A History lesson on Vocaloid (The V1 and V2 era)
Hey, So I wanted to talk about the history of Vocaloid, along with some very important events in Vocaloid history. I'll be covering the development of Vocaloid, along with the V1 and V2 eras of Vocaloid. I will NOT be covering UTAU, but I may make a separate post dedicated to the early days of UTAU.
Anyway, in order to talk about the origins of Vocaloid, I'll have to talk about the Elvis Project.
In 1997, Jordi Bonada (A senior researcher at the Music Technology Group) joined the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He worked on a project as requested by Yamaha.
Banada wanted to record not just a song from a singer, but various ranges and pitches in an attempt to build a model that any song could be built, And This Project was codenamed "Elvis".
However, This Project lasted two years and did not become an official Product due to it being too big since it was based spectral morphing techniques, and the songs required a professional singer. BUT, the elvis project established that a series of phonetics in a wide range of pitches could help build a synthesizer based on any model.
Yamaha agreed to Help them start a brand new project. This Project was VOCALOID.
And in 2000, Kenmochi Hideki joined and did the research with a team at Pompeu Fabra University, and Yamaha was responsible for the product and development.
The Product was code-named "Daisy", referencing the IBM 7094 that sang daisy bell.
At the time, Synthesizers would take multiple weeks and even months to produce good results, but the vocals would always sound inhuman. The price was also very expensive.
While everything else could be recreated in a DAW, they'd need a human vocalist to produce good quality and human-like vocals. They wanted to provide a fast and cheap way of getting good results to give producers full control. They used Elvis as a base model. They wanted to process and transform singer recordings so it could result in the vocals sounding natural.
Since Yamaha could only provide limited vocals, They licensed the software to multiple 3rd parties:Crypton Future Media, Zero-G limited, and PowerfX Studios AB.
The name "Daisy" was dropped due to copyright reasons. They tried translating it to japanese, but they ended up naming it 'Vocaloid'. The Only four known vocals for Vocaloid were Leon, Lola, Hanako (Meiko), and Taro (Kaito)
Alright, Now I can talk about the V1-V2 Era of Vocaloid.
Vocaloid was announced at Musikmesse on March 5-9, 2003.
On july 24, 2003: An album called "History of logics system" was released. In one of the songs, the vocals were done by early versions of Meiko and Kaito's voicebanks, Making this the first ever commercial render of Vocaloid Vocals.
On January 15, 2004:Vocaloid, along with Leon and Lola, were released to the public.
On March 3, 2004:A cover of "Beloved tomboyish girl" was posted on Nico Nico Douga. The vocals were done by Lola, making this the first ever vocaloid video/song to be posted on Nico Nico.
On March 25, 2004:The software won the "Best New Audio Technology"
On July 1st, 2004:Miriam was released.
On November 5, 2004:Meiko was released. On December 26, 2004:A concert in Novosibirsk, Russia was held. During the concert, Miriam performed "Sad mondays", Making this the first ever Live Vocaloid performance.
In 2005, Leon and Lola won a 2005 Electronic Musician Editor’s Choice Award.
In 2006, The album "Место под солнцем" (Mesto Pod Solntsem) was released. The vocals were done by Leon, making this the first ever Vocaloid album. Leon was unable to provide vocals with a rouger timbre, and this album resulted in the creation of Big al.
On February 17, 2006: Kaito was released.
On November 25, 2006: the flim "Paprika" was released. The was the first ever movie that used vocaloid. The female vocals in the song "The girl in byakkoya" were done by Lola.
In 2007: Kaito was considered a commercial failure due to him only selling 500 units, the least of any vocaloid. This led to Crypton realizing that male Vocaloids do not sell. This is honestly disappointing since Meiko and Kaito had the best voicebanks out of every V1 Vocaloid. Hell, Meiko and Kaito even sounded realistic. I'd argue that Kaito's V1 voicebank sounded more realistic than his V3 voicebank.
On January 27, 2007:Vocaloid2 was announced.
On June 25, 2007:The name "Miku" was revealed.
On June 29, 2007:Both Vocaloid2 and Sweet ann were released. Sweet ann was originally supposed to be released for Vocaloid1, but she ended getting ported to Vocaloid2. And Fun fact:Crypton has stated that Vocaloid2 was released without any testing.
On July 12, 2007:The name "Hatsune" was revealed.
On August 31, 2007:Hatsune Miku was released. And she sold 3,000 units in her first WEEK, which is the same amount that Meiko sold in her first YEAR. That may not seem like alot, but you have to remember that Vocaloid wasn't as popular as it is now. And Her demo was featured in the November, 2007 DTM magazine, which sold out rather quickly.
On November 3, 2007: The first "THE VOC@LOID M@STER" Event occurred.
On December 27, 2007:Kagamine Rin and Len were released. However, due to complaints, they were discontinued, and Crypton released an act 2 on july 18, 2008.
On February 22, 2008:Prima was released.
On July 31, 2008:Gackpoid (Gakupo) was released.
On January 30, 2009:Megurine Luka was released.
On June 26, 2009:Megpoid (Gumi) was released.
On July 2, 2009:The first ever Project Diva game was released on the PSP.
On July 15, 2009:Sonika was released.
On August 22, 2009:Miku had her first ever concert during the Animelo Summer Live at the Saitama Super Arena. She was also accompanied by Asami Shimoda.
On November 13, 2009:Sf-A2 Miki, Kiyoteru Hiyama, and Kaai Yuki were revealed.
On December 4, 2009:Miki, Kiyoteru, and Kaai Yuki were released.
On December 11, 2009:A leaked video of Big al's new voicebank singing "When the saint's go marching in" was uploaded to Youtube.
On December 22, 2009:Big al was released. Big al was originally supposed to be released in 2007, but due to development issues, he was delayed. Big al had three voicebanks. The first voice provider during the RONIE era is unknown. The second voice provider was Michael King, but due to him not being able to provide more vocals, Frank S became his new and final voice provider. The RONIE and Michael King voicebanks were never released.
On April 30, 2010:Hatsune Miku append was released.
On August 25, 2010:Lily was released.
On September 1, 2010:VY1 was released.
On October 8, 2010:Gachapoid (Ryuto) was released.
On October 22, 2010:Nekomura Iroha was released.
On December 8, 2010:Utatane Piko was released. He was originally supposed to be released alongside Miki, but due to complications, they were were spilt between two companies.
On December 13, 2010:Internet co announced that they were going to "extend" the Megpoid project.
On December 24, 2010:VY2's delay was confirmed.
On December 27, 2010:Kagamine Rin and Len append was released.
On April 25, 2011:VY2 was finally released, making him the last V2 voicebank and marking the end of the V2-era.
Alright, that's all for the V1-V2 era. Huge credits to the Vocaloid wiki and wikipedia.