LEON

LE♂N and L♀la were the first Vocaloids released for the Vocaloid engine. He is a "virtual male soul vocalist modeled on a real professional singer" and was created for English. As well as claiming the spot of first Vocaloid, Leon and Lola also are the first male and female Vocaloids for English and the Vocaloid1 engine itself.

History
Leon was released along with fellow Vocaloid, Lola, by Zero-G Limited. They were one of the exhibits at the Zero-G Limited booth during Wired Nextfest and the Vocaloids won the 2005 Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice Award. At the time of their release, Lola and Leon had no rival software to contend with and were the first Vocal synthesizers to be released of their nature. However, Leon and Lola failed to impact the American market due to their accents.

Concept
Leon's boxart was standard for his day and rival software package Cantor would later adopt the same boxart style. Leon has since been taken as one of the few "Avatarless" Vocaloids.

Etymology
While it is unknown why Zero-G choose this name, "Leon" is a name of Latin origins and is used in several countries in Europe as a variantion of the name "Leo" meaning "Lion".

Marketing
Leon and Lola received standard advertisements for their day. They were advertised on the internet and in electronic magazines. At the time this was normal for software synethizers and there was no Vocaloid fandom to aid with their development. They were aimed at professionals and therefore had no fan input in mind.

For a period he, along with Lola and Miriam, was not on sale due to the lack of interest in synthesized voices. This lack of interest was owed to the sudden change in indie music trends. After increased interest began to occur in Vocaloid and demand was renewed, Zero-G began reselling Lola, Leon and Miriam from their own website via their virtual shop. According to Zero-G, the three may also get a redesign in the future.

Leon and Lola's boxarts are from a stock image. The photographer is unknown, but the image is on various stock photo sites. An example of the original is here titled "Profile of woman with finger next to lips" x13037575.

Vocaloid

 * Leon and Lola after heavy vocal cleaning
 * -|Leon =

Examples of Usage
To our readers and editors, for section notes please read; Notes; Examples sections.

Popularity
As there was not much of a Vocaloid fandom to begin with, most fan responses are relatively late responses to the Vocaloid. Until Big Al in 2009, no other English-capable male Vocaloid existed, so those wanting a male vocal in the English engine were forced to buy Leon. Leon did not become popular with the public until a relatively unknown Nico Nico Douga user posted a video of him singing "song True to my Heart". This featured Leon in an unusual looking fan design which soon struck the funny bone of Nico Nico users and the video eventually received over 50,000 views.

In the Nico Nico Douga International Vocaloid ranking 2010, Leon had the 3rd most notable number of appearances, with 4 appearances in the top 30 songs of 2010.

A independent 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 2011. Leon fell into that category.

It is unknown how many units were sold, but as Kaito was the only commercial Vocaloid failure reported, it is safe to say he sold at least 1,000 units.

Trivia

 * It was Lola and Leon's appearance at the NAMM trade show that would later introduce rival Vocaloid studio PowerFX to the Vocaloid program.

Notable for...

 * First Male vocal ever released
 * One of the two first English vocals ever released
 * One of the first two Vocaloid voicebanks ever released
 * Used in the first Vocaloid related album ever released commercially
 * One of the two first specialized vocals ever released
 * One of the two first Vocaloids ever released
 * One of the two first Zero-G Vocaloids released
 * One of the first two avatar-less Vocaloids produced
 * Sole English capable male vocal for 6 years