VOCALOID3

Vocaloid 3 is the current anticipated successor to the Vocaloid 2 engine. The new Vocaloid engine was revealed on June 8th 2011 by YAMAHA via NicoNico Douga live stream. It can be purchased at the official Vocaloid Site.

History
Vocaloid 3 was first announced mid-2011 at a special invitation only event. It was heavily promoted. The released date was set for September 2011, however it was held back on several occusions and eventually released on the 21st of October 2011.

Vocaloid-P data packs
As well as the engine, it is aso possible to buy the VSG files used for songs made by famous producers. The first of the Vocaloid-P Data Series packs was released with the Vocaloid 3 engine and can be purchased seperately. Previously, the majority of VSQ files had been recreated by fans and not the producers themselves.

Vol.2 of the series is due for release on the 16th of December 2011.

Vocaloid 2 vs Vocaloid 3 comparison
Vocaloid 3 is the first Vocaloid engine to feature backwards compatability with past Vocaloids. As such, importing Vocaloids from Vocaloid 2 into Vocaloid 3 is possible. Results from Vocaloid 2 will not be the same for Vocaloid 3.
 * Gackpoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Megpoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Lily; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Gachapoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3

Because of improvements to the recording process, Vocaloid 3 voicebanks are better quality then Vocaloid 2 even if both are run on the Vocaloid 3 engine. The samples alone are slightly longer allowing more smoothness and clearity. Also due to the new practices of Vocaloid 3 the standard of quality within this range is much higher then the previous Vocaloid 2 engine range. Vocaloid 2 voicebanks of low quality will have more trouble matching up to Vocaloid 3 voicebanks. However, due to the improvements to the engine, 'Vocaloid 2 voicebanks appear to have much more clarity when imported into Vocaloid 3 and the results are much more natural sounding. So even the worst quality Vocaloid 2 voicebank will have noticable improvements over the original engine counterparter.

Vocaloid 3 does not have assign code for breaths and you can instead import various noises directly into Vocaloid.

Original Vocaloid Software
The Vocaloid software, is now confirmed unsupported as of 2011 by Yamaha and voicebanks Leon, Lola, Miriam, Meiko and Kaito cannot be imported into Vocaloid 3. These voicebanks will slowly be phased out in the expected future.