OLIVER

OLIVER is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by PowerFX Systems AB. in collaboration with VocaTone, and was released in December 2011 for the VOCALOID3 engine. OLIVER's vocals are "based on a 12 year old boy soprano", a choir boy. His voice provider is from Britain, and during the time of recording, he was 13 years of age. Therefore, the identity of his provider has never been revealed for legal reasons. He is the first young male VOCALOID whose voice samples were not produced by an adult.

Etymology
According to VocaTone, his name was originally "Cody". It is unknown why "Oliver" was chosen. "Treble" and "Devin" were also names VocaTone considered.

While it is unknown what lead Oliver to be chosen for the name, according to the name's own etymology origin, "Oliver" has appeared from several different culture independently and the interpretations vary depending on language it originated from. In English, "Oliver" refers to the bible "Olive Tree", the biblical symbol of peace and therefore the implied meaning is "peaceful".

Appearance
Keeping within the "monster" theme of PowerFX VOCALOIDs, OLIVER is also a creature similar to Frankenstein's monster, like Big Al and Sweet ANN. According to Lawlietlk, the illustrator of OLIVER, she was originally only told that OLIVER was a "classical" type of vocal. "James", OLIVER's bird, was drawn from references; however, OLIVER's design was done without any reference.

His design was not influenced by Oliver Twist. Despite the similarities, they were regarded as coincidences. VocaTone did not realize the similarities until later in development. According to VocaTone, he was given bandages instead of stitches, due to the fact that the stitches did not suit him. The bandages were described as having a "mysterious cause, but he doesn't get in the way of his singing". The main inspiration for his outfit was the uniforms worn by the Vienna Boys Choir, and upper-class male clothing of the late 18th and early 19th century. He has a Dal Segno on his cloak.

OLIVER's bird is an American Goldfinch.

Examples of Usage

 * -|OLIVER =

Marketing
OLIVER was mostly discussed at Vocaloid Otaku forums, where news and updates of his pre-release were being discussed. The success of Vocaloid Otaku forums led to a discount being offered to those who had signed up to the forum up 3 months prior to his release. Vocaloid Otaku was already being used by PowerFX and Zero-G as their fanbase forum for gaining feedback from the English Vocaloid fans. The feedback and reactions were better received overall than the past with other VOCALOIDs, making this approach one of the companies' most successful marketing attempts on any VOCALOID. According to Anders', OLIVER was easy to market, but they wanted to avoid making him "too cute".

The art was also drawn in a sketch style, giving a less refined illustration than previous VOCALOIDs.


 * Facebook

OLIVER also has a Facebook page. A poll was held for fans to vote on the type of merchandise they'd like to see with OLIVER.


 * Twitter

He has a Twitter account, where James supposedly types the tweets out for OLIVER.


 * Tumblr

OLIVER has a Tumblr OLIVER Fanclub.


 * Taiwan Release

OLIVER had a demo uploaded to YouTube by E-Capsule called "Realm Beyond"; though no official announcements have been made, it is likely he is due for a Taiwan release.


 * Competition

A competition for OLIVER was run by VocaTone, the prize being OLIVER himself. Details were found on the VocaTone website. An MMD model was supplied for the use of entries, though MMD is not required for entering the competition nor the use of these specific models. Those taking part must create a PV to accommodate the song "Birds". The competition expired on the 4th of December.

The overall winner was Porifra, with runners up Pikadude31451 and MagikSalem.

Trivia

 * A choir styled vocal had been planned since the very first VOCALOIDs went on sale in 2004. However, Zero-G was originially the company who had intended to release such a voice.
 * Since OLIVER was the first English VOCALOID developed since the Hatsune Miku Facebook account had been set up, a number of less informed fans have been known to classify him as "the first English VOCALOID". This is not the case as the very first VOCALOIDs, LEON and LOLA, were English and released in 2004. This is no fault of the fandom itself, but a long term issue that has been noted about some communities within the Vocaloid fandom that lack more experienced VOCALOID users.
 * OLIVER's voice was used as the voice of "PuppyCat" in the Cartoon Hangover series "Bee and PuppyCat".
 * Part 1 of the series was the first video featuring OLIVER's voice to reach a total of 1,000,000+ views on youtube.
 * Part 2 of the series also gained 1,000,000+ views, making it the second video featuring OLIVER's voice to get 1 million views. PuppyCat's Fairy Tale from Bee and PuppyCat on Cartoon Hangover was uploaded August 20.
 * The shorts went on to gather a total of 4,000,000 views in total by October 2013. Their success lead the producers to start a Kickstarter to raise more money for episodes, which succeeded to raise enough money for several episodes.
 * By its 1st year anniversary, the series had gathered 8,000,000+ views in total.

Notable for...

 * First "young boy" VOCALOID actually voiced by a young boy
 * First PowerFX VOCALOID voicebank confirmed to be a child's voice
 * First English VOCALOID for VOCALOID3
 * First male VOCALOID for VOCALOID3
 * First PowerFX VOCALOID for VOCALOID3
 * First VocaTone VOCALOID