Reviewing singing synths #1 - LEON & LOLA

This is post #1 of my series reviewing VOCALOIDS. I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions for future reviews and corrections if I got anything wrong :)

LEON and LOLA

I’m reviewing these two together since they share a development history. LOLA and LEON were released in January of 2004, the two first VOCALOIDs ever released.

Not much is known about his development, since this was back in the VOCALOID1 era. They were created by Zero-G Limited. It is known that recording process for both him and LOLA took 40 hours over 5 days. The name of the voice provider has not been made public, and likely never will, but we know he was a Black singer from the UK.

LEON was used in a Wired Nextfest exhibit at the Zero-G Limited booth. Him and LOLA won the 2005 Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice Award. 

The two were put back up for sale in 2008 since VOCALOID was becoming more popular again. On the first of January 2014 they were taken off shelves. This was for financial reasons, and it was explained that the voices could not be updated for newer versions of VOCALOID. The two were still able to be purchased online, although Zero-G explained they would no longer provide customer service.

They were completely discontinued in September of 2015, but by then were already unpopular choices due to their outdated VOCALOID1 banks. LEON and LOLA maintain some popularity because they were the first VOCALOIDs. As far as I’m aware, piracy is the only way to acquire them now, unless you somehow stumble upon a physical copy.

LEON’s Art - 1/5

The box art is literally just a stock photo of some lips made to be blue. Just looking at that box makes me vaguely uncomfortable. The lips kind of make sense since they were made before it was understood that characters sell. I still don't like the lighting or colours. The background’s dark blue and red clashes with the orange “VOCALOID” at the bottom of the package. I do like that they wrote LEON with a ♂. I also like the shiny gold effect on the text. It’s very word art in a good way. This cannot overshadow those lips though. (Alternate versions without the lips loose marks for being so boring.) This design gets 0.5/5, simply because the O is clever.

The character design is an anime guy with blond hair and purply blue clothing. His shirt is unbuttoned which I think was meant to be attractive. It’s not to me though, he just looks like he’s trying too hard. The pose is kind a awkward, the clothes are bland, and I don't like the shadow behind the hand. On top of this, he isn’t recognizable at all. If I saw him in artwork and there wasn’t a caption to tell me it’s him, I would just assume it’s some anime guy. While I like that his expression isn’t just a simple smile, he looks like he’s about to say something horribly misogynistic. I’m glad they kept the typography, and that it matches his hair. This one gets a 1/5.

I will be kind to LEON and round up the average, giving him a 1 for the style category.

LEON’s Voice - 3/5

His voice is soft, and maintains a masculine tone in the higher pitches he is suited for. There aren’t as many masculine VOCALOIDs as feminine ones which makes this voice stand out in my mind. He is also recognizable for his British accent.

I like Charlieisntthere’s cover of “hello world” because it suits him very well. He also sounds good singing New Wave songs, like in chorcaqueen’s cover of “Instant Crush”. I like his voice from what I’ve heard, but there isn’t much out there that got popular. If it weren’t for the skilled tuning in the “hello world” cover, his rating may have been lower. 

While his tone is nice, he does not meet the standards of today, isn’t used in very many songs and is British. Overall, I give this voice a 3/5.

LOLA’s Art

LOLA’s box art is also lips. It’s the same as LEON’s, but the lips are red, flipped, and have red lipstick. I like the red much better because it looks more natural. Like I said for LEON, lips kind of make sense since they were made before it was understood that characters sell. The background’s red clashes with the orange “VOCALOID” at the bottom of the package, but not as much as LEON’s. I do like that they wrote LOLA with a ♀. I also like the shiny gold effect on the text. It’s very word art in a good way. This cannot overshadow those lips though. (Alternate versions without the lips loose marks for being so boring.) This design gets 1/5, simply because the O is clever and the colours clash less than LEON's.

LOLA’s character is okay. She’s just awfully plain. The top and haircut are cute but I wish she had something special to her that makes her more recognizable. Still, I like this design much more than LEON’s, because she reminds me of a 2010’s girl’s show like Mary-Kate and Ashley if that makes sense. I don’t have much else to say, 1.5/5

LOLA’s Voice

Overall I like her voice. LOLA only has an English bank. It’s natural sounding despite the early VOCALOID jumpiness. I find she is often tuned lower than other VOCALOIDs might be; I’m not sure if this is because her voice is better suited for that or if its done because she’s less anime than other synths. Whatever the reason, I like how her voice sounds at lower pitches. She doesn’t have a very noticeable British accent like LEON did, which I’m indifferent to.

“Sharing The World-LOLA” by クレフ P on SoundCloud was one of the better examples I found of her (there are some timing issues but the tuning is alright; LOLA is well suited for this song). Her lack of popularity has lead to most of her songs being not too well done, which is unfortunate because I give her voice a 3/5.

Conclusion

LEON's score is 4/10 and LOLA’s total score is 4.5/10.

Here are three things I would have done differently for both of them:

1. A more interesting outfit and possibly hair style because those two are not at all recognizable unless you're a VOCALOID nerd.

2. Box art featuring a character. Even just a simple design!

3. Better marketing and continued updates to their voicebanks (I get why they didn't though)

Unless I get another suggestion in the comments, I will be reviewing MIRIAM next!