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YOHIOloid (ヨヒオロイド) is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by PowerFX Systems AB. in collaboration with VocaTone, and was released in September 2013 for the VOCALOID3 engine. He is voiced by the Swedish singer and songwriter, YOHIO, who provided an English and Japanese voicebank. He was expected to be released early May 2013, but was delayed.[3][4] He finally released in mid September 2013.

In 2021, VocaTone announced they dropped YOHIO from their list of vocal providers after some dissatisfactory political comments from the singer were made. Until this point, YOHIOloid was considered for an update to VocaTone's new software Maghni AI.[5][6][7] It was noted that this meant they no longer had to make a Swedish phonetic list for the software, hinting this was a language they would have covered with the update.[8]

Concept[]

Etymology[]

The name, "YOHIOloid", is taken from his provider "YOHIO" and 'loid' from "VOCALOID". The stage-name for the provider, "YOHIO", is taken from YOHIO's middle name, "Johio".

On VocaTone's Tumblr, it's mentioned that YOHIOloid has no given name. However, they talked about fans referring to him as "Hio" or "Yohi". It's also mentioned that members of VocaTone have often referred to him as "Hio" in official talks.[9]

The name in the reference sheets for the little creature alongside his official artwork is "CUBI".

Appearance[]

YOHIOloid was not a normal PowerFX VOCALOID release and as a result, YOHIOloid is the first PowerFX VOCALOID who is not confirmed to be "monster-themed".

The design was picked by YOHIO himself, so the final concept was driven by YOHIO's own personal preference.

Biography[]

YOHIOloid's personality is still left up for fans to decide. However, his illustrator, Sartika Nurhasanah, describes him as "friendly, easy going, and responsible" and that he sometimes "looks funny."[2]

Along with CUBI, YOHIOloid has many pets. A female cube who functions as a rewind button and a male cube who functions as a fast-forward button, and they are the younger siblings of CUBI. There is another cube that walks on four legs and is a rectangle, it functions as a box to store a microphone. The older sister of CUBI is a cat-like cube that constantly searches for information on the internet and the older brother of CUBI is a large bulky amp. His only non-technological pet is a black cat that wears a yellow ribbon.

Relations[]

  • CUBI - A floating robot that acts as YOHIOloid's CD Player.

History[]

Marketing[]

As with past PowerFX VOCALOIDs, YOHIOloid was discussed at Vocaloid Otaku forums within a news thread.[10]

Voicebanks[]

YOHIOloid - English
The English voicebank intended to capture the vocal traits of his provider YOHIO.
YOHIOloid - Japanese
The Japanese version of the vocal.
  • YOHIOloid (VOCALOID3), September 10, 2013

Reputation[]

Sales[]

In response to a fan, it was confirmed by PowerFX Systems AB that despite their best efforts, YOHIOloid did not sell well enough.[11]

In 2014, Crypton's download store Sonicwire reported he had been the 9th most sold VOCALOID product. He was also the most popular VOCALOID bought from the store that was not made by Crypton themselves.[12] While he was absent in 2015, he was in 9th position in their sales rankings in 2016, and again in 2018.[13][14]

Reaction[]

Though YOHIOloid was not as overall as well met as OLIVER, a couple of his demo songs received over 50,000+ views and most of them at least gained 10,000+ views, putting him above the VOCALOID2 English VOCALOID releases. Demo song "Moves like Jagger" later went on to achieve 100,000+ views, putting him on par with OLIVER's demo songs.

MusicTech magazine ranked YOHIOloid and the VOCALOID3 software as 7/10 and gave the overall package a good review.[15]

As a consequence of YOHIOloid not selling well, PowerFX later tried to focus on EDM producers with RUBY leading to yet a new direction for their VOCALOIDs.

Misc[]

In 2015 a survey was made based on the popularity of VOCALOIDs on the website niconico. For the year 2014, YOHIOloid was the 33rd most popular VOCALOID. This made him joint 4th least popular of the Japanese capable VOCALOIDs alongside anon & kanon and the 2nd most popular of the "Engloids".[16]

Achievements[]

  • First English VOCALOID to be bilingual
  • First bilingual VOCALOID from PowerFX

References[]

External links[]

Articles[]

Navigation[]

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