Macne series

The Macne series (Mac音シリーズ) is a series of voice banks designed for Reason and GarageBand, music sequencer software for the Macintosh operating system, developed by MI7 Japan and distributed by Act2. They are sold under an Open-source license. Following the release of the Vocaloid "Neo" version for the Mac, several hints were left on Macne Nana's Twitter that an official Vocaloid voicebank was in progress. It was confirmed and announced later in October 2013 that Macne Nana would be released for both the Vocaloid 3 software and the Vocaloid Neo software on January 31, 2014.

History

The Macne series interface Macne Nana version

The idea of releasing a voicebank for Macintosh computers was conceptualized in the Japanese voice actress Haruna Ikezawa's regular column "天声姫語 Vox Reginae, Vox Dei" ("voice of the queen, voice of god," a spoof of Asahi Shimbun's editorial article "天声人語 Vox Populi, Vox Dei" or "voice of the people, voice of god") carried in the magazine Mac Fan by Mainichi Communications. It followed the success story of Hatsune Miku, a voice produced for the Vocaloid software which was produced for Microsoft Windows only but has no connection to the Vocaloid software development.[1] The Macne series gained popularity after it was discovered that the sound files could be imported into the singing software Utau.

A plan was made to introduce new characters to the series in 2012 and as of October 2012, a selection of finalists have been chosen.[2]

In late December, the concept of turning all the Macne series into Vocaloid were spoken about. The most major factor in the process was the cost of doing so.[3]

Characters

The Macne vocals are set up as a family unit with each "character" given a distinct personality.

Macne Nana

Macne Nana (Mac音ナナ/マクネナナ) is cheerful and positive (but a little clumsy), she is accident prone but always looks on the bright side of things even when running late for work.[4] Macne Nana is about 14 or 15 years old according to her official profile.

Macne Petit

Originally labelled Macne Nana Petite (Mac音ナナ Petit), Macne Petit (Mac音プチ) is the "straight man" of the Macne house, she keeps the family together and makes sure they are not divided. Although generally the quiet one, she would rather have a conversation with someone then watch things go wrong.[5] She is 10 years old and currently is the youngest member of the family.

Macne Coco (white)

Macne Coco White (Mac音ココ[白]) is friendly, calm and mature. She is responsible for keeping the general Macne home running and works at "Macne Cafe" (Mac音カフェ). Though she is always smiling, others do not wish to see what her angry face might look like so everyone smiles back at her.[6] She and her twin sister Macne Coco Black are 17 years old and currently the eldest two daughters of the Macne family.

Macne Coco (black)

Macne Coco Black (Mac音ココ[黒]) easily gets emotional. Compared to her sister White, she loses her temper easily and cries quite easily. Whereas Coco White runs the general work of the Macne household, Coco Black is incapable of holding responsibilities beyond tasks like selling candy sticks. Coco black is also the ignorance queen of the Macne household and often puts her looks first.[7]

Macne Papa

Macne Papa (Mac音パパ) is a mature, cool, and collective character in comparison with his "daughters". According to his profile he is hardly home and is often flying around the world, but ensures that treasures and parts are sent back home every month from his travels. His line of work, however, is unclear, but when he retires from his work his clothes and attitude change.[8] His age is put at between 40 and 49.

Whisper☆Angel Sasayaki

Whisper☆Angel Sasayaki (ウィスパー☆エンジェルささやきさん) is a sweet and angelic child. She has a magic transformation wand from her ancestors and is a transformed version of Macne Petit. Sasayaki also whispers 3,389 the whisper of a regular person. In her profile it questions why Petit was given the wand and who this girl of mystery (Sasayaki) is.[9]

Products

All Macne products were built for the Japanese Language and therefore include only the 50 sounds needed for Japanese pronunciation Each vocal is recorded in 3 different scales. Except for Macne Nana, the Macnes are built primary for the GarageBand software.

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.