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

GreenFantasy64

カイミク || Len English || Arsloid || V5/Piapro
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Apr 9, 2018
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I wonder if this means if Crypton/Wat is going to draw inspiration from the software for Piapro Studio. :akikoloid_lili:

Imagine if the MMD models comes with the V4 appends. :clara_lili:
 
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uncreepy

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Apr 9, 2018
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I finally figured out what Wat means when he writes ">RT", he is adding his opinion to something he recently retweeted.
Tweets are oldest to newest (I'm a bit late, didn't feel like updating).

Wat Snow Miku retweet #1:

Rabbit Yukine is almost done being crowd funded for a character costume.

Luka tweet #1:
Oufu! If we hurry and place an order for Luka-related music, the MV (music video) will make it in time...
For her anniversary?

NewDays collab tweets:
The previously censored NE*DAY* tweet was revealed to be a collab between New Days.

This was the previous tweet as a reminder:
This technique/method is expected to be able to add to an existing Vocaloid Producer's inputted [notes] with an arbitrary ratio as an element component...! (As our demo tests, we plan to have an information voice related to NE☆DAY☆ be used)
Based on the collab, the "information voice" might be... a character talking about information related to the event?

New retweet #1:
From 7/10 "Hokkaido Fair" is decided to be held!! The PR character is... wh-what!! Snow Miku♪ / All sorts of various tension raising contents, so look forward to it!! Details are here → 7/10(火)よりNewDays・KIOSKで「ナツキタ2018 北海道フェア」開催|エキナカポータル
New retweet #2:
From 7/20 at Ikebukuro Station "Snow Miku Sky Town branch office" is set for a limited open ☆ Not only goods using NewDays's illustrations, various items are gathered!! Again, the target store is also selling products in advance!? Details are here → 7/20(金)より、JR池袋駅構内に「雪ミク スカイタウン出張所」が限定オープン|エキナカポータル
Append-related functions tweet #1:
Currently developing various new & dynamic practical application methods for things like gender factor (formant shifter), and a new algorithm. It seems like it will be able to produce various cute voices!
Formant = a range of frequencies in a speech wave varying on things like age, gender, tongue, etc.
Gender formant = differences in how voices sound based on average vocal tract sizes (due to age/gender), mainly for vowels, determines if we percieve a speaker to be female/male based on voice alone.
 

uncreepy

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Apr 9, 2018
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NewDays and STV collab + Miku model tweet #1:
At the NEWDAYS & STV events, we plan to use this new Miku model, and even the expression of her voice [used] up until now is is planned to have a slightly different feeling/atmosphere.
Note:
I think he just means the "new Miku model" as in the model with her eyes slightly updated + lineart being around her compared to before. It wouldn't make sense to have her suddenly dressed as Snow Miku for the STV collab, since she's been regular Miku for those promos. o_0

She's so cute. I wonder what the QR code is for? (Too bad it's half cut off.)
 
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uncreepy

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Recap about Appends:
  • The Cryptonloid Appends use the original V1 or V2 audio, but they're hand cut to be extremely short in order to have less engine noise and recapture the feeling of the characters' original voices (some say their new voices don't sound like the character and instead sound more like the voice provider).
  • The Appends also include functions that make tuning easier/faster for users (including a VocaListener-esque feature that Wat calls "voice coating").
  • Even though Wat kept saying it was coming "soon" for over a year, he revealed today that it's actually now in alpha stage. (Ug, seriously? *dies*)
Recap about collabs/goals:
  • The STV (Dosanko Mirai Fes) is the 27th-28th (Miku will have her own radio show and a live broadcast event.
  • The Hokkaido Fair event lasts until August 6th. The convenience store chain NewDays is selling merch and also has an event called Snow Miku Rally where you have to go to locations/buy certain stuff to collect stamps through QR codes to get phone wallpapers.
  • Miku is back from her hiatus on the Shinkalion anime.
  • Wat is not done yet with hip-hop and rap collabs for Miku.

This is sort of in order of oldest to newest, but reorganized so each topic is next to each other.

Wat alluding to collab with... rapper Post Malone???
Nothing Wat does on Twitter is without reason. A while back, he retweeted Post Malone watching Miku Expo:

Post Malone (stage name) is a rapper exploding with popularity (especially on YouTube and is friends with H3H3's Ethan and Hila). His newest album, "beerbongs & bentleys" (in next tweet) has the most top 20 hits in history (9 tracks).
(This is actually the title of the article he links to→) Post Malone-san's love for Hatsune Miku is amazing.... [Weekly Post Malone Vol.4] 3 weeks until the Fuji Rock performance! Hollywood Bowl [in Los Angeles] 2 day sold out nation-wide American tour is over! And this fall, [Posty Fes] is set to open! -Post Malone
【週刊ポスト・マローン Vol.4】フジロック出演まで3週間!ハリウッド・ボウル2日間ソールド・アウトで全米ツアー終了!そしてこの秋、ポスト主催のフェスティバル初開催決定! - ポスト・マローン
The article talks about the Japanese version of Post Malone's album being released. He will be in Japan July 27th for FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL '18. Hmm...


Miku rap tweet #1 (Wat's rap mechanism goal):
Though it's presumptuous, I think I want a mechanism that can make Miku rap like Reol-san in this song, an experimental song will be uploaded after this (progress report on the way)

Miku rap tweet #2 (Miku rap collab):
The rap duet video will be uploaded to our YOUTUBE channel within the next hour that, due to various reasons, iXima-san rushed to make for us ...

Miku rap tweet #3 (Miku rap collab):
pinoko & Hatsune Miku "NEWDAYS"
This is the collab of Miku rapping with pinoko (female rapper) and produced (including background music) by MICHITA that Wat alluded to before. Miku sounds a bit off key sometimes in my humble opinion, but I think her rapping quick sounds more realistic compared to those Vocaloid songs where they make the Vocaloids sing impossibly fast (probably cause the vocal sample has been extremely shortened for the appends).


Miku rap tweet #4 (grateful to collab):
...as a hip-hop otaku's ramble, there are masterpieces like MICHITA-san's beautiful track with melodious Japanese rap in "Paper,Paper..." by BRON-K feat. NOYIKIYO, but... ["NEWDAYS"] with pinoko-san's lyrics and melody has a nostalgic yet new flavor, and it was an honor that Miku could work with both [pinoko and MICHITA]

Cryptonloid Appends are in alpha version retweet #1 (Miku speech):
Snow Miku-san again. wat-san had said it, but the difference is-- Her speaking for us is easy to understand and feels natural
Too bad I can't hear what she's saying. u___u

Note:
Wat didn't retweet this next tweet, but the video corresponds to this tweet:

You get a cool prize if you collect QR codes from certain merch or go to certain locations.


Cryptonloid Appends are in alpha version tweet #1 (Miku speech):
As a next step, while raising things like sound quality of the foundation voice* in a direction like this, and furthermore trying to overlap a V2 or V1 flavored Miku layer, should be able to get used to controling even how Vocaloid-y [it sounds]. (alpha version talk) ... > [see retweet]
*foundation voice: I'm not sure if it's Miku's audio files or the human voice for the "voice coating" (VocaListener-esque plugin)


STV collab tweet #1 (Dosanko Mirai Fes):
Now then, when we finalize the plan of "Miku-san being nervous and acting strange about her live appearance"
in preliminary discussions with STV, today will fall as it is.

Train-related collab tweet #1 (NewDays and Shinkalion):

I literally can't figure out how to translate this in English or what it really means, but this is the summary of the tweet + the comments:
NEWSDAYS and Shinkalion are connected by JR, Wat expects to be showered with questions and wants cover from Shinkalion. Probably for a collab for Shinkalion and they need to hurry up.


Note:
Japanese Wikipedia says that NewDays is a convenience store chain that mainly opens stores at the train stations of Higashi Nihon Ryokaku Teddou (East Japan Railway Company), aka JR Higashi Nihon (JR East). He's using it as a segway to connect the Shinkalion collab (train anime) with the NewDays collab (convenience store).
NewDays - Wikipedia
東日本旅客鉄道 - Wikipedia


Rap + Snow Miku news article retweet #1:

Miku has hijacked NewDays!
ミクさんがニューデイズをジャック! 変態ソングとミクラップがJRに鳴り響く
The article summarizes the rap collabs and Snow Miku collabs right now.


PinocchioP song involved:
I didn't know where to put this, but Wat retweeted it and it's in the above article, so there ya go. Both the PinocchioP song and the Miku "NEWDAYS" rap are playing at the NewDays convenience stores.
 
I'm surprised that you, @uncreepy, are the only one I saw translating his tweets. I mean Wat gives daily news about Crypton only, while other VOCALOID news sources are silent for weeks sometimes.

A great collab with pinoko! This is really the first time I enjoyed a rap song. One million times better than what westerners call a rap.
I'm looking forward to see what they do with Post Malone. Although I would like to hear Miku rap in English, I doubt that it would sound good. There are no English Miku songs yet that an average listener would call perfect.
 

uncreepy

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Apr 9, 2018
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Secret Meiko/Kaito project tweet #1:
If the the STV event is a success to a certain degree, I will develop the contents/details and technology and propose a 15th anniversary project of Meiko and Kaito.
Japanese comments are speculating it's V5 versions of Meiko and Kaito, but Wat's been saying all the Cryptonloids were getting Appends (which I believe might have been a lie to hide V5's upcoming release). So maybe it's something different like a concert or finally showing their 3D models or something? It kind of sounds like he's holding whatever the project is ransom in order for the STV event to go well. S:


Help wanted tweet #1:
This is urgent! → We want to progress Hatsune Miku's voice! Voice technology engineer WANTED by Crypton Future Media, Inc.
Um, wow, this doesn't instill confidence on the progress Wat's been showing us for Miku's resurrected V2 voice. The words he used to describe voice technology is how vocal synthesis-related things are talked about in Japanese.

Here are screenshots of the job listing that I've translated (since you have to make an account to view it, and it's annoying):

Edit: I forgot to explain, but "signal processing" in this situation is most likely related to voice recognition, speech synthesis, or deep/machine learning.
 
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bioloid

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Apr 8, 2018
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I've thought for a while that automated tuning of Vocaloids would be a perfect use for ML, perhaps with a different neural net for each voicebank.
 

uncreepy

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Apr 9, 2018
1,618
Cryptonloid Appends... really are just appends and not V5:
Nevertheless, it's become 10 years since Rin & Len act 2 among other things.... We are now performing voice update tests again. It's not for v5, but.. ※Our company will carry out v5 operation verification information of each DB soon.
 
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Eviltreat16

Probably an Artist, Probably a Praying Mantis
Apr 8, 2018
169
"V5 Operation Verification of each DB soon"? Maybe they'll begin planning for V5 then, unless they mean verifying these updates for V5 usage?
 

uncreepy

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Wat said the Appends were in alpha mode recently, so that implies they are not finished or have some bugs. In Japanese, "operation" refers to operation within a software, "verification" refers to double checking something. (Forgot to add a footnote for that.) I think they are just putting the V4 appends in V5 since Vocaloid Editor 4 is dead to Yamaha and they want to test out any problems the banks might have.

That said, it still confuses me, since Wat kept saying that the tuning was being done automatically (as in not having to draw it out himself), and I had begun to assume that meant he had actually been using the preset shapes in Vocaloid Editor 5. Either he really hadn't been using V5 at all (unlikely), or he's just confirming that yes, the appends will work in V5 even though they are really V4 banks.
 
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bioloid

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Apr 8, 2018
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I believe someone in the V5 news thread posted that V5 voicebanks are backwards compatible with the V4 Editor, of course V4 voicebanks are forwards compatible with the V5 Editor, so it's probably the case that there's no real differences between V4 and V5 with regards to voicebanks. The differences are all in the engine and the editor. Wat is probably just checking to make sure there are no problems with the existing V3 and V4 voicebanks in V5.
 

Move->Forward

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Mar 25, 2018
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Ah, perhaps they wanted to double check their VOCALOID3/4 banks officially worked and were supported in the VOCALOID5 Editor before making the statement on their Sonicwire blog.
This might be what the
It's not for v5, but.. ※Our company will carry out v5 operation verification information of each DB soon.
of the previous tweet refers to.
 
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uncreepy

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*dusts off thread* It's just been strings of collabs I didn't feel like talking about cause they weren't related to voicebank development. But finally, after many moons, we have some cryptic and headache-inducing updates from Wat!

Jazz collab might be related to English voicebank updates of Luka and Meiko?:

...If today goes well, with things like Luka & Meiko's jazz session, I want to do an adult progression/expansion/development. With a box (box = assembly hall) of a capacity of about 500.. (I have to lower the operating cost, but) ...no matter what it takes, with this type of demonstration test, I want to evolve/progress the English voicebank(s)* and phoneme programing..
  • There was an event called "Kawasaki Jazz 2018 'Jazz, Anime & Internet Solvs vol.1'" with Masahiko Satou JAZZ BAND, Luka, Meiko, and Miku (and Miku da yo).
  • I don't know if "adult development" means he wants a more mature song show (as in jazz?) or if he wants them to sing in a more mature way?
  • The capacity of the assembly was apparently 500 people.
  • I don't know if the operating cost refers to the jazz session or him wanting to evolve the English voicebanks.
  • The jazz session is considered a demonstration test (basically what he calls their attempts to do something "new" with song collabs with other companies in reference to song genre or voice singing technique).
  • I can't find info on what songs were sung, I have no clue if they sang in English or Japanese.
* "Voicebanks" are called "DB (databases)" in Japanese.

Tweaking Luka's Japanese voicebank(s):

(First paragraph is not important, Wat's currently getting Miku and Luka colored glow sticks ready for sale at a certain location.)

2nd paragraph: Then after that, just today even I'm updating Luka-san's Japanaese voicebank(s) a lot... A-a fight against time!!

Tweaking Kaito's voicebank(s) #1:

Somehow*, I'm also currently doing the special editing of Kaito's voicebank(s)**! There's gradual progress in order to improve the character balance!!
*Somehow... = In his previous tweet (which I'm not gonna translate), he said he was editing the water screen for the Tokyo 150 year festival and doing stuff for Miku Symphony, so "somehow" he also found time to work with Kaito.
** voicebanks are called "singing voice database(s) (DB)" in Japanese.
I don't know if "character" refers to the Crypton characters themselves or the balance of the voicebanks' characteristics (as in a balance between something like whisper banks vs more rockin' ones).


Tweaking Kaito's voicebank(s) #2:

Kaito's new tuning version is still under development, however, it has grown able to sing quite tightly, quickly, and smartly! Satisfied.
"Tuning" version? And what a string of strange compliments. Has he been tuned to sing a certain song? Or has his voicebanks been adjusted and that's what "tuning" means?


Tweaking Kaito's voicebank(s) #3:

For the time being, that's all for today. The know-how here recently was able to confirm the application/usage is effective also for Kaito, so next is to correct the muttered unclear parts of his pronunciation to sound Kaito-ey.. The pronunciation part that is a bit off needs to be removed.
Does "the application for Kaito" mean putting him in V5?


Errr, yeaahhh. If anyone has any ideas on what's going on, tell us your theories. Either way, we're getting updated vocals eventually.
 

GreenFantasy64

カイミク || Len English || Arsloid || V5/Piapro
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For Luka and Meiko if we had more information on the Jazz Session or at least a video of their performance we can know if that if they did sing in English at all and if they did, would they had sound like updated versions of the English Voicebanks? :rune_lili:

with this type of demonstration test, I want to evolve/progress the English voicebank(s)* and phoneme programing..
Either way, it seems that perhaps all the Cryptonloids are going to get English Voicebanks (Miku could finally get a true English Append?) with maybe phoneme adding (the V4 Engloids' have extra phonemes to them). Or maybe the English Voicebanks would better fit their Japanese Counterpart Voicebanks of their ranges and tempo? :zunko_lili:

Then after that, just today even I'm updating Luka-san's Japanaese voicebank(s) a lot... A-a fight against time!!
A lot.... I want to speculate she would get at least 4 new appends for her. Maybe Husty/Whisper, Dark, Power, and...Cute/Sweet? If so, it would be understand why Wat is fighting against time before Luka's birthday. (Updating everyone and then making sure Luka gets all her appends ready so all her voicebanks would be released together and not pushed back)

I don't know if "character" refers to the Crypton characters themselves or the balance of the voicebanks' characteristics (as in a balance between something like whisper banks vs more rockin' ones)
Kaito's new tuning version is still under development, however, it has grown able to sing quite tightly, quickly, and smartly! Satisfied.
Perhaps Kaito is getting EVEC for sure and the growl update for him, or he's getting the same treatment as Miku? :marie_ork_lili:
Tightly = Strong
Quickly = can sing fast/Rap/or talk better?
Smartly = the Vocalistener that Wat mentioned on working on (I think?)
Either way, Wat seems to be very happy on the progress on Kaito. :mirai_ani_lili:
 

bioloid

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Billboard Japan article about Miku, Luka At Kawasaki Jazz 【かわさきジャズ2018】初音ミク、巡音ルカと佐藤允彦による初のジャズ・フルセッションライブが開催 | Daily News | Billboard JAPAN
Has the song list. Some of the songs were with English lyrics, Moon River, Fly Me to the Moon, Eternally.

Luka sang the 2 songs of the encore, and from the comments I saw on twitter, she knocked it out of the park. I'm not certain if both songs were a cappella, but the last one, Eternally, was. Luka may have done some speaking as well (and Miku too?) (not certain from the comments and article).

I don't think Meiko sang at Kawasaki Jazz; I never saw any mention of her.
 
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uncreepy

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Thanks, bioloid! I had trouble finding info on the event. After reading the intro to the article you linked, I think you're right about it just being Miku and Luka at the event. I think I got confused and thought Meiko was there since Wat said if the jazz session went well and mentioned both Luka and Meiko in the sentence, I thought they were both at the event.

A lot.... I want to speculate she would get at least 4 new appends for her. Maybe Husty/Whisper, Dark, Power, and...Cute/Sweet? If so, it would be understand why Wat is fighting against time before Luka's birthday. (Updating everyone and then making sure Luka gets all her appends ready so all her voicebanks would be released together and not pushed back)
I didn't think about so many voices, she does have a lot of EVEC types, so you're probably right. It'll be a big treat for Luka fans when her update comes out! And I didn't think of a growl update for Kaito!
 
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uncreepy

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Voices that are clear and not necessarily human-sounding:

Lately rather than many tunings containing humanish vibrato, ...I'm currently searching for a pattern that leaves a sense of machine-ish pitch while being easy to understand [when listened to]...
A while back, I translated an interview with Wat, where he said his goal was to make Miku be easy to understand while singing (it was around the time her rapping was revealed). So he wants it to be easy to understand (word clearness) and "not necessarily human", so I guess he's going for that with all the Cryptonloids. The updates for their voicebanks are going to be created through their original voicebanks being edited (no voice providers are recording new audio, they are editing their old soundwaves in order to get rid of muffledness).


Moving on to Len's voicebanks:

Kaito's singing edits have reached a stopping point, so I am now switching over to Len's singing.
 

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