All CFM Voicebanks (Including Hatsune Miku) Are Leaving Vocaloid

TL;DR Yamaha won't even let people update vocaloid software and Crypton wants out.

I don't know how many people are Voice Synthesizer fans but given the Miku DD's popularity I thought I'd share the news.

I’ve found this whole thing really fascinating, although it’s kinda been a long time coming. As the thread points out it’s been pretty rare for years now that anything to do with Miku in terms of merchandising (ie the concerts and Project Diva) actually uses the term ‘vocaloid’ anywhere.

This also explains like...a lot. The constant new programs instead of patch updates I especially found bizarre so it’s good that Crypton can now (probably?) do patches now.

I look forward to seeing what happens! It’s just kinda awkward if you can’t really call Miku a vocaloid anymore.

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by Monty

Vocaloid is of course a Yamaha trademark so it can't be officially used anymore after the software changes. Unofficially, I expect everyone to still refer to Miku, Luka, Len, Rin, etc. as Vocaloids in the same way that Jello and Kool-aid are used for product types beyond the specific brands. Or, here in the US, how long ago people referred to refrigerators as "frigidares."

I'm going to call them Cryptonloids.

2 hours ago, Mega Negi said:

I'm going to call them Cryptonloids.

I've actually been calling them this all along to differentiate them from their less popular cousins. (Usually when I have to explain to someone why 'Vocaloid' itself isnt a license that Volks has, so just because they can release Miku/Rin/Len/Luka, doesn't mean they're ever going to release, say, Gumi as DD.)

Edited September 4, 2019 by Monty

I also feel that it's been a long time coming -- especially with some real competition on the market, I'm not surprised that CFM are ready to jump ship. Perhaps a new term will come up to encompass vocal synthesizer programs as whole? Vocasynth maybe? Songware? The fanbase as a whole tends to append -loid to things so it could be we all call them Vocaloids anyway -- I catch myself trying to call Synth-V and CeVIO products that all the time. 

Whatever form they take from here on out, I think this will be a positive change for creators and listeners at the end of the day. Miku is still big enough a product to fund whatever CFM do -- concerts included, and genuine competition from some strong synth products might prompt Yamaha to be less archaic in how they handle things. (CeVIO got IA, who was a big enough name to get her own concerts, and Synth-V is getting Yamine Renri as a voicebank, a pretty big name UTAU, plus Eleanor Forte's english is pretty solid.)

I'm excited to see what will come out of this! It was jarring for a moment, but now I'm excited.

Edit: didn't see the Twitter link at first, nvm! 

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Sorry for being so clueless about how this stuff works but does this mean that the software to make songs with Miku's voice will no longer be available? As in no more Miku songs? I haven't looked into vocaloid stuff in a while but I always had wanted to get Miku's vocaloid software at some point. Will that just be impossible now or would it just be bought from some other company? (forgive me as I'm not up to date on this at all and what I remember is from my teenage years) 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Starwaia

1 hour ago, Starwaia said:

Edit: didn't see the Twitter link at first, nvm! 

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Sorry for being so clueless about how this stuff works but does this mean that the software to make songs with Miku's voice will no longer be available? As in no more Miku songs? I haven't looked into vocaloid stuff in a while but I always had wanted to get Miku's vocaloid software at some point. Will that just be impossible now or would it just be bought from some other company? (forgive me as I'm not up to date on this at all and what I remember is from my teenage years) 

Vocaloid still exists, it was never owned by the company who make Miku (Crypton), it's owned by Yamaha.
Basically, there have been multiple versions of the vocaloid engine - Vocaloid 1 and 2 (2 is the one Miku debuted on) came with the voice banks, but starting with Vocaloid 3, you had to buy the Vocaloid program and the voice banks separate. (ie, if you by a Vocaloid3(or higher, they're up to 5 now) voicebank, it will not work if you dont have the Vocaloid 3 (etc) program to run it in - like buying a game without the console. As the the thread says, this is just one of the reasons why Crypton wanted out, because they felt you should only have to buy a voicebank.

So yeah Vocaloid will continue to exist and all previous versions of Miku and the other Cryptonloids also still exist (they probably will be discontinued at some point though). Miku/Rin/Len/Luka/Kaito will also continue to exist, but have a separate engine made by Crypton, so songs will continue to exist with the new software - although theres nothing stopping anyone making new songs with the old software either if they have it. People still make songs with the original Vocaloid2 engines after all.