Other Cryptonloid voicebank updates, collabs, & concert news (crypton_wat Twitter translations)

[mobius017]

They are working earnestly on the vibrato beta update for next week and the DB update at the end of July.

Wat goes on to say that some parts of the engine/software are young and immature, so he's sorry that there are some parts that are unable to meet our expectations. (Then there's this whole other sentence that either is there or isn't there, depending on who translated it; something like: "This is painful, but on the other hand, it's why a lot of good work is being done.") He hopes we'll stick with them for awhile.

 

[mobius017]

The addition of vibrato and a minor bug fix will be made in an update to be released tomorrow past 6 pm Japan time. Wat apologizes that the updates related to moving copies of pitch curve edits will be delayed. There will be further updates this month.

 

[uncreepy]

3.0.0.7 is out now. Go to Help > Check for Updates > Close Piapro Studio so only the updater pop-up remains.

Someone on the VocaVerse Discord said their pitch bends got deleted by the update, but not everyone had this problem, so make sure you render any valuable tuning before doing the update just in case you are affected.

I had a different problem. I installed the update, but was greeted with a pop-up saying Miku wasn't update to date (pop-up on the right side), so I checked the updater, but it said I had the latest version of Piapro Studio (pop-up in the middle):


I updated Miku/Piapro every single update so far, but for the last update (June 30th) where we had to uninstall/reinstall Miku and NT, Miku's version number wasn't correct for some people. aman0_kei had documented this issue (see the thread, it seems the numbering was corrected later in the day or something):

I forgot to take a screenshot of Miku's app, but her and Piapro were the wrong numbering when I went to uninstall them like Amano pointed out:


So, I had to re-download the newest installer from Sonicwire (MY PAGE > LICENSED PRODUCT > DL/LICENSE > Red Installer button), but as you can see, the newest version only contains 3.0.0.5 instead of 3.0.0.7, so after reinstalling Piapro/Miku, I had to use the updater to get the latest version.

 

[mobius017]

@uncreepy: Thanks for always posting the instructions for stuff like this. It's really helpful!

 

[mobius017]

Wat is apparently having a meeting with AIST about something called "kiite." (Which is, I presume, not "kitty," which was what I first read. So Wat isn't bringing his feline care troubles to the workplace.)

He also mentions something resulting from this meeting regarding Mr. Goto, President Ito, and everyone for technology development (meaning, the tech dev team?), but it's not clear what. He also says that he might try to dance? And he makes it sound like he's not sure what the meeting was/will be about. Sounds like corporate life ;) .

 

[Twillby]

I think he's talking about Crypton's streaming service. Just a wild idea that came to me but maybe they could be planning to incorporate it into NT somehow kind of like how you could upload your work to Vocaloid Net in V3? If it ends up related to NT anyway, like he's wondering

 

[uncreepy]

AIST helped Crypton make Kiite and they had a joint live talk about it around the time of Magical Mirai when NT was first announced.

 

[mobius017]

I wonder what an integration with K!!te would like like. As I understand, K!!te gets its songs from other online services, which is why you can request songs to be added. So I assume you wouldn't upload the new songs you make to K!!te directly. Doesn't mean there couldn't be some tie between Piapro NT and K!!te, but it kind of makes me think that the meeting wasn't NT-related.

 

[mobius017]

They're working on sound quality improvements for the end of July.

 

[uncreepy]

I was asked to translate this. I have no clue what's going on.

 

[mobius017]

I found this series of Tweets interesting.


So apparently Wat has been working on Keiko & Kaito songs for Project Sekai. In the end, he says that this is the sort of thing where they ask for user feedback and adjust the tuning based on that. Provided I'm understanding the machine translation right, it's interesting to me that they sometimes get user feedback for songs, too (like for NT). I hadn't been aware of such instances before, and Wat didn't provide a particular way for listeners to send thoughts (Though I guess you can assume it would be by Twitter, once the songs get shared.), but it's still interesting to me that it sort of seems like the user feedback thing is something they do more broadly.

It's just a theory of mine, but I think a lot of the grief that has been levied against NT so far has been largely fueled by a combination of 1) developing her in public without actually telling people that that was the plan/that they were beta testers and 2) how messed-up the world has been due to COVID-19. But this Tweet might sort of cast a light on the former point like assuming they'll get user feedback/work with fans in a semi-collaborative way is sort of how they normally handle some projects. So it might make it a little more understandable that they didn't tell anyone explicitly, "You guys are part of the beta test."

Personally, I still view it as a missed opportunity. There would've been lots of people who would've flocked to be Miku's official beta testers, especially if offered a discount on an eventual purchase and maybe some "Miku NT Beta Tester" exclusive merch. But there are some logistical concerns with that regarding managing the testers/getting actual testing from all of them, plus shipping not being quite what it once was with the virus and all.




Wat also seems to talk about a lot of difficulties for him lately/around the year-end and New Year holidays? And also about being snippy with/inconveniencing some producers that he's worked with, especially if they aren't people who know what's going on with him? He basically apologizes for all of that and resolves to do better. It sounds like he's had a rough time.

Edit: Ha ha, looks like uncreepy beat me to Wat's last series of Tweets!

 

[Blue Of Mind]

Some internal Crypton drama (which may or may not be NT related) going on? Considering the delays we've seen with NT so far, I'm not surprised if Wat and anyone else in Crypton has become a bit cranky recently.

 

[uncreepy]

I feel like Wat usually only refers to worrying people who he goes "missing" and doesn't tweet for long periods of time... But honestly, I have no clue what's going on. I assume that people who know what he's talking about would only be coworkers. And add the fact that he mentioned talking to the chief producer? What could that mean? Either producer for a game (Project Sekai) or producer for the voice bank (Miku NT), right?

I looked up on Google Crypton + chief producer (チーフプロデューサー) and Wat IS a chief producer (stopped looking after finding him listed as the 「初音ミク」／歌声合成関連プロジェクト・チーフプロデューサー ("Hatsune Miku" / Vocal Synthesis-Related Project Chief Producer)), so obviously, he's not talking about himself... So maybe it's not relating to the chief producer of Miku, since that's him, but rather Craft Egg or one of the other companies related to Project Sekai or something? I couldn't find anyone listed with that title by trying to Google various terms.

Sort of related, but I was talking about it on Discord last night and I feel like NT seems like it's not going very well on schedule. The full version is supposed to be released at the end of August, and yet they aren't done with the engine (still improving it/adding functions) and we still only have Original voice. They haven't even told us what the other 2 voices are supposed to be. There are still only 2 official demos on Sonicwire. Yikes.

 

[Rolo]

This is a little off topic but not so much but I’m wondering is this also affecting the project diva team. I didn’t think that all those operations at crypton would be connected since they had separate teams until when the producer of project diva left sometime ago and they merged everyone into one team. But if the games, concerts, NT are all connected it could explain why it seems like Crypton hasn’t really had a lot of major activity in the last like 3 years. Maybe it’s all hands on deck with producing the games, lives, and vocals especially under the virus and that’s causing a lot of tension at the office. That’s just a theory though could be way off I do find it interesting Wat is involved with Sekai at all it shows that the game is a lot more serious to them than just “Mobile Miku game”

 

[mobius017]

This is a little off topic but not so much but I’m wondering is this also affecting the project diva team. I didn’t think that all those operations at crypton would be connected since they had separate teams until when the producer of project diva left sometime ago and they merged everyone into one team. But if the games, concerts, NT are all connected it could explain why it seems like Crypton hasn’t really had a lot of major activity in the last like 3 years. Maybe it’s all hands on deck with producing the games, lives, and vocals especially under the virus and that’s causing a lot of tension at the office. That’s just a theory though could be way off I do find it interesting Wat is involved with Sekai at all it shows that the game is a lot more serious to them than just “Mobile Miku game”

@uncreepy and I were discussing this awhile back, and it turns out that CFM is actually a really small company in terms of how much staff it has--something like about 100 people. For all the stuff they do (And they have done a good bit even lately, in terms of games, collaborations, concert scheduling/rescheduling, online concert creation, merch, making a new vocal synth engine, running the Sonicwire website, etc. Even if they don't do all the work themselves, and they're just doing licensing with lots of other people, that's some work there. Plus the fact that they're doing this when COVID can make people harder to reach, especially when Japan's tech infrastructure supposedly isn't always as cutting-edge as people think, at least outside Tokyo.), that's a really teeny number of people. It doesn't surprise me at all that people are strained; it really amazes me that somehow they manage to do as much as they do.

Personally, I think they need more staff, but that's obviously in no way my call :) .

 

[mobius017]

Sort of related, but I was talking about it on Discord last night and I feel like NT seems like it's not going very well on schedule. The full version is supposed to be released at the end of August, and yet they aren't done with the engine (still improving it/adding functions) and we still only have Original voice. They haven't even told us what the other 2 voices are supposed to be. There are still only 2 official demos on Sonicwire. Yikes.

Yeah, honestly, I think they'll do something at the end of August, but I don't think NT will be fully completed by then. Honestly, I'm ok with that. It's much more important to me that they make a good synth than that they release on Miku's birthday. Though I definitely feel for anyone who really wants Miku and held off on purchasing her Vocaloid DB because they're waiting for NT (could've recommended that strategy myself), or for whom pre-ordering her NT VB was more of a hardship than it was for me.

 

[uncreepy]

The update that was supposed to come at the end of the month is going to delayed for the middle of next week. It's for improvements for both Piapro and Miku's voice.

 

[Rolo]

I’m guessing the finished product will be around September then or maybe even later.

 

[uncreepy]

NT update got delayed again cause they're having difficulties, they're aiming for next week.

(I don't know why they picked such a short extension to begin with. Also, I feel like 80% of these updates have been delayed once or twice so far and it's getting ridiculous to ask for forgiveness/an extension every single time.)

 

[mobius017]

Yeah. Watching them, more and more I think this is an example of something I've heard of called RAD software development. It stands for Rapid Application Development (I'm pretty sure.), and it basically involves building quick prototypes, having users test them, and fixing the issues they find. As I heard of it, RAD is a flavor of Agile development, which involves doing short, defined bursts of work over short periods called sprints. I'm guessing that each release we see is timed to the end of one of CFM's sprints.

I have to respect that they assume some people will be watching for their releases and anticipating that they'll be coming out on X date...which is probably true...though I don't think they've ever told us that there is a defined every-2-weeks schedule or something. At least we're not left wondering when the heck the next update will be or if it will be coming. I agree that the apology isn't really necessary, except that they actually did tell us when this particular last release was planned to be.