Other times, things got mixed up and broke. …We should have stuck with the stock growl, or even better, had someone else record it. If there is any effect you’re hearing, it’s probably not the growl. Once they were implemented, I thought, “this isn’t that bad!” …Then I wrote My Impulse, and used the growls extensively in the chorus. From Star Wars!Īnyways, that’s what we recorded. We concluded that as long as it wasn’t the stock growl, it would be fine. That was my fault- Aki and I are both growl-incapable. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, but it IS pretty useless (despite it, for some people, being funny). Do you like wookies?ĭEX and DAINA have a shared problem with their growl function: they sound like they are gurgling water. There are various things that I wish I could have changed looking back on the project. We were- and are- very proud of our work. Positive enough, in fact, that those who didn’t like them so much pre-release had a change of heart the more they were exposed to them. Shortly after Mac-compatible versions were released- a first for non-YAMAHA produced, native English libraries. When they finally released in November, we found a few annoying glitches that got through the filters- DEX has a nasty bug that makes his default pronunciation of “sexy” on certain pitches break- but otherwise weren’t major issues (I did, however, make workaround sheets for the pair). I can’t give away many numbers or specifics, but the specs are similar to Cyber Diva’s- three pitch sets of “articulations”, six pitch sets of “stationaries”.Īlong with recording, we were testing them as much as we could the entire time. We wrapped up recording in the summer, shortly after the initial reveal. …and that’s all she wrote on that! From then on, around late 2014, we began recording of test scripts to make sure the engine didn’t butcher our voices, and early 2015 we began recording what would be the core of DEX and DAINA. I was eventually picked from the two (or three).
Our samples were collected into “feminine vocal” and “masculine vocal” applicant pools.Some of the samples she sent were mine.The same associate asked if Aki had any “male vocalist friends”, and if so, to send a sample or few along of those as well.
An associate from Zero-G approached Aki, asking her if she sang, and if so, would provide a sample of her vocals.Starting out in the VOCALOID community as an UTAU buff, especially since it’s where I take my name (Kenji-B) from, a big dream of mine was to provide my voice for a VOCALOID, or have the opportunity to, at least! Hearing that I was chosen to provide a VOCALOID was truly surreal, and hearing what would eventually be a finished VOCALOID library for the first time… I was nearly hysteric! The ExperienceĪ lot of people asked what it was like when I was recruited to the project. The response was actually fairly positive, otherwise! Lots of support and love for the duo, Aki, and I! Still feeling the tension though, since there’s bound to be people who haven’t heard about it yet who might be upset for some reason. Plus, we had an NDA to adhere to, which isn’t fun! …I’ll be the first to admit that I was hoping more people would be surprised, not that I think we tried to hide it super hard (especially me), but I guess that’s what you get when you call the product you’re voicing by your own name on accident in the first reveal. I spread it around like WILDFIRE (shout-outs to Circus-P and Crusher-P) and answered questions as they came.
Aki made the initial announcement around noon at Katsucon yesterday, posting the news online around 10:00PM. If you somehow missed it, the big announcement is that EmpathP and I provided our voices for Zero-G Limited’s newest VOCALOID libraries: DEX (voiced by myself) and DAINA (voiced by EmpathP, aka AkiGlancy or “Aki”). Zalas suggested I write a blog post to talk about it, and I figured that would be a good idea! EmpathP and I announced something pretty cool yesterday evening, and I’m still trying to chill out since I’ve got too much energy. As I write this, I’m listening to the funkiest house I could find, drinking a soft drink, and enjoying some bread sticks.