#joyme network

[vocalsynthbdays]

happy birthday to zhanyin lorra(vocaloid 3) !!!!!!! [26 aug]

Zhanyin Lorra was a potential chinese synth, who was going to be developed by Shanghai HENIAN Co. Ltd in collaboration with NetEase, however she was cancelled. shes voiced by Gui Xian Ren, who won the contest for lorras vp, and illustrated by Da Nu Luo. lorra had a completed vb, but it wasnt released due to a mishap. she was to be the mascot for neteases online rpg rhythm game, ZhanyinOL. netease abandoned lorra, and the person responsible for her development at shanghai henian resigned. in 2017 Joyme Network purchased her character rights. lorra currently features in a game, in which her design and lore were slightly changed, released by netease(?) and joyme(?)(im actually not too sure what joyme has to do with it, i just know they hold lorras character rights, or at least i think they still do, and i know they are, or maybe "were" as their website is gone, a "media portal for gamers and developers"(from tracxn.com)). this game is called "Yuánqì Zhàn Jī Xuéyuàn" (some google and deepl translations include: "Genki Battle Hime Academy", "Genki Battle Girls Academy", "Yuanqi Fighting Girl", and "Yuanqi Fighting Girl Academy", though i recommend looking for it in chinese, "元气战姬学院", if you want to know more about it.) it is unknown if joyme or whoever else will release a vb for lorra in the future, though her in game va is her vp Gui Xian Ren, however lorra is described as having "lost the ability to sing"(google translation of Yuánqì Zhàn Jī Xuéyuàn's baike baidu page), but this might not be definitive change in direction for the character, and just a reference to her time as a vocaloid. also sorry but i have no idea how to even go about finding who drew the image of lorra in the game. lorra is physically/ visually 16yo, though her actual age 163. she is also 163cm tall. her character birthday is 26 aug, which is also the date her name, design, and lore were revealed

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ref

lorra in Yuánqì Zhàn Jī Xuéyuàn

[vocaloidfactoftheday]

The Tales of Canceled Vocaloids

i've debated whether i should include canceled vocaloids (as in, whole vocaloids not just canceled extra voicebanks like seeu english) on this blog. i think my main worry is that there aren't any facts interesting enough outside of the circumstances of their cancelation.

my solution is: a bonus post! this post compiles facts surrounding the cancelation of many vocaloids. hopefully you can learn something new about the vocaloids that never came to be!

this information, as always, is from the vocaloid wiki. i will list the vocaloids in the order that they are listed on the wiki's list of canceled voicebanks.

the vocaloids included in this post are:

CV04β

REV

Zhanyin Lorra

Ring Suzune and Hibiki Lui

Lucía and LUAN

Zing

H

Yao Luniang

COCOROBO

ALYS (information taken from Alter/Ego Wiki)

CV04β

(no illustration available)

Current Status: Assumed canceled/abandoned

Also known as simply CV04

A masculine Japanese vocal that Crypton Future Media began developing during the VOCALOID2 era. As the name implies, this would be an addition to the Character Vocal series (currently consisting of Miku, Rin, Len and Luka).

Crypton decided to prioritize updating their existing Vocaloids over making new ones.

The unexpected popularity of Hatsune Miku caused many of Crypton's other projects to be set back.

By the time VOCALOID2 was retired, they had not been able to further develop CV04.

REV

Current Status: Confirmed canceled; may move to new engine moved to DeepVocal

REV was made to be a male counterpart to CUL.

Just as CUL was used as a mascot for VY1 during VOCALO Revolution, REV was to be used as a mascot for VY2.

Hiroto-P, who was mainly responsible for CUL's development, wanted to give REV his own voicebank, but for unspecified reasons, was unable to do so.

Depending on the success of upcoming CeVIO voicebank ROSA, development on REV may be picked up again, though likely for CeVIO (just like ROSA) rather than VOCALOID.

UPDATE: REV has a free DeepVocal voicebank currently in beta. This voicebank was released in May 2021. Thanks @utau-bowl for the correction!

Zhanyin Lorra

Current Status: Confirmed canceled

Planned to be a VOCALOID3 release along with Yuezheng Ling.

The two were originally companions. Lorra's biography as told on Vocaloid Wiki is as follows: "a quiet and reticent 16 year old girl who came to the human world from a magical dimension with a mysterious mission. Due to dimensional turbulence, the exit was displaced and she happened to crash into Yuezheng Ling's house. The first time Lorra came to the human world, she was very unfamiliar with her surroundings. [...] With Ling's help, she became a VOCALOID. Lorra has an "eye awakening" ability which can give her an insight to which person has a musical potential and she can activate this potential through her voice, giving it the equivalent of magic."

Lorra was intended to be part of Vsinger, then known as VOCANESE.

A contest was held for her voice provider. Out of four contestants, Gui Xian Ren was chosen, and recording for Lorra was soon completed.

After several months of development, there was an issue found in the voicebank that needed to be fixed.

More time passed, and after VOCANESE rebranded to Vsinger, it was confirmed that the holder of Lorra's character rights was no longer interested in the project. Her rights were bought by a video game company called Joyme Network. For now, she is exclusively used as a character for their games.

Ring Suzune and Hibiki Lui

(sorry. i don't know why they crop like this.)

Current Status: Assumed canceled/abandoned

Born from a 2011 contest called Everyone's Vocaloid. The goal was to bring official Vocaloid products and fan content together by using two fanmade designs to create official Vocaloids.

Finding a voice provider for Lui was difficult, and they never confirmed any voice provider for him. It's assumed that no voicebank ever began production for him.

Ring's voice provider was Japanese singer MiKA. Unlike Lui, her voicebank had reached enough progress for demo songs to be made. A small amount of people received a beta copy of her voicebank set to expire in a month.

Ring was set to release in 2012, but was never sold. It seems no reason was given for this.

Their company, Vocaloid Next, suddenly ceased all activity and their website became inaccessible in 2013. No news or explanation has surfaced.

Lucía and LUAN

(from @AkiGlancy on Twitter; no illustration available for LUAN)

Current Status: Confirmed canceled

Two Spanish VOCALOID4 voicebanks being developed by Giuseppe, who had experience helping develop Vocaloids with Voctro Labs.

Giuseppe attempted to contact several companies to help with the development, including Voctro Labs, but they were not willing to help pay for a VOCALOID license.

Both received a lot of negative feedback. Lucía was criticized for sounding too similar to Clara, and LUAN was criticized for being too low quality.

It was also found that LUAN's voice provider was someone who was subject to a lot of controversy in the Spanish Vocaloid community.

The stress combined with the criticism drove Giuseppe to lash out at Vocaloid fans. He soon deleted his angry comments, LUAN's demo, and any posts related to him or Lucía. Afterward, he closed his social media and retired from Vocaloid, confirming these voicebanks to be canceled.

Zing

Current Status: Assumed canceled/abandoned

A trilingual (Japanese, Mandarin, English) Vocaloid being developed by EXIT TUNES in collaboration with aquatrax.

aquatrax is a video game company. Zing is the mascot of their rhythm game Zyon. At the end of 2016, development began on her VOCALOID4 voicebank.

In 2017, Zing was announced to be an expected Spring 2018 release. No news has surfaced since then. Additionally, her origin game, Zyon, shut down its servers in February 2020 and is no longer playable.

H

Current Status: Confirmed canceled; possibly moving to CeVIO

First teased in 2016 during IA and ONE's anniversary livestream. The only information given was the letter H and a VOCALOID4 voicebank in development.

After four more years of no updates, H was confirmed canceled in 2020.

However, in 2021 during another anniversary livestream, H was teased again, this time with a design.

Along with IA and ONE, she is part of the ARIA ON THE PLANETES project. Her real name was revealed later in 2021 as HIPPI.

While unconfirmed, if fully developed she is likely going to be released for CeVIO like her sisters.

Yao Luniang

Current Status: Assumed canceled/abandoned

A Chinese voicebank to be developed for VOCALOID4 by Shanghai Wangcheng.

Shanghai Wangcheng's other Vocaloids, Zhang Chuchu and Yuecheng, are private, so it's very possible Luniang was never intended for commercial use.

She was a collaboration with NetEase Comics, for which she served as a mascot.

Production for VOCALOID4 started in 2017. Her voice provider was to be chosen through an audition. While six finalists emerged, the winner was never revealed.

In 2020, an authorized user of Yuecheng and Chuchu reported that the pair's serial codes ceased distribution and their voicebanks were no longer available. Shanghai Wangcheng also closed their websites and accounts and seem to have ceased activity, leaving Luniang abandoned.

COCOROBO

Current Status: Assumed canceled/abandoned

Cocorobo-chan was originally featured in exclusive models of a cleaning robot developed by SHARP.

While operating as a vacuum, Cocorobo-chan was also meant to provide conversation so that the owners could feel more connected by communicating with her.

An updated version was debuted in 2016, marketed as a musical A.I. vacuum with a voice powered by the VOCALOID4 engine. COCOROBO's voicebank development was to begin soon after.

In 2018, SHARP stated that COCOROBO was not canceled, but internal circumstances caused them to be unable to give a clear update on her development. No news has surfaced since then.

ALYS

Current Status: Confirmed canceled; moved to Alter/Ego open source, available for Alter/Ego and UTAU

She was to be the first French Vocaloid, developed for VOCALOID3 and voiced by French utaite Poucet. She would also have a Japanese voicebank.

She was expected to release in early 2015. However, in late 2014, her company VoxWave announced that she was going to be developed for CeVIO instead. While they preferred this direction, this also meant that they needed to raise much more money for her.

In December 2015, it was finally announced that ALYS would be released for Alter/Ego, and she was successfully released in March 2016.

UPDATE: VoxWave shut down in September 2021. As of December 2021, ALYS is now open source thanks to her creator Phundrak. This includes her Alter/Ego voicebank, now available for free, and her prototype UTAU voicebank that was used during development. The Alter/Ego voicebank is not licensed to be modified or redistributed, but the UTAU voicebank is. You can read more here!