Two notes! 1: I was incorrect about Vocaloid 2's editor. As many extremely helpful people pointed out, Vocaloid 2 voicebanks came with the editor. My mistake for that and I do apologize! 2: This video was made literally right before Yamaha surprised everyone with Vocaloid 6 and due to my own scheduling for videos, I wasn't able to edit in this video discussing Vocaloid 6's release. Point still stands that a Miriam V6 voicebank would be incredible!
As much as pirated Vocaloid is frowned upon, it's pretty much the only way to use these great Vocaloids. -I love using Piko, don't shoot me, I buy all of my other Vocaloids-
When it comes to discontinued vocals I say go ham. Avoid making money off the pirated copies but otherwise make covers, songs, talkloids. It’s keeping vocals like him alive!
I HEAVILY agree with Izzy! My main reasoning for being okay with pirated Vocaloids is because the people who pirate them can't afford them in the first place. Technically, it's not a loss customer or support if they can't afford the product in the first place. Plus like, a LOT of Vocaloid producers started out pirating and then went to purchase the official product. Circus-P actually pirated Kaito V1 and Miki for Insanity as well as Luka V2 for his first song.
Same He's the only one I've ever really done that to, I got into vocaloid just before his 10th anniversary in 2020 and my friend shown me the song "My Own" and I was like holy shit I want him to be my first vocaloid Then they told me what happened and I got really sad and spent like A month trying to force the SynthV Saki to sound like him before I caved and searched up the best way to illegaly obtain him
I used pirated vocaloids just for fun to make songs using them. I didn't put it on youtube or get anything out of it, I just wanted to learn a bit about how it works and about making music in general. This was really long ago, 4-6 years maybe.
As someone who was around when Piko's popularity suddenly spiked, his popularity also has to do with the sudden spike in popularity of his voice provider (e.i. a lot of pre-teens being a little too excited about him)
As someone who really likes Piko's voice and is looking to try out Vocaloid in the future (I'm probably gonna buy Oliver), it breaks my heart that he was discountinued like this. It doesn't really help that I'm broke so I can't really buy a voicebank that costs more than a PS5.
@@undertale-perseverance I'm probably gonna download SynthV in the near future, especially now that I can use Teto, because she would have been all I would have used Utau for anyway
@@Leah_Lusdoc I think I was talking about UTAU here, and I was told you need to know some Japanese to even use it (like Hiragana and Katakana). Like I know some Japanese now (日本語をちょっと話する) but I still don’t wanna use UTAU because I still suck at SynthV
Rana's purpose was to be used as a special tutorial vocaloid through the magazines for as along as the it was issued (the final issue had her permanent activation code). She was meant to be used by aspiring vocaloid producers with little music and tuning knowledge. This was the business plan from the beginning and the original team behind her didn't plan it that far to release her as a regular bank. If i am not mistaken, her original developers pretty much left her there after that. Bplats, the distribution company of Yamaha themselves bought her voicebank and updated it to Vocaloid 4, along with other characters they adopted (ex. azuki, matcha, nana and galaco)
some notes about piko bc i'm very hyperfixated on him - he and miki were originally developed by a company called heartfast, not ki/oon, ki/oon is the company that piko's voice provider worked for and helped release the voicebank - piko was discontinued simply because he ran out of stock, all v2 voicebanks stopped having codes produced for them in late 2015 so piko was discontinued simply because they ran out of codes
@@XxX_J41M13_XxX I'm not sure how many facts I have that you wouldn't already know, but here's a few I can think of off the top of my head ^^ - Piko has a code similar to Miki's "SFA-2" code, his is "KSRW-1" - his shirt/tunic design is based on one of Yamaha's electric guitars (RGX A2) - he has an official sakura themed design that was released at one of his voice provider's events - another drawing of Utatane Piko was featured recently at one of his VP's newer events too :) (which I think is his first somewhat official art in like. forever) and then kinda a funny one, it's possible that CircusP/VocaCircus is the one who bought the last copy of Piko, as he says Piko was sold out ever since he got his copy, and the dates line up (Purchased him in June 2020, discontinuation was found out about in August 2020)
@@clover7183 i actually didnt kniw any of this at all! would you mind dropping some links for the sakura design and his most recent appearence at his vps event? id lobe to see!
RIP to these voice banks, but now this is where Piracy seems to be a good thing when companies don't care one bit about their product and never archive them at all...this can be served as a back up if a company gets bankrupt due to how poor some of the vocaloid is marketed, like let's face it... some of it is due to poor marketing.. it's the only way possible now even if piracy and bootlegging is awful... but in terms of software prog. this is actually pretty important since specific voices, cannot be replaced, same with how a specific program runs. PS. this is the first time i have seen how debuting of Rana seems to be quite..... unneccessary 30 vol. just to learn and get the product... feels like a quest you don't even want. I wonder if Mew is still alive.
I've been involved in the vocaloid fandom since 2008, and just gotta say that I love your video! There was a point in time where I could name all of the vocaloids in existence but that's probably about a decade ago now... It's super nice to see someone talking about older vocaloids and keeping their memory alive! I honestly would love to talk to newbies and educate them on a little vocaloid history since a lot of is lost to time and only people who were active in the fandom back then seem to remember... A little tidbit, you probably should've mentioned Galaco! She was one of my favorites of the lesser known vocaloids and I absolutely fell in love with her design back in the day! Unfortunately she was a private vocaloid so the original voicebank is probably lost. I remember she got a public release shortly after her private voicebank was going to be discontinued, with new artwork done by KEI! I'm certainly a vocaloid boomer lol
Galaco’s price voicebank effectively became her Red vb in her public release. It was a direct port, if anything they cleaned up the vb a bit to make her slightly smoother
Honestly I've been looking for hours and days literally for Lola Leon Miriam and the original Meiko and Kaito. I couldn't even find them anywhere I've searched everywhere and I couldn't find any of them-
V1 was still on sale from 3rd party sellers for a while. One of them having an unofficial clearence sale through social media. That was how I got them. Also V6 is amazing.
This is one that I was hoping you'd maybe bring up because she's an interesting case, but another discontinued voicebank is Akikoloid-chan. She was only ever distributed privately to those who had permission by her company, but supposedly she was even one of the first V3 vocaloid voicebanks. Looking at her wiki, it says she's "retired," which likely means that her company isn't distributing her anymore. Additionally, due to being a privately distributed voicebank, it's likely that her bank may become lost media. However, examples of what she sounds like is still out there, such as Manbo-P's song "Meat Meets Girl," where they use Akikoloid-chan
Piko is a strange situation of Sony not understanding how people use Vocaloid software. By taking down anyone sharing the demo's, not only did it destroy exposure for the voicebank, it also instilled fear into people using it, that Sony might actually strike them. Rule of thumb for Vocaloid: You're better off letting people make what they want with it. You can ContentID verbatim uses of music, but the minute you start taking down things, that signals that the claimed copyright holder is openly hostile, and never use it.
One of the Vocaloids I’m sad got discontinued, was SeeU. She has a really cute voice, and a really good design, with that giant as heck hair. And I’m sad to see her go soo quickly :( Released on V3, then never saw any updates….
KEI actually fixed a few more design issues with Rin and Len’s ACT2 illustration as well! One of them being the placement of Rin’s bent leg, as in the ACT1 design it’s disproportionate and looks odd lol
I'm thankful that I bought Piko out of circumstance way back when I first started as a producer. If I remember correctly, at the time, Piko was the only voicebank that you could buy internationally through Amazon JP. So I purchased him along with Sonika to get my voicebank collection started. I still keep an old Windows 7 PC around for Piko and my other V2 voicebanks.
I’m honestly really upset at Sony, I’m pretty sure they could’ve made bank from selling him to a different prominent Vocaloid company! He had SO much potential with his emotion and wide vocal range! Now I’m sad imagining Piko being bought by AHS Software 😢 Piko was long my favourite Vocaloid, and it makes me so sad that he’s gone, I wish Sony would sell his rights to someone else, they get money, Piko gets a new home.
As someone who works with SeeU and put a track out FOR HER SPECIFICALLY, I really am just absolutely heartbroken that she's just.. done. Never gonna get an update. I love her voice but it makes me sad too. Don't do crime kids. Especially if you are a Vocaloid VP.
Same here, especially when you can see just how much her company wanted to do with her but are now stuck because her voice provider basically fucked over her own reputation. Probably explains why they made Uni in the first place!
piko's popularity (and probs his dedictaed following) also stemmed by his VB being off of a popular singer of the same name (like FUKASE being based off Sekai no Owar's Fukase), so I assumed the companies for both just hoped releasing a voicebank off of a popular singer would be enough advertisement
Surprised that Anri Rune doesn't tend to pop up in these discussions. Anri was technically a vocaloid, but EXCLUSIVELY used by a Japanese network for their bumpers. And when they stopped using those, that was it. Anri's voice bank is essentially lost media that, sadly, may never be found. Vocaloid Wiki got snippy at me for saying it but I still wish Anri was thrown a bone, be it her voicebank being leaked or just getting a new life elsewhere.
It's so sad that LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM never really got the love from Zero-G or the wider Vocaloid fan base over all. The history this 3 VBs hold is enormous and I wish they could lived on though the years as update standard professional banks. Though you are right that do somewhat live on in (Cyber Diva/ Songman, Amy/Chris, and Sarah/ Allen. Hell with Allen being almost the closest to LEON'S vocal range) R.I.P to are iconic robotic soul singers.
honestly I've been forever sad that Ring Suzune never came to be. She had the potential to give Miku a true run for her money. (I remember actively following Ring and Lui's development..until it just stopped)
They're not discontinued, only their very first act 1 voicebank for vocaloid 2 is. Their act 2 voicebank is still available for purchase and so are their V4 voicebanks thankfully :')
Surprisingly, the PS Store for PSVITA is still up (at least in North America) outliving the Wii U/3DS e-shop. And PSVITA is not region locked. I have a North American game, a European game, and 2 Japanese games on my system and the all work very well.
"Where he would have a quiet release, almost as bad if not worse than Fukase" I know they're inanimate and don't exist but 😞🙁 poor bastards Edit: the reason that he has a cult following is because his design is gender as hell. Same thing with Fukase and Flower If I woke up looking like them I would be so happy
Apparently miriams vp has expressed interest in a miriam update, she was even supposed to for V4 along with Sonika but ZeroG ran into complications financially.
Cool video chronicling the history of vocaloid. I'm mostly familiar with the most popular vocaloids, so it would have been cool to hear some short samples from their most popular songs or just hear them sing simple do-re-mi or something in the editor. I came here from a random UA-cam recommendation and will check what else you have on your channel. 😊 Have a great day!
Thank you so much!!! Vocaloid is a deep passion of mine so I plan to cover more content in the future of course! I'm just a bit tied when it comes to obscure voicebanks as I don't own pretty much almost every obscure voicebank. That and copyright issues prevent me from sharing the audio of songs I did not make, which really sucks!
Utatane Piko's discontinuation makes me sad. He's such a great VB and it's because of his voice provider, Piko. Piko's range and falsetto is god-like. He can sound EXACTLY like a woman while singing.
I got recommended this video at random and although I'm not particularly interested in vocaloids, the way you presented the information was very fascinating regardless. Also your voice is really cute.
I knew about poor Piko already, (because gosh darn it all I love Piko and his many voices, going from Shota Shota Island to even lower than Gakupo) but I didn't know you couldn't get ACT 1 Rin/Len anymore, that honestly sucks too. I like their robotic tones from the old days. I also did not know that V1 banks had so much trouble running today, that is probably the most distressing thing I learned from this. I LOVE V1 Meiko and Kaito, their V3 banks are good too, and I do like those, but they just sound so different from the V1 banks.
Its a shame to discontinue Miriam, Leon and Lola because they aere also prominent characters in the Story of Evil. Although there probably will no longer be any more Evilious videos comig along, they do have some nostalia value.
Just an FYI if you really wanna make these older vocaloid banks work on newer computers you can run older versions of Windows OS. OR just use an older computer. Lots of retro PC gamers use these techniques to play old games. And yeah we have 'issues" with piracy too.
Very true! However, a lot of people don't really have that kind of skill to run 2 operating systems on one PC but thank you! Maybe someone can get inspired to learn ^o^
Older Vocaloid vbs actually do work on newer computers without the need for any of that! I have a windows 10 computer and I’m able to run V1 and V2 without issue
Wait, wasn't act2 rin and len worse than act1? act 2 sounds way more choppier and with worse quality than act 1, the one vociebanks that sounds better are append, not act2, i have all of them (piracy cuz poor) and act2 is actually more difficult to use than act1 because of the choppiness
Yeah, I have Rin Len ACT1 and it's wayy better than ACT2. ACT2 sounds like if Rin and Len swallowed a pillow, they're voices are soo muffled. Anyways Rin Act 1 >>> Every Rin voicebank ever made
I dont know if this was the reason he was popular with other people, but i personally got into piko because his voice was provided by PIKO, same reason as IA (voiced by LIA)- from a non-technical standpoint, that was why I looked into songs where he was used. I honestly don’t know how common the crossover appeal for fans of musical artists to their vocaloid counterparts is/was
I remember the first Piko song I heard it was a duet but it was still the first song And it will be going on my list of vocaloid songs that will forever haunt me *Shota Shota Island*
I always thought Piko's popularity gain was from people finding out that the singer PIKO was the one who voiced him. This video has made me reconsider if I was just in a specific fandom bubble back then lol
I have an English ps Vita and I can safely say that it is not region locked. I am usually able to play the Japanese version of project diva f, F2nd, and X on my vita.
With the vocaloid2 engine, the engine i dont believe was sold as much on its own because the v2 vocaloids came with the engine themselves so you wouldn't have to buy the editor separately. (I own physicals for piko, lily v2, tonio, luka v2)
yknow they're hiding every NT VB apart from Miku from us, right???? there are Rin NT, Luka NT, Len NT, KAITO NT and MEIKO NT in development and used for project sekai virtual singer covers to put in the game, but cfm, yamaha, craft egg, colorful palette and sega are hiding everything from us
im sorry i just stumbled on this video and i heard omori music and i went FERAL for a hot second and that literally got me to watch the rest of the video lol
I agree vocaloid has improve so much since v1 one era. v1 sounds like chip speech synths It think biggest improvement was v1 to 2v. There was improvement form v2 to v3 which English Vocaloids started sounded some human. then very little improvement form v3 to 4v. then v4 to v5.
Not at all! For Project Sekai, though, Crypton does like to use the prototype for Kaito and Meiko NT so all of them are "up to date" Crypton voicebanks.
managed to get kagamine act 1 a few months ago (and it came with an update disk for act 2 as well) and while its more choppy, act 1 has a better tone/clarity compared to act 2
They really do. Like, not everyone has $200-$500+ to spend on voicebank bundles that have been around for half a decade at this point. Especially minors in the community who have a crazy amount of talent but obviously not any money to purchase the programs they want to show their talent to the world. It does make me appreciate Zero-G because when they're voicebanks are on sale, they're SUPER affordable! I know someone who bought Dex for $30 which is super awesome! I dunno, I'm someone who believes that EVERYONE should have a chance to enjoy something, even if it means a bootleg or pirating.
Why not just let people buy the discontinued ones anyways? even if they become outdated? I have my old Fukase I bought some years ago, idk if he got any updates since but I love him; however I'm not gonna buy a new one again. I'll stick with my boi through thick and thin. (Tbf I haven't been following the community much ever since I 'grew out of it', I've just used my Fukase to make songs for myself. So idk where we're at now, I got him with V4 tho)
Vocaloid is an already obscure engine so I think the idea with companies is that it wastes money on server space to host these files for digital download and it wastes a LOT of money to make physical copies if they don't sell well. :/
@@WeebaLu Aah shoot, I forgot about server hosting. Dang :( Feels a bit like they died then. (Cough cough aside from obtaining them in certain ways cough cough-)
I like to know the link where you found piko I'm trying to collect many of the hardcopies vers of vocaloid software I have all 5 of the V1s and have just V2 vers of miku, len & rin act 2,and Luka v2 & v4x. btw do anyone know where I can get a hard copy any of the internet co V2? (gumi,gackpo,and lily) there hard to find
I found him on eBay around the time they announced he was discontinued. I was curious how much current copies were going for and saw that listing come up in the first 3 results. I think someone actually bought him for that outrageous price because I couldn't find it anymore when I was looking it up for this video! Unfortunately, Internet Co discontinued a large majority of their V2 voicebanks because their V3's are the exact same voicebank just clearer and less choppy. However, Amazon Japan has a copy of Gakupo V2 left! www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B001B6IQVM I recommend looking at Mandarake, Yahoo Auction Japan, Amazon Japan and eBay to find V2 Vocaloids. Sometimes people on Twitter will sell their copies as well but not as often.
@@ookamitadashiotaku8571 You can but I believe you have to use a proxy service and a VPN? There's tutorials for that online as people use Amazon Japan to purchase craft materials and figures :)
Hm...I don't see how that makes much sense when Piko's voice recordings were done a long time ago and Sony made it very clear for nearly a decade that Piko would never receive any updates or additional voicebanks. Just by that logic, Gakupo should also be discontinued because Gackt has severe health issues right now with his vocal chords and stomach.
Largely the PS Vita is region free. Sony implemented the same region locking scheme as the PSP and PS3, where publishers were allowed to shoe-horn it in at will. So it's likely V2 Lite may run fine.
Rin and Len act 1 gives me a headache whenever people use that voice bank, and I’m more susceptible to headaches than other people :S So, the song in question has to be Act 2, Append, or V4x for me to listen to them.
Akaza *is* Unity-chan. It's similar to the sisters in Synth V where they share the same voicebank! I believe that for Akaza in particular, they recommend achieving her character voice by lowering Unity-chan's.
Is SeeU discontinued? I know that BigHit is the owner and that the VA of her got caught into a lot of legal trouble but I don't know if the company discontinued her
Ya know, after some comments on this video, I'm not really sure. I swear she was up on the Vocaloid store page a few months ago but I haven't heard the company say anything about it. Someone recently bought a physical copy of SeeU's deluxe package so maybe they had to take her digital option down and can only do physical orders right now? A real mystery!
She was up for physical sales on CharacterPlanet and would often be restocked There’s been a change for who works with some of the licensing for her and Uni recently too and they’ve teased a few things but we’re not really sure what
The cover I'm thinking of in particular was well over a decade ago at this point, I think, but if there's another cover then it could be! I couldn't really pinpoint an exact time the love of Piko came about, it just sort of happened.
Two notes!
1: I was incorrect about Vocaloid 2's editor. As many extremely helpful people pointed out, Vocaloid 2 voicebanks came with the editor. My mistake for that and I do apologize!
2: This video was made literally right before Yamaha surprised everyone with Vocaloid 6 and due to my own scheduling for videos, I wasn't able to edit in this video discussing Vocaloid 6's release. Point still stands that a Miriam V6 voicebank would be incredible!
You know so much it’s astounding I really love what you did in this video plz make more, I would love to know more vocaloid history
Vocaloid2 editor came with their voice discs... It was a windows Vista time...
ua-cam.com/video/Un4A0d-8jfQ/v-deo.htmlsi=aJ3Z1N4WD4eRKKNh
As much as pirated Vocaloid is frowned upon, it's pretty much the only way to use these great Vocaloids.
-I love using Piko, don't shoot me, I buy all of my other Vocaloids-
When it comes to discontinued vocals I say go ham. Avoid making money off the pirated copies but otherwise make covers, songs, talkloids. It’s keeping vocals like him alive!
I HEAVILY agree with Izzy! My main reasoning for being okay with pirated Vocaloids is because the people who pirate them can't afford them in the first place. Technically, it's not a loss customer or support if they can't afford the product in the first place.
Plus like, a LOT of Vocaloid producers started out pirating and then went to purchase the official product. Circus-P actually pirated Kaito V1 and Miki for Insanity as well as Luka V2 for his first song.
Same
He's the only one I've ever really done that to, I got into vocaloid just before his 10th anniversary in 2020 and my friend shown me the song "My Own" and I was like holy shit I want him to be my first vocaloid
Then they told me what happened and I got really sad and spent like
A month trying to force the SynthV Saki to sound like him before I caved and searched up the best way to illegaly obtain him
I used pirated vocaloids just for fun to make songs using them. I didn't put it on youtube or get anything out of it, I just wanted to learn a bit about how it works and about making music in general. This was really long ago, 4-6 years maybe.
How can i pirate vocaloid4 gumi
Piko’s sudden fame was probably in 2016 with the meme squad era lol 😂 but yeah I wished he was still sold 😔
I guess let it be known Fukase resurrected interest in Piko! XD
Still don't know how sony didn't take that as "We should make Piko V4"
Or AHS going "Let's buy Piko!"
@@15_heidune72 yeah like AHS did but the macne license, they could buy piko 🤔
@@NanaMelodica I need a popular tumblr person to screenshot this and put the caption "Like to charge, reblog to cast"
@@IgirlbossedTooCloseToTheSun 😳
The vocaloid 2 engine comes with v2 voicebanks. I wish they had bundled all the other editors like they did with v2
My mistake there! Woops! I don't own any V2 voicebanks so I didn't know.
Yeah or at least provide a lite version like tiny vocaloid 3 editor or piapro studio for v4x
@@NanaMelodica Piapro Studio for v4x isn't a life version of Vocaloid 4
@@Luke-ts8ck by « lite » I meant « it’s like the software but more limited ». Piapro for v4x acts like a vocaloid 4 editor « lite » in a way.
@@NanaMelodica I guess? I mean, it does only work with a DAW, but it's pretty much V4 but EVEC is easier to use
As someone who was around when Piko's popularity suddenly spiked, his popularity also has to do with the sudden spike in popularity of his voice provider (e.i. a lot of pre-teens being a little too excited about him)
As someone who really likes Piko's voice and is looking to try out Vocaloid in the future (I'm probably gonna buy Oliver), it breaks my heart that he was discountinued like this. It doesn't really help that I'm broke so I can't really buy a voicebank that costs more than a PS5.
Yo ho ho!☠️
@@undertale-perseverance I would but that would require me to learn an entire foreign language
@@undertale-perseverance I'm probably gonna download SynthV in the near future, especially now that I can use Teto, because she would have been all I would have used Utau for anyway
Translation is a thing btw@@Lady_ETHNE
@@Leah_Lusdoc I think I was talking about UTAU here, and I was told you need to know some Japanese to even use it (like Hiragana and Katakana). Like I know some Japanese now (日本語をちょっと話する) but I still don’t wanna use UTAU because I still suck at SynthV
Actually Miriam Stockley WANTED to record a V4 MIRIAM but Zero-G basically ignored her wish! A shame I know ;__;
Oh noooo!!! Dx
Tbh the othet part there was Yamaha making things difficult, that and english vocaloid sales not being terrific anyways
@@wyster14 Even though they aren't, Yamaha's astronomical update licenses don't help the case for any Vocaloid lol
@@WeebaLu oh absolutely, they tried to corner the vocaloid market, and ended up killing the entire thing
Eh, she could always make an utauloid for everyone who loves her
Rana's purpose was to be used as a special tutorial vocaloid through the magazines for as along as the it was issued (the final issue had her permanent activation code). She was meant to be used by aspiring vocaloid producers with little music and tuning knowledge. This was the business plan from the beginning and the original team behind her didn't plan it that far to release her as a regular bank.
If i am not mistaken, her original developers pretty much left her there after that. Bplats, the distribution company of Yamaha themselves bought her voicebank and updated it to Vocaloid 4, along with other characters they adopted (ex. azuki, matcha, nana and galaco)
I adore Kaito and Meiko. It's a shame they don't get more love.
some notes about piko bc i'm very hyperfixated on him
- he and miki were originally developed by a company called heartfast, not ki/oon, ki/oon is the company that piko's voice provider worked for and helped release the voicebank
- piko was discontinued simply because he ran out of stock, all v2 voicebanks stopped having codes produced for them in late 2015 so piko was discontinued simply because they ran out of codes
WOAAA i love reading ab ppls hyperfixations!!
can you share more piko facts in regard to ur hyperfixation? im also a massive piko fan and wanna hear more :333
@@XxX_J41M13_XxX I'm not sure how many facts I have that you wouldn't already know, but here's a few I can think of off the top of my head ^^
- Piko has a code similar to Miki's "SFA-2" code, his is "KSRW-1"
- his shirt/tunic design is based on one of Yamaha's electric guitars (RGX A2)
- he has an official sakura themed design that was released at one of his voice provider's events
- another drawing of Utatane Piko was featured recently at one of his VP's newer events too :) (which I think is his first somewhat official art in like. forever)
and then kinda a funny one, it's possible that CircusP/VocaCircus is the one who bought the last copy of Piko, as he says Piko was sold out ever since he got his copy, and the dates line up (Purchased him in June 2020, discontinuation was found out about in August 2020)
@@clover7183 i actually didnt kniw any of this at all! would you mind dropping some links for the sakura design and his most recent appearence at his vps event? id lobe to see!
RIP to these voice banks, but now this is where Piracy seems to be a good thing when companies don't care one bit about their product and never archive them at all...this can be served as a back up if a company gets bankrupt due to how poor some of the vocaloid is marketed, like let's face it... some of it is due to poor marketing.. it's the only way possible now even if piracy and bootlegging is awful... but in terms of software prog. this is actually pretty important since specific voices, cannot be replaced, same with how a specific program runs.
PS. this is the first time i have seen how debuting of Rana seems to be quite..... unneccessary 30 vol. just to learn and get the product... feels like a quest you don't even want.
I wonder if Mew is still alive.
I've been involved in the vocaloid fandom since 2008, and just gotta say that I love your video! There was a point in time where I could name all of the vocaloids in existence but that's probably about a decade ago now... It's super nice to see someone talking about older vocaloids and keeping their memory alive! I honestly would love to talk to newbies and educate them on a little vocaloid history since a lot of is lost to time and only people who were active in the fandom back then seem to remember...
A little tidbit, you probably should've mentioned Galaco! She was one of my favorites of the lesser known vocaloids and I absolutely fell in love with her design back in the day! Unfortunately she was a private vocaloid so the original voicebank is probably lost. I remember she got a public release shortly after her private voicebank was going to be discontinued, with new artwork done by KEI!
I'm certainly a vocaloid boomer lol
Fan since 2012 here, I remember when older and more unknown Vovaloids were featured in MMD dramas. I miss those days...
Galaco’s price voicebank effectively became her Red vb in her public release. It was a direct port, if anything they cleaned up the vb a bit to make her slightly smoother
Honestly I've been looking for hours and days literally for Lola Leon Miriam and the original Meiko and Kaito. I couldn't even find them anywhere I've searched everywhere and I couldn't find any of them-
@@TakoyakiDonuts well I didn't know that-
@@TakoyakiDonuts uah???? What?
Kitsune Neo is available but it takes a lot of steps for doing V1s I think
@@IgirlbossedTooCloseToTheSun yep, still on sale
@@TakoyakiDonuts woah
V1 was still on sale from 3rd party sellers for a while. One of them having an unofficial clearence sale through social media. That was how I got them. Also V6 is amazing.
This is one that I was hoping you'd maybe bring up because she's an interesting case, but another discontinued voicebank is Akikoloid-chan. She was only ever distributed privately to those who had permission by her company, but supposedly she was even one of the first V3 vocaloid voicebanks. Looking at her wiki, it says she's "retired," which likely means that her company isn't distributing her anymore. Additionally, due to being a privately distributed voicebank, it's likely that her bank may become lost media. However, examples of what she sounds like is still out there, such as Manbo-P's song "Meat Meets Girl," where they use Akikoloid-chan
Akikoloid-chan was actually in my video called "Unreleased Vocaloids"!
Piko is a strange situation of Sony not understanding how people use Vocaloid software. By taking down anyone sharing the demo's, not only did it destroy exposure for the voicebank, it also instilled fear into people using it, that Sony might actually strike them.
Rule of thumb for Vocaloid: You're better off letting people make what they want with it. You can ContentID verbatim uses of music, but the minute you start taking down things, that signals that the claimed copyright holder is openly hostile, and never use it.
Piko was such a good vocaloid 😔 he had so much potential i swear
When i saw Rin in the thumbnail,i litteraly got a jumpscare lol
Same lol
Syphn makes some awesome covers with Rin act 1!
I agree!!! I LOVE Sphn's Rin Act 1 covers!
One of the Vocaloids I’m sad got discontinued, was SeeU.
She has a really cute voice, and a really good design, with that giant as heck hair. And I’m sad to see her go soo quickly :(
Released on V3, then never saw any updates….
KEI actually fixed a few more design issues with Rin and Len’s ACT2 illustration as well! One of them being the placement of Rin’s bent leg, as in the ACT1 design it’s disproportionate and looks odd lol
I'm thankful that I bought Piko out of circumstance way back when I first started as a producer. If I remember correctly, at the time, Piko was the only voicebank that you could buy internationally through Amazon JP. So I purchased him along with Sonika to get my voicebank collection started.
I still keep an old Windows 7 PC around for Piko and my other V2 voicebanks.
I’m honestly really upset at Sony, I’m pretty sure they could’ve made bank from selling him to a different prominent Vocaloid company! He had SO much potential with his emotion and wide vocal range!
Now I’m sad imagining Piko being bought by AHS Software 😢 Piko was long my favourite Vocaloid, and it makes me so sad that he’s gone, I wish Sony would sell his rights to someone else, they get money, Piko gets a new home.
Seeu getting discontinued is sad, now uni is all alone.
As someone who works with SeeU and put a track out FOR HER SPECIFICALLY,
I really am just absolutely heartbroken that she's just.. done. Never gonna get an update. I love her voice but it makes me sad too.
Don't do crime kids.
Especially if you are a Vocaloid VP.
Same here, especially when you can see just how much her company wanted to do with her but are now stuck because her voice provider basically fucked over her own reputation.
Probably explains why they made Uni in the first place!
You really can't get it otherwise so DO THE CRIME
piko's popularity (and probs his dedictaed following) also stemmed by his VB being off of a popular singer of the same name (like FUKASE being based off Sekai no Owar's Fukase), so I assumed the companies for both just hoped releasing a voicebank off of a popular singer would be enough advertisement
Oh btw, vocaloid 2 editor is sold bundled with v2 voicebank 😅
I use windows 10 and vocaloid 2 editor works fine 👍🏽
My mistake!
That's good it works though! I use V4 and V5 so I'm pretty much a noob to how V2 works.
0:45 I am doomed to find Omori everywhere (but hey, at least it's Stardust Diving)
Surprised that Anri Rune doesn't tend to pop up in these discussions.
Anri was technically a vocaloid, but EXCLUSIVELY used by a Japanese network for their bumpers. And when they stopped using those, that was it. Anri's voice bank is essentially lost media that, sadly, may never be found.
Vocaloid Wiki got snippy at me for saying it but I still wish Anri was thrown a bone, be it her voicebank being leaked or just getting a new life elsewhere.
Piracy is no party
Unless it's a Nico Nico Cho Party
It’s good to know Sweet An and Prima are still sold. They are my fave English vocaloids third fave is Miriam though… rip ….
Also ppl saying Miriam sounds like Oliver. Yet if I said Oliver sounds like Miriam I’d be the bad guy. 🤨
It's so sad that LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM never really got the love from Zero-G or the wider Vocaloid fan base over all. The history this 3 VBs hold is enormous and I wish they could lived on though the years as update standard professional banks.
Though you are right that do somewhat live on in (Cyber Diva/ Songman, Amy/Chris, and Sarah/ Allen. Hell with Allen being almost the closest to LEON'S vocal range) R.I.P to are iconic robotic soul singers.
honestly I've been forever sad that Ring Suzune never came to be. She had the potential to give Miku a true run for her money. (I remember actively following Ring and Lui's development..until it just stopped)
If Rin and Len are discontinued I might drop my Fandom for Vocaloid.
They're not discontinued, only their very first act 1 voicebank for vocaloid 2 is. Their act 2 voicebank is still available for purchase and so are their V4 voicebanks thankfully :')
Puting my fav vocaloid characters in the thumbnail really did scare the heck outta me lol
Surprisingly, the PS Store for PSVITA is still up (at least in North America) outliving the Wii U/3DS e-shop. And PSVITA is not region locked. I have a North American game, a European game, and 2 Japanese games on my system and the all work very well.
"Where he would have a quiet release, almost as bad if not worse than Fukase"
I know they're inanimate and don't exist but
😞🙁 poor bastards
Edit: the reason that he has a cult following is because his design is gender as hell.
Same thing with Fukase and Flower
If I woke up looking like them I would be so happy
Apparently miriams vp has expressed interest in a miriam update, she was even supposed to for V4 along with Sonika but ZeroG ran into complications financially.
i legit cried when i heard the news that piko was discontinued
Cool video chronicling the history of vocaloid. I'm mostly familiar with the most popular vocaloids, so it would have been cool to hear some short samples from their most popular songs or just hear them sing simple do-re-mi or something in the editor. I came here from a random UA-cam recommendation and will check what else you have on your channel. 😊 Have a great day!
Thank you so much!!! Vocaloid is a deep passion of mine so I plan to cover more content in the future of course! I'm just a bit tied when it comes to obscure voicebanks as I don't own pretty much almost every obscure voicebank. That and copyright issues prevent me from sharing the audio of songs I did not make, which really sucks!
Utatane Piko's discontinuation makes me sad. He's such a great VB and it's because of his voice provider, Piko. Piko's range and falsetto is god-like. He can sound EXACTLY like a woman while singing.
I got recommended this video at random and although I'm not particularly interested in vocaloids, the way you presented the information was very fascinating regardless.
Also your voice is really cute.
This is a great video! Good to know what is going on with Vocaloid, new and from the past.
not a vocaloid but im so sad about meiji being discontinued
funny how 1 dispute with a bussiness partner does that
Even if they are discontinued. They are still popular
I knew about poor Piko already, (because gosh darn it all I love Piko and his many voices, going from Shota Shota Island to even lower than Gakupo) but I didn't know you couldn't get ACT 1 Rin/Len anymore, that honestly sucks too. I like their robotic tones from the old days. I also did not know that V1 banks had so much trouble running today, that is probably the most distressing thing I learned from this. I LOVE V1 Meiko and Kaito, their V3 banks are good too, and I do like those, but they just sound so different from the V1 banks.
I wish people would realize that not everyone can afford them.
You earned a new sub
i purchased pikos voicebank from hmv books about a month ago... it cost me $120... it still hasnt shipped yet :(
I'm so sorry it hasn't shipped! D:
I pray to the vocaloid gods he will arrive to you soon 🙏 🥲
Its a shame to discontinue Miriam, Leon and Lola because they aere also prominent characters in the Story of Evil. Although there probably will no longer be any more Evilious videos comig along, they do have some nostalia value.
Just an FYI if you really wanna make these older vocaloid banks work on newer computers you can run older versions of Windows OS. OR just use an older computer.
Lots of retro PC gamers use these techniques to play old games. And yeah we have 'issues" with piracy too.
Very true! However, a lot of people don't really have that kind of skill to run 2 operating systems on one PC but thank you! Maybe someone can get inspired to learn ^o^
Older Vocaloid vbs actually do work on newer computers without the need for any of that!
I have a windows 10 computer and I’m able to run V1 and V2 without issue
Don’t mind me, just learning more about my new fandom and vibing to the omori music in the background :))
*I hear you stardust diving*
I love Omori and it's soundtrack! ^o^
@@WeebaLu yeah me too!
If the vocaloid anime ever gets released they better include all the vocaloid and some of the Utaus especially Teto
Wait, wasn't act2 rin and len worse than act1? act 2 sounds way more choppier and with worse quality than act 1, the one vociebanks that sounds better are append, not act2, i have all of them (piracy cuz poor) and act2 is actually more difficult to use than act1 because of the choppiness
Yeah, I have Rin Len ACT1 and it's wayy better than ACT2. ACT2 sounds like if Rin and Len swallowed a pillow, they're voices are soo muffled.
Anyways Rin Act 1 >>> Every Rin voicebank ever made
@@hatsune_v4x443 I agree, act1 rin is superior
Hunie Cam music! Not judging, I still play. It makes me feel like I want to create something, and the art style is cute in my opinion.
DAMN I HAGENT SEEN YOU IN AWHILE
I’m not really knowledgeable about vocaloid other than they have good songs but I wish they used Gakupo though… I really like his voice ngl
A lot of producers do use Gakupo but you're right that not a lot of them use just him. A shame because he's my favorite male voicebank!
That was interesting !
watching this while waiting for digital stars to end so i can actually watch miku expo rewind plus
Piko was my favorite Vocaloid I’m so sad he got discontinued
Anyone remember "It's Dark"?
I dont know if this was the reason he was popular with other people, but i personally got into piko because his voice was provided by PIKO, same reason as IA (voiced by LIA)- from a non-technical standpoint, that was why I looked into songs where he was used. I honestly don’t know how common the crossover appeal for fans of musical artists to their vocaloid counterparts is/was
I love all vocaloids ❤It's such a shame these can't be gotten legally anymore 😢
We must save piko!
GHOST's got that settled
Just lemme ask them (They go by they/he btw)
Trust me I'll ask them!
i still wonder why when first Kaito came out not many people loved him :(
I remember the first Piko song I heard it was a duet but it was still the first song
And it will be going on my list of vocaloid songs that will forever haunt me
*Shota Shota Island*
I always thought Piko's popularity gain was from people finding out that the singer PIKO was the one who voiced him. This video has made me reconsider if I was just in a specific fandom bubble back then lol
Question- Does YOHIOloid's voicebank still considers as discontinued? (idk im curious lol) (Also if he is not- then how do I buy it :,))
Nope! He's still available for purchase on PowerFX' website!
powerfx.com/products/yohioloid
@@WeebaLu alright Ty!
He was discontinued????
@@IgirlbossedTooCloseToTheSun Nope! Yohio is still available. Check my comment above for PowerFX' website link to Yohio for purchase :)
Technically i thought he was discontinued due to the vp's drama issue but I don't have the full contact of what happened there (on twitter)
A moment of silence for Piko enjoyers
Holy crap i was scared when i saw the thumbnail. Thank goodness they didnt discontinue rin and len entirely. I am too quick to believe stuff lol.
10:28 luckily the vita doesn't have a region lock !
Oh thank goodness! :D
I have an English ps Vita and I can safely say that it is not region locked. I am usually able to play the Japanese version of project diva f, F2nd, and X on my vita.
4:48 SONY Japan Fundamentally misunderstands how Vocaloids became popular and how and why they are embraced. More at 11.
Honestly I think Kaito v1 with no tuning/ improper tuning sounds like Kermit the Frog
With the vocaloid2 engine, the engine i dont believe was sold as much on its own because the v2 vocaloids came with the engine themselves so you wouldn't have to buy the editor separately. (I own physicals for piko, lily v2, tonio, luka v2)
V2 was never sold on its own anyway, it was always bundled with voicebanks
I saw the thumbnail and SOBBED
Imagine piko synthv
yknow they're hiding every NT VB apart from Miku from us, right???? there are Rin NT, Luka NT, Len NT, KAITO NT and MEIKO NT in development and used for project sekai virtual singer covers to put in the game, but cfm, yamaha, craft egg, colorful palette and sega are hiding everything from us
Yeah I've always noticed that vsingers sound so weird in covers and sekai covers, especially if they're on their own singing.
im sorry i just stumbled on this video and i heard omori music and i went FERAL for a hot second and that literally got me to watch the rest of the video lol
You were right I could not find the Rin and Len act 1 anywhere!
I agree vocaloid has improve so much since v1 one era. v1 sounds like chip speech synths It think biggest improvement was v1 to 2v. There was improvement form v2 to v3 which English Vocaloids started sounded some human. then very little improvement form v3 to 4v. then v4 to v5.
sucks that these are discontinued 😭😭😭
Does that mean this will effect miku type games that have em in it? Like project diva project sekai etc.
Not at all! For Project Sekai, though, Crypton does like to use the prototype for Kaito and Meiko NT so all of them are "up to date" Crypton voicebanks.
managed to get kagamine act 1 a few months ago (and it came with an update disk for act 2 as well) and while its more choppy, act 1 has a better tone/clarity compared to act 2
its sad cuz i love piko hes one of my favourites
3:45 shota shota island…
Mfs really be getting mad at piracy when crypton be charging they shit to high hell even years after demand has gone down
They really do. Like, not everyone has $200-$500+ to spend on voicebank bundles that have been around for half a decade at this point. Especially minors in the community who have a crazy amount of talent but obviously not any money to purchase the programs they want to show their talent to the world.
It does make me appreciate Zero-G because when they're voicebanks are on sale, they're SUPER affordable! I know someone who bought Dex for $30 which is super awesome!
I dunno, I'm someone who believes that EVERYONE should have a chance to enjoy something, even if it means a bootleg or pirating.
Why not just let people buy the discontinued ones anyways? even if they become outdated?
I have my old Fukase I bought some years ago, idk if he got any updates since but I love him; however I'm not gonna buy a new one again. I'll stick with my boi through thick and thin. (Tbf I haven't been following the community much ever since I 'grew out of it', I've just used my Fukase to make songs for myself. So idk where we're at now, I got him with V4 tho)
Vocaloid is an already obscure engine so I think the idea with companies is that it wastes money on server space to host these files for digital download and it wastes a LOT of money to make physical copies if they don't sell well. :/
@@WeebaLu Aah shoot, I forgot about server hosting. Dang :( Feels a bit like they died then. (Cough cough aside from obtaining them in certain ways cough cough-)
I like to know the link where you found piko I'm trying to collect many of the hardcopies vers of vocaloid software I have all 5 of the V1s and have just V2 vers of miku, len & rin act 2,and Luka v2 & v4x. btw do anyone know where I can get a hard copy any of the internet co V2? (gumi,gackpo,and lily) there hard to find
I found him on eBay around the time they announced he was discontinued. I was curious how much current copies were going for and saw that listing come up in the first 3 results. I think someone actually bought him for that outrageous price because I couldn't find it anymore when I was looking it up for this video!
Unfortunately, Internet Co discontinued a large majority of their V2 voicebanks because their V3's are the exact same voicebank just clearer and less choppy.
However, Amazon Japan has a copy of Gakupo V2 left! www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B001B6IQVM
I recommend looking at Mandarake, Yahoo Auction Japan, Amazon Japan and eBay to find V2 Vocaloids. Sometimes people on Twitter will sell their copies as well but not as often.
@@WeebaLu thanks for the info I don't know if Amazon japan ships to the US might have to look into that.
@@ookamitadashiotaku8571 You can but I believe you have to use a proxy service and a VPN? There's tutorials for that online as people use Amazon Japan to purchase craft materials and figures :)
So cool!, New sub!
i love pikos voice and i want to get vocoloid and woulda loved his voice 😭😭
Piko was discontinued due to his CV having kidney surgery
Hm...I don't see how that makes much sense when Piko's voice recordings were done a long time ago and Sony made it very clear for nearly a decade that Piko would never receive any updates or additional voicebanks.
Just by that logic, Gakupo should also be discontinued because Gackt has severe health issues right now with his vocal chords and stomach.
@@WeebaLu that's just what I've seen
yahoo auction japan has so many vocaloids for cheap, i got v2 miku for 60dollar and it was it GREAT condition
That's incredible!!! :D
Wow!
How much does Miku cost?! If 60 is cheap?!
@@Hatsune-Miku_Fan Depends on the voicebank but roughly Miku V2 can be purchased for about $130+
Largely the PS Vita is region free. Sony implemented the same region locking scheme as the PSP and PS3, where publishers were allowed to shoe-horn it in at will. So it's likely V2 Lite may run fine.
Rin and Len act 1 gives me a headache whenever people use that voice bank, and I’m more susceptible to headaches than other people :S
So, the song in question has to be Act 2, Append, or V4x for me to listen to them.
Hi what happened to akaza unity chan sister ?
Akaza *is* Unity-chan. It's similar to the sisters in Synth V where they share the same voicebank! I believe that for Akaza in particular, they recommend achieving her character voice by lowering Unity-chan's.
Guys. A few words if u want them.
El Rincon Del Kitsune.
Best website ever
Lilith was the reason i gave a crap about vocaloid in the first place she is by far my favourite
as a Mega Ryuto/Gachapoid fanboy it indeed sucks the killed him off so fast
He’s still available to be bought
Ah fuk yeah my boy is to wonderfully to die in more ways then one
Is SeeU discontinued? I know that BigHit is the owner and that the VA of her got caught into a lot of legal trouble but I don't know if the company discontinued her
Ya know, after some comments on this video, I'm not really sure. I swear she was up on the Vocaloid store page a few months ago but I haven't heard the company say anything about it.
Someone recently bought a physical copy of SeeU's deluxe package so maybe they had to take her digital option down and can only do physical orders right now? A real mystery!
She was up for physical sales on CharacterPlanet and would often be restocked
There’s been a change for who works with some of the licensing for her and Uni recently too and they’ve teased a few things but we’re not really sure what
Didn't Piko become popular with the cover of pomp and circumstance?
The cover I'm thinking of in particular was well over a decade ago at this point, I think, but if there's another cover then it could be! I couldn't really pinpoint an exact time the love of Piko came about, it just sort of happened.