DAINA (VOCALOID4)


 * This is an article about the Daina software for the VOCALOID4 engine.

History
In March 2015, Zero-G stated that they hoped to release an American male and female VOCALOID4 by the end of May.

In June, Syo commented that he had written the script for Daina, which was similar to the one used for Ruby.

On June 20th, VOCALOIDs Daina and Dex were introduced via livestream and panel at Anime Mid Atlantic. The announcement showcased short demo clips by Circus-P, nostraightanswer (Kenji-B) and EmpathP (AkiGlancy). Kenji noted that the VOCALOIDs were not final and that certain details are subject to change. It was also revealed that Zero-G was not able to create extra voicebanks due to financial reasons, but if Daina sells well, they may consider the option. Unlike Dex, she lacked extra phonetics at the time. Zero-G also noted that they were not interested in multilingual capabilities as they focused solely on the English language.

A second stream was held to clear up miscommunication in the first one. Unlike many other VOCALOIDs, Daina was not recorded within a studio since her voice provider already had a suitable mic for the task. Her provider came from within the fandom and the reclist had been highly customized for the American accent. The providers were recruited in December 2014 to help with the beta, along with Kenji and AkiGlancy. At the time of the livestream, Daina was still being adjusted to remove some raspiness in her lower ranges.

As there were still work to be done, a July release was not possible for Daina. Barring any technical difficulties, she would be ready for YAMAHA's approval in August.

Tests with other distributors prompted an alternate design to be produced for Daina, removing her animal traits.[7]

On July 27th, beta testing was reported as finished, with final touch-ups left in the hands of the programmers. Further promotions were to be handled by Zero-G, while design work was also handed to them for a final decision.

On September 4th, AkiGlancy reported that all work requirements for Dex and Daina were finished. She noted that Zero-G would be responsible to reveal the release date. Later, she explained that the voice providers were likely to be revealed around the months of November or February. This allows them to have their initial sales based solely off their software and to avoid any biased sales that may be accumulated by the reveal of their providers. It was unknown if Zero-G would announce this information on their own media (such as the products or website) or during a convention.

On September 6th, AkiGlancy tweeted it was unlikely that Daina would be sold as a starter pack.

As October 2nd, AkiGlancy clarified that Zero-G was waiting for YAMAHA's final answer in terms of the release dates. Dex and Daina were both ready to release and waiting for YAMAHA's approval was the reason for their continuous delays. On October 12th, Kenji confirmed that they would be released separately for the digital downloads.

On October 22nd, Dex and Daina were confirmed to have an alternative design with slight changes to the original, but still retain the theme of The Fox and The Hound. This was done to appeal to non Japanese-styled art fans.

AkiGlancy also briefly explained that Zero-G does not have a plan for the pair's physical copies due to several reasons. One major reason was that the company had observed that their VOCALOIDs tended to sell better as digital downloads and that it was far too costly to create physical packages. However, if Dex and Daina sold well, a physical release may be a future option. In the meantime, AkiGlancy planned to ask the company about "mock" boxarts, similar to what galaco had for her original voicebank. She felt that this would be much more beneficial to customers.

On November 2nd, it was confirmed that Daina had been with Yamaha for over a month and a half. During this period Yamaha were testing the vocals, during this period bug fixes were picked up by Yamaha and the team were told what needed to be fixed and resubmitted.

Recommended
TBA