VOCALOID

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

History
The Vocaloid project was a international effort. Much of the research into the software came from the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain while Yamaha backed the projects funding. The orginal design of Vocaloid was to act a a replacement singer for a real singer and many reviewers at the time of Leon and Lola's release noted that "Vocaloid" was a bold effort as human speech was a complex thing to recreate. However Vocaloid was regarded as the first of its kind to tackle singing vocals.

The first Vocaloids, Leon and Lola, were released by the studio Zero-G on March 3, 2004, both of which were sold as a "Virtual Soul Vocalist". Leon and Lola made their first appearance at the NAMM Show on January 15, 2004. Leon and Lola were also demonstrated at the Zero-G Limited booth during Wired Nextfest and won the 2005 Electronic Musician Editor's Choice Award. Zero-G later released Miriam, with her voice provided by Miriam Stockley, in July 2004. Later that year, Crypton Future Media also released their first Vocaloid Meiko. It was, however during this time period between Miriam and Meiko that the first rival software Cantor was released and aimed to compete with Vocaloid, known only in the western hemisphere by Leon, Lola and Miriam.

Though Leon, Lola, Miriam and Meiko experienced good sales, Meiko gaining sales of 3,000 in her first year in particular, Kaito was the only one who initially failed commercially and sold just 500 units. Despite this, the software was overall successful and was followed by the Vocaloid2 engine.

Updates
Kaito was sold with the 1.1 version fo the software, but caused issues for other versions of the software and a patch had to be created to fix this issue. The last version of this software produced was 1.1.2, the patch to upgrade all Vocaloid voicebanks was released by Yamaha themselves although Crypton future Media later updated botht heir products to the latest version. Due to the retirement of support for the Vocaloid engine, the update is no longer able to be downloaded as of 2011.

Second Life
Due to the successes of the Vocaloid 2 software, Vocaloid saw a second life in 2008 caused by Kaito's sudden growth of popularity. Kaito later went onto claim second best seller of the year in Nico Nico Market in 2008. As interest in Vocaloids grew, Zero-G began reselling their Vocaloid products again on their website, and were considering to update their box art to match current Vocaloid trends better although this did not occur.

However, the engine is now unsupported as of 2011 by Yamaha and is currently in a retirement phase.

Requirements

 * Windows XP or Windows 2000 (NOTE: ENGINE IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS 7)
 * Pentium III, 1 GHz or faster
 * 512MB of RAM or more
 * Approx 700 Mb Hard disk space or more
 * CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive
 * SVGA Display (1024x768)
 * Sound Card with Microsoft DirectSound Compatible driver
 * LAN/network card must be installed, or a USB network card must be connected to the USB port

Additional notes
Vocaloid however has just 5 voicebanks offered to it (3 English, 2 Japanese), offering a limited range of voices. Other genres are possible to achieve by users with further voice editing. Both English and Japanese Vocaloid have English interface.

Leon, Lola, Meiko and Miriam had VOCALOID 1.0 editor when they were released, except KAITO. Users using VOCALOID 1.0 editor can update them by patching VOCALOID 1.1 update file. KAITO already had the two kind of Vocaloid editors, when he was released, however users who are NOT using 1.1.2 version need to patch Vocaloid Ver1.1.2 update file distributed on Crypton’s official page first before they use VOCALOID 1.0 editor. There are many differences between ver1.0 and 1.1, and they sound differently even if they are edited in the same way. (Comparing KAITO's ver 1.0 and ver 1.1 Nico broadcast Nicozon broadcast) The main difference between them is Singing Style and Portamento Timing. Though users can switch between versions, its best to proceed with caution when doing so.

On the whole, Vocaloid and Vocaloid2 have different characteristics. The database of Vocaloid is much simpler and more difficult to modulate consonant sounds than the Vocaloid 2 engine that followed. However, Vocaloid has some functions that Vocaloid 2 do not have, such as Resonance. As seen with voicebanks like Leon or Meiko, each user can utilize the voicebanks very differently and Vocaloid has produced a wider range of different results with delicate editing by using several Resonances or other functions. While Vocaloid can be tweaked and altered better than Vocaloid2, they sound more differently from one another according to each user's ability.

Vocaloid may have issues with the Windows 7 operating system (though there are successful cases of installation) and while Vocaloid is suppose to be compatible with Windows Vista users have reported no major problems, though initially rumors stated otherwise. However, it cannot be guaranteed that Vocaloid will work with operating systems newer than Windows XP.

Marketing
Vocaloids were promoted at events such as the NAMM show. In fact, it was the promotion of Zero-G's Lola and Leon at the NAMM trade show that would later introduce PowerFX to the Vocaloid program. Most of the promotions were done through magazines such as Sound on Sound and the New York Times newspaper. While Japanese Vocaloids were also promotioned, their promotion was much lighter then what would follow in the Vocaloid 2 era, and Meiko and Kaito were promoted in the same manner as any other software synethiser of their time. The two biggest failures of both studios marketing ploys was Zero-G's failure to sell in America and Kaito's inital failure, otherwise, both Crypton and Zero-G managed to meet expectations of their Vocaloids during the 'Vocaloid'' engine era.

After the success of Hatsune Miku in the Vocaloid 2 era and sudden interest in Kaito in 2008, Crypton Future Media were able to go back and re-sell their early Vocaloid voicebanks, using the same methods of approach to them as their Vocaloid 2 voicebanks. This proved successful enough for them to re-launch their Vocaloids for a later engine. Zero-G's attempt to do the same was not so successful since the approach to English Vocaloids and Japanese Vocaloids had varied greatly over th last few years. However, Zero-G had established that if the demand ever becomes high enough, they will relaunch their 3 Vocaloid voicebanks in a later engine.

Cultural Impact
In comparison to its successor, Vocaloid had very little cultral impact at its time of release.

It is difficult to know how many songs and albums are using the Vocaloid software since song writers must ask permission before being allowed to state specifically they are using a Vocaloid in their songs. The first album to be released using a Vocaloid was A Place in the Sun, which used Leon's voice for the vocals singing in both Russian and English. Miriam has also been featured in two albums, Light + Shade and Continua. Japanese electropop-artist Susumu Hirasawa used Vocaloid Lola in the original soundtrack of Paprika by Satoshi Kon.

The CEO of Crypton Future Media noted the lack of interest in the initial Vocaloid software. Many studios when approached by Crypton Future Media for recommendations had no interests in the software initially, with one particular company representative calling it a "toy". Crypton blamed a fear of robots on part of the lack of response on the sale of the software. A level of failure was also put on Leon and Lola for lack of sales in America, putting the blame on their British accents. This, despite initial praises overall from reviewers of the software and that fact the English version software has sold well in both Japan and Europe.

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 during the Vocaloid 2 era, the English Vocaloids, without official avatar were left to interpretation by fan artwork. Zero-G did show interest in revising the boxart of their Vocaloids since interest in Vocaloids has greatly increased but the voicebanks were retired before this occured. .

Criticism
Early Vocaloid voicebanks were criticized for their poor pronunciation problems. Despite the lack of interest, most reviews on them were good and although critism was in plenty, praise was equally found because many reconised that Vocaloid was an ambitious project to undertake, more complex and bolder then a synethiser for a instrument like the flute or guitar.