What would your standards for a commercial UTAU be?

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
I would list my standards, but I'm gonna say this: it boils down to popularity.

A commercial version of Ham or CZloid or Ryone Yami might do better than Merisdae (arguably popular as well, tho not to the same extent) or Beta (despite the amount of work that will be put into both of them), because the ones aforementioned are more popular. It's no secret.

Yamine Renri is incredibly HQ and sounds very natural, yet Kasane Teto is still more popular. You could have top notch quality or a nice design, but it means nothing without fame or popularity.
 
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Taikutsu-namake

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
I have no standards just because ive never seen one that was for sale, And i don't have much to contribute because everything has already been said, But i did buy the windows 100% utau mags(at least, one of them), And i really enjoyed them and was alright with my purchase, So i could see myself purchasing more if they were good!!

@Zoku
What does ham or yami have to do with this? Did you only bring up ham because cheese had commented? I feel like you are just trying to start shit at this point zoku. Your attack on ham was unnecessary, And i think you should rephrase your comment, or delete it all together. Besides, no matter the popularity, the bulk of the communities opinion on said bank drops when it's announced it's a commercial bank. In fact, the popularity will probably go down until it's just "oh yeah, but it's commercial" and nothing about the actual bank itself.
 
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Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
I didn't attack Ham at all. I actually like Ham and I want to make a cover with him, but lack the time to make a good one. I'm just stating a fact--Ham and CZloid and Ryone Yami are more popular than Merisdae or Beta and commercial versions of the former group would very likely fare better in general if they did sell.

If I did attack Ham, I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional. Quote the part of the post that did attack Ham and I'll revise it.
 

Taikutsu-namake

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
But they wouldn't; Because no one wants to buy a commercial bank. The only people who commented saying they would buy a commercial bank are people trying to sell them, Save for me.

Also Jeremy, There are PLENTY of utaus more popular than ham, You could even reference cheeses friend ekko, who has very popular utaus. The only reason Ham was mentioned i feel is because Cheese is here. Sorry if i misread, But it seems to me to be an attack, especially since i joined this forum from my perspective.
 
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Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
I don't understand. If anything, my comment on Ham was praise if nothing else. Ham is one of my favorite UTAU. And yes, I did mention Ham because Cheese is here because I like Ham.

Also, people already buy Vocaloids (aka commercial banks). Once again, Sonika and Ruby and Arsloid were arguably some low-tier Vocaloids, and yet they're still bought.
 

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
idk u were just trying to do something good but gomen i bring shit around with me now
 

Cheese

cured meat enthusiast
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I get the comparison but I don't really see how my UTAU's popularity is relevant as to what our standards for commercial UTAU are; it's not like anyones saying an UTAU has to be popular for it to be commercial or anything (although it'd probably help but that's a different subject).
 

Zoku

making doper vocaloid music than the rest
Defender of Defoko
I felt that the topic was starting to delve into something like 'Why would commercial UTAU exist and how would they sell'. So, I brought up my points.
 

na4a4a

Outwardly Opinionated and Harshly Critical
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
hmm...
I can see both perspectives.
I think the idea is that people are more willing to buy a slightly lower quality bank if it was previously much more popular (the character) than a bank that doesn't have any sort of long-term or wide-spread popularity but is a lot better quality?

Even though it was mentioned, I won't say where my bank sits in all of this, that is outside the scope of my reasoning and beyond anything I can say on my own. Also quality is subjective to a point and changes for everyone.

So in short, popularity is blinding in a sense?
 
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I'd like it to be capable of VCCV English and/or CVVC Japanese, have a good OTOs, nice art and.... well, a physical edition. I love collecting synth boxes.
 

lunavi

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
A few thoughts after reading through this thread:

To be honest, I really like the idea of well-made, commercial UTAU voicebanks. Not everyone can afford Vocaloid, and I like the fact that, ultimately, development of voicebanks is fairly open-source. Yes, that means there's a drastic variation in quality from voicebank to voicebank, but I actually don't think that matters much. There's been a marked improvement over the last couple of years when it comes to voicebank quality; where Ritsu's KIRE voicebank was once a standout, multipitch voicebanks are now almost standard. The bar was raised, and will continue to be raised as long as the people who make voicebanks still care.

No, UTAU doesn't meet Vocaloid's quality level, but I feel like that doesn't matter so much, nor should it exclude UTAU voicebanks from being sold. Voicebanks are a tool -- the quality of the tool is important, but equally important is the skill of who's using it. There are plenty of terrible Vocaloid covers out there, made by people who just didn't care; at the same time, there are plenty of amazing UTAU covers out there, made by people who do care. To me, the existence of the not-so-awesome voicebanks detracts nothing from the awesome ones -- if anything, by comparison, the awesome banks shine even brighter for the quality of the work their creators poured into them.

As for all the discussion of free vs. commercial -- for me, the decision to buy a voicebank would come down to liking what that voicebank has to offer. I mean, I love Gahata Meiji and I love Kohaku Merry, but they are very different as far as voices go, and -- to me -- not really interchangeable. If I like the voicebank -- if I like the tone and quality of the voice, it's well-configured, the design is neat, and it's not too expensive -- I'd likely be interested in buying it (assuming I had disposable income for such a thing at the moment.)

I also kind of disagree that, with UTAU, there's no quality control, and thus, no guarantee of quality for commercial voicebanks. No, there isn't some regulatory committee deciding which banks can and can't be sold, nor who can and can't develop them (and that's a good thing, in my book.) However, while there isn't any real quality control on the development side, there is on the end-user's side.

I can't imagine anyone buying a voicebank when they don't know what it sounds like -- that'd be like buying shoes without trying them on first. Even if you know those shoes are in your size, and you're familiar with the brand, there's no guarantee those particular shoes will feel right when you wear them. At the end of the day, few people are going to use a freeware voicebank that doesn't pass muster, and even fewer are going to pay for one that's subpar.

There's been some good ideas, I think, about what features developers might offer to make their voicebanks more appealing commercially (multipitch, solid configuration, flexibility as far as configuration format goes, physical releases.) Maybe there also needs to be some discussion about what those developers who are serious about going commercial can do to show the quality of their work, and so people contemplating purchasing a voicebank can see exactly what they'd be getting for their money.

Demo songs are good, but good mixing and tuning can obscure poor OTOing and vocal quality. Personally, I like it when voicebank developers use raw vocals as samples of vocal quality -- specifically, when they use raw vocals of the voicebank singing a scale. Maybe commercial developers could offer something like a limited-function demo, a voicebank using a handful of sounds per octave. Not complete enough to render off a song, but enough for prospective buyers to get an idea of what the voicebank offers in the way of vocal clarity, OTOing quality, etc., without the voicebank developer having to give an entire bank away for free.

So.... yeah. Going back to lurking now! :sing:
 

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