YAMAHA Corporation

Yamaha Corporation is Japan's leading musical instrument manufacturer based on Hamamatsu. This company covers a wide range of business in motorcycles, power sports equipment, and electronics.

About
Yamaha was established as early as in 1887, soon after Tokugawa governing ended, by Torakusu Yamaha (山葉 寅楠) as a reed organ manufacturer. In 1900, Torakusu started to produce piano, too.

In 1921, Yamaha began to produce propellers and motor engines for warplanes. During the Second World War, musical instrument production stalled completely and the factories were damaged by the British naval gunfire.

After the War, Yamaha started to produce piano again. In 1959, it released Electone and soon this product was made the leading electric organ.

During 1970s and 80s, Yamaha stretched its business to electronics. With other five companies, it set the MIDI standard in 1981.

Vocaloid
Yamaha started the development of Vocaloid engine in Mar. 2000 and announced it in 2003. This is the sampling and re-editing of the real singing voice. Users set parameters such as clearness and vibrato as they like so they can create "a virtual singer of their own". Yamaha provides only Vocaloid platform and other sound developing companies add voice banks to the platform. The first Vocaloid product was Leon, released in Mar. 2004 by Zero-G. Yet this first generation of Vocaloid had artificial sound and did not become popular in the music trend. In Aug. 2007, Miku Hatsune, using the second generation Vocaloid2 platform was released by Crypton Future Media. This product was supported widely with its natural singing and sparked the Vocaloid trend.