Big Al (officially stylized as BIG AL) is an English language

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

developed by

PowerFX PowerFX Systems AB is a small recording company, based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has been producing music samples, loops and sound effects since 1995. They also developed singing synthesizers using the VOCALOID engine developed by Yamaha ...

for

Vocaloid 2 Vocaloid 2 is a singing voice synthesizer and the successor to the Vocaloid voice synthesizer application by Yamaha. Unlike the first engine, Vocaloid 2 based its output on vocal samples, rather than voice analysis. The synthesis engine and the ...

. He is marketed as the counterpart of Sweet ANN, the first VOCALOID developed by PowerFX.

Development

He was released as the male counterpart to Sweet Ann and was released on December 22, 2009. He was later released in Japan on March 3, 2010, and in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

September 7, 2011. He was the first Vocaloid to have a confirmed American accent. An early demo song of MIRIAM and BIG AL was personally requested by Bil Bryant and Alexei Ustinov, who started testing Big-Al in January 2007 with "Help Me Understand You" for the MusikMesse 2007 fair., Originally

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

impersonator Michael King was to be his provider. When the vocal was in the editing process PowerFX tried to fix the pronunciation problems with the vocal, and even though demos were posted on the net, they felt it was not good enough to be released. When they attempted to re-record King, they found that he was too busy touring. Frank Sanderson, a professional voice over artist, studio engineer/owner and former PowerFX employee then did the voice over which was used for the program. New boxart was done to match the new voice given to him. When he was first released, users were unable to download him, leading to complaints from both English and Japanese fans. The problem was corrected by PowerFX switching download providers. The report on his problem was that his file had simply been too large. PowerFX then put up a notice that they will make sure buyers received the program no matter what, even if the company had to post it to them. Those that had pre-ordered him were given a $50 gift certificate for the PowerFX shop as compensation for the downloading problem. His Taiwan release also saw a new boxart.

Characteristics

Like his female counter partner Sweet Ann, Big Al is based on

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compare ...

. His early concept art used edited artwork from 1931 film "

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific exp ...

" along with edited

Uncle Sam Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''United States'') is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of ...

poster art. Unlike Sweet Ann, he was given a biography by PowerFX. When E-Capsule co. Ltd released his software in Taiwan, a different biography was also given as well as a different design.

References

{{Authority control Vocaloids introduced in 2009 Fictional singers

Development

Characteristics

See also

References