[Mini]

I've seen several threads wanting opinions on who to choose as a starter. As you may know, vocaloid is now something similar with pokémon, and I, professor Mini, am here to help you through this difficult choice.
So, before you buy your first vocaloid and before you go on foruns asking for advice, answer the following questions before:

1. Why do I need the VOCALOID?
First, you must decide if you're going to use as a hobby or aim for some professional work.
If you chose the first one, getting a vocaloid you like is the best option to follow, if you chose the second one than getting a vocaloid with a high quality bank, clear pronunciation and a phonetic system you understand is what you're aiming for.
Dont be shy to want a vocaloid just for fun, if you have money and are willing to spend, go ahead. There's nothing wrong with using vocaloid for fun.

2. If I'm going to use vocaloid for a professional work, which should I get?
English > Big Al / Sweet Ann
Japanese > VY1 / VY2
Spanish > Clara / Bruno
That is if you aiming for really professional usage, not to be popular on NND.

3. If I want to be popular on Youtube. Which vocaloid should I get?
English > Sonika / Oliver
Japanese > Gumi, Rin/Len, Iroha.
Korean > SeeU (duh)

Im not adding Miku here cause most of the songs on youtube are covers from Miku songs so it doesnt really matter having her for solely this purpose.

4. If I want to be a producer on NND for fun, which vocaloid should I get?
Gumi, IA, Rin/Len or Hatsune Miku

5. If I want to be recognized by my tune, which vocaloid should I get?
Any unpopular JPNloid. This one is quite simple. Having an upopular voicebank being used in an amazing way, aka Fruu, that ricardo dude, etc makes you popular.

6. If I want to make original songs just for fun?
Any VOCALOID. It's for fun.

7. If I want to make/cover rock songs mostly?
CUL, Miku, Rin/Len, Luka, Kiyoteru, Lily. (there are more vocaloids suited for this gender but those are the most famous/suited ones)

8. If I want to make/cover pop songs mostly?
Miku, Rin/Len, Miki, Rion, Gachapoid.

9. Cover / Make Jazz Songs.
Yuki, Luka, Gumi, Yukari or any soft voice. Jazz goes good with soft voices.

10. Cover / Make Folk Songs
Miriam, Kaito, Iroha, VY1, Meiko

11. Tecno Songs
Almost all vocaloids suits this gender.

Quality Rank (based on general opinions over VO foruns):
*Im excluding appends cause there are a lot of differences between each.
* Quality is based on how much easy a vocaloid is tuned in order to sound good. Some might disagree due long period of usage or facility to use a voicebank.
BUT this is overall the current TOP vocaloids and how they are seen.

High Quality Voicebanks:
VY1, VY2, Clara, Bruno, Big Al, GUMI, Nekomura Iroha, Yuzuki Yukari, Sweet Ann, Gackpoid, Meiko, Mew, GUMI V3

Medium Quality Voicebanks:
CUL, Tone Rion, IA, Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, SeeU, Miriam, Kaito, Leon, Lola, Prima, Kaai Yuki, Kiyoteru Hiyama, Gachapoid.

Low Quality Voicebanks:
SF-A2 Miki, Utatane Piko, Lily, Tonio, Oliver, Kagamine Rin/Len, Sonika

SO basically this is very personal and really depends on what you want.
Anyway, I'd say just don't get afraid of making a choice cause it won't fit what you're looking for, sometimes you have a good surprise.
I hope you make a good choice. This is all much more personal and this is the only real advice I can offer you.
Hope you like this. Going to fix broken grammar once Im not so tired.

[Kangaroo]

I would argue that Gumi sounds very good with rock songs. Probably better than Luka in my opinion. I totally want to get an engloid just to mess around with vocaloid for a bit, but doubt that will ever happen.

I think you should add price to your list, too. One of the main factors when deciding is how much you're willing to spend on it. Which is the cheapest vocaloid, by the way?

[Mini]

Quote

I would argue that Gumi sounds very good with rock songs. Probably better than Luka in my opinion. I totally want to get an engloid just to mess around with vocaloid for a bit, but doubt that will ever happen.

I think you should add price to your list, too. One of the main factors when deciding is how much you're willing to spend on it. Which is the cheapest vocaloid, by the way?

Oh she has a lot of originals but honestly, the only one I've seen she sounding good was Ame no Jaku.
Oh yea price! @_@ Forgot it, I will have to research for it once I get home, thanks a lot

[Nikko!]

Lots of opinions on here. Vocaloids aren't meant to be categorized by 'professional' and 'popular'. All Vocaloids are professional, being popular is just a nice additional touch.

And though there are definitely varying qualities between Vocaloid, I would have to disagree with SF-A2 Miki, Oliver, Piko, and Lily being low quality. It seems like you just listened to popular opinions. Once you buy all these Vocaloids, feel free to judge them.

All Vocaloids can be used for all genres, it's a matter of making them sound good in the genre. If you crap all over the parameters and hope it'll end up an angelic choir then that's just

ugh

It seems like you tried to do something good, but ended up showcasing your opinions. Users should choose Vocaloids depending on their own factors, not on someone else's.

[District-12-Tribute]

Ant, on 27 February 2012 - 01:11 PM, said:

Which is the cheapest vocaloid, by the way?

As far as Vocaloids go Lola, Leon, and Miriam are the cheapest. That's because they aren outdated and aren't supported, but Miriam still has a respectable voice, and if the demo runs on your computer so will the Vocaloid engine. I will say the Zero G Vocaloids go on sale a lot, so I'd keep my eye on that.

[Mini]

Quote

Lots of opinions on here. Vocaloids aren't meant to be categorized by 'professional' and 'popular'. All Vocaloids are professional, being popular is just a nice additional touch.

And though there are definitely varying qualities between Vocaloid, I would have to disagree with SF-A2 Miki, Oliver, Piko, and Lily being low quality. It seems like you just listened to popular opinions. Once you buy all these Vocaloids, feel free to judge them.

All Vocaloids can be used for all genres, it's a matter of making them sound good in the genre. If you crap all over the parameters and hope it'll end up an angelic choir then that's just

ugh

It seems like you tried to do something good, but ended up showcasing your opinions. Users should choose Vocaloids depending on their own factors, not on someone else's.

As I said, it's just a matter of perspective. Yes it's a popular opinion showcase and it's made for the people who are usually wanting this kind of opinion when wanting to know a vocaloid to buy, there are exceptions for everything and I knew comments like yours were to show in this thread.
Aside from Oliver, I have used all the other vocaloids and they are knowed for being harder to use, but again, harder doesnt mean it will never sound good.
Im not looking for discussions if this is a good / bad thread.
People were wanting for advices, here's the most popular Ive seen across the topics, it's up to personal tastes if you're going to follow it or not. Please if you don't have anything else to add aside flame, refrain to post here.

[♥ Ciel ♥]

This should be pinned.

[メルリ]

*sees Oliver in Low Quality section*

What the fu- *boom*

I have Rion and Oliver, and I have to say, Oliver, is way higher in quality than Rion. Rion is quite quiet, and at times, raspy.
Oliver is way higher in quality than Rion. Period.

[Yuka Kazami]

Since we seem to have some disagreements on quality, may I make a suggestion? I say that if 3 or 4 people that have used a voicebank say that it belongs in a different category, it should be moved.
I also think that Gumi is good for pop songs, but that is just my opinion on the subject.

Other than that, I really like this thread!

[Mini]

Quote

Since we seem to have some disagreements on quality, may I make a suggestion? I say that if 3 or 4 people that have used a voicebank say that it belongs in a different category, it should be moved.
I also think that Gumi is good for pop songs, but that is just my opinion on the subject.

Other than that, I really like this thread!

Sounds good to me, but Im only going to change once I find a really qualified user or some users (about 10~20) for a consist opinion.
Alas, I wrot this on a rush Im going to mke it a lot better once I get home, and less engrish ; 3 ;

[Kangaroo]

Nikko!, on 27 February 2012 - 01:39 PM, said:

All Vocaloids are professional, being popular is just a nice additional touch.

What about gachapoid?

District-12-Tribute, on 27 February 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

As far as Vocaloids go Lola, Leon, and Miriam are the cheapest. That's because they aren outdated and aren't supported, but Miriam still has a respectable voice, and if the demo runs on your computer so will the Vocaloid engine. I will say the Zero G Vocaloids go on sale a lot, so I'd keep my eye on that.

Thanks!

[Somebodyrandom]

Also, you need to mention that language can be a issue in choosing the first. I'm not kidding when I say it has to be one of THE top mistakes made by vocanoobs. In other words, even for fun, a Japanese Vocaloid can prove very diffoicult for someone who doesn't know Japanese phonetics and its best to stick with your native language or a bilingual Vocaloid that covers it.

Second thing I'd add; its always best to check out upcoming Vocaloids and plan purchases. Right now, for instance, there are 4 known voicebanks for English currently on the way (SeeU, Miku and Kaito English and the celtic one by Zero-G) and many Japanese ones (Kaito, Meiko V3 upgrades, Megpoid -native, VY2v3, Gackupo V3, L:ily V3, CFM's male vocal(which has been coming like forever)). Sometimes holding out is better then rushing, plus people do rate Vocaloids when they buy them.'

Edit:
Heres a list of where the wikia is keeping track of develope of Vocaloids

http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Status

[sleepysheep7]

HopeAndDreams-P, on 27 February 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

*sees Oliver in Low Quality section*

What the fu- *boom*

I have Rion and Oliver, and I have to say, Oliver, is way higher in quality than Rion. Rion is quite quiet, and at times, raspy.
Oliver is way higher in quality than Rion. Period.

Compared to other english vocaloid's he is fairly low. He tends to have mumbling issues like Sonika.

[Somebodyrandom]

There are not as many high quality voiebanks as you think and its not so simple.

For instance, Miku is a low-quality voicebank, but above the Kagamine pack.

Gakupo and Gumi are high quality, but below VY1 and VY2 who are at the top of the V2 lot (VY2 especially has been rated the best male vocal of V2 since release).

VY1v3 is above normal VY1.

Clara is 1 rank below Bruno in quality.


Seeu Japan is on par with the Kagamine's Act 2 but her Korean is about average.

Luka Japanese was smoothest of the CFM lot (outside of Appends), but you know the rest of her issues, her problem isn't tuning its clarity. Her English qulaity is on par with Sonika.

Kaito has better vocals because of improvements between him and Meiko. Doesn't mean Meiko is overall worst, but its like Leon/Lola are less then miriam because improvements were again made between their releases.

Sweet Ann is like Miku easy to tune, however, like miku dated and Big Al is higher quality (and has more keys)

[Valkyrja]

Hm, good list, however, there are a few things I disagree with. For one, IA is very HQ. Her samples are clear, thorough, and contain very little flaws. If the original Megpoid and (my precious baby ;n;) Mew made it onto the HQ list, IA should definitely be there as well.

And Tonio is far from being a LQ voicebank. Heck, he's a ton better than Big Al and Prima (Sweet Ann I'm not so sure on, even though she contains a few bank errors). The only problem is that his vocals were made for a specific purpose, so he's not as versatile. This does not make him LQ though.

Also, where are the appends? You put V3 Megpoid on there but not Miku/Kagamine Append?