentation about it online.

>>36252
Vocaloid forums and fansites in general have little to no documentation. Vocaloid Otaku, which is essentially responsible for the entire V3-V4 era of Engloids, for example, only has a few mentions in some very old Wikia/Fandom sites and Fanlore.

On the Vocapedia site we've been trying to change that by documenting both official sites and fansites. So far the most complete page is 39chan's (for obvious reasons: a lot of us have been here since it started).

>>36253
That being said if you guys wanna help us out (which btw you really should), here is the category.
https://vocapedia.miraheze.org/wiki/Category:Websites

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>>36249
fascinating

I found it. I finally found it. The funniest thread from Vocaloid User that was archived. I thought it was lost forever but here it is:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040717194743/http://www.vocaloid-user.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=20

>>36259
A gay computer

why does the thread have a giant party hat now

>>36261
Happens on 39chan's anniversary but it activated earlier for some reason. Also it's not just this thread.

Gay jokes aside, its really interesting to know that people were thinking about the appearance of the V1 Engloids as early as a month after they released.

Very interesting that one guy had the opinion that Leon was black and Lola was white, seeing as common fanon interpretation seems to be the opposite. Leon in my opinion could sound believable as a white or black person but its really hard for me personally to imagine Lola as anything but black.

>>36264
Its funny to see how the concept of attaching some type of visual representation to a vocaloid voice was a thing even back then. Were Kaito and Meiko even a thing when those threads were made?.

>>36261
2nd anniversary

>>36077
Alberto Fernández Moldes/Blancanegra is still alive though! He's posted some really good Vocaloid covers on his YouTube channel under his real name.

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>>36267
No. This thread started in February 2004 so i dont think KaiMei were even announced yet, let alone released. That makes it all the more intriguing.

>>36275
On the topic of Giuseppe, i looked through some of the archived download index pages (the download links dont work) and Giuseppe had a LOT of submissions to Vocaloid User. I dont even think a lot of these were ever saved or posted elsewhere.

>>36275
Was Alberto Fernandez part of Voctro?

>>36281
he was in vocaloidmaster

>>36298
Isn't Vocaloidmaster part of Voctro though

>>36299
Not nessicarily. Voctro was technically there since the initial Pompeu Fabra University development of the V1 engine with Yamaha. But they wouldnt go on to start developing their own Vocaloids until V3. I think maybe Giuseppe may have had ties to Voctro but im not entirely certain.

>>36253
we'll make our own v3 era, with blackjack and

>>36298
I think Alberto/Blancanegra still pops up from time to time in the VI-Control vocal synth discussions.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WhIWdiePtrY

>>36320
Theres a thing i havent heard about in a while. What was VI-Control again? IIRC it was more of a vocoder than a vocal synth.

On a different note, does anyone here remember when Crossy used to make Leon stuff? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

>>36351
I don't know who Crossy is so for a sec I thought it was an alias of Lawlietlk

>>36358
Man that's one name i haven't heard in a long time. What happened to her? she used to be one of my favorite Vocaloid artists back when i was on the Deviantart side of the community.

>>36360
She did some official artwork and merch for Miku Expo 2018. Idk what she's up to these days.

Speaking of Lawliet if anybody ever feels like doing a HD remaster of Dinky Dink, I found out that all of the frames from the video are on Deviantart.
https://www.deviantart.com/lawlietlk/gallery/33912122

>>36362
She seems to be doing alright, left social media a long time ago

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>>36358
Crossy is actually the current head of VocaTone now lol. But before that they were a pretty popular artist for the Engloids, and really liked drawing Leon, and really really took a liking to Oliver later on. Their old art is hard to find but a small part of it is still findable on Piapro under the LEON tag. Heres them drawing a bunch of Leon designs. They used to have a bunch of covers on their Youtube which is now gone. I think they also had an ask account for Leon on Deviantart, and they're responsible for two Leon fanloids, Kion Duo and Zeon. They made a lot of this stuff before 2012. I think they later revamped their Leon design but i dont know what their current acc is and its probably been scrubbed.

>>36016
I like to imagine Leon and Lola as twins like the Kagamines

>>36351
It's a forum for music production discussion. A lot of SynthV discussion goes on there because the types of people that hang out around there are more general music producers who just want something to use for vocals.

>>36414
Wow i was WAY off base. Ive never heard of it before. I thought for sure Voctro made some kind of vocoder people thought would be a standard vocal synth but were dissapointed when they learned it was a vocoder. I think maybe they also did some kind of auto lyric thing in like 2018 that was responsible for the Mr Krabs is One Thicc Bih meme and Pizza Pasta meme. Unless i REALLY dont know what im talking about.

>>36249
This was early to mid 2000's so it's not too surprising. I'd imagine the Synth V automatic tuning uses some form of AI to predict vibratos and stuff.

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>>36565
Yeah, that's understandable honestly. Still though, it would be amazing to see or even hear what it looked like or what it actually made V1 sound like. But again, cannot find where that download was shared.

In other news, on the topic of Vocaloid User, whoever the administrator of this site was DEFINITELY either HAD or maybe even STILL HAS a backup of all the audio files uploaded to the site, as I figured out from this old archived thread.

If someone, somehow could get a hold of this guy, we may have hundreds of gigabytes worth of Vocalost V1 Engloid content on our hands. It would be the motherload.

>>36570
It would probably sound like Leon/Lola on Mitchie M tuning

>>36570
Try converting a SVP file with automatic tuning to VSQX and choose Leon/Lola/Miriam as your voicebank and that's how it would've probably sounded like.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=vmCZLDikMho

I wonder what this new and innovative technology will be used fo- oh

>>36602
Sometimes i wonder what it's like to be a Vocaloid voice provider and hear your voice used in shit like this. If it happened to me i'd probably laugh my ass off.

>>36607
I'd be honored

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q4g0E8kz4F0

LEON's demos are really funny

https://youtube.com/watch?v=H3lqDJvayY8

>>36757
early demos in general are funny

>>36759
I like how they call it a "slow rap"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=m14CxG95lJI

>>36759
There's also that infamous demo cover of I Feel Good by James Brown
I love old man Big AL so much bros

https://youtube.com/watch?v=N7ShN5Z9GKA

I find it interesting that some of the earliest Vocaloid demos are in Russian yet we never got a Russian Vocaloid.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nDUepLw5Q48

>>36771
There's also English versions of this song with Big AL

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HR4czj_lE3Q

>>36602
"please touch me lola" mention counter is now at 2. Not a complaint, i just think thats funny considering it probably wont be the last mention lol

>>36771
I think Alexeis work has definitely caused a non-insignificant part of Leon's (admittedly small) fanbase to be Russian. Ive seen lots of enjoyers from Russia over the years, and even still today. I remember one girl in particular from Instagram who was really into cosplay and took it upon herself to cosplay as MULTIPLE Leon designs over the course of her account. I havent checked on her in a while. I hope shes having a good life, wherever she is. If i can find her acc again ill share some images here.

>>36757
Indeed they are. Considering that they were really trying to show off Vocaloid as a virtual vocalist that can do ANYTHING you tell it to, we got a smattering of just completely experimental stuff made with Leon and Lola because they had the advantage of being the firsts of their kind.

With that said, here's even more weird shit. (and with more weird eroticism. I cry.)

>>36829
>Yeees i can

Finally listened to that Russian LEON album with the weird 3D modeled face. There's so many good tracks on it.

>>36880
>But only... if i am properly controlled.

And if you have a LOT of patience and not much sanity.

>>36881
Its such a bizarre album. Sport is probably my favourite track on there not only because of how weird it is, but iirc Alexei did make a self cover of that song that sounds AMAZING. Ill have to find that later though because i need to tend to something hold on

Sameposting but im back from making supper and i found it:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240212160645/https://virartech.ru/NVM-RVC_demo.php

Its the last audio file on the page. It has an RVC version of Leon and Big Al V1 as backing vocals on it.

>>36899
The closest thing we'll ever get to a new Leon voicebank

>>36767
this is sending me

>>36899
>2024
I'm surprised he's still active and involved in vocal synth stuff

>>36934
Its more like he did pretty much nothing vocal synth related since 2008 and a member of the community reached out to him in hopes of archiving and preserving the Leon album because the full versions of the songs werent publicly available at the time unless you had the physical CD. Which then led to them talking about more things.

>>36951
That's still not too long ago?

>>36962
Not too long ago? It's almost 20 years ago anon

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>>36963

>>36969
kek

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I love V1

>>36951
So you're telling me somebody out there possibly owns a CD of it? I didnt know there were physical copies.

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>>37175
There indeed were, and you could order them on Virartech's website. Ive seen a few people here and there somehow get their paws on physical copies, but they are exceptionally rare because, y'know, limited release from a smaller producer and all. Ive seen two people actually hold said album in their hands.

On an earlier note, I figured out who the administrator for Vocaloid User was. Theres an archived page from 2004 posted by "Administrator" who also in this article is listed as none other than Joe Hogan. Cross referenced from the fact that other posts in the forums refer to the Admin account directly as "Joe", its pretty safe to say this was our guy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170316014643/http://vocaloid-user.net/2004/check-it-out-tutorial

If you don't know, Joe Hogan was the person who made some of the initial, original demos for Vocaloid by Zero-G. He did some work for Zero-G up until after Avanna released and since then has been doing music work in the games industry for some pretty prolific companies. I checked his Bluesky account and he's still active to this day.

I think it would be worth asking him if he still has the archives to all the songs posted on the download page, as it was HUNDREDS of songs featuring the V1 Engloids that are no longer available. He at the very least had an archive of all these songs, as evidenced by a prior post in this thread, and its possible he may still have it.

This is huge.

Sameposting, but I caved in and sent him an email. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

>>37194
Did you ever hear back from him?

>>37184
So the first ever fansite was made by a Zero G employee? Interesting

>>37360
Nope. Sadly nothing. I messaged him on his website and it hasnt been updated in a bit so that may be a reason he didnt respond. Or it could be that he doesnt trust a complete stranger with gigabytes worth of people's files (understandable) but it's hard to tell which it is. I might try reaching out to him on Bluesky if this doesnt work, as he seems to be more active on there.

>>37368
Perhaps. I emailed Zero-G if they owned the site years ago, to which they said they did not. And the admin did say in an archived post that HE owns the website, not any sort of company, so its not an official Zero G owned site.

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Sameposting but i found an absolutely insane rabbithole. I was trawling through the Vocaloid-User.net wayback archives and saw this curious little forum thread title in the general section of the forum. Of course if i try to click on it, it 404's (as with every interesting thing on the site that I'm dying to look at) but it piqued my interest. (first picrel)

So it made me wonder: What the hell is "THE BOTS" and why did this poster think Leon or Lola were in it? I did a quick Google search on that term and i found probably the most weird ass thing i've seen probably all year.

Meet "The Bots." Aka the first ever virtual band, circa 1992. Here's a link to their website, as it was in 2008: https://web.archive.org/web/20080828164212/http://www.thebots.net/

Not only is it a virtual band full of fictional characters, but its the first virtual band to use all vocal-synths as the band member's voices. And of course, Leon is here too. See that black man in the back? The one with the suspiciously red lips? Thats Leon. More specifically, that's the character VOICED by Leon. How do I know? If you follow that link to their website, the Never Fall in Love music video has Leon as backing vocals going "ooh-ooh" and in this shot of the video, that character has that voice. (Third picrel)

Needless to say, this is absolutely insane. From what i know, The Bots had two albums, and Leon is only in the second one titled "TRUTH". If you want to listen to it the entire thing is archived on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nRp9jOpvU0LcQu9WKCHPgLo1kWUVSCu-4

If anyone happens to know what synths are used for the other band members, I'd love to know.

>>37411
This gives off the same vibe as those fake 90's chatroom animations people make on Youtube

>>37436
Well ...it is a 90's band using 90's 3DCG

>>37411
>Third picrel
I only see two

The site is still up and running. They were not called The Bots till 2002 before it was The Bot Brothers. The website had an https page so it was likely last updated around the 2010 but not updated any later than earlier 2020 because the Flash interface is still there and wont load so it was not replaced with Ruffle or anything. The guy behind it is named Bill C. Contact email available but he might not be using that email for personal use so may not have used it for years. Why I think not personal use is you can see his photo bottom of page but he censored it with an image warp to disguise his face some.
https://www.thebots.net/Main.htm
https://www.thebots.net/WhatAreTheBots.htm
https://www.thebots.net/History.htm
Despite the Industrial sound on some songs the guy never had a Vampire Freaks page I guessed the URL using both names and no luck on Wayback Machine Archive. I can tell you he seems to likely have used MacInTalk voices or Microsoft TruVoice voices sometimes with effects applied and possibly his own voice through a vocoder or some other vocal effect. I am too busy to listen to all their songs to try to figure who is who and point out every voice individually but you have enough info now you can do it yourself just fine. Might not actually first just first as far as Bill was aware and used it as a gimick. Also I shouldnt need to point out Leon was not released till 2000s but that dark skin character was one of the first members as you can see the name is Paul Bot so need to find what he sounds like in older songs to see if same voice or not to confirm if Leon.

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>>37465
There are three images there, you just have to click on the first one to enlarge it because the thumbnail shrunk it quite a bit.

Concerning Paul Bot, it seems as though before 2004 a very primitive TTS was used for his voice, as you can see in the Push music video (archived on YouTube):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZV4sxaNgUUY [Embed]

Ive definitely heard that TTS before, i think for some Google Translate options, but i couldn't tell you which. Leon is definitely used for his voice in Never Fall In Love, My Mind is Free. and Weapons of Mass Destruction. It doesn't appear that The Bots were active at all music wise after 2006.

In other news, found another interesting forum post. Allegedly, the pirate group H2O made a cracked version of Vocaloid1 and it had a "very high quality" Lola usage on the loader music. She was also potentially used on other releases for the group around the same time. I wasn't able to find anything of the sort though.

>>37411
If true then I'm surprised its never been documented anywhere. Not even a mention on Wikipedia.

>>37411
Weren't The Archies the actual first virtual band?

>>37809
First fictional band with actual music. Virtual implies slightly different I think.

>>37808
This band, i would assume, mainly advertised their music on pre-Youtube music sharing sites, and a lot of stuff from that era was NOT archived or accounted for well at all at the time. Wikipedia was just in its infancy at the time. During this time you could barely search up Sonic the Hedgehog on the website. And seeing as the band completely stopped all activity after 2006 nobody archived it. If only they stuck around another year or so...

>>37809
First virtual band to have its own music and use entirely speech synthesis for the band members.

On another note, I've been doing even more sleuthing and im starting to wonder if i should make a separate thread for my findings, because i wanna talk about a lot more of the stuff concerning the other pre-Miku Engloids (and maybe even early kaimei stuff?) Not to mention i am making a TINY BIT of headway with finding some of the old Vocaloid-User files.

What do you guys think? Would you be interested in a thread like that?

>>37828
Imo you should just create articles on that one wiki made by some anons on this board

>>37829
Funnily enough ive been thinking about doing that but i used to help out with wikis before and i know they can be kinda time consuming to edit for BUT i do have some experience so maybe ill do that we'll see 0.0

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4na25kWGiTE

DARLING, SHOW ME WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9JtJz9NL_OU

>>38180 The Leon and Miriam version ain't half bad either. :)

>>37831 Yesssss to both the wiki and threads! Maybe the threads can help you sort your thoughts for an article later