BIG AL

BIG AL is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by PowerFX Systems AB., and was released in December 2009 for the VOCALOID2 engine. His announcement was on January 21, 2007 and his provider during that time was Michael King. After another period of development, his voice bank was redone by voice actor Frank S., whose last name cannot be revealed due to privacy reasons. BIG AL's believed original codename is "RONIE" due to sightings of it alongside "JODIE", Sweet ANN's codename. There was also a third unknown provider during the "RONIE" period prior to Michael King, but the version voiced by the unknown provider was cancelled for undisclosed reasons.
==Concept==
===Etymology===
It is unknown why PowerFX chose the name "BIG AL".
"Al" can be both a male and female name. It is usually shorthand for other longer names. When applied to boys it is shorthand for names including (but not restricted to) "Alfred", "Albert", "Allen", and "Alphonse".http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Al
On his Taiwanese release, BIG AL's logo is stylized with a dash. Yamaha also has written the name as "BigAl" without a space between "Big" and "Al". 
===Appearance===
BIG AL is based on ; according to PowerFX, their VOCALOIDs are more like s than . The original image of BIG AL came from an old Frankenstein photo.http://vanmak.deviantart.com/art/Ann-and-Al-s-flames-433548038http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/frankenstein/images/19751724/title/poster-photo The hand on the image came from an old poster of . The original box art features the RCA-44 or a variant of it, as this mic was first released in the early 1930s. The illustrator for this version of BIG AL remains unknown.
The revised and finalized illustration was by artist Ash. In 2019, on BIG AL's 10th Anniversary, Ash revealed early design concepts from 2009 where it was revealed that in the process of the redesign, several design elements were attempted, including "crazy eyes, fangy evil smile, snakie tattoo" and "cleavage out". However, the design was tamed to make BIG AL appear friendlier.https://x.com/accelastar/status/1208967359639293952 In an early concept, he had a light/dark red button down shirt, grey pants and silver bullet belt with a bracelet on his right hand.https://x.com/accelastar/status/1208969306391879687 Following this tweet were several redesign drafts showing what would later be the official outfit for the finalized design.https://x.com/accelastar/status/1208977412907814913 In a later Tweet, Ash stated BIG AL's box art pose was a reference to the hentai manga , also known as "Yaranaika". The tweet also suggested that BIG AL was originally supposed to be sitting but was altered to a standing position to avoid direct referencing.https://x.com/accelastar/status/1208986340047695872 
====Promotional E-Capsule version====
BIG AL's scythe in his Taiwanese design resembles a musical note.
===Relations===
*Sweet ANN - A complementary voice bank with feminine vocals.
==History==
===Marketing===
Like Sweet ANN, BIG AL's original boxart bore similarities to early 20th-century movie posters, depicting him as a monster morph of Elvis. The new box art was more of a loose representation of such a monster and was aimed more towards the VOCALOID fandom than ANN was, marking a switch in focus for PowerFX from solely that of professionals.
Unlike Sweet ANN, BIG AL was not geared up to be reviewed by normal means (software reviews) and relied more upon the VOCALOID fandom to promote and use him, building on the growing interest in English VOCALOIDs that was now occurring. While a MySpace page was made for Sweet ANN's promotion, BIG AL did not have a social networking outlet.
===Voicebanks===
;BIG AL
:Sweet ANN's counter-partner vocal, he has a deeper tones vocal for classic rock and is able to go deep down the octaves. Due to development issues, at least 3 different versions of the voicebank exists, each with a different singer entirely. All of them had the same goal of giving a rough timbre to contrast that of Zero-G Limited's LEON vocal.
* "RONIE" (VOCALOID), unreleased
* BIG AL (VOCALOID2), unreleased
* BIG AL (VOCALOID2), December 22, 2009
==Music featuring BIG AL==
==Reputation==
==References==
==External links==
Language	Description	Site
==Navigation==
Category:BIG AL
Category:PowerFX Systems AB.
Category:E-capsule Co. Ltd
Category:VOCALOID
Category:VOCALOID2
Category:Masculine vocals
Category:English vocals
Category:VOCALOIDs with updated voicebanks