Prima

Prima was Zero-G's first Vocaloid 2 product released January 14, 2008. Prima. The name "Prima" comes from the term "Prima Donna" meaning "first lady" is an Italian term used to describe the female with the leading role in a theatrical and opera production and the one with the most talent, who was usually a soprano singer.

History
According to Zero-G, they looked at what was missing and decided that there was a gap for a classical soprano voice. This voice type was decided during Miriam's release, along with a choir type of voice. Prima's voice provider was a singer who answered an ad put up on a music academy website. After some test samples in the Vocaloid software, they decided to go ahead and record her for the Vocaloid 2 software. Demos released for her included Lakme Flower duet Delibes amongst others.

Her software comes with VSQ files "Lakme Flower duet Delibes" and "New Voi Che Sapete edit".

Prima was the first English capable Vocaloid to gain satisfactory levels of popularity.

Marketing
Prima was one of Zero-g's professional aimed voicebanks and as such her boxart and voice are not aimed at the general Vocaloid fandom. Her boxart is from a stock image. The photographer was bg_knight(Ivan Grlic) who has submitted his work to various stock photo websites. An example of the original is here titled "beauty profile" File#: 1709473, there are other images based on the model currently on the second page, take notice of the eyebrow piercing.

After increased interest began to occur in vocaloids and demand rose, Zero-G began reselling Lola, Leon, and Miriam from their own website via their virtual shop. Prima was also included in the sale, but according to Zero-G, although the three older vocaloids may get a redesign in the future they feel Prima is fine the way she is and neither she nor Tonio will receive a make over.

Taiwan Release
Prima is due to be released into Taiwan by E-Capsule. She received a new boxart and was featured in a long and short version demo "Entrust".

Prima

 * Optimum genre: Opera, pop, classical
 * Optimum tempo: 75-160 BPM (e-capsule recommendation)
 * Optimum range: Eb3-E5 (e-capsule recommendation)
 * Language; English

Strengths
Prima is different than others as she is made as a professional Soprano opera singer. This means she can hit high notes with accuracy and ease and is considered amongst one of the more professional aimed Vocaloids. She has one of the most powerful sounding of the Vocaloid 2 voicebanks and favors long drawn out notes. Many consider her one of the most natural sounding English capable Vocaloids in the Vocaloid 2 range, if not the most natural sounding. Her vocals blend together fairly easily when used correctly and is one of the smoother English capable Vocaloids. She was the only Vocaloid capable of singing in English with breath samples besides Megurine Luka and the first to have a thrilled "R" sound.

Weaknesses
She is noted to be harder to tweak into other styles and is grounded to her opera-esque style of singing. Prima was the first Vocaloid to have an improved engine, whereas Sweet Ann, Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin/Len had the same version of the Vocaloid 2 editor. Prima became famous for an issue related to the Vocaloid 2 engine, which would render the Vocaloid 2 editor unable to be opened when older Vocaloids were installed over newer ones. While she was not the only voicebank that encountered this problem, she was the first to show it and the only way to resolve it was to reinstall the newest version of the software over her software.

Popularity
Prima has been held as one of the more popular of the English capable Vocaloids overall.

According to a flyer for discounts on Vocaloid released in 2011, Prima was ranked as Zero-G's 9th most popular product in 2011.

A independant Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 with Prima falling into that category as well.

Trivia

 * Prima was the first English Vocaloid to be included in the Lipsync model series. The LipSync model portrayed Prima as an extremely pale girl wearing a dark red dress and a white flower in her short, wavy, black hair. Due to its popularity this particular look has become her common but unofficial appearance, this despite her rather low toned voice.


 * When people tried to illegally download vocaloids, such as Miku Hatsune and Kagamine Rin/Len, they had to download Prima to get the program in English. However the illegal downloads of Prima didn’t have proper confirmation codes, causing not only Prima to stop working but other Vocaloid programs as well. If one could not keep Prima using correct codes the other Vocaloids would in effect become unable to be used at all.


 * Some fans say that the Prima’s character item is wine, but because of her yandere nature (due to the way her illegal copies prevented other vocaloids from working) you’ll more likely see fanart of her holding a weapon rather than an alcoholic beverage.


 * Prima, Leon and Lola's release dates were celebrated in the "Zero-g Garnet Festival" (also referred to as "ZGF") on Nico Nico Douga. This event celebrates the release of these Vocaloids and songs were uploaded during this 3 day event.


 * While other Vocaloids from Zero-G are regarded as siblings by Sonika, Sonika refers to Prima as "auntie Prima". Despite also referring to Tonio as "uncle Tonio", Sonika confirmed the two are not married and this was just what she called them.


 * Prima was the most expensive Vocaloid 2 voicebank to purchase upon her release.


 * Prima's Taiwan design is loosely based on the chinese opera house style of costumes. The costume itself is based on a theatrical representation of a animal, most likely a Kitsune based on the shape of the "tail" and ears.

Notable for...

 * First Vocaloid 2 Zero-G Vocaloid
 * First English Vocaloid 2 specialised Vocaloid.
 * First English Vocaloid to gain satisfactory levels of popularity
 * Most commonly used English Vocaloid2 by professional music makers