For example, the only example I know in the whole history of mainstream / western pop music is Mike Oldfield, who once used Vocaloid to create backup vocals. Correct me if I’m wrong!
But If you look at everything that has been a hit in EDM / pop / house etc in the last 20 years, there’s no vocal synth at all - not in Daft Punk, Skrillex, Gorillaz or Diplo. And we want to take vocal synthesis to the mainstream, not necessarily in the form of virtual pop stars, but simply in every producer’s toolset.
Hi, not part of the debate here or anything but this isn't
quite true!
While of course I'd like competent vocal synth to be used more often in mainstream western music, and you're right that it's fairly uncommon, there are definitely musicians using older methods of TTS and such as backup vocals or in their beats in general, and quite a few are your rival products (eg: Vocaloid, Alter/Ego, or bundled TTS engines/plugins). Being pedantic, I would say people using vocal synth for more minor beatwork or backup/effects are an audience you shouldn't dismiss either.
Additionally, there are some examples of mainstream western producers using Vocaloid as either main vocals or (like Mike) backup/chorus.
I'd say the most prominent example off the top of my head is probably Porter Robinson. No Daft Punk, but 13mill views on a VOCALOID3 English song that iirc got taken on a mainstream EDM tour is nothing to shrug at;
An issue we have in the VOCALOID/UTAU community, being people who tend to seek out Vocal Synthesis explicitly, is that most mainstream western use of VOCALOID obscure the tech they used because... well, for most it's just another instrument! Unless you're a hardcore fan (like us!) it's not often you'll see someone notate exactly what tool or instrument they used to create a specific sound, after all. It's tech that's been used in a lot of games and a couple of animations, too, sometimes it can be quite hard to pinpoint.
From my perspective (a personal take, and certainly just an opinion) Mike Oldfield's usage may be usage from someone mainstream, but it's kind of small beans, don't you think...? Especially since it's so old. I appreciate that it was unabashed about using VOCALOID and being experimental in that fashion, but there's definitely more recent examples now I should think. I admire the desire to spread the product past the (admittedly limited!) scope of the existing Vocal Synthesis Fan niche, but while that may be a mainstream name, VOCALOID English producers do have some clout too. Got users getting some good numbers and developing a more mainstream following (which I personally hope to see develop into breaking into a more mainstream presence over here in the west, similar to how many Japanese producers moved on to mainstream producer roles), the kind of audience that's reaching can't be dismissed imo... Though often still, it's mainly reaching a very Online audience, haha. Fans of games and movies, the like, a bigger niche but still a niche.
All in all, I'm very much looking forward to SOHO. I'm sure we all would like to see vocal synth more widely embraced in the western mainstream, so I do hope to see that goal come to fruition. On a personal level I love the sound, even though I'm more of a hobby user when it comes to commercial engines, I could see myself using it!
Cheers, and looking forward to seeing more development from you guys! This wasn't intended to be overly critical or anything, just felt like throwing some thoughts out there. We're all a little too passionate about our Vocal Synth here, but we'd all be happy to see this project take off like it should!