Vocaloid Wiki
Register
Advertisement

KAITO VOCALOID1 VOCALOID3 | Piapro Studio | Songs Albums Notable Originals


This article is about the first VOCALOID software known as a voicebank. If you are looking for the VOCALOID character then click here.

History[]

MEIKO and KAITO were originally developed by Yamaha, with Crypton Future Media handling their commercial releases. This strategy would go on to be repeated, as the later VY1 and VY2 vocals were also developed by Yamaha, but distributed by Bplats, Inc..[3]

MEIKO and KAITO were originally developed alongside LEON and LOLA, and intended to release for the software "Project Daisy", with KAITO's name originally being "TARO".

On July 24, 2003, a CD album titled "HISTORY OF LOGIC SYSTEM" was released. This album included the first commercial song using a Japanese VOCALOID. The song was a cover of "Ano Subarashii Ai wo Mou Ichido (That Wonderful Love Once More)," utilizing the prototype versions of MEIKO and KAITO.[4] MEIKO would be released 1 year after this album, and KAITO following nearly 2 years afterwards. Additionally, in 2003, Yamaha gave out KAITO's first-ever solo demo song, "Kimi no Uwasa (Rumor of Yours)," 3 years before his release.

At the time of KAITO's initial commercial release, VOCALOID was not yet a well known product. Crypton Future Media considered a synthesizer software "successful" if it sold more than 1,000 units; however, KAITO only managed to sell 500 unites—deeming him a "commercial failure."[5] In contrast, his counterpart, MEIKO, had sold 3,000 units in her first year.

KAITO's initial status of failure was a contributing factor for the lack of male VOCALOID products afterwards. It was believed that the demand for male vocals was too little at the time.[6]

During Hatsune Miku's pre-order period, it was noted that MEIKO and KAITO had no planned updates, with Crypton Future Media preferring to carry on with new releases. Hatsune Miku would be a successor to the pair, and those who had purchased either MEIKO or KAITO could receive preferential sales for the Hatsune Miku voicebank if they registered by August 9, 2007.[7]

Due to fan-created content utilizing KAITO with Hatsune Miku, there was a resurgence in interest for the product, and KAITO went on to sell well enough to claim the second best seller of the year on Nico Nico Market in 2008.[8] From 2009 up until late 2011, he was consistently among the top 10 products being sold by Crypton Future Media, competing not only with VOCALOID2 era voicebanks, but on occasion outselling them.

In 2012, Zero-G confirmed that all VOCALOID vocals were unsupported and due for retirement "in the near future".[9]

Product Information[]

Demonstrations[]

Demonstrations

あの素晴らしい愛をもう一度 NicoNico Nicozon
君の噂 / Kimi no Uwasa / Rumor of Yours NicoNico YouTube
七つの子 / Seven Baby Crows YouTube

System Requirements[]

  • Pentium III 1 GHz or more
    • (If using the VOCALOID VSTi or using ReWire, more than 4 1.8 GHz Pentium)
  • OS Windows 2000/XP
    • (Recommended for XP)
  • RAM memory 512MB or more
    • (Recommended 1GB or more)
  • Interface VST2.0, ReWire, standalone correspondence

Voicebanks[]

Product Information
Versions
  Trial/Demo Vers?: No
Package details as noted:

KAITO is the counterpart to MEIKO and part of Yamaha's "VOCALOID" series. He is designed to be a high quality vocal, aimed at professional producers, and was noted for his gentler vocal in comparison to MEIKO.

Crypton Future Media, Inc. released a "Couples Bundle Set" (male and female) which included MEIKO, KAITO, LEON and LOLA. A loop sample set was also supplied with the 4 voicebank bundle.[10]

Vocal traits as noted:
  • Since Fuuga Naoto's career music style lay more in the Jazz area, KAITO's vocals lean towards this genre.[11] However, KAITO was still noted to be an "all-round" VOCALOID, being capable of multiple genres.
  • Due to the gap between their releases, KAITO overall has slightly better quality than MEIKO. This is because of improvements made during KAITO's development.
  • According to Wat, his voice was highly compatible with the VOCALOID engine; this led to high performance overall as a product.[12] This was in spite of him having a small (undeclared) optimum range, like the other 4 VOCALOID vocals.
  • KAITO's vocals do have some variation in tone between his treble and bass ranges, with his bass range sounding softer and more gentle than his treble range, which is more powerful.[13]
Software issues as noted:
  • Although he used Japanese phonetics, the menu was not in Japanese; instead it was released with the standard English interface only.
  • KAITO's vocal received significant updates with the engine.[14][15] As a result, he can utilize both the VOCALOID 1.0 and VOCALOID 1.1 versions of the VOCALOID editor which provide significantly different results. For more information, please read here.
Voicebank sample



Interface[]

Kaitointerface

Kaito's interface

Like other VOCALOID vocals, he has a unique interface.

References[]

  1. YAMAHA
  2. Crypton
  3. http://vocaloid.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-16738.html
  4. http://www.amazon.co.jp/HISTORY-LOGIC-SYSTEM-CCCD-%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B8%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%A0/dp/B00009PN7C/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304030540&sr=8-3
  5. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/virtual-star-to-be-unleashed-on-us-2291713.html
  6. [1] INTERNET Watch - クリプトン・フューチャー・メディア社長 伊藤博之氏(前編) (Crypton Future Media president Hiroyuki Itō (part one)
  7. https://blog.sonicwire.com/2007/08/vocaloid2_8.html
  8. [2] VOCALOID Blog - 出た!「2008年ニコニコ市場年間売上ランキング」でKAITOが2位! (2008 Nico Nico Market annual sales rankings, In the second place KAITO!)
  9. Zero-G email
  10. https://blog.sonicwire.com/2006/08/_vocaloid.html
  11. link
  12. link
  13. link
  14. [3] Enjoy.ne.jp/ - Synthesis Engin
  15. [4] VOCALOID.com/jp - VOCALOID Updater V1.1.2

Navigation[]

Advertisement