Utatane Piko

Utatane Piko (歌手音ピコ) is the first Vocaloid from Sony Music Distribution and uses the Vocaloid2 engine. His name "Utatane" means "sound of singer" while "Piko" is the name of a popular Nico Nico Douga singer called Piko; in other words, his name means "sound of singer Piko". He was released on December 8, 2010.

About
Piko was released on December 8th 2010, at a price of 15,750 yen (around $173.08). A free trial version was released on December 1st. The same day his trial was released, Sony demanded that all content made with it be taken down. Piko's artwork was designed by YukitA.

Usage for Music
In its default state, he is the least masculine sounding male vocal sampled by a male that was released. He cannot produce a satisfactory low masculine vocal tone as a result of it. He is a praised as a versitile Vocaloid capable of a multitude of vocal tones and results. He can easily fit in a varity of roles within music because of it. Owed to the softness of his vocals, sometimes he can be harder to understand.

Vocaloid 2 is unsupported as of 2011 by Yamaha. These voicebanks however can be imported into Vocaloid3.

Demo
The trial version was released, but unlike past trial versions was released to be usable only for 5 days. The VSQ files cannot be saved and the only savable format is .wav. Tutorials were also uploaded on how to use the software. The trial version has synchronization difficulties and uploading VSQ files of other vocaloids will not match up as perfectly as one expects, on some notes Piko sings too fast while on others too slow. This makes his demo difficult to use as not only is a certain amount of editing unavoidable, but his VSQ files once edited cannot be saved; although there are also ways around this. Piko's trial is subject to pronunciation problems, producing slightly muffled results without tweaking on some notes, this puts his overall sample quality on the same level as Lily's trial version. Sony also limits the uploading of the trial version, thus one cannot use him in the same way as his full version.

Reception

 * Google Trends

Utatane Piko's trial has caused a stir amongst Vocaloid fans.
 * Some complained 5 days was not enough for the Producers to create songs with.
 * Some put the blame of the limited trial on previous hacked trials of Lily and Iroha (note; that in a technical sense 5 days would create no difference to the ability to hack the software). However, even if one turns off the 5 day limit Piko does not have VSQ file saving and therefore cannot function as a full Vocaloid like the Lily and Iroha trials can.
 * Others reacted negatively towards Sony for their harsh restrictions on Piko's trial, particularly the removal of videos on Nico Nico Douga featuring his trial voice.

In the Japanese fandom, he is currently amongst the lesser used Vocaloids, although has overall seen more usage then the previous male released in 2010 Gachapoid. Part of his usage problem is owed to be released next to the release of the Kagamine Append, with the Kagamine's grabbing much of the attention from him. He has a strong fan following for his "shota" voice in western fandoms, but due to the backlash of his demo failed to impressed many of the Vocaloid users, giving many mixed and contrasting reactions towards him overall.

There have been complaints to his voice sounding muffled and unclear. The design was considered "lazy" as it was close to SF-A2 miki's design, leading to the popular pairing of Utatane Piko and SF-A2 miki in both Japanese and Western fandoms.

Trivia

 * Utatane Piko's hairstyle is almost identical to the real Piko's hairstyle, the only difference being an ahoge on top of the head that is shaped like the letter "P". The white hair color is likely inspired by depicted artworks of the singer.


 * His design incorporates the guitar.
 * He is the only officially designed Vocaloid with heterochromia; one of his eyes is blue while the other is green.
 * SF-A2 miki's voice provider, Miki Furukawa, works for Ki/oon records who are owned by Sony and is the same group Utatane Piko's provider Piko comes from.

Notable for...

 * First Vocaloid produced by Sony
 * First male Vocaloid by Sony
 * Most controversial demo version produced