#like hello ASTERIAN????? WOWOWOWOWOWOW

[nine-aetharia]

Hi I've been meaning to ask, synthv/vsynth is like vocaloid roght?

Yes, it is! But Vsynth and Synth V are two different things.

If you're familiar with Vocaloid, then Synthesizer V (sometimes shortened to Synth V or SVS) is software similar to that. You input notes and lyrics and tune everything so the little robot singer sings.

Vsynth (short for virtual synthesizer or vocal synthesizer) is the catch-all term for these types of software, and the vsynth community uses it to refer to these programs, because there's a lot of them! Since the rise and popularity of Vocaloid, there's been a lot of competitors that have popped up in recent years, and they're all from different companies, so we can't refer to all of them as just Vocaloid (just like how we can't refer to every vsinger out there as Hatsune Miku - also fun fact! Miku hasn't been a Vocaloid in YEARS PIAPRO TOOK HER)

Here's a crash course:

VOCALOID is a vocal synth software by YAMAHA. It's the most popular one out there but sadly, it's fallen behind lately. It's not the thing that sings, it's the thing that makes the little singbots sing. It's the engine. Most of Vocaloid's voicebanks are provided by other companies - Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, and Megurine Luka are from Crypton (and they yoinked them back); Kaito and Meiko are native from Yamaha, Gumi is from Internet Co, etc, etc. You get it. The old versions of Vocaloid have been discontinued and are stupid hard to find. Their latest release is V6.

PIAPRO STUDIO is the engine Miku and the other Cryptonloids are now on.

CEVIO is another vsynth software out there. If you remember IA (you know, Miss KagePro herself?), she was pulled out of Vocaloid and moved to Cevio, and her sister ONE was released there too. CEVIO has come a long way since the IA days. We got shit like ROSE and POPY now.

ACE STUDIO is also another vsynth engine. I've never used it myself, but I know people who have. IIRC they're planning to use a subscription model (most software including Vocaloid are one-time purchases - you get the engine and the vb separately but you only have to get them once), so you get the engine and the voices but you pay a monthly fee. The English UI is still in development but there are community-made guides out there for those who want to use it. It's still in beta I think so you can test it out. It is SO GOOD.

And then there's SYNTHESIZER V STUDIO (which I personally, along with most of the community, think is THEE leading vsynth program currently). You still have to get the engine and vbs separately for this one but there's a Synth V Basic which is free (it just doesn't have a couple of features like crosslang, scripts, etc). Vocaloid Xingchen (Stardust) was moved here, and LORD. Listen to her

Synth V also has the most English vbs amongst all modern vsynths, I think, and the Pro version has crosslang so the vbs can sing in English, Chinese, Japanese (or another language if you get a dictionary - the community has made a lot of them and they've got them up on github). And they all sound FANTASTIC

(looks at smudged writing on hand) emvoice...

Anyway, isn't it funky how far we've come since the first Vsynth sang Bicycle Built For Two?! :D