Prima

In January 14, 2008 Zero-G released its first Vocaloid 2 product: Prima.

History
According to Zero-G, they looked at what was missing and decided that there was a gap for a classical soprano 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.

When Prima was released in Japan on February 22, 2008, she was often used as a back up singer for other Vocaloid songs.

However, 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, 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.

Usage for Music
What makes Prima different from the Vocaloids before her is that her voice was modeled after a professional Soprano opera singer, this means she can hit high notes with accuracy and ease. Like other Zero-G vocaloids, Prima has a British accent although it is not always apparent due to her singing style and her voice. She has one of the most powerful sounding of the Vocaloids. She can create the 5 breathing phonemes ([br1]-[br5]) making her the only current female of the English voicebanks that can.

However, she is noted to be harder to tweak into other styles in general despite having what is considered one of the clearest English speaking Vocaloid 2 voice banks, as her voice is one of the most stylistic of the Vocaloids. Yet despite the difficultly, with adjustments Prima's voice can be made to suit the intended genres a user wishes her to sing in. This has resulted in her having one of the most extensive collection of songs with covers and orginal works in almost every genre possible despite being intended for just one style of music orginally.

Her voicebank is also good as a atmospheric singer and able to maintain a clear and constant sound while other vocaloids sing over her voice. Since it is possible to achieve resultswith Prima with limited lyrics or none at all, she can be one of the easier English vocaloids to use by users who lack confidence in their English skills.

Tonio is intended to be Prima's partner.

Notable Prima songs
There are at least 500 videos on Nico Nico Douga and 650 videos on Youtube which are related Prima. See NicoVideo Search: PRIMA and YouTube Search: PRIMA More than 15 of her songs were viewed over 8,000 times on Nico: Youtube Playlist

もののけ姫 / Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
Originally sung by Yoshikazu Mera
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

蒼い鳥 / Aoi Tori (Blue Bird)
Covered by ChoiWARU-P
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

Stride la vampa Il Trovatore
Covered by Giuseppe
 * YouTube broadcast

Habanera - Carmen
Covered by Giuseppe
 * YouTube broadcast

Aria di Mezzo Carattere (English Version)
Covered by ImizukiP
 * YouTube broadcast

星のカケラ / Hoshi no Kakera (Fragments of Star)
Covered by Nagato Miku ruP
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

September
Duet with Meiko Covered by piaa_a
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

Eternal Snow
Trio with Nikora Michiko and Alice Takarane

Covered by therubozu
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

One & One
Music and lyrics by Shu-tP
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

耳のあるロボットの唄 / Mimi no aru Robot no Uta (Song of Eared Robot)
Originally by Mimirobo-P, sung by Teto Kasane. Covered by TellurP
 * Nico broadcast
 * YouTube broadcast

Voi Che Sapete
Written by Mozart
 * Youtube broadcast

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
See article O come, O come, Emmanuel
 * Youtube broadcast

You Raise me Up
Music by Rolf Løvland and lyrics by Brendan Graham

Covered by Crea-P
 * Youtube broadcast
 * Nico broadcast

Orinoco Flow
Orginally by Enya
 * Youtube broadcast

Bridge Over Troubled Water
Originally sung by Art Garfunkel
 * Youtube broadcast

Lost In Your Eyes
Orginally by Debbie Gibson
 * Youtube broadcast

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Orginally by U2
 * Youtube broadcast
 * Nico broadcast

Ghosts
Orginally sung by Japan
 * Youtube broadcast

Swimmy -English ver.-

 * Nico broadcast
 * Youtube broadcast

The Never Ending Story
Originally by Limahl
 * Nico broadcast
 * Youtube broadcast

Queen of the Night Aria
See article Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
 * Youtube broadcast

Alternative version:
 * Youtube broadcast

Fly me to the Moon
Orginally sung by Bart Howard
 * Youtube broadcast

Without You

 * Nico broadcast
 * Youtube broadcast

Like a Virgin
Orginally sung by Madonna
 * Youtube broadcast

津軽海峡・冬景色 / Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyugeshiki (Winter View in Tsugaru Straits)
Originally sung by Sayuri Ishikawa
 * Youtube broadcast
 * Nico broadcast

Wasting Your Time
Duet with Lola


 * Youtube broadcast

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 populaurity this particular look has become her unoffical look and is used more so then any other look.
 * When people tried to illegally download vocaloids, such as Miku Hatsune and Rin/Len Kagamine, 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.
 * It is said 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.