Who (or what) is BIG AL?
BIG AL is a bass/baritone range English voicebank for the VOCALOID2 singing synthesis engine. He was originally developed & distributed by PowerFX and his V2 voicebank released on December 22, 2009. He operates in the VOCALOID2, 3 and 4 editors, but he cannot be officially ported to V5.
His character design is modeled after Frankenstein's monster, and also features skull motifs, to align with the monster-movie aesthetic the company had already established with their prior marketing of Sweet ANN.
Update 2.3.25: As of this date, PowerFX's website has begun redirecting to the website for their DAW Soundation, and the pages for all of their legacy products only give 503 errors. BIG AL has also been sold out on Crypton Future Media's downloads store, SONICWIRE, for some time. While uncomfirmed, BIG AL may be considered a retired product until his hinted-at future Maghni AI release.
History
When it comes to early VOCALOID development, BIG AL was quite the unusual case. Though he was intially announced in 2007, BIG AL would come to face multiple delays and setbacks until he was released in 2009. This long delay would inspire fans to coin the term "Big Al Syndrome" referencing similarly lengthy production cycles.
PowerFX had originally recorded an Elvis impersonator named Michael King for AL's voicebank, but once demos were released, it became apparent that his voice was rather unstable. In addition, his initial box illustration (which was styled to match Sweet Ann's retro monster-movie look) was met with strong criticism from the VOCALOID fanbase.
In response, PowerFX surprisingly scrapped both voicebank and design. BIG AL was subsequently re-recorded by a PowerFX employee named Frank Sanderson, and the company commissioned Ash/accelagirl — a well-known VOCALOID fanartist — to redesign him. She created a more VOCALOID-like (read: Crypton-inspired) character, while still maintaining aspects of the original Frankenstein design.
Thanks to the additional care taken by PowerFX, BIG AL's new design and voice made him immediately popular within the Engloid fan circles, when he very well could have ended up a marketing disaster.
Years later, BIG AL would receive a second retail packaging release for sale in Taiwan, along with other voicebanks from Zero-G and PowerFX. The company handling Taiwanese distribution, e-capsule, created new designs for each VOCALOID in the released set.
Strangely enough this design also featured a new age and profile, so this AL soon became known as Tai-AL by fans and is often treated as an entirely separate character.
In December of 2023, Vocatone (developers of Oliver and YOHIOloid for V3) and Misbah Studios launched an Indiegogo campaign for their Maghni AI vocalsynth application. As part of planned future vocalists, they dropped hints at a "voice bigger than royalty" with the below silhouette.
It is widely believed that this is hinting at a potential AI update for BIG AL, which has excited many fans. The Maghni AI Indiegogo campaign concluded successfully on January 26, 2024 but no conclusive information on a BIG AL update has been posted since.
Facts & Trivia
- BIG AL is Sweet ANN's official male counterpart.
- He was originally intended for VOCALOID1 and his first demo was a duet with MIRIAM.
- His solo demos dropped 8 months before Hatsune Miku would see her first software release.
- Early on, the Japanese fanbase associated AL with a penguin, mostly due to his jacket's color scheme. Sometimes this is interpreted as a rockhopper penguin due to the tufts of pale hair at his temples. A penguin may be considered his "character item" akin to Miku's leek or Rin's roadroller.
- According to Ash, she drew from rockabilly aesthetics as the inspiration for BIG AL's design.
- Also according to Ash, AL's concept sketches had to be "toned down" for PowerFX's approval.
- The initial sketches included details such as a snake tattoo and fangs, which were later reincorporated into Ash's album cover design for The Big Alliance.
- AL's pose in his final design, with one hand tugging at his collar, is directly based on the character Abe from the bara manga "Kusomiso Technique". Meme usage of images from this manga is coloquially referred to as "yaranaika" - referencing the line Abe says in the referenced scene (meaning "shall we do it").
- BIG AL's initial movie-poster design is sometimes affectionately dubbed "Proto AL" by some fans.
Speculation
- BIG AL's unusually pronounced American accent may be due to his voicer recording spoken lines rather than singing.
- It is believed that BIG AL's, ahem... "unusual" breath files are left over from his initial recordings by Michael King.
Look at this handsome man.
