Post by bird on May 17, 2024 2:08:30 GMT 1
In the spirit of these old forum posts that just told you about whatever the author liked at the moment, here's a thread for me to share the history and some cool facts about various vocasytnhs whenever I feel like it. I highly encourage other vocasynth fans to do the same!
But this community/concept can seem rather obscure for anyone that isn't like me and hasn't been listening to it since they were 10/11. So, let's start this whole thread with a little FAQ of sorts.
But this community/concept can seem rather obscure for anyone that isn't like me and hasn't been listening to it since they were 10/11. So, let's start this whole thread with a little FAQ of sorts.
"What the fuck is a vocasynth?"
Do you know miku? Then you know a vocasynth. But let's explain this in a bit more details, because that doesn't really tell you that much. Vocasynth is the abbreviation of "Vocal Synths" A vocal synth is a digital instrument that allows you to have a virtual singer perform your song. Now I'm not gonna go into the specific details of how that's done, bc I'm not fully familiar with the process, and also it can change based on the program. To put it simply, imagine if you could make your piano say words by inputting phonemes in your program. That's basically what a lot of vocal synths do.
"Where does the voice come from?"
Vocal synths are based on the voices of real people every time. Complex singing voices cannot be replicated digitally without any frame of reference based in the real. Or maybe that'll happen in the future, but it's certainly not now. The creation of a voicebank asks someone called the voice provider to record a ton of syllables so that the computer can use this library as a basis for creating new sounds more or less? Again, not an expert, but that's my vague understanding of the subject. If you want to see what these type of recordings can look like, I recommend you to take a look at UTAU tutorials. It's a free program that allows users to create their own voice banks through a lot of work and elbow grease. I haven't watched it in full, but this stream is interesting, as it takes us through a recording session for a voice bank. Now, in the AI hellscape that we live in, the idea of a synthetic voice bank recreating the singing voice of a real person might seem kind of scary. The biggest difference between this and some of the more harmful AI practices that exist nowadays, is consent and remuneration. Voice providers are active participants in the project and fully consent to their voice being used that way. Not only that, but a lot of voice banks are commercial products, leading to them being paid for the work they've done. This felt important to mention given a lot of fears and anger rightfully aimed at AI.
On that note, a lot of voicebanks have the "AI" mention, meaning that they use AI technology to make the voice synth more complex. Again, there is full consent from the person whose voice is being used, making this ethical.
(... There's a lot of conversation about UTAUs made out of the voices of random characters but that is a complicated subject I am not going to deal with here.)
"Isn't that just vocaloid?"
(... There's a lot of conversation about UTAUs made out of the voices of random characters but that is a complicated subject I am not going to deal with here.)
"Isn't that just vocaloid?"
Yes and no. Vocaloid is a program within this whole vocasynth family, but it's not THE only program. They were one of the first though, making them quite important in the whole history here. Not only that, but they have some of the most popular voices in their ranks, mainly. Hatsune Miku. The one and only. This lead them to be at the forefront of the community, especially back in the early 2000s/2010s as they had less competition that they have now. For a while, it wasn't uncommon for people to refer to every vocal synths as vocaloids, even if they weren't one. But as other programs became more prominent within the community, there was a noticeable shift toward the use of the term "vocasynth" to talk about it as a whole, rather than just sticking to "vocaloid".
"Why do I keep seeing these anime girls, and why do the voices have names if they're just instruments?"
Okay so. A big part of vocasynths and the community is the personification of the instruments. What started as just ways to illustrate the box became a key feature of the community. These aren't just instruments for a lot people, they're also characters. This shift in how people perceived vocasynths started to be noticed in how companies started to present them. Some started to add stories to the characters, or basic personality traits. They were rarely strict/precise as a big draw was the ability to turn the character into whatever you want, but they were there. Now as to why that happened? Well, a lot of humans see roombas as pets, is it really that hard that they would see an instrument that replicate their own voice as some form of person as well? Especially one that comes with a pre-existing very competently made character design?
"Why do I keep seeing these anime girls, and why do the voices have names if they're just instruments?"
Okay so. A big part of vocasynths and the community is the personification of the instruments. What started as just ways to illustrate the box became a key feature of the community. These aren't just instruments for a lot people, they're also characters. This shift in how people perceived vocasynths started to be noticed in how companies started to present them. Some started to add stories to the characters, or basic personality traits. They were rarely strict/precise as a big draw was the ability to turn the character into whatever you want, but they were there. Now as to why that happened? Well, a lot of humans see roombas as pets, is it really that hard that they would see an instrument that replicate their own voice as some form of person as well? Especially one that comes with a pre-existing very competently made character design?
Alright as I'm writing this, it's 3 AM, but that was pretty much all I wanted to get into before starting to post infos about various voice banks in here. I shall come back here after a night of sleep I shall talk to you about the very first french vocasynth, and the many controversies that came throughout her creation and existence. Good night!
