LEON

LE♂N is an English VOCALOID released in January 2004 for the first VOCALOID engine, developed and distributed by Zero-G Limited. He along with L♀LA were among the first voice banks commercially distributed. LEON is advertised as a "virtual male soul vocalist modelled on a real professional singer"; his voice provider has never been revealed.

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

Appearance
LEON's boxart was standard for his day and rival software package Cantor would later adopt the same boxart style, the boxart for both products are from stock images. The photographer for LEON's boxart is unknown, but the photograph is on various stock photo sites. An example of the original is here titled "Profile of woman with finger next to lips" x13037575. LEON has since been taken as one of the few "Avatar-less" VOCALOIDs.

Relations

 * L♀LA; a complementary voice bank with feminine vocals.

Examples of Usage

 * -|LEON =

Marketing
LEON and LOLA received standard advertisement for their day. They were advertised on the internet and in electronic magazines. At the time this was normal for software synthesizers 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, were 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 LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM from their own website via their virtual shop. According to Zero-G interview in 2010, the three may also get a redesign in the future.

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 VOCALOIDs ever released
 * One of the first two VOCALOID voicebanks ever released
 * One of the two first English vocals ever released
 * One of the two first specialized vocals ever released
 * One of the two first Zero-G VOCALOIDs released
 * One of the first two avatar-less VOCALOIDs produced
 * Sole English-capable masculine vocal for 6 years
 * Used in the first VOCALOID related album ever released commercially