MEIKO (VOCALOID1)

MEIKO VOCALOID1 VOCALOID3 | Piapro Studio | Songs Albums Notable Originals

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MEIKO (VOCALOID1)
Product information
Catalog No.	CRV1
Company	YAMAHA Corporation Distributor: Crypton Future Media, Inc.
Release	November 5, 2004
Status	Retired; replaced with MEIKO V3
System	Windows
Language(s)	Japanese
Type	VOCALOID1
License	Proprietary
Affiliation	YAMAHA Corporation
Website	Product page

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..

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

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.

According to DTM Magazine, MEIKO sold over 3,000 units in her first year; which they noted to be out of the ordinary for a software synthesizer at that time. This was also far batter than her counterpart, KAITO, who had only sold 500 units. At the time, it was considered by Crypton Future Media that a product would be labelled "successful" if it sold 1,000 units. MEIKO's success, followed by the further success of Hatsune Miku, led Crypton to be focused on female vocals for their VOCALOID2 era voicebanks. These factors led to a common expectation that female voicebanks would sell better than male voicebanks.

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.

Contrary to Crypton Future Media's previous statement(s), after Hatsune Miku's success, KAITO went into rediscovery. This put him on par with the sales of VOCALOID2 voicebanks. In 2008, while KAITO received 2nd place in the Nico Nico Douga best-seller award, MEIKO was struggling to keep popularity with the more modern female VOCALOIDs being released. By 2009, and up to 2011, MEIKO was barely selling at all in contrast to KAITO, who was consistently among the top 10 products sold by Crypton Future Media.

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

Product Information

Demonstrations

Demonstrations

あの素晴らしい愛をもう一度	NicoNico Nicozon

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?: Yes
Package details as noted:
MEIKO is the counterpart to KAITO, and part of Yamaha's "VOCALOID" series. She is designed to be a high quality vocal, aimed at professional producers, and produces both powerful and realistic results. 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.
Vocal traits as noted:
Her voice has been described as steady, straightforward, and suitable for any musical genre. Her vocal's strength was unique among other Japanese products for a long time. MEIKO is difficult to master due to a lack of clarity in her vocals, which results in her voicebank being difficult to tune well. The difficulty in mastering her voice is outweighed by her potential, even up against the later Hatsune Miku vocal.
Software issues as noted:
Due to the gap between their releases, MEIKO overall has slightly less quality than KAITO. This is because of improvements made during KAITO's development. Although she used Japanese phonetics, the menu was not in Japanese; instead it was released with the standard English interface only. As noted during the development of Hatsune Miku, Crypton Future Media felt that MEIKO had a habit of producing thick and ugly vocals. In contrast, Miku was easier to manipulate in terms of gender/age.
Voicebank sample
MEIKO VOCALOID1
view • edit

A trial version has been released of this product.

Interface

MEIKO's VOCALOID interface

Special "Signed" version of the interface

Like all VOCALOID vocals, MEIKO had her own interface design.

In 2006 a competition was held, with winners being awarded a special signed version of the interface.