Troll Vocaloids, How'd They Pull 'em off?

[PikaPokket]

I've been wondering how the vip 2chers actually convinced people that their UTAUs were legit vocaloids... because.... well... My friends and I have been thinking about doing that ourselves. We've never really done this before, so we'd like to know :holy--:
We aren't really doing it to troll people. Well, in a way, I guess. We just need to use it as a survey to see how many people think the UTAU is well done enough to be a vocaloid- and we also want to see how many people actually really believe it without checking.
Well, this could also be another place for admins to yell at me or it could serve as an advice thread for people trying to do a similar thing.

 

[OVSUTAU]

I think it'd be fun to do this as well. To have people think you are making a VOCALOID. That'd be great!

HOWEVER, you must remember that this was a different time when they first did this. For one, no one had ever even heard of UTAU until then, so it seemed very likely that they'd be real VOCALOIDs. The only thing that would have set them off is the robotic voice.

Putting that aside, one of the ways they did it, was they created a name for their company, and branded themselves as a full-fledged VOCALOID company. They also told people they had famous vocalists on board with them as well, or at least parodies of the famous ones.

My advice would be to make the voicebanks as high-quality as possible, give a name for your company, some flashy logos (which I could help with if you are interested), and maybe some original songs? That's always good!

And one more tidbit of advice: It might not be a good idea to post that you might try to do this, because then you aren't really tricking them. :holy--: lol

That's about all I got, so I hope it helps!

 

[Austria]

Make a company that sounds authentic-y.
I know a prank like this was already pulled a few times by the overseas community...
Notably Maine Iva?

[video=youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9NoYACe7ww[/video]

 

[Ant]

I've been thinking about this too. Hmm, I'd say a really nice looking website would help with authenticity.

 

[PikaPokket]

Really? There's nothing to run by Yamaha on their records at all? That's probably one of the biggest issues I think we'd run into...

 

[Ant]

I don't know about that, actually. I suppose you could be called out by Yamaha, but then all you would need to do is stop telling people it's a vocaloid and start calling it UTAU. By then the damage will be done. Besides, I'm sure it would have to attract a lot of attention to get Yamaha to notice. As long as you're not impersonating a company like Crypton or something it should be fine.

 

[PikaPokket]

I see :3 . Well screw Crypton and all they stand for >:O
They make too much money off of 1 product!
....
I hate it when people try to post mimics of Crypton vocaloids(traced pics) which have horrible English R's and terrible otos.... And then they expect people to believe that they're real freaking vocaloids. Those are BS'd on the spot! But maybe, just maybe people are gullible still. CV UTAUs are a dead giveaway so I recommend VCV 0.0
ANYWAYS- I think it's OK to have a generic sounding UTAU, since the vocaloid 3s have really started sounding bland and the same :/
The bigger challenge is the vocaloid resampler itself. UTAU and VOCALOID both render voices so differently ;-; the closest I can really say I've ever gotten to a vocaloid sound is with fresamp and as everyone knows, that resampler has a tendency to pinch UTAU's nose!
And you know, OVSUTAU, I may have to take you up on that logo help ^v^

 

[OVSUTAU]

Sure, I'd love to! Just PM me with the details, and I'd be delighted to help you out!

And someone else mentioned a professional-looking website, and for that, I'd either make it with Webs, or FC2. That I might also be able to help out with, if you need it.

And one other tip: if your voicebanks are going to be Japanese, you might want to make the website IN Japanese, which will be challenging with Webs.

So, yeah, that's about all I got. :creepygrin:

 

[Angel]

I'd love to help out with the uta-trolling ^^
I think a great UTAU prank is to make one that neither parodies other companies. I'll explain why.

Now that people have become more aware of the Vocaloids/UTAU, one that claims itself as one with KEI's style for example is just a big giveaway and convinces no one. People can tell UTAU trying to be a Vocaloid a lot easier which is why vippers aren't fooling no one nowadays.

The best way is to plan is thoroughly, to create a website, have official demos, mabye go so far to have an original or a song (which isn't a VOCALOID/UTAU song)
The amount of effort put in, as well as the VB being HQ are good factors to pull a successful troll.

Happy trolling!

 

[Austria]

If making demos, have a good tuner and mixer. Otherwise it'll sound really fake :'D

on that note i would love to help tune or something if this pulls through.....!

 

[Twilight Tulip]

Honestly, and this was said previously as well, the biggest reason that the original Vippers fooled people was that Vocaloid was still a new thing; people were really getting into Crypton's thing, that's why Teto was able to fool them. Also, as far as I am aware, Teto didn't even originally have a voice bank; she was simply revealed as a design, and people ate it up, because they were so crazy about this new Vocaloid fad! That's why the song "Kasane Teto Territory" was created--she finally got a voice bank and was no longer simply a joke.

 

[PikaPokket]

T-tuning? ;-; I suck at tuning, Mr. Austria! Isn't that why a lot of people hate deeper vocaloids, because they're more difficult to tune?

 

[UTAU~Ayume]

I'm working on a changeable voice (since mine sounds the same everytime i record) and i'll be here with a HQ mic if you and your friends search a girl (and also boy because of my voice mwahahaha) i'm not good with drawing but with ideas for designs, i'm here for it also ^^

 

[Austria]

T-tuning? ;-; I suck at tuning, Mr. Austria! Isn't that why a lot of people hate deeper vocaloids, because they're more difficult to tune?

Oh, well it depends on the tuning style really! Kaito/Gakupo/Iroha/etc. can be tuned right if the tuner knows how to =)
Galaco was recorded with emotionless recordings, thus the flatness of her voice, so it's quite difficult to tune her to sound...emotional. While emotion can help a voice respond better to tuning, it isn't best to be overexpressive of course. i'm making up crap aren't i orz

Either way, I can help tune demos for the 'fake vocaloid' if it ever happens?

 

[OVSUTAU]

In case you would like to see examples of a somewhat professional website made on Webs.com, and my logo designs, visit my UTAU website:
http://ovsutau.webs.com/

Here's my DA, where I create KEI logos like Miku's:
http://ovs2007.deviantart.com/

 

[Ono]

Like Twilight said, fooling people back then was waaaay easier than it would be now. People now, like myself, have high expectations when a new Vocaloid is announced. It has to have a professional company website, really good concept art, a demo (If the audio isn't up-to-par with the mixing, tuning, and effects then I'm gonna automatically think that it's a joke), good voice quality (As in it can't be robotic. It can be muffly because there's a few Vocaloids out there all ready with a muffled voice). I suggest if you really want to seal the deal with this troll UTAU, you should try and make it multi-pitch vcv. Also make sure to have a good mic as well. What's a good mic? The Snowball, Audio Technica AT2020, Sennheiser MD48, and usb condensers mics. Any will do.

I would also like to mention that you shouldn't make your official website with webs or any web hosting site that clearly has their name somewhere in there. Unless you can buy the domain name so it doesn't show that you made it from webs. Be sure that you're really good at html too. Professionalism is key.

 

[Austria]

Someone get Hentai //shot

Yeah, a website on freewebs or wix etc. won't work....and a joke shouldn't need to cost much at all.

 

[Ono]

You're right. A joke shouldn't cost much. People can still make a believable troll voca/utau with good quality without reaching into their piggy banks and pulling out every last cent. I mean, I've heard a couple of utaus with excellent clarity but were recorded with a cheap microphone.

I wonder how much was spent on the VIPPERloids, though.

 

[PikaPokket]

I'm assuming not much at first, but seeing as they use CONDENSERS, DYNAMIC MICROPHONES, POP FILTERS, ETC. for later voicebanks, I'm just going to throw these prices out there. I am probably off by A LOT though.
Ritsu: Over $1,000(good condensers are not cheap and holy crap does canon like to switch microphones a lot)
Teto: Under $150...
Tei: Around $80 I'd say?
Ruko: .... How much does an Utaite on Nico spend on their equipment? I think it's about that much...
Oh there's another thread right there!
"guess the cost of this UTAU!"
Anyways, our voice providers already own dynamics or condensers, with pop filters, and do record consistently. They are willing to work for almost nothing at all, simply the interest is what drives them. And the website won't be too much of an issue. OMG you guys all this input...it's...it's making me tear up inside ;A;

 

[shinami]

The Blue Yeti mic is about-ish $120-150 (Nessie is coming out which is cheap, cardiod-only Yeti for $100), and a good pop filter that doesn't rip you off is about $20. that's all i've spent hah. I've heard LOADS of crazy high quality banks using the Yeti. I still don't know how SRS gets the quality she gets, maybe it's the EQs I put on my samples.

Anyways, you'd probably also have to somehow get news out to the Vocaloid world, sounding official, that a new Vocaloid is coming up. Because that's what the companies are doing nowadays, announcing an upcoming one and then taking forever to make it. People who suddenly spring "Hey new Vocaloid!" are never believed because there was no media lead-up.

It'll be hard period. I haven't been 100% fooled since Ritsu, and Tei had me going for a only a second - everything after that was painfully fake VIPPERloids. And with Ritsu the convincing part was that it wasn't 100% UTAU since they had singers like Canon doing parts of it.

If you do multipitch VCV though, don't make it a Kire/Sakebi bank or something similar. Vocaloid has yet to go into that territory (sadly) and it would instantly scream UTAU. Generic multipitch would be best.