does vocalid 4 for cubase comes with cubase, even if its a thinner version, i just want to know because i want to make vocaloid songs but my main device is a mac, so i have to use the cubase version, i just need to know if i need to purchase cubase seperatially before i purchase the vocaloid editor
The answer to your question is on the product description page (as these types of things so often are) under the features tab.
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/music-production/software/vocaloid4_editor_for_cubase/?mode=model
Just got Vocaloid 4 for Cubase. Partially prompted into it because Zero-G is having a sale on 2 libraries that ends in a few days from this posting DEX (VOCALOID4)
Ran into a couple of things I wanted to share.
Previously I’ve had a few Vocaloid 2 libraries which worked via a standalone editor (like the Vocaloid 4 not Cubase version), The Vocaloid 2 libraries will not load into 4, although Vocaloid 3 libraries will. You can get the 2 libraries into 4 if you’ve previously imported them into the format for 3, which the 3 editor will do. However there is also a separate standalone conversion tool. This is pretty much not mentioned anywhere & I only stumbled on it in a result from a Google search. Support for this tool (which is free) is supposed to end mid-March 2016 - so get it while you can if you want to convert 2 libraries to 4. http://www.vocaloid.com/en/support/libraryimport/
I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I opened my existing MIDI Parts in the Vocaloid Editor they were pre-populated with the lyrics I had previously entered for the Score Editor. However the phonetics for these lyrics were all set to the default “oh” sound. I thought I’d need to re-enter them. But it turned out that when I retyped in the first word & hit enter that triggered it to go through and convert the phonetics for the whole part. That said you’ll still find common words it doesn’t know the phonetics for that you’ll need to hand enter via Note Properties.
Entering phonetics can be tricky. The symbols Vocaloid uses are quite different than any dictionary I own. What I did back at Vocaloid 2, is print out their list of symbols which are paired with example words. Then I looked up the example words in my dictionary and wrote down the symbol it used next to its counterpart in the table. This makes it easier to translate English phonetics into Vocaloid. I’ve also found that some times the pronunciation timing can be improved by doubling up a phonetic symbol - making a vowel last longer or a constant more pronounced. Also a lot of the weird artifacts are much less noticeable when masked by instrumental backing.
There is a useful option to let you use Cubase Key Commands in Vocaloid. This adds a Vocaloid section into the Key Commands dialog. I found adding a command to open Note Properties super helpful.
I also like that in the Cubase version all the stuff for markers, looping, return to start, etc. is controlled by Cubase. The old standalone version was a pain on that front.