GUMI

GUMI (グミ) is an official mascot character of Megpoid (メグッポイド / Meguppoido) which is a singing synthesizer application software powered by Yamaha's Vocaloid2 and was published by INTERNET Co.,Ltd. The name GUMI is from the voice provider Megumi Nakajima's nickname in her childhood.
 * The naming about this product is very confusing. The Vocaloid software itself is under the official name Megpoid, and GUMI is the avatar character of the software drawn by the illustrator Masami Yuuki (ゆうきまさみ Yuuki Masami).

History
Megpoid was voiced by Megumi Nakajima and released on June 25, 2009. It comes with 3 sample VSQ files, "Happy Birthday", "be MYSELF", and "Hitori Yurari". "be MYSELF" is an original song by Nakajima.

There are five demos on the official site;
 * be MYSELF,
 * be MYSELF (one chorus),
 * Fly Me to The Moon-Part1,
 * Fly Me to The Moon-Part2,
 * BLUE BUTTERFLY.

Gumi was illustrated by the manga artist Yuuki Masami.

Vocaloid 3 Megpoid
Following the success of Crypton's Append, Internet Co., Ltd had confirmed Gumi will receive a "Megpoid Extend" edition in 2011.

On 2011/20/1 confirmation was released that recordings had started for the Megpoid Extend, several vocal recordings have already been recorded.

The first voicebank demo, Megpoid Extend Power β was uploaded on the 21/05/2011 onto Nico Nico Douga, its time spent up was only brief. Demos for Power and Whisper were also put up, but also removed a short time later. A more permanent version was uploaded later. Gumi's whisper Extend was used to sing "Fly me to the moon" and "BeMyself" in her power Extend, their upload was also temporary and were removed at a later date.

Unlike Crypton Future Media's CV Appends, however, the Extend idea was later dropped and instead they were launched as new voicebanks for Vocaloid 3. The voicebanks in are sold individually or as a pack. The new update of information confirmed a October 21st release date. It is also confirmed they are no longer a expansion pack, rather then being called "Megpoid Extend" they are now called "Vocaloid 3 Megpoid" and each vocal has its own appearance to go alongside it.

Some demos have been released as well;
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Sweet - 雨が降って. Youtube broadcast
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Power - 狂躁ヒュプノシスYoutube broadcast
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Adult - Showroom Dummy Youtube broadcast
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Power - NIGHTMARE Youtube broadcast
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Whisper - Waltz for stranger Youtube broadcast
 * Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Sweet - 真夏の閃光Youtube broadcast

A introduction about her was also added.

Vocaloid 3 Megpoid Native
Internet Co., Ltd. is working on a Vocaloid 3 revamp of Gumi's Vocaloid 2 voicebank. A clip has been uploaded of her singing Be MYSELF using an in-development beta version. Another clip has been uploaded of her singing Blue Butterfly. The release date is set to be the 16/03/12, those who pre-order before the 15th will recieve a technique guide. An official demo of her new Voicebank was uploaded of her singing Fragments Of Star with some info saying that "Readjustment of the speech database technology and the adoption of triphone VOCALOID3, due to modification of the portions of consonants, singing voice synthesis to achieve a sense of transparency and high-quality sound relaxed further.'

Sale of Megpoid Vocaloid 2 will cease on March 15th 2012.

Taiwan release
On Dec 11th, 2010, the president of Internet Co. announced that Gakupo Kamui, Gumi and Lily will be distributed in Taiwan.

Robot Gumi
Megpoid was one of 3 voicebanks the robot model HRP-4C was set up to react to, the other two being Miku Hatsune and Crypton's non-commercial vocaloid named CV-4Cβ.


 * Youtube broadcast: 開発者による産総研ロボット＆ボーカロイドの解説 CEATEC Japan (HRP-4C as Gumi)
 * Youtube broadcast: 産総研ロボットHRP-4C 未夢（ミーム）「異邦人」CEATEC Japan (HRP-4C Singing)

King Run Anison Red and White Concert
Gumi and Gakupo made special appearances in the 2010 new year celebration event known as King Run Anison Red and White.

The songs they covered were;
 * アニソン紅白2010 M-32[Love Letter]神威がくぽ(がくっぽいど) "Love Letter" covered by Gackupo originally from "Mobile Suit Z Gundam", which had originally been sung by Gackt himself.
 * アニソン紅白2010 M-33[星間飛行]GUMI(メグッポイド) "Interstellar Flight" covered by Gumi from "Macross Frontier", which had originally been sung by Megumi Nakajima herself.

Their appearance was strictly a one off event.

3D Concert
Gumi and Akikoroid-chan appeared in a concert together in Japan dancing on stage. Though other concerts have been done for Vocaloid, this is the first offical "3D" concert, previously all concerts had been done with 2D technology.

On the 2nd of November a video-clip about the 3D Concert "Vocaloid x LiveAR" was relased
 * "Vocaloid x LiveAR" at DIGITAL CONTENT EXPO 2011 Youtube Broadcast

On the 15th-16th of December Gumi, VY1V3 , Akikoroid-chan, Tone Rion and Aoki Lapis appeared in a 3D concert at VOCAFARRE 2011
 * Gumi - Megu Megu Fire Endless Night Youtube Broadcast
 * Gumi - Love Droid Youtube Broadcast
 * Gumi & Akikoroid-chan - Cyber Thunder Cider Youtube Broadcast
 * Gumi & Akikoroid-chan - Beyond the glass World Youtube Broadcast
 * VY1V3 Mizki - Opening VOCAFARRE Youtube Broadcast
 * Aoki Lapis - Daydream Flight Youtube Broadcast
 * Aoki Lapis - Little Wish Youtube Broadcast
 * All Involved (Including Tone Rion who's full part is difficult or impossible to find) - VocaLawson Vocafarre Concert Summary Nico Nico Douga Broadcast

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai
Gumi is due to make a guest appearance in Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai. This is the second time a Internet co., Ltd Vocaloid has appeared along side Crypton Future Media Vocaloids, the first being Kamui Gakupo in Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix.

Figurines
The first of two figurines based on gumi's Exit tunes album art are due for release. Details are currently unknown. Gumi is due a Nendoroid figurine produced by the Good Smile company.

Vocaloid 2

 * Gumi has songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame
 * Comparing VY1(β version), Miku Append (Soft), Gumi, Lily
 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider

Megpoid

 * Optimum tempo: 60 - 175 BPM
 * Optimum range: F2 - A4
 * Language; Japanese

Strengths
Gumi was designed to be a professional voicebank of good quality. She is classified as a "Vocaloid Artist" voicebank. At the time of her release, she had one of the most realistic sounding voicebanks in Vocaloid 2 and sings with a soft clear voice. Amongst the female voicebanks she has one of the biggest ranges and is considered easy to tune. Her pronunciations are of a good quality and she has smooth vowel sounds compared to other Vocaloids within her era. Like her predessor, she produces realistic results. Her voicebank has a reputation for being able to use its Japanese phonetics to mimick the English language easier than most other Japanese voicebanks.

Strengths
The weakness of her voice is that she is raspy, however, this can be removed if a user does not want her raspiness. Like many native Japanese speakers, Megpoid does not have the phoneme "z" and "Z" in the phonetic system and they are replaced by "dz" and "dZ" as well as Gackpoid.

Vocaloid3 Megpoid
Gumi's new voicebanks are sold as a pack or individually and do not require the Vocaloid 2 Megpoid software to use. Unlike the Appends of Crypton's CV series, this means you are not forced to purchase voicebanks you have no interest in, and can acquire them all or only the ones you want specifically.

Vocaloid3 Megpoid; Power

 * Optimum tempo:
 * Optimum range:
 * Language; Japanese

Strengths
More details to follow

Weaknesses
More details to follow

Vocaloid3 Megpoid; Whisper

 * Optimum tempo:
 * Optimum range:
 * Language; Japanese

Strengths
More details to follow

Weaknesses
More details to follow

Vocaloid3 Megpoid; Adult

 * Optimum tempo:
 * Optimum range:
 * Language; Japanese

Strengths
More details to follow

Weaknesses
More details to follow

Vocaloid3 Megpoid; Sweet

 * Optimum tempo:
 * Optimum range:
 * Language; Japanese

Strengths
More details to follow

Weaknesses
More details to follow

Strengths
This voicebank is created to replace the Vocaloid 2 voicebank and will include improvements over the original, removing some of theissues that users experienced with the old Voicebank. It is being sold seperately to other voicebanks. It will be as close in tone to the original voicebank as possible.

Weaknesses
Details to follow.

Popularity
Gumi has seen a faster growth of usage within the Japanese fandom, gaining popularity faster than her predecessor Gakupo. She has quickly become a fan favorite in both Japanese and Western fandoms and arguably has been the most commonly used non-Crypton Future Media Vocaloid.

By 2010, Gumi's popularity was on par with Crypton Future Media's voicebanks and had also out sold her predessor Kamui Gakupo, becoming the most popular and well known non-Crypton Vocaloid. In 2011, her usage grew and in a number of weeks, she would even have more songs in the top 100 rankings then some of the Crypton Future Media based Vocaloids.

In 2011 a independant report was made into the popularity of Vocaloid and revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 2011. Gumi, had managed to succeed at grabbing more attention then most Vocaloids and at 2107 uploads was the 3rd highest video upload related to a Vocaloid. At 9538464 views and 929810 Mylists, Gumi was the Vocalod to recieve the 2nd highest number of views overall. Based on average views, managed to come out on top with 4527.04 views (and 441.3 mylists) on average per video. When the mean count was performed on the Vocalod results, Gumi remained on top with 485 views and 34 mylists per video and Gumi was the only one besides the Kagamine's to successfully be on all lists performed in the report.

Trivia

 * Gumi has proven to be quite a popular Vocaloid for MMD model makers and has several models compared to most other Vocaloids. One of them is ISAO's model, available by purchase of Windows 100% magazine and MMD Starter Pack magazine.
 * Less experienced overseas fans often mislabel Gumi as a "Megpoid" rather then a "Vocaloid" and sometimes dismiss that she is a Vocaloid altogether. This is owed to the confusion over the name.
 * Gumi's design is often said to be influenced by Ranka Lee's character (one of the first roles done by Megumi Nakajima as seiyuu). Ranka Lee's main notable outfit had the colours green, yellow and orange also. This has never been confirmed as anything more then coincidence; still it is a popular assumption in both Japan and overseas Vocaloid fans.

Notable for...

 * First female Vocaloid from Internet Co. Ltd.
 * One of 3 voicebanks used by the robot HRP-4C
 * First Vocaloid from Internet Co.Ltd to be Extended.
 * First update announced of a Vocaloid 2 for Vocaloid 3