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Macne Nana VOCALOID3 MACNE series VOCALOID4 | Songs Albums Notable Originals


This article is about the VOCALOID3 software known as a voicebank. If you are looking for the VOCALOID character then click here.

History[]

In 2013, VOCALOID NEO (a version of VOCALOID3 for the Mac) was released. However, though the news was interesting, as a Magazine editor, Haruna Ikezawa had no budget for VOCALOID production. Later, after things were sorted to produce a VOCALOID version, teasers were released hinting that Macne Nana was being produced for VOCALOID3. This was later confirmed on Nana's Twitter account.[1][2]

According to Mac Fan magazine, there was a conversation with YAMAHA. There was no money involved and approval was given for the voice of Haruna to become a VOCALOID. The vocal would be reviewed at 70% completion. If the vocal did not meet expectations, it would be scrapped. It would only move forward to a commercial release if the vocal was satisfactory.[3]

Due to the lack of a budget, a sponsor had to be found to power the project's funds and a distributor was needed. In the end, the issue was resolved with Bplats, Inc.. The decision was made to make this vocal to be sold exclusively at the Vocaloid Store. Originally, the project was to be released in January, but Haruna wanted to challenge herself by creating an English vocal and she found the original recording of her vocal to be boring. However, permission was needed due to the time that had been set aside to produce the vocal. Approval was given and an English voicebank went into production. Adding the English vocal set the project back and caused it to delay for a year and a half.

During the summer, Nana's Japanese and English voicebanks were rerecorded to improve the vocals. The Japanese vocal took a day to record while the English vocal took 5 days. A Mandarin Chinese vocal was also produced as Haruna knew Mandarin, but production stopped at a prototype stage. This vocal was left to be considered as a future release rather than an immediate one.

Editing began in August where which much trial and error occurred. Due to the January deadline, only 3 months were left to edit the vocals. The vocals needed to be delivered to YAMAHA by November. A total of over 1,000 hours were put into producing the vocals which amounted to a workload of 15 hours a day. The Japanese vocal had to be redone 6 times while the English vocal was redone about 11 times. The English vocal in particular was difficult for Haruna to work with.

In October, it was confirmed she was progressing and that she would have both a PC version and a Mac version. It was also confirmed to the public that she would be bilingual in Japanese and English. She was slated for a January 2014 release.[4]

In November, it was revealed that Bplats, Inc. would be the company that recorded her voicebanks. It was also stated that her English and Japanese voicebanks could be bought separately or as part of a bundle. The bundle went on pre-order in mid-December. Those who pre-ordered would receive several bonuses, including the Macne Nana 2S vocal and wallpapers. They were also entered into a competition to win one of 10 signed hand-drawn pictures by Haruna Ikezawa and Gomoku Akatsuki.[5]

Future development[]

It was mentioned in an interview that Nana's Mandarin Chinese vocal was not completely out of question yet, as they made an incomplete test voicebank. However, they don't guarantee release for it.[6] Haruna Ikezawa was also interested in the French Vocaloid by VoxWave which was being produced with the help of VocaTone. Since Haruna can also speak French, she put forth the idea of a French-capable Nana for future development.[7]

Currently the French project has been brought to a halt, decreasing Macne Nana's chances of getting a French vocal.[8]

AHS Sales[]

In May 2015, due to the closure of the Vocaloid store, there was talk of selling Macne Nana in the AH-Software Co. Ltd. store. Although the VOCALOID SHOP was replacing the store, at the time, the clause was considered "messy" as there were too many uncertain factors regarding what would happen after the switch.[9] As of June 2015, Nana officially became available from the AHS shop.[10]

Retirement[]

On March 28, 2016, Macne Nana Plus was announced and was revealed to be the VOCALOID4 update for Nana. The package was to include an improved version of Nana's VOCALOID3 voicebanks and also added Macne Petit. However, it was also confirmed that Nana's VOCALOID3 voicebanks would cease distribution on March 31.[11]

Product Information[]

Demonstrations[]

Demonstrations

ひいらぎ飾ろう (Hiiragi kazarou)/(Deck the Halls) (Japanese and English) NicoNico YouTube SoundCloud
さくらさくら (Sakura Sakura) (Japanese) NicoNico YouTube SoundCloud
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star SoundCloud
Na☆な! マクネナナ (Na☆na! Macne Nana) (English and Japanese)
NicoNico YouTube SoundCloud
Na☆na! Macne Nana (Original Garage voicebank) for comparison purposes YouTube

System Requirements[]

Work in Progress

Voicebanks[]

GENERAL USAGE[]

Product Information
Optimum
  Optimum Range: C#3 ~ C#4  No. of Keys: W ~ 7, B ~ 6, Total ~ 13
Versions
  Trial/Demo Vers?: No  Starter Available?: No
Package details as noted:

This is the VOCALOID version of Macne Nana, which contains both Japanese and English vocals. Both a PC and Mac (VOCALOID NEO) version are available for sale. Her VOCALOID vocal maintains the same intentions as the vocals built for the original Reason and Garageband vocals; she is meant to sound light, cheerful, youthful and cute. The Japanese and English Macne Nana banks can be bought either separately or as a bundle.

The Macne Nana 2S vocal and wallpapers were included in pre-orders of the package.

Vocal traits as noted:
  • This is the very first time a Macne vocal has been produced with English capabilities. Previously, all versions of the Macne series and its vocals possessed only Japanese capabilities.
  • Vocals are much smoother than her original version; overall quality is much higher and, as a result, she produces a less robotic sounding voice.
  • Haruna Ikezawa is noted to be a fairly adapt singer but is still not a professional vocalist, so Macne Nana's vocal quality is also on par with that of a amateur vocalist.
  • According to the YAMAHA store, Macne Nana is best at pop songs.
  • She was edited to meet a 24bit/96kHz quality mark. This was achieved via wavelength of the recordings of the vocal being edited.
  • The equipment was carefully selected during the recordings to minimize loss of characteristics of her provider's tone.
Software issues as noted:
  • Users of previous Nana vocals will note the differences between the VOCALOID version and past versions. This was notable even in the original importation of the vocals from Garangeband and Reason to UTAU. This is owed both to the differences of engine workings as well as the vocal performance of Ikezawa's voice acting across the different versions that were recorded of her vocal.
    • The original voicebank itself often ended up quite high-pitched in comparison to the VOCALOID version when used for its intended software. This is because it was comparable to a sample pack with a list of the needed sounds and didn't have have a fully adapted vocal synthesizer attached to simulate the human voice correctly and played the samples in their raw state.
    • When it was imported into UTAU, the original Nana vocal then became lower in tone compared to the VOCALOID version and at times much lower then when used in Reason and Garage Band.
    • Prior to this, the UTAU 2S voicebank included in her 2S release is considered the most correct version of Nana's voice. It is also the one the VOCALOID voicebank most closely resembles.
Cross-Synthesis as noted:

Macne Nana Japanese remains unable to XSY and once imported into the VOCALOID4 will not register for XSY at all.

Once imported into VOCALOID4, her English voicebank becomes available for XSY. However, it has no additional Nana English voicebanks it can collaborate within the release itself. Users will have to purchase further voicebanks from other released within the XSY group "AHS English".

  • In June 2017 a new XSY group for English was created for AHS Software vocals. All vocals within this group are compactiable with each other for XSY purposes. This vocal release is part of this group. If a User owns one or more vocal releases within the "AHS English" group, XSY between them will open up.
    • In total this group offers the equivalent of 2 additional voicebanks achievable via XSY. The total tone variation offered by the group comes to a theoretical 4 voicebanks in total.
    • This is currently the smallest of the multiple character XSY groups, with just 1 character in it currently; Macne Nana
    • There are currently 2 unique voicebanks within this group; "Macne Nana English" and "Macne Nana English V4"
  • Note that the addition of this group did not open up GWL for Macne Nana VOCALOID3.

Individual Voices[]

Product Information
Optimum
  Optimum Range: C3 ~ C4  Optimum Tempo: 77 ~ 177 BPM
  Total Tempo (min-max): 100 BPM  No. of Keys: W ~ 8, B ~ 5, Total ~ 13
Package details as noted:

This is the Japanese Macne Nana vocal.

Vocal traits as noted:
  • The quality of this vocal is much higher than all past versions built for Nana.
  • It is also "correct" for her character and original design, which is something the UTAU vocals struggled to maintain, having often being lower in pitch or tone.


Voicebank sample

Macne Nana Japanese VOCALOID3


Product Information
Optimum
  Optimum Range: C3 ~ C4  Optimum Tempo: 77 ~ 177 BPM
  Total Tempo (min-max): 100 BPM  No. of Keys: W ~ 8, B ~ 5, Total ~ 13
Package details as noted:

This is the English version vocal. She has a strong Japanese accent due to the choice being made during development to let the vocal sound natural over sounding accurate.

Vocal traits as noted:
  • Her vocal has a good level of clarity despite the Japanese accent.
  • Due to having the same tempo, range and tone, switching mid-song to the Japanese vocal is less noticeable.
  • Nana has some of the smoothest English sounds overall in the billingual voicebank releases and transistions from sound to sound naturally. This is notable as other billingual voicebanks such as Hatsune Miku V3 English have issues with how unnatural their sounds are overall.
Phonetic notes as noted:
  • She has trouble pronouncing her R sound properly, it can be mistaken for an L or W sound.
  • A common misconception is that Nana lacks vowel sounds amd is even missing some, but unlike some cases such as Megurine Luka's original vocal VOCALOID2 vocal, this is not the case and she actually has all of the recorded vowel sounds. She has one of the strongest issues with a lack of distinction in her vowels meaning, though she has all the needed vowels, they at times sound so similar that the differences aren't noticed much. This can be a limiter when it comes to using her vowels in word construction, especially for non-English words.
Software issues as noted:
  • Nana English has a very strong Japanese accent, with it being arguable if it is or isn't the strongest. Nana has the most natural sounding of the billingual voicebanks. This leads to producers at times having some misconceptions on the voicebank and Nana may need special considerations when using her. It is unwise to presume techniques that work for other billingual voicebanks will work for Nana's.
    • In some cases, it could even be better not to try and attempt to fix the lack of distinction in her voice.
Voicebank sample

Macne Nana English VOCALOID3



References[]

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