vocaloid history

except its the shitty flicknotes version and i

included synthv for funsies

because i spend too much time thinking

about vocal synths and now so will you!
what is vocaloid anyway
BEFORE WE GET INTO IT FOR REAL
most vocaloids don’t have voice providers listed - this can be for privacy reasons, or for “i
signed an nda and can’t tell people i gave my voice to a robit” reasons. it’s fairly rare to
see voice providers credited for their contributions to the products, and vps who provided
samples as children are definitely not allowed to reveal their identities.
cool video! are we getting to the history now
yes we are!

back in the year 2000, the vocaloid software was first

conceptualized and development begins in the pompeu fabra
university in spain under the supervision of kenmochi hideki,
the “father of vocaloid.”

later on in 2002, powerFX said “hey we want a slice of that pie”

and joins in on producing the software alongside yamaha,
kenmochi hideki, team
zero-g limited, and crypton future media. leader of yamaha
sound technology
development
the working name for what would eventually become the vocaloid
software was daisy project. daisy, named after the song “daisy bell,”
was meant to create realistic synthesized human voices for fairly
cheap, and fairly quickly, and reached a prototype stage in march
2002. there were only 4 known/planned vocals for daisy: those
being leon, lola, hanako, and taro.
the opening screen for project daisy.
at first, daisy could only produce vowel sounds, but it eventually
was able to produce consonants - the first complete word it could
say was “asa,” or morning.
daisy ended up not being registered due to copyright problems, so
the software was renamed to vocaloid.
a demo of daisy was played in a livestream special for vocaloid’s
6th anniversary, using a cover of the song “fly me to the moon.” the
original file for this demo was created july 16, 2002.
2003
three new voicebanks are announced for the software
on yamaha’s website - codenamed JODIE, TARO, and
HANAKO. upon the vocal’s releases, the names were
changed to sweet ann, KAITO, and MEIKO respectively.

the vocaloid project was formally announced in

february, and in july of that year, there would be an
album released (titled “HISTORY OF LOGIC SYSTEM”)
featuring the vocals of MEIKO and KAITO, who would
be among the first commercially-released vocaloids.
2004
in january, the first vocaloids are released by zero-g limited:
LEON and LOLA. these two voicebanks are english-exclusive, and
were modeled to sound like “typical black soul singers.” they are
noted to sound british (massive f). their japan release was in
march that year.
later, MIRIAM (english, vp: miriam stockley) would be released
in july, and MEIKO (japanese, vp: meiko haigo) would be
released in november.
MIRIAM performed a cover of “sad mondays” live on stage in
december at a concert in novosibirsk, russia.
miriam’s “sad mondays” cover :)
2005
LEON and LOLA win the 2005 electronic musician editor’s
choice award.

MEIKO sells over 3,000 units in her first year - at this point in
time, she’s the best-selling vocaloid. queen

the english vocaloids meet their expected sales everywhere

except in america - LEON and LOLA’s british accents were
undesirable in the eyes of american musicians, and didn’t
quite meet their sales goal. cringe
meiko takes home a win!
2006
an album featuring LEON’s vocals is released (“mesto pod
solntsem”).
RONIE’s existence is made known - upon his release, his name
would be changed to big al. fun fact - al has had 2 different voice
providers! michael king, an elvis impersonator, was his RONIE
voice, and frank s. is the vp we get for his released voicebank.
KAITO is released in february.
later, in november, LOLA’s vocals would be used in the film
“paprika,” making it the first film to utilize the vocaloid
software. hi kaito :)
2007
thanks to kaito taking home a massive L (~500 sales his first
year), it becomes known that male vocaloids just dont sell all
that well, and more focus is placed on the production of female
vocals.

the vocaloid2 software is announced in january.

sweet ann finally releases in june, and our lord and savior
hatsune miku is unveiled. the next month, vocaloid2 is
released.

hatsune miku is released in august, and in september, it’s

better luck next time, bud
revealed that she hit 3,000 sales in her first week - the same
amount MEIKO sold in her whole first year.
2007 (continued)
the very first vocaloid master convention (vom@s) event is held in
november. vom@s is a vocaloid convention held 4 times a year in
either tokyo or the kanagawa prefecture.
kagamine rin is announced to be the next crypton vocaloid in
production.
miku is in the running for 2007’s all about topic of the year award,
and the november 2007 issue of dtm magazine is sold with cd
copies of miku’s demo song, “ballade_01”. this issue is reported to dtm magazine,
november 2007 issue
have sold out pretty fast. “ballade_01” would later be reworked into cover
a full song, titled “hoshi no kakera”.
 ballade_01 vs. hoshi no kakera

fun fact! ballade_01 was the first known use of the mikumikudance software! weve come so far
2007 (continued again)
internet co., ltd joins in on the vocaloid scene - production on
their new vocal, gackpoid/gakupo (japanese, vp: gackt) begins in
december.

the same month, crypton begins recording samples for megurine

luka, another new vocal. around this time, kagamine len is
introduced, and he and rin are released together as a 2-in-1
package.

miku wins the all about topic of the year 2007 award.

congrats queen
2008
LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM return to sales after interest in
vocaloid spikes (thanks miku), and KAITO finally takes home a
win, claiming 2nd place for niconicodouga’s (its like japanese
youtube) best seller award.

miku then proceeds to outdo everyone all at once, selling

40,000 units in her first year.

kagamine rin and len sell 20,000 units in their first year.

zero-g releases prima (english-only, soprano opera singer

vocal) in january, and crypton future media wins a bcn award youre both #1 in my heart<3
thanks to all the vocaloid sales.
2008 (continued)
prima’s japan release happens in february.
in march, production on gakupo falls behind, and miku wins the
digital content amd award.
gakupo finally finishes recording and is ready for production in june,
but still hasn’t had his artwork designed, and is delayed another
month. rip in pieces
kagamine rin and len’s act2 voicebanks are released in july after
complaints about the quality of their act1 voicebanks. the same
month, gakupo is finally released from development hell.
gakupo is finally free
luka becomes the first bilingual vocaloid in november, when it’s from release purgatory!
revealed that she will have both japanese and english voicebanks.
2009
spanish vocaloids began production sometime this year.

megurine luka (jp/eng, vp: asakawa yu) is released in january.

internet co. releases MEGPOID (jp, vp: megumi nakajima) in

june.

project DIVA is released for the playstation portable in july,

and sonika was released the same month by zero-g. her japan
release came the next month.

work on some of the hatsune miku appends (dark and vivid)

begins production in august.
2009 (continued)
ah software reveals their new upcoming vocals, sf-a2 miki
(jp, vp: furukawa miki), kaai yuki (jp, vp unknown bc she
was a child at time of recording), and hiyama kiyoteru (jp,
vp: hiyama kiyoshi) in november, and all three vocals would
be released in december.

the same month, big al’s voice would be leaked in a

youtube video, wherein he was used to cover “when the
saints go marching in,” and powerFX would release his
voicebank 11 days later.
everybody give it up for big al
google slides is deeply homophobic and doesnt accept nicovideo upload links so i have to
do this instead. below you will find the link to big al’s demo of “saints go marching in,”
uploaded to nicovideo bc the youtube account that posted the video got nuked and is no
longer available as of 5/22/2022

https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9068722
2010
in january, project DIVA ~arcade~ is released for japan’s
arcade machines.

in march, big al was released in japan, and the following

month, hatsune miku APPEND was released. the append
voicebanks would give miku the ability to sing with different
“tones” - sweet, dark, soft, vivid, light, and solid.

project DIVA dreamy theater is released for the ps3 in june.

tonio (eng, vp unknown) is released by zero-g in july.

wait felix what do those appends sound like
good question, dear viewer! miku’s append voicebanks came in 2
main flavors - “whisper” and “solid.” the whisper banks (sweet, dark,
and soft) are softer vocals, and the solid banks (light, vivid, and
solid) are louder.
some of these append names are self explanatory (ex: sweet
sounds…..sweet) but there are a couple here that need an
explanation! dark is a more gloomy, mature voice; light is a cute,
happy-sounding voice; vivid is a stronger voice, and solid was made
to focus on clearer pronunciation. soft is recommended for use as
backing vocals, due to the fact that it’s the weakest append in terms
of both volume and pronunciation.
miku dark is noted to sound very similar to luka.
2010 (continued)
project DIVA continues to release titles, dropping project DIVA
2nd for the psp in july.
in august, vy1 is announced (released in september), sonika is
released in taiwan, and lily (japanese, vp: masuda yuri) is
released by internet co. gachapoid, a vocal based off a popular
character called gachapin, is announced, and releases in
october, along with nekomura iroha (japanese, vp: kyounosuke
yoshitate).
utatane piko is released in december, and kagamine rin and
len’s APPEND voicebanks release this month, too. rin’s appends
are sweet, warm, and power, and len gets the serious, cold, and
power appends.
2011
work begins on the megpoid EXTEND voicebanks in january.
theyre like the internet co. version of append voicebanks.
vy2 is released in april - he is the last vocaloid2 release.
vocaloid3 is announced in june, and would release in october.
project DIVA ~dreamy theater 2nd~ releases on the ps3 in
august.
the latter half of the year would see the releases of several new
vocaloids, and with the vocaloid3 software, a few old vocals
would be seeing updates soon.
2011 (continued)
lots of new releases in october - vy1 received her v3 update
(vy1v3), mew (jp, vp: sakamoto miu), v3 megpoid, and seeU
(korean, vp: dahee kim) dropped this month.
i dont have enough room
project DIVA -EXTEND- released on the psp in november. on this slide for all these
fucking vocaloid boxes.
december brings Many More Vocal Releases: tone rion (jp, vp: use ur imagination

nemu yumemi NOT THE VOCALOID), oliver (eng - his vp was an

actual british child! cool), cul (jp, vp: kitamura emi), yuzuki
yukari (jp, vp: ishiguro chihiro), bruno (sp), and clara (sp) all
came out that month.
2012
IA (jp, vp: LIA (holy shit)) is released in january.

march is the month of miku games. future stars project mirai is

released for the 3ds, and miku flick is released on the jp apple
store for ios. v3 megpoid’s native vb is released this month, and
the cast of vocaloid CHINA (soon to be vocanese and then
vsinger) is revealed: luo tianyi, yuezheng ling, mo qingxian,
zhiyu moke, yanhe, and yuezheng longya. as you probably
figured, the vocaloid CHINA cast is all chinese vocals.

miku flick releases internationally in april.

2012 (continued)
in april, aoki lapis was released, and lily got her v3 update.
in july, luo tianyi was released, and gakupo received his v3
update.
galaco releases in august, along with another project diva
game. google it or smth ive stopped caring about these godless
sega games
vy2 gets his v3 update (vy2v3) in october.
i am so
goddamn
in december, avanna (eng, vp: rachel d.) and mayu (jp, vp: tired of
morinaga mayumi) are released. project
diva rn
2013
a win for kaito! he receives his v3 update in february, and
megpoid ENGLISH releases later that month.
ZOLA PROJECT (jp) releases in june. yanhe follows suit and
releases in china the next month, using the voice that was
originally meant for zhiyu moke. tldr their ceo misused
company funding so moke was robbed about it</3
miku v3 english releases in august.
YOHIOloid (eng, but his vp, YOHIO, is swedish) and miku v3
release in september.
in december, MAIKA (sp) and merli (jp) are released - later, on
the 31st, zero-g announces that LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM are
being permanently retired from sale.
 rip in piss

gone but not forgotten</3

2014
in january, vocaloid CHINA is shut down (later rereleased as
VOCANESE), and macne nana is released.

meiko v3 drops in february, along with kokone.

in march, anon & kanon are released as a 2-in-1 package.

VOCANESE launches as a replacement for vocaloid CHINA.

pocket miku releases in april. pocket miku my beloved

vflower releases in may.

2014 (continued)
tohoku zunko and IA ROCKS are released in june.

in july, yuezheng ling’s vocaloid vb is announced.

galaco NEO releases in august, and internet co. continues

work on gachapoid v3 along with work on a new vocal,
chika. all 3 of them are japanese vocals.

rana and gachapoid v3 (both jp) release in september,

and chika releases in october.

vocaloid4 releases in december, bringing vy1 her vy

update (vy1v4).
2015
at the end of january, hideki kenmochi retires from
working on vocaloid. farewell soldier u did well

CYBER DIVA (eng) and xinhua (cn) are released in february.

yuzuki yukari v4 and megurine luka v4x release in march,

and gakupo gets his v4 update in april.

VOCANESE rebrands to vsinger in may.

my daughter,
sf-a2 miki and nekomura iroha receive v4 updates. xinhua

this is right around the time baby felix got super into
vocaloid<3
2015 (continued)
vflower gets a v4 update in july. later that month, yuezheng ling and sachiko are
released.

arsloid (jp) is announced in july and released in september.

in october, ruby (eng, digital download), kaai yuki v4, and hiyama kiyoteru v4 are
released.

DEX (eng, vp: sam blakeslee/LUPIN), DAINA (eng, vp: aki glancy/empathP), and megpoid
v4 release in november.

in december, ruby gets a physical release, along with rana v4, kagamine rin and len’s
v4x and v4 english banks.

vocaloid2’s retirement is announced for 2016.

2016
fukase and unity-chan release in january.

despite vocaloid2’s retirement, vocaloid2 vocals would

remain up for sale until the end of vocaloid4, albeit without
support.

xingchen releases in april.

otomachi una is announced in june, and releases in july.

gone but not forgotten</3
our queen miku returns with new voicebanks in august - v4x
and v4 english.
2016 (continued)
in october, tohoku zunko gets her v4 update, and CYBER SONGMAN releases.

later, in december, at the end of the miku expo 2016 china tour, miku’s v4 chinese
voicebank is announced. also macne nana gets a v4 update
2017
UNI, yumemi nemu (THE VOCALOID NOT THE VP but she
is voiced by nemu yumemi), and tone rion v4 release in
february.
yuezheng longya releases in june.
in july, AZUKI and MATCHA release.
LUMi releases in august.
xinhua takes home a win, receiving her v4 update and
japanese voicebank in september. miku’s v4 chinese
tone rion’s v4 vs her original design.
voicebank releases the same month. what the fuck is the connection
luo tianyi’s v4 update releases in december.
2018
kizuna akari releases in april.

in may, luo tianyi gets a v4 japanese voicebank, and mirai komachi releases.

in july, the vocaloid5 editor is released, along with several new vocaloids: amy (en),
chris (en), kaori (jp), ken (jp), and haruno sora (jp). CYBER DIVA II and CYBER
SONGMAN II release, and vy1 and vy2 get their vocaloid5 updates (vy1v5 and vy2v5
respectively).

in august, after many, many production issues involving misuse of company funding
(fuck u ren li), zhiyu moke and mo qingxian release at last.

synthesizer v releases in december.

 congrats to moke and qingxian!
my fukcniong
GIRLFRIEMD

son boy me bob

wait a sec whats synthv
synthv releases
eleanor forte is the first english vocal released for synthv in august 2018, and stays the
only english synthv vocal up until SOLARIA’s release in 2022.

yamine renri (jp) releases in august 2018. fun fact! renri was an UTAUloid before this -
her utau vb was known for being super high quality :)

GENBU and AiKO (both chinese) release in december 2018.

4 of the 5 medium5 vocals release in 2019: chiyu in april, shian in june, cangqiong in july,
and haiyi in september. all of them are chinese voicebanks.
2019
MEIKA hime and mikoto release in march.
vflower is announced to be receiving a gynoid talk
voicebank.
work on synthesizer v 2 (later known as synthesizer v studio)
begins in may.
work on piapro studio nt, as well as hatsune miku nt,
was announced in december. crypton would eventually
be moving their main vocals out of vocaloid and into
piapro studio nt.
things are slowing down a little, huh?
2020
vflower’s talk design is revealed in january.
project diva MEGAMIX releases for the nintendo switch in
february, and project SEKAI releases for ios and android devices in
september. the english version wouldn’t be releasing until
december of 2021.
piapro studio nt and hatsune miku nt release prototypes in june,
and then fully in november.
synthesizer v is retired with the release of synthesizer v studio in
july. support for synthv AI was released with saki AI in a december
update.
hi charlie :)
yamaha announces work on charlie, a robot that would be utilizing
vocaloid software to communicate with users, in october.
2020, except now it’s synthv releases again
chiyu, shian, haiyi, cangqiong, GENBU, AiKO, saki, kotonoha akane, and kotonoha aoi all
release for synthv studio in july.

muxin releases in august.

xingchen minus releases in september.

2021
project SEKAI’s english release comes in december.

koharu rikka releases for synthv studio in march.

tsurumaki maki (both jp and eng voicebanks) releases for

synthv studio in june.

yamine renri releases for synthv studio in october.

for years i waited for u…,.
tsuina-chan releases for synthv studio in november.
2022
kyomachi seika (jp) and SOLARIA (eng) release for synthv studio in january.

kevin (eng), ryo (jp), and xingchen infinity (cn) release for synthv studio in february.

mo chen (cn) and natsuki karin (jp) release in april.

an xiao (cn) releases in may, and flower’s cevio design is revealed.

you get the idea. i dont have room for everyone
they fucked flowers design so hard dude
for reference, the first one
is her original v3 design,
the second is a redesign
for her v4, and the third is
her gynoid talk design. see
how the next 2 designs still
look like flower?
WHO THE FUCK IS THIS????
THATS NOT MY FLOWER.
THEY CHANGED SO MUCH. WHERE IS
HER PURPLE. WHY DID THEIR EYES
CHANGE COLOR. WHO THE FUCK IS
THIS.
like i cant say its a bad design but its
so divorced from vflower that i hate
it.
terrible homunculus that lives in my
home and steals my coke and calls
me a slur
2022 (continued)
project diva MEGAMIX releases for pc on steam in may.
dreamtonics continues to slay the game and release voicebanks - feng yi, a
new mandarin chinese vocal, is the first vocal synth to have a dedicated
peking opera-style voice mode, and she was released in may.
weina, a mandarin chinese vocal voiced by weina hu, is released by
dreamtonics in july.
after 4 years of radio silence from yamaha, the vocaloid6 engine drops in
october, bringing with it 5 new vocals - haruka, akito, sarah, allen, and
megpoid AI. soon afterwards, production on 16 new vocals for vocaloid6 is dreamtonics im
begging you to make
announced. are you fucking serious
anime avatars for
these bitches youd
sell so many vbs
yamaha giving me specifically 2 middle fingers (2022)
BE SO FUCKING FOR REAL RIGHT
NOW. ARE YOU SERIOUS. FOUR
YEARS OF BUTT FUCK NOTHING
AND THEN SUDDENLY DEPOSITING
17 (not counting gumi’s new ai vb)
NEW VOICEBANKS? DIRECTLY INTO
MY RETINAS AT 5:32 IN THE
MORNING? SEVENTEEN.
SEVENTEEN VOCALS. IM GOING TO
KILL Y
2022 (continued once more)
preorders for luo tianyi v5, yuezheng ling v5, and yanhe v5 go up
for sale in october.

in november, dreamtonics releases mai, a jp ai voicebank. mai is

free to synthv users who bought a pro license and updated their
software to version 1.8.0.
2023
suddenly, and without any warning at all, the v5 releases for luo tianyi, yuezheng ling,
and yanhe drop into the laps of buyers who have been waiting literal years for these
voicebanks in february, well after the
vocaloid6 update was rolled out.

luo tianyi’s v5 bank has three voices:

normal, power, and nature.

yanhe’s v5 bank has two: normal and

sweet.

yuezheng ling’s v5 has two: normal and

dark.
congrats! its a girl boy v5 update!
2023 (continued)
porter robinson works with yamaha to
create the vocaloid po-uta, who releases in
march for vocaloid6. po-uta is an english
vocal made to match the sound of
robinson’s voice in his album “nurture,” with
robinson writing the demo song for the
product, titled “humansongs.”
2023 (CONTINUED AGAIN)
fuiro (jp, vp: philo) is released in may for the
vocaloid6 engine.

otomachi una ai and zola project v6 come in

with the steel chairs in june.
 we’re all caught up :)
at least until one of these assholes releases another vocal synth
bonus slide: why are there so many project diva games

bitches at sega just

fucking love miku ig