UNI (VOCALOID4)


 * This is an article about the UNI software for the VOCALOID4 engine.

2014
UNI was announced on the VOCALOID EMPIRE fan-cafe on November 9th, 2014. The announcement stated that YAMAHA portrayed a positive position on UNI's development, which will commence so long as there are no "huge unforeseen consequences," and that SBS A&T promised to provide assistance for UNI's voicebank development. Demo songs for UNI will be selected from the most popular original songs uploaded to VOCALOID EMPIRE.

The announcement also stated that Korean Vocaloid development "may not end with UNI only."

Dr. Yun, Korean producer and admin of VOCALOID EMPIRE, revealed in the comments section that they plan on recording UNI's voicebank with a professional voice actress who would be chosen before the end of November. He also confirmed that UNI's design concept was finalized and that she will only have a Korean voicebank for the time being.

On November 29th, the staff stated that they were looking for voice provider suggestions. Fans could comment the voice provider they think would suit UNI and the staff would check periodically to see the most recommended choices. They would keep the most popular suggestions in mind.

On December 7th, one of UNI's full designs was revealed at the Shanghai Exhibition Center in China. However, if fans did not agree with the design or if the design received backlash, editing or changing the design was in consideration. The design that was revealed was a finalized design, but was not the finished product. It was stated that the design on the banner was also not final and they wanted to showcase the hairstyle which would be kept. In terms of the voice provider, they were looking for someone who would have a calm, warm and mature sounding voice.

2015
Around the end of April 2015, fans asked questions about UNI's development to the staff of ST MEDiA. The company answered that they could not reveal whether UNI would be put on the VOCALOID3 or VOCALOID4 engine, nor the voice provider, at this point in time. They were still hoping for a 2015 release and confirmed that overseas fans would be able to purchase her.

On July 11th, when asked about whether UNI was in the VOCALOID3 engine, VOCALOID EMPIRE confirmed that UNI was in production for the VOCALOID4 engine since the beginning.

On July 27th, several questions were brought up to VOCALOID EMPIRE's twitter account. UNI would have more than one voice bank and it was hinted that she may be able to sing in multiple languages. It was also noted that she may not meet the estimated summer 2015 release.

Her design was originally intended to be revealed August 15th, but was announced early on August 4th due to the silhouette receiving 300 likes on Facebook. VOCALOID EMPIRE said they wanted to produce banks in Chinese and/or English, but that UNI would most likely be released with 2 in total. However, the certainty of these claims was later thrown into question by a translator. Korean tweets suggested UNI would only be released with one voicebank, but more if she was successful. On September 8th, it was revealed that UNI would not be released until 2016.

2016
On June 17th, 2016, a sample of UNI's voicebank was released. It was revealed that she would be capable of cross-synthesis and was set for release in September. An English voicebank was slated for 2017. It was also mentioned that her voice provider had changed during production. At this point in time, the demo utilized a "Soft version" and was still in development.