Vocaloid 3

VOCALOID3 was first announced mid-2011 at a special invitation only event and was released following the popular VOCALOID2 engine. The release date was set for September 2011, however it was held back on several occusions and eventually released on October 21, 2011. This particular version had much early promotion and there were almost as many new voicebanks for it as there were in the entire VOCALOID2 range. YAMAHA also showed great interest in promoting its well established Japanese Vocaloid producer fanbase while expanding the usage of Vocaloid itself.

New languages were prepared in Spanish, Korean, and Chinese along with the Japanese and English VOCALOID line up. 

Yamaha's first attempt to revive the voice of a dead singer also has been made with Ueki-loid. However, due to the complexicity it is confirmed it will be a while before the same can be attempted for an English speaking vocal.

Vocaloid 3 editor SE boxart

 

Additional versions of the software were also released, including VOCALOID Editor for Cubase (including a "NEO" version), a updated "SE" (second edition) version and VOCALOID NEO. The SE version includes a larger number of Job Plug-ins then the original version, all of which were previously downloadable from the Yamaha website for free. Users who owned the original editor did not have to buy the SE edition as all new content was supply free of charge from Yamaha in the Vocaloid shop. Likewise, users who owned the Cubase version of the software did not need to buy the regular version of VOCALOID3 or the SE version. 

The Cubase version used any available vocal for the current VOCALOID2 and'VOCALOID3 compactable versions. In the case of "NEO" and "SE", some of the previously released VOCALOID3 vocals were re-released with new versions of the 'VOCALOID3 Lite version to match these engine updates. 

Some studios had expansion packs and updates intended for VOCALOID2 in development. The Vocaloid voicebanks known to have been affected by the release were Crypton's up coming male vocal, GUMI Megpoid's Extend, English Miku Hatsune, English Kaito, Luka Megurine's Append, Kaito Append and Meiko Append. However, after the announcement of VOCALOID3 these were delayed and released for VOCALOID3.

SeeU was also intended to have an English voicebank, but was released early so it could meet the VOCALOID3 initial release date without it; some phonetics for English were included in her Korean voicebank as a consequence.

Also, as of the start of VOCALOID3 more private vocals have been released, as well as new "exclusive" vocals given out. Although private licensing in this level is new, several private unreleased vocals were made in the VOCALOID2 era, further more, VOCALOID was not originally considered for commercial release at all. So the concepts behind this are nothing new.