MIRIAM

MIRIAM is an English VOCALOID released in July 2004 for the first VOCALOID engine, developed and distributed by Zero-G Limited. She is Zero-G's third installment.

Etymology
MIRIAM gets her name from her provider "Miriam Stockley".

Appearance
Much like the VOCALOIDs LEON and LOLA, MIRIAM has no concept design. Her boxart is a picture of her provider Miriam Stockley that has had a photographic effect applied to it.

Profile
MIRIAM is advertised as a "virtual female vocalist" modeled on the voice of the popular British singer, Miriam Stockley, who is also the lead singer of the band Adiemus.

Examples of Usage

 * -|MIRIAM =

Marketing
MIRIAM was sold as a more general voicebank rather then as a genre driven voicebank like LEON and LOLA, although was still aimed at professionals. Unlike previous VOCALOIDs, MIRIAM was also released at the same time as Virsyn's Cantor software and comparisons between the two were noted. This put MIRIAM at a slight disadvantage during her original time of release, as LEON and LOLA did not have any competition and VOCALOID was not yet popular software. Cantor was considered a far greater synthesizing tool than VOCALOID and was able to do what MIRIAM could not offer; this impacted sales. She had been sold as any other software of the time and had no fandom to back her initial release. MIRIAM was the most well-known Zero-G VOCALOID while she was available and the most promoted of the voicebanks offered, though most promotions were carried out by the professional users of the software.

For a period she, along with LEON and LOLA, were not on sale due to the lack of interest in synthesized voices. This lack of interest was owed to the sudden change in indie music trends. After increased interest began to occur in VOCALOIDs and renewed demand, Zero-G began reselling LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM from their own website via their virtual shop. According to Zero-G interview in 2010, the three may also get a redesign in the future.

Concerts
The very first "live event" featuring a VOCALOID was with MIRIAM. This was held in Novosibirsk, Russia, on December 26, 2004. She performed one song, a cover of "Sad Mondays", with live musicians.

Popularity
MIRIAM was often considered the most appealing vocal of the English VOCALOID engine and was normally the most popular with the overseas fandom.

Despite being the most popular English VOCALOID overseas, in Japan, it is LOLA who often dominates over MIRIAM. In the Nico Nico Douga International Vocaloid ranking 2010, MIRIAM made the least amount of appearances in the top 30 most popular songs of 2010, with just 1 video appearance in the rankings. Together, LEON and LOLA had a combined total of 9 appearances compared to MIRIAM.

An independent search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in 2011 between July 1st and December 15th. MIRIAM fell into that category.

It is unknown how many units were sold, but as KAITO was the only commercial VOCALOID failure reported, it is safe to say she sold at least 1,000 units.

Trivia

 * She is the only one of the Zero-G VOCALOIDs whose voice provider is known. Zero-G does not normally name their voice providers for legal reasons.


 * LOLA, MIRIAM, and BIG AL were slated to be featured in the original soundtrack of freeware RPG "Ad Lucem". The project remains unfinished.

Notable for...

 * First VOCALOID based on a establish singer to be released
 * First VOCALOID to be named after the vocal provider
 * First known voice provider for a commercial release
 * Only English VOCALOID from Zero-G whose voice provider has been revealed
 * First VOCALOID to have a live concert