VOCALOID2

Vocaloid 2 was the successor to the original Vocaloid engine.

History
Vocaloid 2 was released in 2007 and was released after an overall successful response to the Vocaloid software. Its first voicebanks were Sweet Ann for English and Hatsune Miku for Japanese. Unlike Vocaloid the engine was a imeditate success in Japan forwarding a Vocaloid phenomenon over the internet with more then pre-release 3,000 orders placed for the Hatsune Miku software alone. Though the overseas English Vocaloids were much slower to catch on, the Japanese Vocaloids saw many additional voicebanks released and a number of new Japanese studios join in the production of "Vocaloids".

Approaches to the engine were diferent across the studios. Amongst the Japanese Vocaloids, Crypton Future Media's early Character Vocal series (CV) Vocaloid were not trying to sound realisitc at all, but later Vocaloid such as Gakupo and Gumi by Internet vco., Ltd took on a more realisitc approach. The engine was constantly updated with each new batch of Vocaloids, although the most major change to Vocalid came with the production of the VY series by Bplats. This saw both how the library was organised (VY1) and the first Vocaloid with a faint breath element (VY2). Some Voicebanks sold well enough to warrent additional installations, as seen in the case of Hatsune Miku and the Kagamine software packages who recieved "Append" voicebanks.

Zero-G continued its specialist Vocaloid releases with the focus of this engine being opera based. New comers PowerFX tried for a more character based approach, which became more apparent after the update to Big Al then with Sweet Ann. English Vocaloid studios also experimented with attempts to increase their own profile and attempts to establish a fandom, like the Japanese Vocaloids had secured, went with mixed progress. The English engine was more popular later in the Vocaloid 2 era then it was in the first half, mostly due to the popularity of the Japanese engine. However, while it never reached the same several of popularity as the Japanese Engine, it was overall more successful then the previous English Vocaloid voicebanks.

Updates
Updates were suplied with the Vocaloids with the latest released Vocaloid having the latest version of the engine. Therefore when the updates were done to the engine, they were were much harder to track. Packages like the Appends served as both expansion packs and methods of updating the software for older Vocaloid users.

The software became unsupported in late 2011 with the release of the Vocaloid 3 software, VY2 housing the last version of the software.

Unreleased voicebanks
Some studios had expansion packs and updates intended for Vocaloid 2 in developement at the time of the Vocaloid 3 anouncement. The Vocaloid voicebanks known to have been effected by the newer engines release were CV04, Megpoid Extend, Hatsune Miku English, Kaito English, Megurine Luka Append, Kaito Append and Meiko Append. However, these were announced to later be set for a Vocaloid 3 release.

Requirements

 * Windows XP/Vista 32 bit (Windows 7 is not officially supported; 64 bit is NOT SUPPORTED)
 * Pentium 4 2 GHz/ Athlon XP 2000
 * 512 MB RAM (1GB of RAM recommended) (2 GB or more recommended when using VSTi realtime)·
 * Approx 4 GB Free Hard Disk Space / DVD Drive

Additional Notes
Many improvements to pronouncitions were made between Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2. For example, the word "Now" as spoken by English Vocaloids sounds much smoother, whereas Vocaloid would break it up and sound it out as "No-ow".

The new additions and cleaner engine make Vocaloid 2 overall the superior to its predecessor. The voicebanks in Vocaloid however, had more editing options possible than Vocaloid 2 and more varied voices could be achieved. Vocaloid 2, had a more realistic human tone then Vocaloid. In addition, due to the improvements between Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2, the standard voicebank of Vocaloid 2 is of better quality overall then Vocaloid. Many improvements to quality were made during the engines life circle and later voicebanks were smoother then older ones overall, therefore some older Vocaloid 2 voicebanks voicebanks like Hatsune Miku, Gackpoid or Sweet Ann, have trouble matching up to others like VY1, Big Al or Nekomura Iroha. However, the overall quality of many Vocaloid 2 voicebanks varied greatly between them even in the later versions of the engine and a varity of issues contributed to the quality of one vocal over another. Furthermore, as of the developement of the VY series Vocaloid VY1 and VY2, improvements were made to how the engine worked while still using just the Vocaloid 2 core.

In the case of Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Appends, users will need the orginal voicebanks to be able to use the newer software.

The current version of Vocaloid 2 has no reported problems with the current operating systems but is unsupported as of 2011. However, as of the release of Vocaloid3, Vocaloid 2 engine voicebanks can now be imported into this newer engine. This improves both the smoothness and clarity the voicebanks. Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2 are incompatible with each other. Users wishing to have a Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2 voicebanks sing together have to transfer via midi format between the two programs to have the singers sing the same song and then use an additional music/media program to organize the voicebanks into.

Some Vocaloids will have conflicts if installed over a newer version of the engine. This issue was resolved with later versions of the software but caused conflicts with earlier versions, causing the editor to refuse to open. Re-installing the most current version will resolve the problem. The first Vocaloid 2 released which encountered this problem was Prima, as previous Vocaloids before her had similair engine versions.

Vocaloid 2 introduces several hidden Phonetics that are not announced by the help guide of the software. The vowel-to-vowel transaction (written as [-]) which carries a word across several notes smoothly, though only English Vocaloids can use it. breaths are introdcued and created by typeing in [br1] up to [br5] (depending on which of the 5 samples you want to use). This is an improvement over Vocaloid wherein you had to create a breath via [*in]. Exhauling ([*out]) capablities have been remove but were uneeded anyway. [Sil] and [ASP] are also new capablities and will increase a Vocaloids capabilties greatly depending on the use. However, [sil] is more useful to English Vocaloid then Japanese, while the reverse is said for [asp].

Illegal versions of the software were also commonplace for Vocaloid 2. The software was easy to crack by pirating teams and every voicebank was cracked at some point after release and most popular Keygens worked with it. There was very little service differences between the legal and illegal versions aside from a lack of technical support from studios, although the software ReWire function may not work as well as the legal version.

Marketing
Marketing was handled by each studio and it was not until the end of the Vocaloid 2 era that Yamaha themselves began to promote the software. Crypton Future Media in particular enjoyed a successful marketing of their products owed to the popularity and success of their Hatsune Miku product. Hatsune Miku's image was used to promote the Vocaloid software and she became the face of Vocaloid. Crypton were able to set up their own websites. On November 29, 2010, Crypton started an independent music publication for seeking copyright royalties if songs are used for commercial purposes such as karaoke, because Vocaloid users hardly used the copyright collective Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC).

Part of the problem for newer studios entering the Vocaloid market at this stage was that they were entering into a user base that already had succumbed to Crypton's successful marketing ploy. Still despite this, due to Crypton Future Media's success many attempted to anyway. Other Japanese studios did not always adopt such marketing measures. For example Internet Co., Ltd did not heavily promote any of their Voclaoids in the same manner such Crypton at first and aside from Lily, whose marketing was mostly handled by Avex Management Co., Ltd, whose image was heavily promoted in the same manner as Hatsune Miku's was. However, Internet began promoting their Vocaloids from 2010 onwards more heavily, for example, Gumi and Gakupo made special appearances in the 2010 new year celebration event known as King Run Anison Red and White.

While Ah-Software also attempted to make promotional efforts, it was on a smaller scale. Bplats also did smaller scale promotions for their VY series, though the difference was that their marketing was fixed on the quality of their Vocaloids voicebank rather then the image such as how other studios had promoted their Vocaloids. Aside from a demo of Utatane Piko, Sony did not put much promtional marketing effort into their Vocaloid.

While Japanese Vocaloid studios had enjoyed a strong fanbase to sell and market their products to, Zero-G and PowerFX had to earn their fanbase from scratch since most of the focus was on Japanese Vocaloids. Though traditionally they had always sold to the professional market successfully, due to the increase interest in the Vocaloid software, they attempted to establish their own Voclaoid fandom. This meant making contact and continuing that contact with the Vocaloid fans, gaining their feed back and interests rather then isolating them from the software. Though this tactic did not always, succesfully work, they successfully broke the ice and later adopted Vocaloid Otaku forums as their main base for feed back and fan input. However, they were not able to fully gain as much support as the Japanese Vocaloid shad during the Vocaloid 2 due to their much more limited market. PowerFX for example was even quite late into the Vocaloid 2 era, the smallest studio making Vocaloid and therefore did not have the money to invest heavily into their products.

Outside of this, the largest promotional event for Vocaloids was "The Voc@loid M@ster" (Vom@s) convention held four times a year in Tokyo or the neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture. The event brings producers and illustrators involved with the production of Vocaloid art and music together so they can sell their work to others. The original event was held in 2007 with 48 groups, or "circles", given permission to host stalls at the event for the selling of their goods. The event soon gained popularity and at the 14th event, nearly 500 groups had been chosen to have stalls. Additionally, Japanese companies involved with production of the software also have stalls at the events. Yamaha themselves began promotional events themselves in 2011 and events sucj as the VocaFes 2011 and the Vocafarre.

Crypton Future Media also began aiming to conquer America with their own Vocaloids, during the 2010 period. In May 2011, Toyota used Hatsune Miku for two online adverts to promote the 2011 Toyota Corolla. She is also displayed on the official Toyota page. Toyota had been the ones who had approached Crypton for use of Miku. Since Crypton always sold Miku as a virtual instrument in Japan, they asked their Japanese fanbase if it was acceptable for them to sell her as a virtual singer to the new market audience. Miku's Los Angeles concert sold out on the 26th of May 2011. Not only was she the first singer to sell out but this was the only time AX, the company in charge of selling her tickets, had ever sold out. Ax were forced to book more seats then they had initally done to meet demands.

Cultural impact
According to Crypton, a popular video with "Hachune Miku", a super deformed Miku, Loituma Girl, holding a spring onion and singing "Ievan Polkka", presented multifarious possibilities of applying the software in multimedia content creation. As the recognition and popularity of the software grew, Nico Nico Douga became a place for collaborative content creation. Popular original songs written by a user would generate illustrations, animation in 2D computer graphics and 3D computer graphics, and remixes by other users. Other creators would show their unfinished work and ask for ideas. The website has become so influential that studios often post demos on Nico Nico Douga, as well as other websites such as YouTube, as part of the promotional effort of their Vocaloid products. The important role Nico Nico Douga has played in promoting the Vocaloids also sparked interest in the software and Kentaro Miura, the artist of Gakupo's mascot design, had offered his services for free because of his love for the website.

In September 2009, three figurines based on the derivative character "Hachune Miku" were launched in a rocket from the United States state of Nevada's Black Rock Desert, though it did not reach outer space. In late November 2009, a petition was launched in order to get a custom made Hatsune Miku aluminum plate (8 cm x 12 cm, 3.1" x 4.7") made that would be used as a balancing weight for the Japanese Venus space probe Akatsuki (Planet-C). Started by Hatsune Miku fan Sumio Morioka that goes by chodenzi-P, this project has received the backing of Dr. Seiichi Sakamoto of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). On December 22, 2009, the petition exceeded the needed 10,000 signatures necessary to have the plates made. An original deadline of December 20, 2009 had been set to send in the petition, but due to a couple of delays in the Akatsuki project, a new deadline of January 6, 2010 was set; by this deadline, over 14,000 signatures had been received. On May 21, 2010 at 06:58:22 (Japan Standard Time), Akatsuki was launched on the rocket H-IIA 202 Fright 17 from the Japanese spaceport Tanegashima Space Center, having three plates depicting Hatsune Miku.

The Vocaloid software has also had a great influence on the character Black Rock Shooter, which looks like Hatsune Miku but is not linked to her by design. The character was made famous by the song "Black Rock Shooter", and a number of figurines have been made. An original video animation made by Ordet was streamed for free as part of a promotional campaign running from June 25 to August 31, 2010.

Vocaloid 2 opened the gateway for acceptance of synethised vocals in Japan, and other such software were able to be launched successfully such as UTAU and Voiceroid.

Criticism
The one thing that was noted through this version in comparison to Vocaloid was that it was used more by amateur musicains than by professionals. Due to the impact of Hatsune Miku, Vocaloid 2 saw more departure from its original intention and it wasn't until midway through its life until late that it attempted to return to its professional routes. It became one of the negative points of the Vocaloid 2 and focus on voicebank turned in many cases to focusing on the character. Undesirable boxart was often mocked such as PowerFX's Sweet Ann, who was often mocked for having what seemed to be a "demonic" boxart. VY1 and VY2's existence was an attempt to draw users away from this tendacey to prefer character over vocal, abandoning the character image altogether for a "avatarless" approach. Some Vocaloids of low quality were able to sell well against more higher quality voicebanks, as seen in the case of Lily and VY1. Regardless, this carried on into even early Vocaloid 3 voicebanks.

Critism was also thrown at the engine as a reaction to Hatsune Miku, who had gained world wide fame. It was common for Vocaloid haters to presume that all Vocaloids sounded like her and the other Crypton Future Media Vocaloids. Part of the problem in the otherseas fandom was at this point the knowledge on Japanese Vocaloids was limited to just the Crypton Vocaloids Meiko, Kaito, Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Len/Rin and Megurine Luka. Other Japanese Vocaloids often went unnoticed because of it even though they did not always always have the same high pitch vocals as Crypton's Vocaloids.

Another target for critism was the English version of the software, as some opf the overseas fans of the Japanese Vocaloids felt they were not on par with their Japanese counterparts. Yet despite this, many Japanese users who used English Vocaloid had said the reverse, that English Vocaloids were better than Japanese contradicting this statement. Most of the critism came from anime-based Vocaloid fans, who knew little information about the engine and its finer workings. They were used to the Japanese Vocaloids and often were quick to react without first learning more on the Vocaloid they had heard. As support for the English Vocaloids began to grow, some efforts were made to make Vocaloid fans in the overseas understand that overall there was very little difference between the two languages.