Artist types
Overview
Artist type specifies the most common role that participates in. It's common that artists participate in multiple roles sometimes. For example, an illustrator might occasionally produce music. Artist type describes the most common role, additional roles can be specified with tags.Changing artist type
Be careful when changing artist's type when that artist already has songs/albums added. If you do this, generally you need to make sure that artist's roles are still correct, because changing the type changes the default role for all those existing entries.Voicebanks and character designs
On VocaDB we track primarily official voicebanks. Generally, voicebanks that are sold/distributed separately should have their own entry. More about this in the FAQ section.Having separate entries for fan-made derivatives such as pitchbends and genderbents, and especially for simple character designs such as Hagane Miku is discouraged. For identifying these you should prefer using tags. Official derivatives made or commissioned by the original creator of the voicebank, whether that's for Vocaloid or UTAU, are obviously allowed.
Music producers
Artists whose main role is to compose or arrange music. Includes both original music and derivatives such as covers and remixes.Cover artists
For artists who cover original songs. Once they start producing original songs, the artist type should be changed to "Music producer".Animation producer and Illustrator
Animation producer is an artist whose main role is to create animation, either 2D or 3D. These days that's most commonly with the MMD software.When choosing between illustrator and animator types, you should investigate whether the artist usually does static images or animation.
Circle
An entity, usually a group of people, that creates music and self-publishes it. Usually circles are selling their works at doujin events such as Comiket and The Voc@loid M@ster.Sometimes when artists sign up with a record label, they transition from self-publishing circles into more conventional bands. An example of this is the group Supercell, which started out as with self-publication, but no longer does that.
Private circle
Usually circle is a group of people, but it's common that music producers have their own "private circle" (personal circle) where they alone are the sole permanent member, and they possibly work with other temporary members.Generally there is no need to create a separate entry for a "private circle" , if the circle has only one permanent member. In this case, generally the circle information can be included in the producer's entry.
Label
A commercial company with the primary objective of selling and distributing albums and songs.Other group
For groups of people where neither Circle nor Label is appropriate.This includes groups of people (bands) that publish songs through a record label.
Vocaloid, UTAU, CeVIO and Synthesizer V
The Vocaloid type is reserved only for the voicebanks based on the Vocaloid desktop software (regardless of version). Upgraded versions such as appends use this type as well.This includes only official voicebanks. Pitchbends/genderbents and other fan-made derivatives are to be categorized as other vocalists.
UTAU is identical to the Vocaloid type, except for the UTAU software. Official appends and other upgrades/extensions to voicebanks use this type as well.
Other voice synthesizer
For voice synthesizers that aren't Vocaloid or UTAU. For example ChipSpeech and Alter/Ego.As with the Vocaloid and UTAU types, this includes only official voicebanks, not fan-made derivatives.