kaito

Other names	カイト (katakana) かいと (hiragana) 海人 [1](chinese)
Developer	Crypton Future Media
Release date	February 17, 2006
Gender	Male
Character Item	Ice cream
Product Code	27720
Reduced Number	CRV2
JAN Code	4511820069543

KAITO is a Japanese male Vocaloid created by Crypton Future Media. He utilizes the older Vocaloid engine developed by YAMAHA. He claims the spot of first male Japanese vocal release for Vocaloid and the last vocal to be released for the Vocaloid engine. The voice was supplied by a Japanese male singer Fuuga Naoto (風雅 なおと). The illustration was done by Takashi Kawasaki. The product's name was invited from the public, and "KAITO" was selected from among applicants, which was the idea of Shu-tP.
Kaito was created as a counterpart of Meiko and developed together. One of the reasons why his name "KAITO" was selected was that it would be easy for non-Japanese speakers to pronounce, and another reasons was that it looked fitting to the name "MEIKO" when they were put next to one another  On 24th July, 2003, an CCCD album "HISTORY OF LOGIC SYSTEM", which included a song using Japanese vocaloids commercially for the first time, was released. It was a duet song of "Ano Subarashii Ai wo Mou Ichido (That Wonderful Love Once More)" and it was covered by prototype version of Meiko and Kaito before their release. Meiko was released 1 year after this and Kaito followed her 2 years later
Also in 2003, Yamaha gave out his first demo song, "Kimi no Uwasa (Rumor of Yours)" 3 years before his release.
Crypton did not set his character and profile except his package design, as well as Meiko, for not having a concept of giving a certain character to an synthesizer application software. It was carried over to the following vocaloids to encourage creative activities by free individuals and expanding the characters based on each user's individual needs. 

Later Rediscovery

Kaito sold only 500 packages in the initial distribution and Crypton deemed it as a failure. On September 16th, 2007, Tatsunami uploaded a parody of the song in Higurashi no naku koro ni, "A Request From Hatsune" onto NicoNicoDouga. During this time, Miku was extremely popular on NicoNicoDouga, yet almost nobody knew of Kaito let alone produced songs using him. The video begins with the words "please sometimes recall [KAITO]," as well as Miku saying "where are you and what are you doing now?" which is from the song Dear You.

• Nico broadcast / Nicozon broadcast 初音ミクからのお願い。

About four hours later, "An Answer To Hatsune Miku" was posted by Ice-P. In this video, Kaito responds with, "yes? I was eating an ice cream," and then proceeds to sing a cover of The Ice Cream Song (originally sung by Saeko Shuu in 1960). Kaito's last dialogue in this video is "Miku, let's eat it together next time." It just so happened that Ice-P was producing the cover when he saw the video Tatsunami uploaded.
After the rediscovery, Kaito was sold well and also he won the second best seller of the year in Nico Nico Market in 2008.

Append - the Future of Kaito

Crypton announced on twitter that they are developing a new production of Kaito named "Kaito Append". Recording of Naoto Fuuga's voice started on December 9, 2010. Several voicebanks of different expressions like the Appends have been produced for the product. There are four appends empirically under development; temporarily "Mellow", "Sweet", "Solid" and "Power". 
Crypton announced that Kaito's muffler in his silhouette version was going to be transparent. However, they have since reconsidered this due to the fan outcry. On February 17th, 2011, Crypton released a temporary silhouette of Kaito's Append. They said that it has not been decided whether he will have a transparent muffler or not.
There is a Piapro demo song contest for Len's Power Append. The prize is a package present of information on KAITO Append dates and when it is commercialized.  According to the Piapro blog entry following the contest's results, the winners don't -- or don't just -- recieve information on KAITO Append, they get to participate in the production of KAITO Append. It's been guessed they will be given a beta version to work with.
On the 13th April, 2011, it was confirmed 6 vocal expressions had been recorded, two of which were dropped and the remaining were being brought forward with one having reached a completed alpha stage already. The Character Vocal (Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin/Len and Megurine Luka) series Appends had been created from vocal performance of their voice providers. The new Kaito Appends were created by adding echo, force and tension to the samples.

Usage for Music

Both Kaito and Meiko form the Vocaloid "series", following a different design intention to the series of Vocaloids that followed them by Crypton Future media. Kaito is the male designed to be the counterpart to Meiko within their series. Both Vocaloids are designed to be professional vocals for professional muscians.
Kaito's vocal engine has been updated several times. ^[17][18] He can utilize two kind of Vocaloid editors, VOCALOID 1.0 and VOCALOID 1.1, and they have different functions and features. There are many differences between ver1.0 and 1.1, and they sound differently even if they are edited in the same way. (Comparison of ver 1.0 and ver 1.1 without further editing Nico broadcast, Nicozon broadcast). The main differences are Singing Style and Portamento Timing. 
To use his 1.0 version, users who are NOT using 1.1.2 version need to patch Vocaloid Ver1.1.2 update file for Kaito distributed on Crypton’s official page first before they use VOCALOID 1.0 editor. Without patching, an critical error will occur. 
He is fit to sing anything from hymns and children's songs to R&B and pop, though the style that he is best used for is singing pop ballads.

Append

Kaito's Append were created from a different process compared to the Character Vocal series of Vocaloids. There are 4 Appends confirmed for him.

nekomura iroha

Other names	Iroha Nekomura (western order)
Developer	AH Software
Release date	October 22, 2010
Gender	Female
Optimum tempo	70-170
Optimum range	E2-G4
Character Item	Undecided

Nekomura Iroha (猫村いろは) is a character created by SANRIOWAVE CO.,LTD. in 2009. Also with a collaboration between AH-Software, she was released as a Vocaloid2 on October 22, 2010.^[1][2]
"Iroha" is the old Japanese variant of "ABC" (as seen in the Japanese iroha poem) and "I, Ro, Ha" means "A(La), B(Si), C(Do)" of seven-note scale. She is illustrated by okama, a Japanese manga artist and illustrator.
Iroha is one of characters of the "kittylers", who love the Sanrio character Hello Kitty. She also joined the "Hello Kitty to Issho!" project in early August, 2010.
In October, 2010, Vocaloid2 for her was released, offering two demo songs as well along with revealing her appearance and name. The voice provider for her is unknown, however, it is said that she is a professional singer who passed the audition test of AH-Software.
A CD is set to be released with two songs ("Tsubasa" and "ABBEY FLY") with her, along with VSQ files. She owes much of her early use to being supplied as a trial version. The offer for the free trial ended on September 30th 2010.

Usage for Music

Iroha has a deep, strong and powerful voice which does not give her a "child-like" feel like that of Yuki Kaai, as her voice provider is a professional singer and thus she is intended to have singing prowess. She is capable of singing fast-paced songs and has clear strong consonants and good smooth Japanese pronunciations. With a wide ranged voice she can sing both in a high and low tone, and gains the ability to sing in falsetto. Some users say editing her parameters and waveforms are much easier than former vocaloids.
As her default vocal setting is a low tone voice and many users tested her in this range, thus many of her early songs had some listeners judging that she sounded less feminine and "tomboyish". However, now some songs feature her with a high-voice and feminine voice.

Dem

Her trial version did not have as many reported problems as Lily's had and was a more closer representation of her final product than Lily's was. At this point in time, there are no known major bugs with her demo version.

Reception

Iroha was well recieved overall in both Japanese and Western fandoms, in the Western fandoms especially were praising to her vocal capablities and was amongst the fan favourite voices of 2010's releases. However, some of the Western Vocaloid fans had a difficult time matching the Vocaloids avatar to the voice and due to lack of information did not understand why this particular kittyler was choosen over the others, possibly due to the language divide.

Hiyama Kiyoteru

Other names              Hiyama kiyoteru
Developer	AH-Software
Release date	December 4, 2009
Gender	Male
Optimum tempo	60-160
Optimum range	C2-G3
Character Item	Undecided

Hiyama Kiyoteru (氷山キヨテル) is a Japanese Vocaloid released in December 4, 2009. He is developed by AH-Software
Kiyoteru's voice was offered by a Japanese singer, Kiyoshi Hiyama His name had been secret for a long time, however, Kiyoshi himself announced this on Nico Nico Live on August 12th, 2010.^[2][3]
Kiyoteru is meant to be portrayed as a sensei (teacher).
Three demos have been released, named "Seichi Jerusalem", "Wings", and "I'll love you again"
He tends be used for pop and heavy metal/rock. His treble range is supposedly smooth, which allows for an easier usage of the higher octaves. He has the softest of the Vocaloid male voices within the Vocaloid 2 voicebanks. Also he has clear Japanese consonant sounds and stable voice. However, he is not good at singing in a low voice as a male singer and the beginning consonant sounds get shorter as well as other AH-S vocaloids. Because of this he is often said to be not easy for beginners to use. A particular noted weakness of his voicebank is that he cannot produce a satisfactory low masculine vocal tone.

Reception

Kiyoteru's design received complaints by some fans. Since he was intended to be the partner to Yuki Kaai, some fans expressed the concern that the pair would become the subject of pedophilic based artwork/songs. It also recieved complaints of looking too plain and ordinary compared to previous past Vocaloids.
Initially, many of Kiyoteru's early videos on Nico Nico Douga had comments accusing him of being too similar to Kaito, however this effect occurs only on the higher octaves. Over time such comments shifted direction and another complaint followed; his voice is considered difficult to blend in with existing males. Although it is not impossible to make him blend in, heavy editing may be needed as his voice tends to stand out when singing with other Vocaloids

kaai yuki

Other names	Yuki Kaai (western order)
Developer	AH-Software
Release date	December 4, 2009
Gender	Female
Age	9
Height	"As tall as 10 big apples"
Weight	"As heavy as 86 apples"
Optimum tempo	50-150
Optimum range	F2-C4
Character Item	Apple

Kaai Yuki (歌愛ユキ) is a Japanese Vocaloid released in December 4, 2009. She is developed by AH-Software.
The characters of her name, "歌愛", mean "song" and "love" respectively.
She is meant to be portrayed as an elementary school student, and her voice is taken from recordings of an actual elementary school student. However, the name of the one who offered the voice for Yuki is still unknown.
She has three demos released, "±", "Vocaloid Grade School Student", and "Try again
Yuki is designed to sing childrens songs and have an innocent, soft and cute voice. Her child-like voice makes her unique amongst the vocaloids and allows for a soft, sweet style of song. Because of this, Yuki can not sing like a professional singer as she is intended to sound like an amateur, different from Crypton's "project if...". Since she has a breathy voice and strong consonant sounds, her Japanese sounds very natural. However, some users say the beginning consonant sounds get shorter as well as other AH-S vocaloids.^[4]

Reception

Yuki's design received complaints within the western fandom and the Japanese fandom. Since she was intended to be the counterpart to Kiyoteru Hiyama, the biggest concern was that the pair would become the subject of pedophilic based artwork/songs because of the Lolicon culture. It also received complaints of looking too plain and ordinary compared to previous past Vocaloids.
As well as her design being the subject of criticism, her voice was the subject of complaints since it was too soft, although this was mostly linked with the problem of her portrayal becoming the subject of pedophilic imagery. It has since been pointed out that children tend to sing with a soft voice and since school children were used as the subject of the recordings, it was only natural for her voice to sound the way it did. Most of these complaints have since ceased.
She also also praised by Western "Japanese to English" users as having one of the easiest pronounications to mimick English with, however, like all Japanese Vocaloids she is still limited.

gumi

Other names	Megpoid (Formal product name)
Developer	INTERNET Co.,Ltd
Release date	June 25, 2009.
Gender	Female
Optimum tempo	60 - 175 BPM
Optimum range	F2 - A4
Character Item	Carrot

GUMI (グミ) is an official mascot character of Megpoid (メグッポイド / Meguppoido) which is a singing synthesizer application software powered by Yamaha's Vocaloid2 and was published by INTERNET Co.,Ltd. The name GUMI is from the voice provider Megumi Nakajima's nickname in her childhood.^[1]

^{The naming about this product is very confusing. The Vocaloid software itself is under the official name Megpoid, and GUMI is the avatar character of the software drawn by the illustrator Masami Yuuki (ゆうきまさみ Yuuki Masami).}

HistoryEdit

Megpoid was voiced by Megumi Nakajima and released on June 25, 2009.  It comes with 3 sample VSQ files, "Happy Birthday", "be MYSELF"  , and "Hitori Yurari". "be MYSELF" is an original song by Nakajima.　
There are five demos on the official site;

• be MYSELF,
• be MYSELF (one chorus),
• Fly Me to The Moon-Part1,
• Fly Me to The Moon-Part2,　
• BLUE BUTTERFLY.

Gumi was illustrated by the manga artist Yuuki Masami.

Taiwan release

On Dec 11th, 2010, the president of Internet Co. announced that Gakupo Kamui, Gumi and Lily will be distributed in Taiwan.

Robot Gumi

Megpoid was one of 3 voicebanks the robot model HRP-4C was set up to react to, the other two being Miku Hatsune and Crypton's non-commerical vocaloid named CV-4Cβ.

• Youtube broadcast: 開発者による産総研ロボット＆ボーカロイドの解説 CEATEC Japan (HRP-4C as Gumi)
• Youtube broadcast: 産総研ロボットHRP-4C 未夢（ミーム）「異邦人」CEATEC Japan (HRP-4C Singing)

Extend - the Future of Megpoid

Following the success of Crypton's Append, Internet Co., Ltd has confirmed Gumi will receive a "Megpoid Extend" edition in 2011. The new Extend will add another vocal expression to the original voice bank and another breathe sound, and also her pronunciations will be improved and become clearer. 
On 2011/20/1 confirmation was released that recordings had started for the Megpoid Extend, several vocal recordings have already been recorded.

King Run Anison Red and White Concert

Gumi and Gakupo made special appearances in the 2010 new year celebration event known as King Run Anison Red and White.
The songs they covered were;

• アニソン紅白2010 M-32[Love Letter]神威がくぽ(がくっぽいど) "Love Letter" covered by Gackupo originally from "Mobile Suit Z Gundam", which had originally been sung by Gackt himself.
• アニソン紅白2010 M-33[星間飛行]GUMI(メグッポイド) "Interstellar Flight" covered by Gumi from "Macross Frontier", which had originally been sung by Megumi Nakajima herself.

Their appearance was strictly a one off event.

Usage for Music

At the time of her release, she had one of the most realistic sounding voicebanks in Vocaloid 2 and sings with a soft clear voice. The voice range is F2 - A4 and its optimum tempo is 60 - 175BPM, amongst the female voicebanks she has one of the biggest ranges and is considered easy to tune. Her pronunciations are of a good quality and she has smooth vowel sounds compared to other Vocaloids within her era. The weakness of her voice is that she is raspy, however, this can be removed if a user does not want her raspiness.
Like many native Japanese speakers, Megpoid does not have the phoneme "z" and "Z" in the phonetic system and they are replaced by "dz" and "dZ" as well as Gackpoid. ^[13]

• Comparing VY1(β version), Miku Append (Soft), Gumi, Lily
• Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider

Reception

Note: The following is assembled based on opinions within the Vocaloid fandom, gathered from various sources: Fan Forums / Product reviews / NND / YT. The notable reactions mentioned here should not be taken as a universal reflection by the entire fandom on said Vocaloid.

Gumi has seen a faster growth of usage within the Japanese fandom, gaining popularity faster than her predecessor Gakupo. She has quickly become a fan favourite in both Japanese and Western fandoms and arguably has been the most commonly used non-Crypton Future Media Vocaloid. When she was released, many commented that she sounded the most realistic of the Vocaloid2 voicebanks. However, the western fandom were slow to gain interest at first. This was owed to the fact that her avatar appeared more plain than Gakupo's; not everyone was fond of the art design and too many comparisons were made between her avatar and a past character role Megumi Nakajima portrayed.

akita neru

Creator	Smith Hioka (スミス・ヒオカ)
Release date	November 1, 2007
Gender	Female
Age	17
Height	4'11" ft (150 cm)
Weight	83 lbs (38 kg)
Character Item	Cellular phone,Katana

Neru Akita (亞北ネル Akita Neru) is a derivative. Her name is a play on words, Akita (亞北) is taken from "飽きた" or "get bored" while Neru (ネル) from "寝る" or "go to bed".
In October of 2007, soon after Miku was released, a TV program in Japan degraded the users of Miku, Miku's pictures became unavailable to search in main search engines, and Miku's article was deleted in Japanese Wikipedia at the same time.
These news became widespread or "flamed up" in 2ch, then many writings to lay the news to rest or "to put off the fire" followed. The postings were with the phrases "飽きた、寝る。 (Got bored. Going to bed.)" or "寝る、お前らも寝ろよ。 (Gonna go to bed. Follow me, y'all!). Soon other users made a personification character for these postings as "Akita Neru", which Smith Hioka, the designer, later finalized. Neru came to represent the tsundere culture of Vocaloid.

Acceptance into Vocaloids

Neru is one of the Vocaloid derivatives that became officially recognized by Crypton Future Media, the publisher of the Character Vocal Series for Vocaloid 2. The other derivatives bearing this distinction is Miku Hachune, Haku Yowane, Meiko Sakine, and Tako Luka.

Voice Configuration

Neru offically has no defined voice, however this has not prevented users from attempting to give her one. In some cases Neru has the voice of a boyish-sounding girl, while some people have assigned her to Miku's default voice, but in a higher octave. The following configuration attempts to recreate Neru's voice as it fits her visual details.

VOICE CONFIGURATION
BREATHINESS (BRE)	-30	BRIGHTNESS (BRI)	30	CLEARNESS (CLE)	30
GENDER FACTOR (GEN)	15	OPENING (OPE)	-15
SPECIAL NOTES: Breathiness in high notes and in certain words increases Neru's ability to sing higher notes than Miku normally can. Her effective voice range is at F3-F5.

She has another voice configuration using Rin Kagamine Act 2. First used in Nanamue-P's Honey Honey PV, Neru has a singing voice that better matches her aesthetics. Regular Rin may also work, but ACT 2 is more recommended. This is not an exact configuration, but rather, tweaked settings.

VOICE CONFIGURATION
BREATHINESS (BRE)	-10	BRIGHTNESS (BRI)	-20	CLEARNESS (CLE)	20
GENDER FACTOR (GEN)	39	OPENING (OPE)	-20
SPECIAL NOTES: Some clarity issues may arise, because of Rin's voicebank. Therefore, tweaks may be needed. Her effective voice range at this point is at C3-C5, though it may extend gracefully. It is a borderline tomboyish voice.

Another voice configuration suggested for Neru involves the usage of the voicebank CV01 Soft Early. This is the exact configuration.

VOICE CONFIGURATION
BREATHINESS (BRE)	-50	BRIGHTNESS (BRI)	30	CLEARNESS (CLE)	35
GENDER FACTOR (GEN)	-30	OPENING (OPE)	-25
SPECIAL NOTES: The Breathiness helps in the High note, and the Gender Factor makes the Voice more "Cute and Calm".

Tsuman-ne?

She complains about the official Vocaloids(and Haku when she appears) and why she hates them, later revealing how she actually likes them, and that she wants to be loved by everyone as well. Later Haku appears and calls her tsundere.

SF-A2 Miki

Other names	Miki (simplified name) 開発コードmiki Development Code miki SF-A2 codename miki
Developer	AH-Software
Release date	December 4, 2009
Gender	Female
Optimum tempo	70-170
Optimum range	E2-G4
Character Item	Cherry

SF-A2 miki (SF-A2 開発コード miki) is a Japanese Vocaloid released in December 4, 2009. She is developed by AH-Software.
She is voiced by Miki Furukawa (former bassist of the band Supercar and now a solo singer) and illustrated by Yuusuke Kozaki. Two demos have been released, "Touyou no Noumiso" and "±". Also another demo songs were given out on her official page.
An album with her singing Christmas songs, "VOCALOIDS☆Ｘ‘MAS" was also set to be released in November, 2009. Notable vocaloid song creators' works are included in the album . She was also used for the introduction of the Hello Kitty game, Hello Kitty to Issho! Block Crash 123! on its official page.


Miki has been used mostly for pop and rock songs. She was created to have a wide range and to sound different greatly when she is in a high voice and in a low voice, some users say her voice is smooth and can be emotional, but her pronunciations are weak and it is difficult to control her pitch without further editing or pitch correct software. Because of this she is often said to be not easy for beginners to use.
Her voicebank is easy to blend in with current voicebanks and she can be used to close gaps between the other female ranges to smooth out the differences between the singing group. This also ensures with some minor adjustments she can be the partner to almost all of the female voicebanks within her era and harmonizes well with them.

Reception

In the western fandom, she was fortunate enough to not be the subject of complaints of her design being too plain unlike Kaai Yuki and Hiyama Kiyoteru upon her release. However since then some fans have expressed some complaints that her look is a step back in the Vocaloid design.
In both fandoms, her voice is often compared to other existing vocaloids and is noted for her voicebanks sounding similar to other Vocaloids among fans. This makes her a varied Vocaloid but led to many complaints at her release that everything Miki does has already been covered by other Vocaloids in the Vocaloid 2 era.