Original Vocaloid Sample for Comparison
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I am glad they have stuck to their "community update" schedule thus far. Similar to what was expressed earlier, I'm not sure how much of it was highly enlightening-- good for increased clarity, more information, but also, what it is, is effectively more promises being made and more quantitative statements. So rather than being "progress report" they are effectively additional marketing/hype posts. There's nothing wrong with that, but hopefully before release, they establish very clearly what Maghni AI at launch actually is. What has changed from the crowdfunding round... what is the same... what is being delivered on... what is not.
Her new design is very very cute, I like it. Demo-wise, I think I have the sense that maybe the voice shown here is more stable than past demos, but the tone is thin, and the pronunciation still muddy. Will be interesting to see if the engine developers call this out as something using their "new retrain", or not.
I don't expect Maghni AI to sound like SynthesizerV, and it shouldn't, it should be its own thing if it wants to compete (maybe not compete-- but coexist on the market). But if the engine's lofty promises of novel language implementation and accent control do not materialize, and the voices themselves remain muddy, then maybe the user experience will be what they hope carries it over the finish line in users' hearts?
Her new design is very very cute, I like it. Demo-wise, I think I have the sense that maybe the voice shown here is more stable than past demos, but the tone is thin, and the pronunciation still muddy. Will be interesting to see if the engine developers call this out as something using their "new retrain", or not.
I don't expect Maghni AI to sound like SynthesizerV, and it shouldn't, it should be its own thing if it wants to compete (maybe not compete-- but coexist on the market). But if the engine's lofty promises of novel language implementation and accent control do not materialize, and the voices themselves remain muddy, then maybe the user experience will be what they hope carries it over the finish line in users' hearts?
Dang that's cool, Ruby's in her CHVRCHES era, good for her
Since it seems Maghni's recently gone through a major management change, I'm willing to give them some time to reorient. My only mild conundrum is why they're making a zillion tiny third party companies instead of simply bringing in contractors under the Maghni name - but idk business, maybe it's better for taxes or something, lol.
Oliver also got a Japanese demo!
Since it seems Maghni's recently gone through a major management change, I'm willing to give them some time to reorient. My only mild conundrum is why they're making a zillion tiny third party companies instead of simply bringing in contractors under the Maghni name - but idk business, maybe it's better for taxes or something, lol.
Oliver also got a Japanese demo!
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I think this change is just for search engine optimization, actually.
I was having trouble accessing her site earlier, here's her official art by D_Artemi!
(I saw they had accidentally uploaded an older version of her art. Announcing Ruby with the wrong design? Classic Ruby-core behaviour)
*edit* this was the old art im gonna
I like her new look a lot, it's an evolution on the original while still retaining her vibe. The big jacket feels slightly cliche nowadays, but I won't dock Ruby any points for it because she was ahead of her time - she and Yukari were doing big jackets before it was cool.
(I saw they had accidentally uploaded an older version of her art. Announcing Ruby with the wrong design? Classic Ruby-core behaviour)
*edit* this was the old art im gonna
I like her new look a lot, it's an evolution on the original while still retaining her vibe. The big jacket feels slightly cliche nowadays, but I won't dock Ruby any points for it because she was ahead of her time - she and Yukari were doing big jackets before it was cool.
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I know this is such a random thing to say, but... YEEEEESSS MORE VBs WITH TROUSERS!! (...Okay, technically Ruby's wearing leggings, but still).
@ Oliver
Huh! I can't speak to how a native would hear it, but he sounds decent to me? Better than English Vocaloids trying to pull it off, anyhow. I can't remember if his new VA has experience with Japanese and recorded data for it, or if this is purely the engine's crosslang. I'm impressed if it's the latter
@ Rvby
Hah, I see what you mean by the oversized jackets being kind of a done thing at this point, but I'll admit I'm still a sucker for them, and yeah, it wouldn't feel like Ruby without it!
Also the perspective on her full art is a little funny, her shoe is like bigger than her head. I don't think it's wrong, and the art is beautiful, but it did get a chuckle from me
Huh! I can't speak to how a native would hear it, but he sounds decent to me? Better than English Vocaloids trying to pull it off, anyhow. I can't remember if his new VA has experience with Japanese and recorded data for it, or if this is purely the engine's crosslang. I'm impressed if it's the latter
@ Rvby
Hah, I see what you mean by the oversized jackets being kind of a done thing at this point, but I'll admit I'm still a sucker for them, and yeah, it wouldn't feel like Ruby without it!
Also the perspective on her full art is a little funny, her shoe is like bigger than her head. I don't think it's wrong, and the art is beautiful, but it did get a chuckle from me
Maghni update, uh oh
tl;dr Original management has scarpered, the developers remain - oddly actual names of departed team members aren't specified, I assume it's just Cinna and the third parties still in action? And hopefully their programmer, although some statements call that into question. This would mean Natalia Shmueli, Caleb Long, Austin Grissom, possibly Aku-P and Crossyloid gone: it's unclear.
They are still working to fulfill physical rewards, and duties have been passed to Vocatone. They also request people bug Vocatone about it, which is a little worrying re: the state of communication between both parties.
Cinna confirmed in a reply that they're working out of pocket now, so the Indiegogo did not cover costs.
Most concerningly, they say they don't have access to all the original codebase yet. Without a full picture of the team, I worry about the credentials and manpower needed to complete the project, and how far back this has set their timeline.
With the promised unique features of Maghni in communication purgatory, things feel like they're edging closer to a Diffsinger release. (Gahata Meiji just released with 16 languages!)
One bright spot is that Oliver got a Mandarin XLS demo:
tl;dr Original management has scarpered, the developers remain - oddly actual names of departed team members aren't specified, I assume it's just Cinna and the third parties still in action? And hopefully their programmer, although some statements call that into question. This would mean Natalia Shmueli, Caleb Long, Austin Grissom, possibly Aku-P and Crossyloid gone: it's unclear.
They are still working to fulfill physical rewards, and duties have been passed to Vocatone. They also request people bug Vocatone about it, which is a little worrying re: the state of communication between both parties.
Cinna confirmed in a reply that they're working out of pocket now, so the Indiegogo did not cover costs.
Most concerningly, they say they don't have access to all the original codebase yet. Without a full picture of the team, I worry about the credentials and manpower needed to complete the project, and how far back this has set their timeline.
With the promised unique features of Maghni in communication purgatory, things feel like they're edging closer to a Diffsinger release. (Gahata Meiji just released with 16 languages!)
One bright spot is that Oliver got a Mandarin XLS demo:
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i hate to sound so negative, but i feel like while this blog entry was pretty *clear* about the issues that are happening behind the scenes, it was also vague enough where i feel like it's only going to cause more uncertainty and anxiety around the project - like you said, we don't even know who actually left and who remains, it's hard to even set expectations because we don't know how feasible much of the promised things even are at this point.
i know it's unlikely, but i really feel like some extra clarification about some of the things in this blog entry could go a loooong way, though even then they probably wouldn't want to until things are more stable. either way, there are people still working on maghni, and said people clearly care a lot about delivering exactly what was promised - i may be worried about the project itself, but i can put my faith into those people given that they're still really trying.
also, yeah that oliver demo seems VERY early, but it has such a unique (even if imperfect and kinda choppy) sound that's quite pleasing lol - i just hope people don't judge the engine like this is its full potential (though it feels really difficult to judge anything here at *all* as it stands, eek)
i know it's unlikely, but i really feel like some extra clarification about some of the things in this blog entry could go a loooong way, though even then they probably wouldn't want to until things are more stable. either way, there are people still working on maghni, and said people clearly care a lot about delivering exactly what was promised - i may be worried about the project itself, but i can put my faith into those people given that they're still really trying.
also, yeah that oliver demo seems VERY early, but it has such a unique (even if imperfect and kinda choppy) sound that's quite pleasing lol - i just hope people don't judge the engine like this is its full potential (though it feels really difficult to judge anything here at *all* as it stands, eek)
Yet again I wish I was surprised.
What I will say is that they keep referring to the "former leaders" of Maghni AI and the managers of the campaign as the ones who are now unaffiliated, and by that they seem to mean the people affiliated with VocaTone. So the folks on the current version of the website (Natalia, Cinna, Barham, Caleb, Aku P) appear to remain affiliated, unless they forgot to update that. Those with public social presences are still engaging, so I assume it is up-to-date.
This statement from the post was incredibly tone-deaf to me:
I am perplexed that they claim part of the codebase is in VocaTone's (presumably) possession and that they have to "reclaim it" (meaning this hasn't happened yet). How exactly is it going to be reclaimed at this point if the relationship has deteriorated to the extent that they didn't have it in the first place or couldn't get it transferred during the Great Restructuring of September 2024?
Finally, Cinna implies that XLS is not meant to be a launch feature, so it is weird to me that the new demos keep pulling on XLS instead of what the engine will meaningfully encompass at launch, whatever it is. We still don't know. (yes, oliver mandarin was the aforementioned "exception", but we saw Japanese for Oliver prior to this.)
I hope these guys can rally together on setting some basic goals for fullfillment, escape the guaranteed hell that comes with scope creep and make good on their ambition for a commercialized engine.
This is what I thought they were saying at first, but I think this is not the case. They are being intentionally vague with their phrasing here, I will not attempt to speculate on why.
What I will say is that they keep referring to the "former leaders" of Maghni AI and the managers of the campaign as the ones who are now unaffiliated, and by that they seem to mean the people affiliated with VocaTone. So the folks on the current version of the website (Natalia, Cinna, Barham, Caleb, Aku P) appear to remain affiliated, unless they forgot to update that. Those with public social presences are still engaging, so I assume it is up-to-date.
This statement from the post was incredibly tone-deaf to me:
I imagine they probably didn't mean for it to come off this way, but this reads as: "even though WE didn't have anything to do with the IndieGoGo campaign or your backer rewards, we're still choosing to take up the responsibility of order fulfillment." This is so ridiculous to me because it objectively does not matter whether the current group were the ones that made the decision or not. These people have the responsibility to do so as the proprietors of the project, and although it is unfortunate that they had to pay out of pocket to cover the backer rewards, I do not think this is the win they think it is. All this is doing is reinforcing the fact that the company is broke and this team overpromised. This was not some accident that they are making right on, the majority of these people were involved at the time the IndieGoGo launched. They could have done something different, they chose not to.
I am perplexed that they claim part of the codebase is in VocaTone's (presumably) possession and that they have to "reclaim it" (meaning this hasn't happened yet). How exactly is it going to be reclaimed at this point if the relationship has deteriorated to the extent that they didn't have it in the first place or couldn't get it transferred during the Great Restructuring of September 2024?
Finally, Cinna implies that XLS is not meant to be a launch feature, so it is weird to me that the new demos keep pulling on XLS instead of what the engine will meaningfully encompass at launch, whatever it is. We still don't know. (yes, oliver mandarin was the aforementioned "exception", but we saw Japanese for Oliver prior to this.)
I hope these guys can rally together on setting some basic goals for fullfillment, escape the guaranteed hell that comes with scope creep and make good on their ambition for a commercialized engine.
Caleb and Aku-P are still responding to Maghni queries on social media, so it appears (confirmation pending) that Austin and Natalia have departed. To my knowledge, both did some development work (Natalia definitely contributed to the linguistic side), but they were the primary 'leaders' spearheading the project prior to the reshuffle. I can't envision a reason why Maghni is unable to formally announce the departures - people often leave companies under messy circumstances whilst still getting the ol' 'So and so has moved onto other projects, [new guy] will be taking over their role' PR blast. Hopefully they're safe and well?
At this rate it's unlikely this is going to release at all...
