meiko

Other names	メイコ (katakana) めいこ (hiragana)
Developer	Crypton Future Media
Release date	November 5, 2004
Gender	Female
Optimum genre	Vocal / Choir
Character Item	One Cup Ozeki (Sake)
Product Code	25220
Reduced Number	CRV1
JAN Code	4511820065941

MEIKO is a Vocaloid DTM (Desktop Music) software created by Crypton Future Media. She is the first Japanese vocaloid and first Japanese female Vocaloid, she utilizes the Vocaloid engine developed by YAMAHA. Her voice is based on a Japanese female singer Haigō Meiko (拝郷 メイコ). The illustration was done by Shogo Washizu, who is often called わっしー(Wasshi) and was once a member of Crypto
On July 24, 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.
Crypton placed this product on the market with a box art which depicted Meiko in anime form. This character had nothing to do with the singer's image, but her appearance appealed to the mainstream audience and the software sold well. The success of this marketing strategy influenced the development and art style of other Vocaloids such as Kaito and Miku Hatsune.

Append - the future of Meiko?

Both Kaito and Meiko were confirmed to have Appends on the way, however, no details have been released yet on Meiko's Append.

Usage for Music

Both Kaito and Meiko form a part of the Vocaloid "series", following a different design intention to the series of Vocaloids that followed them by Crypton Future Media. Kaito is her counterpart in the series. Both Vocaloids are designed to be professional vocals for professional muscians.
Her voice is noted to be steady, straightforward, and suitable for any musical genre. She is fit to sing anything from pop, rock, jazz, R&B to children's songs. Vocaloid digital sound is still heard in her voicebank and editing may be needed. Her overall tone of voice is more fluid and gives her a large vocal range.
Meiko had VOCALOID 1.0 editor when she was released. Users using VOCALOID 1.0 editor can update them by patching update file for Meiko There are many differences between ver1.0 and 1.1, and they sound differently even if they are edited in the same way. The main differences are Singing Style and Portamento Timing.

The Japanese fandom has taken great measures to push her voice to its limits. This is demonstrated by the fanmade derivative "Sakine Meiko" which was part of a product of Japanese producers pushing the limits of Meiko's capabilities to produce a much younger sounding voice. Since Vocaloid has some functions that Vocaloid 2 do not have, such as Resonance. Different users can utilize the voicebanks offered very differently and she can produce a wide range of different results from the same few voicebanks with further editing by using several Resonances and other functions. 
Though this involves heavy investment of time to make such a big adjustment of her vocals, it does highlight the overall potential of the Vocaloid era voicebanks as the same techniques have also from time to time been applied to others of her era with the same levels of results.

Append

Meiko is confirmed to be due for Append, however, no information has been yet released on what the Appends will be like.