VOCALOID

Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation.

About
Vocaloid is a program that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody. It was originally intended to be a "singer in a box" and intended to provide backing to real singer.

With the introduction of "avatars", the program has become a replacement for an actual singer with each voicebank essentially being regarded as a international celebrity or star in their own right and original songs have been created with the virtual "singer" or "Vocaloid". Due to their appeal and ever increasing fandom, demand for even the older voicebanks has increased and interest in them continues to grow beyond expectations of even Yamaha. Part of their appeal is their overall nature with the limits they carry being the skills and capabilities of the user working with them.

Criticism
While Japanese Vocaloids are noticeably well received and have an extensive usage, English Vocaloids however often face hard criticism from Vocaloid fans. This is particularly aimed at the early Vocaloid era voicebanks Leon and Lola and common concerns are expressed within the fandom.

Part of this was earlier Vocaloids that were created not to have "Avatars", and Boxart was not important to the function of the program so while Meiko and Kaito had images that could later be used as avatars, Leon, Lola and Miriam (although there is a clear image of a person) did not. When avatars became common with Japanese Vocaloids, the English Vocaloids, without official avatars, were left to interpretation by fan artwork. Zero-G has since confirmed that they are interested in revising the boxart of their Vocaloids since interest in Vocaloids has greatly increased. PowerFX's Sweet Ann, who had a image that could be used as an avatar but was often mocked, has been hinted to be considered for a competition and a change of boxart, in light of Big Al's satisfactory reaction to his new look.

Early Vocaloid voicebanks were also criticised for their poor pronunciation problems, on top of this Leon and Lola were considered hard to make sound like their intended genders. Other critisms call some of the English Vocaloids voices "ugly" compared to the cuter sounds of the Japanese Vocaloids, especially for female Vocaloids as Japanese female Vocaloids often have a cuter sound to their voices. However, when considering these arguments there is also the need to factor in misinformations within the fandom as well a level of biasedness amongst English "Pro-Japanese" fans. English Vocaloid fans often are quite surprised when they hear a English Vocaloid for the first time on the differences and contrasts between the two different approaches within the two languages. There should also be noted that there are certain levels of unawareness of the existance of English Vocaloids to begin. The Japanese Vocaloids are relatively well known, especially Miku Hatsune, while promotional efforts into the English ones are only just beginning to take effect giving the English Vocaloid awareness a late start despite being the first ones to exist.

User Friendliness
Since users usually prefer the Japanese vocaloids, questions such as "How do I make Miku Hatsune sing in English?" are commonly seen on answer sites or message boards. English speaking users often download the Japanese vocaloids with high expectations of being able to make a Japanese voicebank sing in English, only later to discover that it is often not that simple without some aid. The program comes with a complete dictionary in the language they are designed for. However, if users wish to make the vocaloid sing in the opposing language (English vocaloid singing in Japanese / Japanese vocaloid singing in English), the library of that language must be invented from scratch and is not recommended for amateur users.

Vocaloids are difficult to use by non-native speakers and even more difficult to make sing in the unintended language. Users also must download at least one version of the program in their native language in order to be able to read and use the program at all if they cannot speak the language the voicebank is intended for. Some vocaloids were created to counter this problem with release of Luka Megurine (being bilingual Japanese/English) and Sonika who was made to take the opposite approach with voicebanks containing additional notes besides syllables and phonetics, essentially allowing her to speak any language with some work despite being only English based. Alternatively, having an English Vocaloid alongside a Japanese one is an alternative solution to overcome this problem.

English Vocaloids are said to be difficult to work with then their Japanese counterparts, mostly due to how the language of English transfers into the programs lyrics system. Certain words in either language can be overcome by using phonemes instead of the actual pronunciation of a word, but for amateur users this may take some experience with the program and the study of phoneme with a bit of trial and error. Though the programs dictionary has many words in either language, there will always be absent words, the English dictionary is noted to be the most problematic at finding unusual or uncommon words and users may have to manually submit the word into the dictionary. For instance upon his release Big Al's dictionary had the words "Bingle" and "Bangle" but not "Bungle". Another problem can be caused when two words share the same spelling for English voicebanks ("wind" - air moving and "wind" - the action of twisting). They may even pronounce the input as an different pronounication entirely to either word depending on the Vocaloids accent (e.g. Big Al prenounces "wind" as "wee-in-da" with "da" being almost silent), so resulting to phonemes is essential.

Language Capabilities
A noticeable feature that English Vocaloids lack is the 5 breathing phonemes ([br1] - [br5]) that their Japanese counterparts have which made it difficult to fully mimic the style of a real singer. Big Al and Prima have these missing phonemes as well as other missing phonemes and Sonika has much more capability within her Voicebanks then even her Japanese counterparts have, but lacks the 5 breathing phonemes. In regards to the overall contrast between the two languages, the English Vocaloid voicebanks are much larger their Japanese counterparts. Big Al for instance, comsumes more memory space on a hard drive (4 GB) then Miku Hatsune (2 GB) yet no other software requirements are different. Only Luka(6 GB) and the Miku Append (8 GB) being the only Voicebanks who do not comply with this. English Vocaloids take longer to record then their Japanese counterparts because of the expansive dictionary.

Overall language compatisity is far greater in the English Vocaloids then their Japanese counterparts and English Vocaloids are easier to make sing in other languages then the Japanese Vocaloids, who often retain a heavy Japanese accent when attempting to sing in other languages. However, results in either language vary per user and some users will be able to utilize the software better then others., English Vocaloids overall results will also be determined by the Vocaloids accent and so vary per voicebank.

Software Disputation
While Japanese users are able to purchase English Vocaloids relatively easy from Japan, Japanese Vocaloids are currently harder to purchase by English Vocaloid users. Often English fans find they either must seek out a 3rd party site willing to import the Japanese software, or use auction sites like E-bay. English Vocaloids however currently do not sell enough to warrent extras such as seen with Crypton's Miku Append. However, it has been confirmed if the English Vocaloids become more popular, then Appends would be an option in the future.

Vocaloid


Yamaha announced its development in 2003 and on January 15, 2004, Leon and Lola, the first application software product, were launched. It was not released as a Yamaha product, but a software package of Vocaloid Singer Libraries was developed by third party licensees which included Yamaha's Vocaloid software. Leon, Lola, and Miriam (Miriam using the voice of Miriam Stockley) have were released from Zero-G Limited, UK. In Japan Meiko (released on October 5, 2004 and using vocal samples from the Japanese singer Meiko Haigo ) and Kaito (released on February 14, 2006 and using vocal samples from the Japanese singer Naoto Fuuga ) were later released from Crypton Future Media.

Released voicebanks
By Zero-G:
 * Leon: English
 * Lola: English female
 * Miriam: English female

By Crypton Future Media:
 * Meiko: Japanese female
 * Kaito: Japanese male

Additional notes
The voice banks for Vocaloid are also more fluid, and can be shaped easier. Vocaloid however has just 5 voicebanks offered to it (3 english, 2 Japanese), offering a limited range of voices. They cover soul, pop and J-pop music between them. Other genres are possible to achieve by users with further voice editing. As seen with voicebanks like Leon, different users can utilize the voicebanks offered very differently and Vocaloid has produced a wide range of different results from the same few voicebanks even without heavy editing. Also, locating the correct phonemes on its database is much simplier then the Vocaloid 2 engine that followed, making the program easier for users to use. Because of its more flexible and simple nature, there are many users still working with the dated software.

However, Vocaloid is hard to make sound realistic, even though it is easy to edit. It has a much more digital sound then later engines. Leon and Lola, the very first Vocaloids, noticeably show this digital sound more so then the other 3 voicebanks Miriam, Meiko and Kaito. It also has difficulties with pronunciation of words, the English voicebanks being the worst of two languages in this area.

Vocaloid is confirmed incompatible with the Windows 7 operating system and while Vocaloid is suppose to be compatible with Windows Vista users have reported no major problems, though initially rumors stated otherwise. It cannot be guaranteed that Vocaloid will work with operating systems newer then Windows XP.

Vocaloid 2
In January 2007, Yamaha announced a new version of the software engine, Vocaloid2, with various major improvements in usability and synthesis quality. Zero-G and others announced plans to release products powered by the new software engine in 2007. PowerFX released the first English package that is powered by Vocaloid2 named Sweet Ann. Crypton followed and announced a series of character Vocaloid 2 packages to be released, the first being Hatsune Miku. The second package Kagamine Rin/Len was released on December 27, 2007 and the updated edition "act2" was released in July 2008.

Kamui Gakupo, a vocaloid that utilized the voice of the famous J-rock singer Gackt, was released on July 31, 2008. Prima was introduced at NAMM Show 2008; she was released on January 14, 2008 in the UK and February 22, 2008 in Japan.

Released voicebanks
By Zero-G:
 * Prima: English female
 * Sonika: English female

By Crypton Future Media:
 * Miku Hatsune: Japanese female
 * Append: Contains improved voicebanks "Soft", "Sweet", "Dark", "Vivid", "Solid" and "Light".
 * Rin and Len Kagamine: Japanese female (Rin) and male (Len)
 * Act 2: Independant installation with updated voicebanks.
 * Luka Megurine: Japanese and English female

By PowerFX:
 * Sweet Ann: English female
 * Big Al: English male

By INTERNET Co.,Ltd:
 * Gakupo Kamui: Japanese male
 * Gumi: Japanese female

By AH Software:
 * SF-A2 miki: Japanese female
 * Yuki Kaai: Japanese female
 * Kiyoteru Hiyama: Japanese male

Additional notes
Vocaloid 2, while having a more realistic human tone, is said to be a harder to edit. The new additions and cleaner engine make Vocaloid 2 overall the superior to its predecessor, although the improved engine results in less voicebank possibilities as it is less flexible then its predecessor. The voicebanks however, have more editing options possible then Vocaloid and more varied voices can be achieved. Japanese voicebanks are now greatly improved. While most of the English voicebanks are much clearer, there is still a few noticable language handlings remaining, however Vocaloid 2 English voicebanks are still a vast improvement over Vocaloid English voicebanks.

Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2 are incompatible with each other. Users wishing to have a Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2 voicebank 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.

Currently there are 12 voicebanks for Vocaloid 2 (4 English, 8 Japanese). They offer a wider range of voicebanks then the previous version and cover the music genres pop, J-pop, childrens songs, classic rock and opera. Further genres are possible to achieve by users with voice editing.

The current version of Vocaloid 2 has no reported problems with the current operating systems.

Vocaloid 3
Vocaloid 3 has been confirmed, and is said to be aimed to be Yamaha's most realistic voice engine yet, discussion about the engine have already occurred but no further details are known at this stage.

Upcoming voicebanks

 * Tonio was due for release, but is currently delayed. Zero-G also intends to release another voice later this year, however no further details are known and when Zero-G mentioned this they themselves had not decided on the voice at the time. It has now been confirmed, recording has started on their new Vocaloid.
 * Crypton is working on a unnamed Japanese male They have also continued to work on "Append" voicebanks with Len known to be worked on currently at least..
 * After Big-Al's release, PowerFX said they are looking for input towards their next vocaloid, indicating they are at least working towards another and will continue to base their vocaloids on monsters as it is what fans seem to like.
 * It is indicated Ah Software and Internet co., Ltd are both working on new vocaloids.
 * Vocaloid Lily has been confirmed as being linked with the vocaloids, however Crypton has denied she is theirs and she is said to have no voice bank nor confirmation Lily is a vocaloid. She is designed to be "cyberpunk" and is drawn by KEI who previously did Vocaloids for Crypton.

Legal implications
Though the program is distributed for use by anyone, there are somewhat problems about using or creating the software for legal reasons, particularly copyright issues. To avoid such problems, companies keep the name of their voice providers anonymous or use voice actors instead to avoid the legal implications of using a professional singer. Other complications, such as expenses can also be a problem for the company while singers themselves may down right refuse to provide a voice for the program.

Zero-G refuses to reveal a singer who provided the voice for legal reasons to prevent users creating fake songs of the real singer and only Miriam's voice provider is to date known. Crypton also has commented that they shy away from professional singers due to similar legal reasons. PowerFX did name Big-Al's voice provider, and was vague regarding Sweet Ann's voice, stating that she was voiced by an Australian singer under the stage name of "Jody".

Although there are some slight variations per company on how you can use the software, some general terms of conditions are normally shared by the studios. Under the use of the software, a user may use the program as voice simple or create an original song just how other synthesizer application software such as those that provide the cords for a guitar or the keys on a piano work the same. However, the avatars belong to their respected companies and permission must be gained if the character is intended to be used. Users may also not sell material under the characters name without the permission of the software provider. Users may also not use the product to create disturbing or degrading lyrics.

Crypton set up Piapro to clear up some of these problems. Users are encouraged to post illustrations, music and lyrics onto the site. Then Piapro automatically authorizes the members to utilize these secondary creations for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes. This arrangement is for the products distributed by and the derivatives adopted by Crypton only. No other company has similar plans currently.

There is also a problem with uploading licensed songs onto Youtube and Youtube has been known to remove songs that are currently still owned by license holders. Nico Nico Douga allows covers of songs to be uploaded, but draws a line at actual animations linked with cover songs. Users who upload such songs with copyrighted animations have had their accounts removed and songs deleted.

Illegal copies of the software are also seen on bittorent sites, though many of these sites will delete the torrents when they are uploaded, copies still appear regularly. Most of the Vocaloids will at some point have their software "cracked" and keycard registration is no longer a problem with such software. Though there is no problems reported from official vocaloid installations, a number of problems have occurred with illegal copies, such as seen with Prima and Luka in the past, wherein illegal copies caused other vocaloids to stop working. Software support will not be provided by the studios if you have illegal copies, though information to make them work is found within the fandom. Some communities have now slowly began to shun the use or linking to illegal copies of the programs.

Trivia

 * An essay on Vocaloid history (see) VO: Vocaloid a History thread.
 * As well as "Vocaloid" some other terms are:
 * Engloid; English Vocaloids are often referred to as "Engloids" by fans both English and Japanese fans because of their intended voicebanks.
 * Monsteroid; occusionally seen, it is a name that refers to PowerFX vocaloids, because their vocaloids all mimick monsters.
 * Vipperloid; describes a fake vocaloid put out as a real one. Often, Vipperloids are very convincing and some go onto later become UTAU voicebanks.  The most famous is Teto Kasane.
 * UTAUoid; refers to a voicebank for UTAU, more specifically the ones with avatars like Vocaloids.
 * Fanloids; refers to a fanmade character.
 * Pitchloid; refers to a fanmade character whose voice is just a pitch of the voicebanks.
 * Voyakiloid; meaning "Grouching Vocaloid," pertains to Fanmade Vocaloids representing failure of purpose and failure of proper singing.
 * Annoyloid; The orginal Kagami Kawaiine was created to mock the laziness of many fan made characters and was designed to mock users who simply change the pitch of a song or the colour of the Vocaloid avatar's hair/uniform. Her songs mock the fandoms overuse and/or inappropriate use of the word "Desu" in every day speech/writting as well as other words like "Kawaii".  Later Annoyloids simply were create purely to annoy rather then hit a target audience but continued to use the ideas from the orginal.