VOCALOID3

Vocaloid 3 is the current successor to the Vocaloid 2 engine. The new Vocaloid engine was revealed on June 8th 2011 by YAMAHA via NicoNico Douga live stream. It can be purchased at the official Vocaloid Site.

History
Vocaloid 3 was first announced mid-2011 at a special invitation only event and was released following the popular Vocaloid 2 engine. The released date was set for September 2011, however it was held back on several occusions and eventually released on the 21st of October 2011. This particular version had much early promotion and there were almost as many new voicebanks for it as there were in the entire Vocaloid 2 range. Yamaha also showed great interest in promoting its well established Japanese Vocaloid producer fanbase while expanding the usage of Vocaloid itself.

New languages were prepared in Spanish, Korean, and Chinese along with the Japanese and English Vocaloid line up.

Impact on Voicebank Developement
Some studios had expansion packs and updates intended for Vocaloid 2 in developement. The Vocaloid voicebanks known to have been effected by the release were CV04, Megpoid Extend, Hatsune Miku English, Kaito English, Megurine Luka Append, Kaito Append and Meiko Append. However, after the announcement of Vocaloid 3 these were delayed and released for a Vocaloid 3 release.

SeeU also had intended to have a English voicebank, but was released early so it could meet the Vocaloid 3 inital release date without it, some phonetics for English were included in her Korean voicebank as a consquence.

Updates
In the past, since the editor and voicebank were sold together to get the latest version of the software it involved purchase of a newer Vocaloid. As of Vocaloid 3, updates now come directly from Yamaha themselves because the editor and voicebank are sold seperate.


 * Ver.3.0.2.0: was released 2nd November 2011 and was a general glitch fix update that repired things that were making the editor crash.
 * Ver.3.0.3.0: was released on 21st December 2011 the fix reorgangised the libraries of Vocaloids into languages and fixed a few glitches.
 * Ver.3.0.3.0; was released 26/01/2012 as a automatic update, simply running the Vocaloid 3 software on a system with a internet connection will allow the software to update itself. A few new features were added such as CTL R; this Will change the order from note to phonem, for a more complex phonem edition.
 * Ver.3.0.4.0: was released 21/2/2012 to improve various things notably, keyboard shortcuts have been added for note placement and selection, and the ability to export tracks to their own separate sound files has also been added. The Alt key can now be used to bypass quantization settings, and various other improvements have been added as well. For more information check here.

Requirements

 * OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
 * CPU: Celeron Dual Core 2.1GHz or more
 * RAM: 1GB or more
 * HDD: 200MB free space or more

Releases

 * See Upcoming Vocaloids for future releases

Vocaloid-P data packs
As well as the engine, it is aso possible to buy the VSQX files used for songs made by famous producers. The first of the Vocaloid-P Data Series packs was released with the Vocaloid 3 engine and can be purchased separately. Previously, the majority of VSQ files had been recreated by fans and not the producers themselves.

Vol.2 of the series was released on the 16th of December 2011.

Additional notes
The engine itself is sold standalone or with additional voicebanks which in turn can also be bought as a stand alone software. This is a departure from Vocaloid and Vocaloid 2 who had the engine sold with the voicebank. This also cheapens the price of each voicebank greatly as the consumer is not paying for the engine with every purchase. This also means updates come directly from Yamaha themselves, whereas with Vocaloid 2 the only way to update the engine to a newer version was to buy a later Vocaloid 2 voicebank then the one the consumer already owned previously and install them over their current Vocaloids. Voicebanks come with a Lite version of the software that has one track and only 17 bars of music.

Vocaloid 3 is the first Vocaloid engine to feature backwards compatability with past Vocaloids. As such, importing Vocaloids from Vocaloid 2 into Vocaloid 3 is possible. Results from Vocaloid 2 will not be the same for Vocaloid 3. However, it does not allow backwards compactiablity with Vocaloid engine voicebanks. Vocaloid 2 voicebanks of low quality will have more trouble matching up to Vocaloid 3 voicebanks. However, due to the improvements to the engine, Vocaloid 2 voicebanks appear to have much more clarity when imported into Vocaloid 3 and the results are much more natural sounding. So even the worst quality Vocaloid 2 voicebank will have noticable improvements over the original engine counterpart. Due to the new practices of Vocaloid 3 the standard of quality within this range is much higher then the previous Vocaloid 2 engine range. A new feature in Vocaloid 3 is Triphons, these will instantiate a different sound if a particular set of three phonemes are pieced together, for example, allowing “ka” to sound different in “aka” compared to “ika” improving language quality. Vocaloid 2 voicebanks, even imported into the Vocaloid 3 engine, will not pocess these sounds.

There are now some updates to the list of hidden phonetics. Vocaloid 3 introduces the Glottal Stop (written as [?]) and improvements to the vowel-to-vowel connector (written as [-]) increase the smoothness of the actions between vowel carrying. One of the improvements to the Vocaloid 3 engine database was the inclusion of new voiceless sounds for Vocaloids (written as [*_0]), something they did not pocess in Vocaloid 2. When Vocaloid 2 voicebanks are imported into Vocaloid 3, the engine has the capablities to add these additional sounds to their voicebank libraries, making them from existing samples the Vocaloid had. Some voicebanks in Vocaloid 3 do not assign codes for breaths ([br1] to [br5]) and you can instead import various noises directly into Vocaloid. The engine itself is now localised so issues from Vocaloid 2 over language problems are absent such as that seen of Megurine Luka, who although had a English voicebank did not have the English interface because she was sold to the Japanese market. Users can select the language upon installation.
 * Gackpoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Megpoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Lily; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * Gachapoid; Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3
 * VY1; Differences between VY1, VY1 Vocaloid 3 imported and VY1v3

Also, unlike previous versions of Vocaloid, Vocaloid 3 supports plug-in, although this is a limited support. Additional plug-is can be bought directly from Yamaha's Vocaloid shop.

Improvements to services offered by the software now tackle some of the issues related to pirated software versions such as Pocaloid. New improvements to the protection of the software make Keygens a lot harder to use and many of the popular ones do not work with Vocaloid 3; although it is still not immune to keygens completely and some have reported to work with it. Plugs-ins and automatic updates (including manual updates) may also create problems for pirated versions of the software. The importation of Vocaloid 2 into pirated versions of Vocaloid 3 has also been known to have handling issues, both from pirated and offical versions of the Vocaloid 2 software. None of these issues were present with Vocaloid 2 and all relatd to new features of the Vocaloid 3 software, so users who do not own legal versions will noticably miss out on many new developements for the Vocaloid 3 software.

Marketing
To help the developement and promotion of Vocaloids within the Vocaloid 3 range, the Vocaloid store was opened up by Yamaha. Furthermore, Yamaha set up their own music publishing site much like Karen-T to promote Vocaloid music. Several events have also been arranged to showcase new vocals, such as the Vocafarre. Yamaha's approach to bring the Vocaloid software back into the professional realm through a more serious promotional tone.

Studios have continued to pronmote their Vocaloids. Internet Co., Ltd continued the heavier promotion of their Vocaloids with the launch of V3 Megpoid. Ah Software also has begun heavier promotions with Yuzuki Yukari having the widest vocal capablities offered on sale of any new Vocaloid. Bplats continued to focus on their VY series, by relaunching them under the "VYv3" market with improved vocals. Crypton Future Media, who had established much of the Vocaloid fandom via their Hatsune Miku Vocaloid in the Vocaloid 2 era, have opted to enter the Vocaloid 3 era in 2012 with their new line-up. They are still focused on selling their established Vocaloids to America, as well as re-launching the Vocaloid era Vocaloids in a newer engine.

Studio DEEN also focused on the fandom side of Vocaloid by holding a competition for a fan to become the voice of their first Vocaloid Aoki Lapis, they have done a number of small promotional ads for her. MoeJapan entered the Vocaloid market with Tone Rion, focusing on their marketing on the Vocaloid Otaku side of the Vocaloid fandom rather then the professionals. 1st PLACE have opted for a more stuble launch of their first Vocaloid and IA has been promoted as a more mysterious Vocaloid.

Yamaha at first did not support the English version of the software and did not launch a English writing version of the Vocaloid website until more towards Oliver's release. PowerFX decided to focus its marketing at the now establish English Vocaloid community and most promotions for their first Vocaloid Oliver were done through the forum Vocaloid Otaku. Zero-G are also late enteries, they have decided to continue aiming at professionals and though their Vocaloids new theme is known, the name is yet revealed.

SBS Artech managed to gain interest from outside of Japan with their first Vocaloid SeeU. They decided to sell SeeU's Korean voicebank by making a bold language claim on its capablities, claiming that she can do English with it as well as Korean. They also had included a Japanese voicebank so they could sell SeeU to the Japanese producers, although interest in her was more mixed then outside of Japan.

New company Voctro Labs faced a bumpy start because of a backlash at their first two Vocaloids artwork, despite this they were able to gain some ground via a artwork competition.

Promotional CD
A CD titled "The Vocaloids" was released in conjunction with the launch of Vocaloid 3. The CD contained 18 songs sung by Japanese Vocaloids and a booklet with information about the Vocaloid characters used. Mew was also featured on the CD.

Vocaloid Shop
Run by Yamaha, the Vocaloid shop has been the biggest developement for the Vocaloid software and is the outlet from which the Vocaloid 3 software is bought. It offers CDs of various songs, plug-ins and merchandise as well as providing the Vocaloids in the same place for purchase. It replaced the old website for Vocaloid in both Japanese and English, the latter having not been updated since the Vocaloid era, as well as opening up to chinese and Korean versions. The english version is, however, hosted by Bplats. Currently it does not link to any means to buy English or Spanish Vocaloids.

Updates and other information about current and upcoming Vocaloids are also listed on this website. Updates for the Vocaloid 3 software may also be released from here as well. The website is open for world wide purchases.

In previous generations, the Vocaloid website only offered the workings behind the software, it did not host a shop. The Vocaloid shop has been the single biggest factor in marketing for the Vocaloid software in Japan and makes everything you need easier to purchase. However, it only links to the studios which made the Vocaloid 2 voicebanks, therefore there is still some issues with gaining access to older Vocaloid voicebanks.

Vocaloid3 Music Contest
On November 15 2011, a contest ws announced with prizes and ends on March 31st. To enter you must write an original song and upload it to Nico Nico Douga by March 31st 2012. The contest is being hosted by Yamaha.

The following Vocaloid 3 voicebanks are allowed entry into the competition.
 * VY1v3
 * Mew
 * V3 Megpoid
 * SeeU
 * Tone Rion
 * CUL

To qualify your song must recieve 3,000 views and have the tag "VOCALOID3発売記念コンテスト".

Prizes will be determined by the studio of the Vocaloid used for the winning entry:
 * Internet co., Ltd (Megpoid/Cul);
 * 3 winners will get one Vocaloid product from Internet Co., Ltd
 * SBS Artech(SeeU);
 * 1 winner will get a ticket to Seoul in South Korea for three days and two nights (one person only ticket).
 * 1 excellence winner will get 32GB iPad with Wi-Fi
 * imyss Prize (SeeU);
 * Coemetic Gift Set from imyss
 * Yamaha Prize (VY1V3/Mew/Tone Rion);
 * Grande Prize: Cubase6.
 * 3 excellence winners of a Vocaloid library of your choice
 * Media Award Prize (Tone Rion);
 * 1 winner is invited to Akihabara (2 tickets)
 * 1 winner, Yamaha's TENORI-ON
 * Furthermore, 5 winners will recieve assorted goods from using any of the Vocaloids allowed in the competition

Cultural Impact
Vocaloid had become a more recognisable product by this point and most of the cultural impact had occured at the start of Vocaloid 2 with Hatsune Miku. Crypton had already focused on establish Hatsune Miku's image in real life by Vocaloid 3 launch. It is still too early to see the greater cultural impact at this point however.

Criticism
Some critism has come from users of oveseas engines and both Spanish and English voicebanks have been left in the dark facing less promotional coverage than Japanese, Korean and Chinese voicebanks. English and Spanish Vocaloids have constantly been left out of promotions, with Spanish having no further announcements from Yamaha since the Vocaloid 3 introduction. For instance, the CD released for Vocaloid 3 titled "The Vocaloids", which acted a pre-release promotion for the Vocaloid software, did not include any of the English Vocaloid 2 voicebanks and was soley focused on Japanese Vocaloids. The result of the limited promotions is that English and Spanish Vocloids are currently being self promoted in their communties by their own fans. Crypton Future Media's English voicebanks have been well known for over a year prior to the release of Vocaloid 3 and seem to be experiencing the same issues, although due to their large fanbase even in the west, Crypton seem to be coping with this better.

A English version of the Vocaloid Store now exists, it was put up in Beta format in Jan 2012; several months after Vocaloid 3 was launched and a month after the launch of the first English voicebank. Both Spanish and English Vocaloids are absent from the store. The previous incarnation of the English Vocaloid website of which the shop replaced had not been updated since Vocaloid release.

Some of the issues are that Yamaha of America does not have the rights to market the English voicebanks as soundsonline were said to hold the rights to Vocaloid sales in America. A similair situation occurs in Taiwan due to Ecapsule owning the rights to Vocaloid distribution.