Kagamine Rin & Len Append


 * This is an article about the Kagamine Rin and Len Append software for the VOCALOID2 engine.

History
After Miku Append began, Rin and Len (鏡音リン・レン・アペンド) were confirmed to have appends being worked on.

August 17, 2010
On the 17th of August, work began on Rin's "Sweet" append. On the 18th, it was announced that construction of the Len Append α had been completed, and with help of Kagamine fans public testing would begin in the next few weeks. A series of "soft" β samples would be shown. On the 20th of August, Wat reported work had began on a "Len_soft" vocal.

There was indecisiveness on if one of Len's Append would end up as "Power" or "Solid". Wat reported having to work out the nuances of "Len_Soft". Work had started on Len's vocal, which was recorded in Jan 2010, and was being gathered through trial and error. Rin's "power" was being pulled into β. Rin "Sweet" was being worked upon towards β. Work begun to check the Len "Moody" α vocal a week after this was done.

Work was being done on 2 Len Append vocals, "Power" and "Moody", "Power" especially had some nuances to work out. The bass was being trialed using VSQ files for the α Len Append. Asami Shimoda was due for another recording session the following day. Volunteers were required for VSQ testing and the following month (September) was set on improving the vocal with help from the general producers. Wat noted the voice of Rin was still experimental and that "Sweet" was still in α. The price of the packaging and its release had yet to be decided at this point and this was still being discussed. Len's "Power" append was not yet ready for public viewing It was mentioned that news on Len Append would begin in the following week. Wat mentioned Rin's "Sweet" append was brought up to level surprisingly fast.

September 2010
A Len Append was being adjusted due to a problem with a vowel that Wat had reported earlier, and "Tired" also needed adjustments. Rin's "Power" was mentioned as having to be balanced out, to achieve a result similar to Miku Append "Solid". Wat mentioned working on Rin "Sweet" which had a gentle voice and Len's "Serious" which was like the male version of Miku Append "Dark". Len's vocal was checked so it would have a great change from "Act 1" and "Act2". A Len Power β sample was produced to show Len in his unaltered form, another to check his expression. Power was decided to be brought forward based on feed back. This confirmed the 3 Appends for Len was "Power", "Moody" and "Serious". It was also mentioned that the separation between "Power" for Rin/Len and the other appends was the direction of these two vocals were the same as their normal vocals, Wat stated the other 4 Append vocals would be the "real Appends".

October 1, 2010
On the 1st of October, a short demo of Len power β was produced to help adjust the treble on, another was produced to check the tone of voice. A demo of Rin and Len's "Power" Append was prepared. Rin's "Power" had adjustments done so songs could be published with it. In relation to Rin's "Sweet" and Len's "Serious" (working names), there was a high amount of rumours that they had to get rid of one. Smoothness on Rin and Len's "Power" was being worked upon. Len's "Power" needed its treble fixed. After a showing, "Sweet"'s perfection was reported to be at 70%, though the accuracy of the vocal was still not enough. Len's "Power" annoyances were inferior to "Sweet"'s, but they were still quite rough. "Sweet" consonants were adjusted. Rin's "Tired" Append was under consideration to be renamed "Warm" for its all-round "warm" feeling. Later it was confirmed that two of the vocals were being renamed (Tired -> Warm, Moody -> Cold). The balance of consonants were being adjusted on "Warm" to balance out their second part.

November 2010
In November, Wat mentioned the intention of the Appends was to have two "twin" voices (Power, Power), a mirror pair (warm, cold) and a contrasting pair (sweet, Len's vocal was still in process and there was a possibility it would be called "bitter", though Wat was considering "serious").

Len "Power" promised a good quality treble conversion. Each sound was being tested for their subtle differences. Vowel-Vowel transitions were also adjusted. "Power" was created with strong constaneants. Kagamine "Cold" was mentioned to give a cold atmospheric feeling similar to Rin's "Warm" Append. Wat was also was working on "Power" the bass of which gave a strong breath, providing some 'sex appeal'. During production of "Len Serious", Wat noted he should be doing a "whisper". Wat noted there was too many similarities to Luka's vocal and his bass needed adjusting, his voice also suffered from many annoyances and could not go below C2 well.

Wat noted it was hard working out the vocals themselves, but easy and great fun to get tones out of the singer, making him feel like he was working with a human. He had to adjust each vocal respectively. However, this time he did not have time to deliberately adjust certain aspects due to the consonant system. He was hoping aspects could be given more power.

On the 16th of November, Wat announced Kagamine Len Append "Cold". This vocal was designed for moody music. Wat mentioned having to be careful with Len during recording, because he wasn't just a male vocal. Wat created a soft voice for him that he described as "sexy" and "beautiful". He switched to automatically begin recording the voice during the "test" stages. The next Append was worked upon in Mid-November 2010.

In November demos were posted of beta vocals.

December 27, 2010
The append was officially released on December 27, 2010. The total number of voicebanks for each one is 6. There are 3 voicebanks being assigned to each Kagamine that had been created from vocal performance of their voice providers. Rin's appends are "power", "warm", and "sweet". Len's appends are "power", "cold", and "serious".

Sample demo songs have been given out on Crypton's official page and their official YouTube channel online.

Recommended

 * have installed and activated the "Kagamine Rin & Len act2"
 * The free space of 8GB or more hard disk
 * 512MB of RAM or more
 * DVD-ROM drive (for installation)

All other recommendations are identical to the original VOCALOID2 "Kagamine Rin\Len Act2 product".

Voicebank Libraries

 * -|Kagamine Append=

Individual vocals

 * -|Rin Append; Power =
 * -|Rin Append; Warm =
 * -|Rin Append; Sweet =


 * -|Len Append; Power =
 * -|Len Append; Cold =
 * -|Len Append; Serious =