VOCALOID is a DTM (Desktop Music) singing synthesizer engine developed by Yamaha Corporation in collaboration with Pompeu Fabra University.
VOCALOID products are created by various individual studios that develop voicebanks using the most current engine tools. The first set of synthesizer vocals was released in January 2004.
On August 31st, 2007, Hatsune Miku was released for the VOCALOID2 engine. As the first product in Crypton Future Media's Character Vocal Series, she was the first voicebank designed with an anime-styled avatar representing the singer of the voicebank. Her immediate and immense popularity led to nearly all future voicebanks following the same trend of having an anime-styled avatar, a trend that still continues to this day.
The popularity of VOCALOID has inspired the creation of similar products.
