This was posted to my TUMBLR, But I'm re-posting it here.
This is a small rant, but also more of a "why?" kind of post.
With the recent release of the Vocaloid3 Oliver demos, I noticed a few "he sounds like x/y/z" comments, which of course got shunned by the rest of the comments. Most of the replies to those comments were something like this;
"Really? Already? (15 thumbs up)"
"This /again/?(25 thumbs up)"
"*sigh* and here I thought the fandom had finally learnt something(10thumbs up)"
To those replies I want to say one thing;
People are entitled to their own opinions. I am not ashamed to or think it's odd to say what I think. I do not believe that you are entitled to tell me that my opinion is worth less than yours just because I refer to another Vocaloid to make a good comparision. The first thought I got when I listened to Oliver's demos were "It sounds a lot like English Len, I wonder if you can use that to make Len's English sound better?". I noticed about three comments by people who thought the same - all of them were thumbed down or marked as spam.
Really? Aren't people allowed to think what they want without all of you hipsters out there going "Oliver sounds like Oliver END OF STORY :[". OF COURSE he sounds like Oliver, who said he doesn't?! When you describe a musician or artist to someone, how do you do that? "Lady Gaga sounds a bit like Britney Spears mixed with Loreen, but she's doing her own thing, you know?" are you gonna shun and thumb me down for comparing her to Britney and Madonna? NO. You can disagree and say "I think she sounds a bit more like Madonna", but you're not gonna go and say "YOU ARE WRONG. Gaga sounds like Gaga, GAWD I'm so tired of people comparing her like that1!!1!!"
Think about that.
Vocaloids are SYNTHESIZERS. They are going to sound the same to a certain extent - saying "she sounds like Gumi's and Rin's lovechild 8D" about S2-A2 Miki does not imply that she doesn't have her own unique sound. The Vocaloidhipsters seem to forget that, and then they post a "*sigh* this again?" and all of the fangirls and fanboys thumb it up because, God forbid, MIKI IS UNIQUE DESU AND YOU ARE WRONG BECAUSE YOU COMPARED HER TO SOMETHING ELSE. If I'd have said "Miki's voice is very sweet and breathy, but she still has a very powerful and strong voice of a young girl 8D" that would've gotten 150+ thumbs up on YT. See what I'm talking about here?
I often tell my friends what the new Vocaloid sounds like by comparing them to others. Every voice type has pretty much been covered, so it's hard to get a *new* and *unique* sound out of all of them. We think Len sounds unique because he was the first shota-voiced Vocaloid, and we think Gumi sounds unique because she was the first breathy-sweet Vocaloid - BUT we think VY1 sounds a bit/lot like Miku because Miku was the first Vocaloid with that certain Japanese accent, while VY2 is the second.
Think about that one, too.
In short, there's nothing wrong with comparing Vocaloids to others. I don't care if you're tired to hear how much Kiyoteru sounds like Kaito, he kinda does - but he still sounds like Kiyoteru. The fandom is filled with kids, teenagers and adults and we're all gonna compare Vocaloids wether you like it or not, so quit being a hipster and just accept the flow of the fandom.