Anime Zone

Kasane Teto (重音テト) was originally created as a troll "Vocaloid" by fans. Now she is a well-known synthesized vocal character for the free software UTAU, in some cases being more well known than some of the Vocaloids. Her surname 重音 (Kasane) has multiple meanings, which are "Piled-up Sound," "Double Sound," and "Heavy Sound." Her name テト (Teto) comes from Tetopettenson, a parody song of Le Beau Tambour. Although her voicebank is only for use in UTAU, many people still mistake her for a Vocaloid.

History

Following the rising popularity of Hatsune Miku, "Vippers" (Vip News Bulletin@2ch users) schemed a troll "new Vocaloid release" as an April Fool's joke. Sen (線) provided the rough sketch and Nobuyo Oyama, a spoof for Doraemon's former voice actress Nobuyo Ohyama, provided the vocal. The Teto project continued after the troll campaign, and her vocal was recorded again for the use on UTAU, which vocal synthesis software was released two months earlier. UTAU and Teto were both unnoticed among Vocaloid composers at first, but during the last half of the year several creators started composing songs for Teto, causing her fame to be established during the next year. The voice provider's name reading was then changed to Mayo Oyamano (小山乃 舞世 Oyamano Mayo) to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Teto was given official acceptance to Piapro on Apr. 1, 2010, and to Project DIVA on Oct. 10, 2011 .

Impact on Vocaloid

The first cover song using Teto was created as early as on April 6 of the year, and her signature song Mimi no Aru Robot no Uta (耳のあるロボットの歌; Song of Eared Robot) was released on June 10 by Mimirobo-P. Since then several creators including Lamaze-P, Telmin and Death Ohagi started to create Teto songs. Some of these early works are Fake Diva, Triple Baka, Kasane Territory and Popipo Mk2. UTAU editing was more difficult than Vocaloid editing and Teto's vocal sounded robotic, so Teto's popularity was mostly owed to the character. The voicebank was little focused on.
This trend changed on August 1 2009, when UTAU platform was updated and VCV voicebanks became available. Teto's VCV voicebank was released on October 20, 2009 and her singing became more natural than before. This evolution made more DAW users turn their eyes towards Teto. Many Teto songs were posted to Nicovideo, and Teto and UTAU established the place with Vocaloid.