VOCALOID

Vocaloid (often referred to as just "V1" in Vocaloid communities) is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation.

History
The Vocaloid project was a international effort and is considered the brainchild of Kenmochi Hideki, also known as the "father" of Vocaloid. The first inital ideas came from him in Japan in 2000. Much of the research into the software came from the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and Mr. Kenmochi led this project. It was pure collaborative research, and they didn't think about selling at that time. Vocaloid could say only vowels like "ai(love)". 4 months later, the Vocaloid's first real word was "asa(morning)". The orginal design of Vocaloid was to act as a replacement singer for a real singer and many reviewers at the time of Leon and Lola's release noted that "Vocaloid" was a bold effort as human speech was a complex thing to recreate. However Vocaloid was regarded as the first of its kind to tackle singing vocals.

Both a English and a Japanese version were developed along side each other. The first studio on board was Crypton Future Media, who were hired to find English studios to support a English version. Sadly all their efforts amounted to mostly negative responses and the only studio to enter developement was Zero-G.

The first Vocaloids, Leon and Lola, were released by the studio Zero-G on March 3, 2004, both of which were sold as a "Virtual Soul Vocalist". Leon and Lola made their first appearance at the NAMM Show on January 15, 2004. Leon and Lola were also demonstrated at the Zero-G Limited booth during Wired Nextfest and won the 2005 Electronic Musician Editor's Choice Award. Zero-G later released Miriam, with her voice provided by Miriam Stockley, in July 2004. Later that year, Crypton Future Media also released their first Vocaloid Meiko. It was during this time period between Miriam and Meiko's respective releases that the first rival software Cantor was released and aimed to compete with Vocaloid, known only in the western hemisphere by Leon, Lola and Miriam.

Though Leon, Lola, Miriam and Meiko experienced good sales, Meiko gaining sales of 3,000 in her first year in particular, Kaito was the only one who initially failed commercially and sold just 500 units. Despite this, the software was overall successful and was followed by the Vocaloid2 engine.

Updates
Kaito was sold with the 1.1 version for the software, but caused issues for other versions of the software and a patch had to be created to fix this issue. The last version of this software produced was 1.1.2, the patch to upgrade all Vocaloid voicebanks was released by Yamaha themselves although Crypton future Media later updated both their products to the latest version. Due to the retirement of support for the Vocaloid engine, the update is no longer able to be downloaded as of 2011 from Yamaha.

Improvements were made between version 1.0 and version 1.1.2. Vocal phonetics in Vocaloid version 1.0 were more broken and did not attempt to smooth out phoentics like 1.1.2., resulting in more robotic vocal singing. However, even the slightest of adjustments in version 1.1.2. would produce very different results to version 1.0. Therefore not all users found it suitable to update to version 1.1.2. from version 1.0, although with the vast improvements made betwen the update there was little reason not to update.

Second Life
Due to the successes of the Vocaloid 2 software, Vocaloid saw a second life in 2008 caused by Kaito's sudden growth of popularity. Kaito later went onto claim second best seller of the year in Nico Nico Market in 2008. As interest in Vocaloids grew, Zero-G began reselling their Vocaloid products again on their website, and were considering to update their box art to match current Vocaloid trends better although this did not occur.

However, the engine is now unsupported as of 2011 by Yamaha and is currently in a retirement phase.

Requirements

 * Windows XP or Windows 2000 (NOTE: ENGINE IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS 7)
 * Pentium III, 1 GHz or faster
 * 512MB of RAM or more
 * Approx 700 Mb Hard disk space or more
 * CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive
 * SVGA Display (1024x768)
 * Sound Card with Microsoft DirectSound Compatible driver
 * LAN/network card must be installed, or a USB network card must be connected to the USB port

Additional notes
Vocaloid has just 5 voicebanks offered to it (3 English, 2 Japanese), offering a limited range of voices. Other genres are possible to achieve by users with further voice editing. Both English and Japanese Vocaloid have English interface.

Leon, Lola, Meiko and Miriam had VOCALOID 1.0 editor when they were released, except KAITO. Users using VOCALOID 1.0 editor can update them by patching VOCALOID 1.1 update file. KAITO already had the two kind of Vocaloid editors, when he was released, however users who are NOT using 1.1.2 version need to patch Vocaloid Ver1.1.2 update file distributed on Crypton’s official page first before they use VOCALOID 1.0 editor. There are many differences between ver1.0 and 1.1, and they sound differently even if they are edited in the same way. (Comparing KAITO's ver 1.0 and ver 1.1 Nico broadcast Nicozon broadcast) The main difference between them is Singing Style and Portamento Timing. Though users can switch between versions, its best to poceed with caution when doing so.

The database of Vocaloid is much simpler and more difficult to modulate consonant sounds than the Vocaloid 2 engine that followed. However, Vocaloid has some functions that Vocaloid 2 do not have, such as Resonance. Resonance allowed the phonetic data to be manipulated, making it sound differently depending on what was done to it. The biggest advantage this offered was flexibility. As seen with voicebanks like Leon or Meiko, each user can utilize the voicebanks very differently and Vocaloid has produced a wider range of different results with delicate editing by using several Resonances or other functions.

In comparison to their providers (based on samples known for Lola, Miriam, Kaito and Meiko's vocal providers) Vocaloid voicebanks are more deeper sounding in tone then their vocalists own vocals are and more softer. In addition, Vocaloid vocals of both languages are missing some sounds that are needed to perfect either language. In other cases, the pronounications exist but do not correctly sound out the right combition as expected due to lack of distinction between similair sounds. However, the majority of the correct sounds exist and with some tweaking results can be made to sound closer to the intend results. The Vocaloid syntheising engine will often attempt to improvise some sounds, however, the results are often crude and at times rough. The rough handling of the Vocaloid engine in its attempt to perfect language while sounding human and control the flow of lyrics across the different keys is the origin of much of the heavier digital results of the 5 Vocaloid vocals.

The file format for Vocaloid is "VOCALOID midi" (.midi), Vocaloid will not import .VSQ or .VSQX files, although will import most midi file types.

The Vocaloid interface also had minor adjustments depending on what Vocaloid was used to open the engine with. For example, Miriam's template recoloured the keyboard around the keys deep blue with Zero-G's logos on the interface while Kaito's was green with Crypon Future Media logos. The standard that was used in Vocaloid demos and presentations was brown with no logos what so ever. Despite being Japanese, Kaito and Meiko did not have a Japanese interface as this version was never fully translated into Japanese, although the phonetics were still Japanese.

Vocaloid may have issues with the Windows 7 operating system (though there are successful cases of installation) and while Vocaloid is suppose to be compatible with Windows Vista and while users have reported no major problems, initially rumors stated otherwise. However, it cannot be guaranteed that Vocaloid will work with operating systems newer than Windows XP. For Windows 7 and 64-bit OS, those who have managed a successful installation report thatVocaloid will often encounters issues that cause it to constantly crash, while it is usable is not always stable.

Illegal versions of the software were also commonplace for Vocaloid. The software was easy to crack by pirating teams and every voicebank was cracked at some point after release and most popular Keygens worked with it. There was very little service differences between the legal and illegal versions aside from a lack of technical support from studios, although the software ReWire function may not work as well as the legal version.

Marketing
Vocaloids were promoted at events such as the NAMM show. In fact, it was the promotion of Zero-G's Lola and Leon at the NAMM trade show that would later introduce PowerFX to the Vocaloid program. Most of the promotions were done through magazines such as Sound on Sound and the New York Times newspaper. While Japanese Vocaloids were also promoted, their promotion was much lighter then what would follow in the Vocaloid 2 era, and Meiko and Kaito were promoted in the same manner as any other software synthesizer of their time. The two biggest failures of both studios marketing ploys was Zero-G's failure to sell in America and Kaito's inital failure, otherwise both Crypton and Zero-G managed to meet expectations of their Vocaloids during the Vocaloid engine era.

After the success of Hatsune Miku in the Vocaloid 2 era and sudden interest in Kaito in 2008, Crypton Future Media were able to go back and re-sell their early Vocaloid voicebanks, using the same methods of approach to them as their Vocaloid 2 voicebanks. This proved successful enough for them to re-launch their Vocaloids for a later engine. Zero-G's attempt to do the same was not so successful since the approach to English Vocaloids and Japanese Vocaloids had varied greatly over th last few years. However, Zero-G had established that if the demand ever becomes high enough, they will relaunch their 3 Vocaloid voicebanks in a later engine.

The Vocaloid software was not well supported and there was little information on it. Crypton Future Media did however go back and make tutorials for this version of the software in August 2008.

Cultural Impact
In comparison to its successor, Vocaloid had very little cultral impact at its time of release.

It is difficult to know how many songs and albums are using the Vocaloid software since song writers must ask permission before being allowed to state specifically they are using a Vocaloid in their songs. The first album to be released using a Vocaloid was A Place in the Sun, which used Leon's voice for the vocals singing in both Russian and English. Miriam has also been featured in two albums, Light + Shade and Continua. Japanese electropop-artist Susumu Hirasawa used Vocaloid Lola in the original soundtrack of Paprika by Satoshi Kon.

The CEO of Crypton Future Media noted the lack of interest in the initial Vocaloid software. Many studios when approached by Crypton Future Media for recommendations had no interests in the software initially, with one particular company representative calling it a "toy". Crypton blamed a fear of robots on part of the lack of response on the sale of the software. A level of failure was also put on Leon and Lola for lack of sales in America, putting the blame on their British accents. This, despite initial praises overall from reviewers of the software and that fact the English version software has sold well in both Japan and Europe.

Earlier Vocaloids that were created not to have "Avatars", and Boxart was not important to the function of the program so while Meiko and Kaito had images that could later be used as avatars, Leon, Lola and Miriam (although there is a clear image of a person) did not. When avatars became common with Japanese Vocaloids during the Vocaloid 2 era, the English Vocaloids, without official avatar were left to interpretation by fan artwork. Zero-G did show interest in revising the boxart of their Vocaloids since interest in Vocaloids has greatly increased but the voicebanks were retired before this occured. .

Criticism
Vocaloid voicebanks were criticized for their poor pronunciation problems and both versions of the software suffered issues with certain sounds. Despite the lack of interest, most reviews on them were good and although criticism was in plenty, praise was equally found because many recognized that Vocaloid was an ambitious project to undertake, more complex and bolder then a synthesiser or a instrument like the flute or guitar. Since the human ear can pick up errors in speech, this made Vocaloid a difficult product to sell, yet it was able to sound realistic enough on occasion.

Crypton Future Media note that the Vocaloid engine was more like prototype engine for the later Vocaloid2 software that followed. There was also some critism for opening the engine up for others to use, although Crypton Future Media this was best for the software.