Vocaloid

Vocaloid (ボーカロイド, Bōkaroido) is a singing voice synthesizer. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 2000 (the same team that later founded Voctro Labs) and originally was not intended to be a full commercial project. Backed by the Yamaha Corporation, it developed the software into the commercial product "Vocaloid".

The software enables users to synthesize singing by typing in lyrics and melody. It uses synthesizing technology with specially recorded vocals of voice actors or singers. To create a song, the user must input the melody and lyrics. A piano roll type interface is used to input the melody and the lyrics can be entered on each note. The software can change the stress of the pronunciations, add effects such as vibrato, or change the dynamics and tone of the voice. Each Vocaloid is sold as "a singer in a box" designed to act as a replacement for an actual singer.

Vocaloid (software)

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer and the first engine released in the Vocaloid series. It was succeeded by Vocaloid 2. This version was made to be able to sing both English and Japanese.

History

The earliest known development related to Vocaloid was from a project that had occurred two years prior and funded by Yamaha. The project was codenamed "Elvis" and did not become a product because of the scale of its vocal building requires for just a single song. It is credited as the project that established many of the earliest models and ideas that would later be tested and tried for Vocaloid.

Yamaha started development of Vocaloid in March 2000 and announced it for the first time at the German fair Musikmesse on March 5–9, 2003. It was created under the name "Daisy", in reference to the song "Daisy Bell", but for copyright reasons this name was dropped in favor of "Vocaloid".

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 the first Japanese Vocaloid Meiko who, along with Kaito, was developed by Yamaha. In June 2005, Yamaha upgraded the engine version to 1.1. A patch was later released to update all Vocaloid engines to Vocaloid 1.1.2, adding new features to the software, although there were differences between the output results of the engine. A total of five Vocaloid products were released from 2004 to 2006. Vocaloid was also noted for its huskier results then later engine versions.

Vocaloid 4

Vocaloid 4 is a singing voice synthesizer and successor to Vocaloid 3 in the Vocaloid series.

History

In October 2014, the first Vocaloid confirmed for the Vocaloid 4 engine was the English vocal Ruby, whose release was delayed so she could be released on the newer engine. Shortly afterwards, Wat of Crypton Future Media reacted to the news in regards to the upcoming "new Luka vocal".Megurine Luka V4X was announced on November 20, 2014. A Vocaloid 4 version for OS X has also been announced. Megurine Luka V4X will be compatible with OS X. All AH-Software vocals, with the exception of Tohoku Zunko, were also announced as receiving updated packages as well as VY1v4. The update of the AH-Software Vocaloid 2 vocals is related to Windows 10 being released in 2015, and the impact it may have on the Vocaloid 2 software.

The new engine allows the importation of Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3 vocals, though Vocaloid 2 vocals must have already been imported into Vocaloid 3 for this to work. The new engine includes other features, but not all of them are accessible by Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 3 vocals. One of the new features is a "Growl" feature which allows vocals built for Vocaloid 4 to take on a growl-like property in their singing results. Cross-synthesis was also added, allowing the user to switch between two of a character's vocals built for the same language smoothly using a time-varying parameter. This feature is accessible by Vocaloid 3 and Vocaloid 4 vocals, but not Vocaloid 2. Cross-synthesis only works with vocals from the same character, making use with packages like VY1v4 possible, but not packages such as Anon and Kanon. Another feature included is Pitch Rendering, which all imported vocals can use. This displays the effective pitch curve on the user interface. Finally, real-time input has been included in this version and is another feature which all vocals can use. VSQX files made for Vocaloid 3 work in Vocaloid 4, but they will not work the other way around.