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MIRIAM is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by Zero-G Limited, and was released in July 2004 for the first VOCALOID engine. She is Zero-G's third installment. MIRIAM is advertised as a "virtual female vocalist" modeled on the voice of the popular South African-born British singer and composer, Miriam Stockley.

Concept[]

Etymology[]

MIRIAM's name was based off her voice provider, "Miriam Stockley".

The name "Miriam" is the Hebrew variant of the name "Mary", which itself has an uncertain origin. The name is often associated with things such as "a rebellious nature" or even more drastically, "bitterness" or "sea of bitterness." However, some other interpretations include "wished for child." The name probably originates from Egypt in the sense that "mry" could have been derived from its Egyptian meaning of "beloved".[1]

Appearance[]

Much like the VOCALOIDs LEON and LOLA, MIRIAM has no concept design. The boxart shows a picture of her voice provider created by british photographer Simon Fowler, with a blurry and cold effect applied to it.

History[]

Marketing[]

MIRIAM was sold as a more general voicebank rather than as a genre driven voicebank like LEON and LOLA, though she was still aimed at professionals. Unlike previous VOCALOIDs, MIRIAM was also released at the same time as Virsyn's Cantor software and comparisons between the two were noted. This put MIRIAM at a slight disadvantage during her original time of release, as LEON and LOLA did not have any competition and VOCALOID was not yet popular software. Cantor was considered a far greater synthesizing tool than VOCALOID and was able to do what MIRIAM could not offer; this impacted sales. She had been sold as any other software of the time and had no fandom to back her initial release. MIRIAM was the most well-known Zero-G VOCALOID while she was available and the most promoted of the voicebanks offered, though most promotions were carried out by the professional users of the software. Unlike LEON and LOLA she was only sold in Europe because they had troubles selling in America.

For a period she, along with LEON and LOLA, were not for sale due to the lack of interest in synthesized voices. This lack of interest was owed to the sudden change in indie music trends. After increased interest began to occur in VOCALOIDs and there was renewed demand, Zero-G began reselling LEON, LOLA, and MIRIAM from their own website via their virtual shop. According to a Zero-G interview in 2010, the three may also get a redesign in the future, though as of their retirement this never occurred.[2]

Concert[]

The very first "concert" featuring a VOCALOID was with MIRIAM. This was held in Novosibirsk, Russia, on December 26, 2004. She performed one song, a cover of "Sad Mondays", with live musicians.[3]

Voicebanks[]

MIRIAM
MIRIAM was based on the voice of her provider Miriam Stockley and gave producers a sweet, clear and high pitched vocal. Due to developments during the life time, MIRIAM was the highest quality English vocal for the engine. MIRIAM was the only original "VOCALOID" vocal released for the engine in addition, as all others were either former Project Daisy vocals or moved over to VOCALOID2.

Reputation[]

Sales[]

It is unknown how many units were sold, but as KAITO was the only commercial VOCALOID failure reported, it is safe to say she sold at least 1,000 units.

Despite the English V1 trio being removed from sale, Miriam remained on sale as a mail only DL until November 2015. At this point, all serial codes for her software had been sold and it was no longer possible to obtain her software. With the end of her sales, it was still noted that she was the first of the English V1 trio to have every serial code be bought.[4]

Reaction[]

MIRIAM was often considered the most appealing vocal of the English VOCALOID engine and was normally the most popular with the overseas fandom. Despite being the most popular English VOCALOID overseas, in Japan, it is LOLA who often dominates over MIRIAM.

Impact[]

Miriam had one of the best responses of all the original VOCALOID voicebanks. Support for an update to her software was often largely expressed by fans over the years, especially after its retiremnet. Huge support was often shown both from them and Miriam Stockley herself when fans were asked about VOCALOID vocals, sometimes over newer vocals.[5][6]

Misc[]

In the niconico International VOCALOID ranking 2010, MIRIAM made the least amount of appearances in the top 30 most popular songs of 2010, with just 1 video appearance in the rankings. Together, LEON and LOLA had a combined total of 9 appearances compared to MIRIAM.[7]

An independent search on niconico revealed that most VOCALOIDs had less than 1,000 videos uploaded on niconico in 2011 between July 1st and December 15th. MIRIAM also fell into that category.[8]

As the years continued, Zero-G has kept their Twitter updated with audio and instrumental products announcements. And while they have expressed no desires to update or release VOCALOID products, they have acknowledged those who continually requested for information or updates to MIRIAM.[9] In March 2019 Zero-G was brought to attention about illegal versions of their software involving UTAU. Users are not permitted to illegally use her for such software.[10]

Trivia[]

  • She is the first of Zero-G VOCALOIDs whose voice provider is known. Zero-G does not normally name their voice providers for legal reasons.
  • LOLA, MIRIAM, and BIG AL were slated to be featured in the original soundtrack of freeware RPG "Ad Lucem". The project remains unfinished.[11]

Achievements[]

  • First VOCALOID based on an established singer to be released
  • First VOCALOID to be named after the vocal provider
  • First known voice provider for a commercial release
  • The first English VOCALOID from Zero-G whose voice provider was revealed
  • First VOCALOID to have a live concert

References[]

External links[]

Articles[]

Navigation[]

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