Discontinued Vocaloids 

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!

Piko’s sudden fame was probably in 2016 with the meme squad era lol 😂 but yeah I wished he was still sold 😔

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-

The vocaloid 2 engine comes with v2 voicebanks. I wish they had bundled all the other editors like they did with v2

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)

I adore Kaito and Meiko. It's a shame they don't get more love.

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.

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)

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.

Actually Miriam Stockley WANTED to record a V4 MIRIAM but Zero-G basically ignored her wish! A shame I know ;__;

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

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

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-

Nice to see you address how much elitism exists in the voca fandom, it's like people have no sense of nuance and all cases of piracy are equated to being a cartoon villain, even though there's instances like this one where it is quite literally is the only way someone can use a voicebank at all.

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

When i saw Rin in the thumbnail,i litteraly got a jumpscare lol

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.

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….

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

Syphn makes some awesome covers with Rin act 1!

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.

and dont even get me started on the discontinued UTAUs..... i cry everytime...

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.

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

"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

If Rin and Len are discontinued I might drop my Fandom for Vocaloid.

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.

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)

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

Seeu getting discontinued is sad, now uni is all alone.

Piracy is no party Unless it's a Nico Nico Cho Party

0:45 I am doomed to find Omori everywhere (but hey, at least it's Stardust Diving)

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.

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.

Oh btw, vocaloid 2 editor is sold bundled with v2 voicebank 😅 I use windows 10 and vocaloid 2 editor works fine 👍🏽

It’s good to know Sweet An and Prima are still sold. They are my fave English vocaloids third fave is Miriam though… rip ….

Even if they are discontinued. They are still popular

i legit cried when i heard the news that piko was discontinued

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.

I wish people would realize that not everyone can afford them.

not a vocaloid but im so sad about meiji being discontinued

Puting my fav vocaloid characters in the thumbnail really did scare the heck outta me lol

This is a great video! Good to know what is going on with Vocaloid, new and from the past.

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'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.

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 RU-vid recommendation and will check what else you have on your channel. 😊 Have a great day!

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.

If the vocaloid anime ever gets released they better include all the vocaloid and some of the Utaus especially Teto

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.

We must save piko!

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.

You earned a new sub

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.

Anyone remember "It's Dark"?

So cool!, New sub!

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.

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

I love all vocaloids ❤It's such a shame these can't be gotten legally anymore 😢

sucks that these are discontinued 😭😭😭

DAMN I HAGENT SEEN YOU IN AWHILE

That was interesting !

i purchased pikos voicebank from hmv books about a month ago... it cost me $120... it still hasnt shipped yet :(

Imagine piko synthv

watching this while waiting for digital stars to end so i can actually watch miku expo rewind plus

Hey Lu have you ever seen the magical girl anime precure if not then here's a brief explanation of it's essentially if magical girls used brute force and the animation is soo good although there are definitely some hit or miss moments in the animation it's still a great show especially the highly recommended seasons go princess and heart catch are great seasons and highly praised amongst the fandom the series has been running since 2004 so there's plenty to choose from. But sadly there are no English dubs well there is one in the Canadian English dub which follows the original very well and only just changes the location and names of the characters but that's about it and then there's what I can only tell us essentially if 4kids was still around dubbing anime. But there is a fandub of suite precure movie and it sounds official so there's that

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*

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

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*

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 saw the thumbnail and SOBBED

Piko was my favorite Vocaloid I’m so sad he got discontinued

You were right I could not find the Rin and Len act 1 anywhere!

A moment of silence for Piko enjoyers

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

Honestly I think Kaito v1 with no tuning/ improper tuning sounds like Kermit the Frog

i love pikos voice and i want to get vocoloid and woulda loved his voice 😭😭

U ate❤

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)

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.

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

Guys. A few words if u want them. El Rincon Del Kitsune.

Mfs really be getting mad at piracy when crypton be charging they shit to high hell even years after demand has gone down

its sad cuz i love piko hes one of my favourites

falls to the floor

4:48 SONY Japan Fundamentally misunderstands how Vocaloids became popular and how and why they are embraced. More at 11.

3:45 shota shota island…

Question- Does YOHIOloid's voicebank still considers as discontinued? (idk im curious lol) (Also if he is not- then how do I buy it :,))

im a very very happy leon owner

Vocaloid 6

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.

Does that mean this will effect miku type games that have em in it? Like project diva project sekai etc.

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.

Piko was discontinued due to his CV having kidney surgery

Lilith was the reason i gave a crap about vocaloid in the first place she is by far my favourite

10:28 luckily the vita doesn't have a region lock !

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)

PS Vita's physical game cartridges are region free. Language barrier might be an issue, though...