>>37487
Alright, who are you working with OP

>>37489
Telling you that would skew the results of this survey. What I can say is that I will be bringing the results of this survey to a large company who has been developing vocal synthesis technology for several years.

Done

Cool, I’ll respond

ClipboardI….png - 118.83 KB (540x200)

>>37490
>large company who has been developing vocal synthesis technology for several years
Here come the hopeposters

ClipboardI….png - 210.45 KB (468x760)

>>37493
we've always been here

If you really work for or with a vocal synth company I'm surprised you're posting this on the site that made an UTAU based on gay porn memes, instead of Vocaverse which is more "professional" I guess you could say. I could only see VocaTone doing something like that desu.
But either way I'll fill it out for you.

>>37495
when did we even make that

>>37496
He's talking about Darashine Ena

>>37495
I mean it does make sense if you want to remain anonymous. On forums your posts are attached to an username.

>>37491
Thank you.
>>37492
Thank you.
>>37495
Yes it may be surprising but it's true. My posting here is something like a pilot run before posting to other forums like Vocaverse. I'm not affiliated with VocaTone, nChant, Maghni, or ExpressiveLabs. Thank you for filling it out.

>>37487
Filled! Regardless of the company you work with, some of the implications of these questions immediately excited me to read, even if nothing would come of it the fact such questions were asked really does seem like a good sign to me.

>>37499
No problem, hope you get some helpful responses. Wishing you well with other forums and, of course, that your company addresses my personal gaps in the market.

>>37500
Thank you! These are questions I'm asking because I believe there is coming structural change to the commercial vocal synth market.
>>37501
We'll see about that. We will certainly see.

>>37504
>there is coming structural change to the commercial vocal synth market
Huh?

I am not sure if the question asking favourite engine is meant for people who actually used some or just general impressions so not sure if I am supposed to pick none or choose by a general impression since I have not currently tried to use any engine yet.

>>37506
It was meant for those who have actually used one. You have the option of choosing "none"

>>37499
So long as you're not from ACE, which I doubt you are, we're good lul.

>>37495
It's not that weird when you remember that Tsuina chan originates from 2channel which is essentially the Japanese 4chan.

>>37508
ACE devs would not ask on an English site knowing how the English community feels about them

I have been making small adjustments to the survey with the help of the custom responses. The survey as a whole is largely unchanged. Thank you all again! This is all very useful information.

>>37490
>large company
>developing vocal synthesis TECHNOLOGY
>that if we knew who it was it would skew the results of the survey

i obviously know anon cant tell me who they're going to talk to but im calling its gonna be either:
-Zero-G (Very prolific sample company, and theyve also developed vocalsynth technology on their own to an extent since about like 2016 ish iirc and they def have the means to distribute it, plus people here really really want Sonika to come back and maybe thats why they cant tell us. It's probably them.)
-Yamaha? (HUGE ass company, develops Vocaloid, although they mainly do AI stuff now. Maybe anon is trying to show them that people want different things?)
-SynthV??? (I don't know exactly how big Dreamtonics are but maybe its them? Besides Yamaha and Zero-G i cant think of any other big-ish company that makes vocal synth technology.)

Also because you said "big company" we can immediately rule out VocaTone or anyone affiliated with nChant.

The only other thing i can think of would be a huge tech company that we've never seen before in the vocal synth industry that has been cooking up something huge behind the scenes for years. That would be insane. This is exciting, to say the least. I participated in the survey. Godspeed, anon.

>>37504
You have me intrigued. Looking forward to any projects you may have cooking.

>>37514
My first thought was that OP could be EmpathP but considering she's sort of retired and doesn't seem to be involved with Zero-G since the late 2010's I can't think of another company that'd be willing to pull off something like this

ClipboardI….png - 561.86 KB (600x600)

>>37516
I don't think OP is her but I do think it is someone associated with Zero-G. That being said, is hope back on the menu?.

>>37516
There were more people from the community at Zero G than Aki Glancy tho

386.png - 661.59 KB (691x865)

I know he's never coming back, but if it really is the people who made my boy, I know they'll do a stellar job in whatever endeavor they have cooked up. :)

Or maybe its Microsoft. Who knows LOL

I fucking told you guys. Never lose hope.

>>37517
>>37520
DON'T STOP BELIEVING
HOLD ON TO THAT FEELING

>>37514
I don't know if I'd call Zero-G a big company but they're definitely the oldest when it comes to Vocaloid products, and neither Yamaha nor Dreamtonics seem like companies that would post here. Especially considering you're allowed to discuss Pocaloid and related software without consequence.

Either way I'm excited to see what comes out of this if it really is a representative for a vocal-synth company and not someone pretending to be one. After all, this is 39chan.

OP can you confirm that you're actually working with the devs already? Technically anyone can send a business proposal, I'd like to be sure if this means something

>>37514
Nowhere in OP's survey does it mention anything about upgrading old software so if it really is Zero-G, they're not here for a Sonika upgrade.

hope o clo….png - 248.77 KB (700x434)

>>37526
It's just nice to imagine

>>37514
You forgot Voctro/Voicemod

Submitted. I don't know what company you work for OP, but good luck in whatever you're working on.

>>37526
speculation is fun

Done! I don't think I've ever enjoyed filling in a marketing survey before

Godspeed OP

Alright I finished it up. Almost left email but I am not in a good state and might be in bad mood if contacted at bad time if im still even around

>>37534
get well soon anon

>>37525

I am not. I didn't mean to start rampant speculation, so my apologies for that.

I am a representative for a relatively small company that sees an opportunity in the western vocal synth market. I've spoken with some connected individuals and have come to my own conclusions about where there may be an opportunity.

I do not wish to state directly who I have conversed with, who I may be working with, or the business structure at this stage. That is the reason I have posted here on 39chan. I understand that a lack of information could affect how you view the survey, but it cannot be helped that at this time I wish to retain the anonymity of myself, current partners, and potential partners.

Much of the information I am collecting is preliminary research that will play a part in deciding the outcome of a licensing agreement between my business and another, with the goal being that my company interests are aligned with the western vocal synth community. Put simply: I want to make products that people will actually want to buy, rather than assuming I already know what the market wants.

>>37536
Understandable

>>37536
Of course. I didnt mean to cause any sort of pressure for you to disclose anything, it's just fun speculation is all. :) I hope you do well, regardless of whoever you happen to be working with.

>>37528
I thought Voctro has been MIA since the late 2010s. Unless I'm mistaken? Also IIRC they're not a huge company, i thought it was just Giuseppe plus a few others from Pompeu Fabra.

>>37526
I know its unlikely if it's them, but if OP did disclose they were working with ZG, the denizens here would no doubt flood the "what are the gaps" section with "SONIKA AI PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" Plus, even if they dont remake vocals with them to start out with, it could open up the possibility for remakes later. But im ahead of myself.

OP already clarified this but they are not a person or employee FROM said large company, they're looking to make a sales pitch TO said company. But im rambling now lol

Filled. I hope we can see great things come from this. I know there’s definitely gaps I’d like to see filled.

Whatever it is you're doing with this company good luck OP
Also forgive me for asking, but this is unrelated to any of the leekaloids, right?

>>37542
I'm glad you understand. My proposal does not exclude the possibility of remaking voices, but that's not the main focus even if there is demand for that. From what I can tell most remakes are headed elsewhere, but that doesn't mean the idea is off the table in some other form.

>>37553
This is currently unrelated to the leekaloids. I don't mean offense by this, but I believe there would need to be some small changes to the character profiles for them to be considered in commercial projects. Although, maybe not? It depends on the licencing structure and how much freedom is given. My company's mission is to satisfy demand, so hypothetically speaking if there was reasonable demand for TORIKO... You get the idea. Asking a question like that here would no doubt get a skewed response, so this is really something to consider in the future.

>>37566
>there would need to be some small changes to the character profiles for them to be considered in commercial projects
dang it shinya and what he did in 1987

>>37487
cool quiz, yo

>>37567
Probably has more to do with the piss stuff and 9/11 birthday. But Ritsu was able to get away with worse so idk.

>>37571
Tile patterns (fetish) are normal though

>>37571
ik anon, it's a joke about how his character profile is empty

>>37572
Indeed, perfectly normal fetish to have

ClipboardI….png - 892.32 KB (1746x1746)

>>37487
filled in yesterday. pretty interested on what's going on!

i wish you the best of luck in your future projects!

>>37566
I'd rather have Sena go commercial. TORIKO would be a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, she finally gets a high quality voicebank and recognition. On the other, she gets completely lobotomized like Sukone Tei after the Crypton apology and also she stops being "ours" like how Kasane Teto is barely associated with 2channel nowadays.

>>37585
She already has plenty of recognition compared to the other leekaloids, especially in Japan. We literally got a Japanese song with her before an English one. Her voicebank is also already high quality and there's plans to improve it further.

That being said though, I agree that removing some of her info would ruin her. I don't know if I would want that even if it means she gets a commercial voicebank.

>>37585
That makes a lot of sense, and seeing there's a fun culture here I wouldn't want to play a part in taking that away. I believe sanitizing your creations just to appeal to some greater demographic is a sad thing, so please don't feel pressured to do anything like that. Brand appeal in my honest opinion sucks a lot, and while I have my own ideas it's always a tight rope. I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, I'm super glad with the outreach thus far. It may not seem like a lot, but I've reached 30 respondents in 30 hours. I am still looking for more data but this is a great start, thank you all. If you're curious about some of the survey data, I'll gladly share some (but not all) statistics when I've got time.

>>37609
30 is already more than i would've expected for a site of this scale tbh

>>37585
I'd rather have Sena get any kind of new voicebank in general. It doesn't even have to be a commercial voicebank i just wish she had more than just CV.

>>37610
It's a combination of 39chan and VocaVerse. 39chan however supplied more answers than VocaVerse, currently.

>>37612
Has it really gotten to a point where this site is more active than VV? I'm surprised

>>37614
I think people just want a Vocaloid forum that's a mix of shitpost/serious discussion like Vocaloid Otaku. The fact that half of our users seem to come from there already says something. Vocaverse just doesn't feel the same imo, it's a different kind of atmosphere, but I appreciate its existence anyway.

>>37612
I haven't sent mine yet but i'll do it in a few hours

>>37609
Have you considered reaching out to producers on other platforms directly? I think you'll get a more representative sample of the community that way

I read on Vocaverse that you were looking for producer opinions. I was one of the first people to respond so i hope that helps.

>>37614
I think everyone's active on dicksword these days. I haven't spread the survey around servers yet, and I may or may not it depends. I need some good data regarding both old fans and new fans.

>>37617
I've considered it and I might. The worst they can say is no.

>>37619
Thanks Meaty, I like your style

>>37620
>>dicksword
oh. it autocorrects to... that

>>37621
It's been like that for years lol. It's because of server spam.

>>37621
That's wordfilters for you

Every Western synth company I've seen has failed in one way or another so I hope you end up being the one to break the curse. Good luck to you OP.

>>37609
If you want a bigger sample size i'd recommend joining Vocaloid servers and asking around there if they'd let you. THe majority of Vocaloid users are on the younger side and they dont really use things like forums and imageboards much

>>37634
A lot of the big producers aren't kids. I think that might have something to do with how most vocal synth software is expensive and they can't afford it unless their parents buy all the required software for them. I've been there many years ago.

>>37636
Kids usually use either UTAU or demos/free trials. I've been seeing them use Chis-a a lot recently. At least until that whole yumeshipping thing blew over.

>>37637
correct

>>37633
What about Eclipsed Sounds? They seem well.

>>37634
> younger side
I've noticed. Even though I've used forums as a kid, it seems that things have changed.

>>37636
> big producers aren't kids
Yeah, and in reality the data from producers is more valuable than the data from kids with no money. You've been there, but you have money now (lol) so the demographic who once couldn't afford it but now can isn't completely irrelevant.

Sent

OP will you update us or VocaVerse eventually if anything comes out of this?

Also regarding affordability, I'm thinking of an alternative price than the prevailing standard. Not so cheap that it'd raise your eyebrows, but a price I believe is appropriate in this day and age.

>>37641
Thank anon, the more the merrier.

>>37642
If anything comes from this, it'll be news regardless of if I said anything.

>>37644
Interesting, good luck

OP's form seems to imply a return to sample based voicebanks which is admittedly interesting because without counting Rei's bizarre addition into V5 this year we haven't had one since the V5 Chinaloids in 2023. Would definitely be cool to see.

>>37648
Referring to commercial synths here btw. I'm aware that UTAU and DeepVocal still use this format.

>>37649
That being said though. If I'm mistaken and it ends up being an AI based SVS I won't be mad, so long as everything's sourced ethically and the company isn't shady like ACE.

>>37639
The people that used forums back then were millennials and older gen z. Young gen z and gen alpha basically grew up during the time when forums were dying and social media was rising.

>>37643
Id be more suspicious of a very high price over a low one if something not well established as not vaporware since that means bigger potential loss.

>>37648
Not sure how much of an unpopular opinion this is here but I personally would only accept this if it's a new voicebank and not an "upgrade" of an existing one. For example, with Avanna, I would much prefer if she got the AI treatment than a port to another engine with the same robotic tone. But if it's a new product we've never seen before that has the robotic tone I'd be more willing to accept it.

>>37611
Why doesn't she have any other voicebanks anyway? Is her VP hard to work with or something?

>>37660
VP isn't hard to work with, she just has a heavy accent and can't pronounce Japanese words. The DS is still planned, we just haven't worked on it because it requires new takes and TORIKO 1.3 is still our priority.

IMG_202610….jpg - 171.94 KB (1080x1579)

>>37648
There is room for it in the right circumstances. Rei is an especially interesting case.

>>37656
You wouldn't spend $100+ on a concatenative vocaloid in the year 2026 now would you? Or... I guess some would.

>>37657
There are no current plans to upgrade existing voices.

>>37662
Is it wrong to assume you might be working with the V5 engine?

>>37663
Survey's still up, no deets.

>>37665
I will say there are multiple ways this could go. Concatenative, neural, a "new engine", an existing one. It is all being seriously considered. Currently, my personal interests are aligned with the objective conclusions I can draw from the data, and that's just a happy coincidence.

>>37666
And yes, there are implications. I won't be so daft to say there aren't and that I'm not looking for data to support my assumptions, but the survey is formatted in a way that I believe excuses that early on.

>>37666
>>37667
Naruhodo

>>37662
>You wouldn't spend $100+ on a concatenative vocaloid in the year 2026 now would you? Or... I guess some would.
I did imply from a new comoany when I nebtiined vaporware. I live off welfare alone currently so I have to be selective how I spend money.

>>37673
Yeah it was just kind of a joke... For example ZG has the right idea with their pricing, but Yamaha? Wow.

>>37648
SP so rough and forgotten we don’t include it in recent concat developments lol

>>37660
It’s Zero-G to put it simply, they were never known to do more than 1 bank for a character. While we know there’s Sonika V4 that was scrapped, it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t Aki booting the project up in the first place.

>>37678
Anon is talking about Sena not Sonika. Sena is owned by Vox Software not ZG.

>>37678
So basically the only reason Sonika V4 sort of existed was because of Aki's involvement? No wonder they never touched Vocaloid ever again after she went M.I.A then

Honestly i wouldn't question a voicebank's quality based on the price alone, i would question it based on the samples i've heard

>>37711
Same here *cough* V6 *cough*

>>37711
Same, I got a physical of Tohoku Zunko V3 for $37 on Amazon and she has a really great voice for whispery songs, meanwhile most V6 banks I wouldn't even pay 1/4 that price.

>>37711
Yeah pretty much this
I buy based on what i hear

>>37716
I remember that being one of the most criticized things about V6, but it seems like opinions on V6 in general hve shifted after the release of the new Miku voicebank.
Still, the only V6 i would pay for is Nurse Robot, she sounds high quality and i like whispery voices.

>>37743
I own Nurse Robot and she is noisy like most V6's but the good thing is that since her voice is very whispery the noise isn't as audible as it is on voicebanks like Gumi's for example.

>>37743
>>37747
Yeah I assumed engine noise wasn't "bad" when it worked thematically. Some examples of V6 are... weird, to say the least.

>>37523
People used to leak Vocaloids on VO, a site used by actual Zero-G and PFX devs, lmao

Some candid thoughts here, now that the survey has gone on for a little while. Despite there being provable demand for a return to sampled voicebanks commercially, there is little financial incentive to do so in lieu of the improving open-source stack. Unless Vocaloid were to budge and allow more V5s (the soon commercial release of Adachi Rei may indicate such a thing), or a new sampled or sample-similar synthesis engine were to release to meet enthusiast demand, then I don't believe there will be a return to the commercial landscape that once was without further precedent being set.

>>37797
To be honest I think it's only a vocal minority of older fans asking for this. The current western producer scene is mainly focused on AI voicebanks, and when they do use commercial non-AI voicebanks, it's generally the most popular and nostalgic ones (which are all over a decade old at this point).

>>37816
As much as I like sampled voicebanks you are correct about it being mostly oldheads asking for this. Realistically there isn't really much to upgrade from voicebanks that already use samples other than maybe the quality of the recordings or synthesis method used by the engine.

>>37817
Pretty much - we've had two engines betting on the idea that sample-based voicebanks are still competitive (Piapro NT and Mikoto Studio), and IMO it just set them up for failure. I could see it getting some traction in a few years with a company that understands it as a retro, nostalgia-based thing.

>>37824
To be fair neither do anything new. Piapro has very few actual voicebanks and it can load Vocaloid ones so its essentially just Vocaloid with shittier new versions of the Cryptonloids. Meanwhile Mikoto Studio is just UTAU but paid.

>>37817
Realistically all that most people care about is end sound regardless of how it is made and about how much control versus difficulty there is ib production process. It just is some methods produce different sounds than others and depending on voice it can go either way I think. Sampled banks I think of as akin to vocoder and autotune where there is a specific sound that can be good or bad. Likewise with so called AI voices they can have good aspects or bad ones such as people getting lazy with tuning.

>>37827
You have a point, but I suspect the "lazy tuner" demographic tends to get filtered by engines that are more difficult, so from a commercial perspective there's more incentive to lean towards ease of use

>>37833
It should also be noted that the plug and play demographic of users tend to either use SynthV or pirate software

>>37834
Admittedly I mostly plug & played for several years and only started trying to change that around 2024 when I discovered I can port tuning from OpenUTAU into V4, though it has mixed results and I need to edit the ported tuning a lot of the time because overtuning can cause voice cracks. I think it sounds good when I take my time with it though.
People who very specifically have SynthV 2 and don't tune in it when there's a feature that allows for direct pitch editing via drawing on the note confuse me to no end though, it's by far the easiest program to tune in and a lot of its users don't take advantage of that.

>>37835
Honestly I think it's reasonable for every producer to do a little plug and play starting out. It's easy to feel cynical about it, I definitely don't like how it sounds but I'm very empathetic to how you kind of need to take baby steps going into using a vocal synth program for the first time (or just making music in general) and that it's kind of par for the course

>>37837
I took my first steps at tuning back in 2019 with my first original, (started in 2016 so how late I got to actually working on my own stuff is sorta embarrassing) but because I primarily do covers and own a lot of official VSQx files from a couple producers, I used to leave it at that to learn basic skills within the program, while occasionally tuning my own stuff so it wasn't all plug and play. I'd always at the very least do the phonemes if I used a Japanese Vocaloid, but it wasn't until later I learned little tricks to make them very clear.
Some people have a late start, others grasp it almost immediately. I love seeing other producers start to dip their toes into it though.

Because I have the resources to satisfy at least two major gaps apparent in the survey, I'll give it my best to deliver something decent of commercial quality. I did say the data may be presented to a company, and I still intend to do that but it's looking more likely that won't result in what I initially wanted to achieve. With that said, I think this is my last post for now, I'll let you all know what comes of this if it doesn't become obvious. Thanks for your responses everyone!

>>37875
Best of luck mysteryanon. We'll be waiting for you.

>>37875
good luck