Kagamine Rin & Len

Kagamine Rin &amp; Len (鏡音リン ・レン) is the second product released on December 27, 2007, they are Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series developed by Crypton Future Media Ltd. (CFM), male voice (Len) and female voice (Rin). Their family name was from the developing code combining Kagami (鏡, mirror) and Ne (音, sound).

History
Crypton Future Media intended to project a Vocaloid with low-teen girl's voice at first following Miku Hatsune, but there was a demand for a boy's voice, so Crypton Future Media hired a voice actress who can produce both sounds. Kagamine Rin was the first voicebank developed and introduced to the Vocaloid consumer market. However, the package included two voicebanks: one for Rin and another for Len, both provided by the seiyū Asami Shimoda (下田 麻美 Shimoda Asami), Kagamine Len was unveiled later after Kagamine Rin. The package was priced at the same price as Hatsune Miku, even though there was two voicebanks in the box.

At the time of recording in 2007, their names had not yet been decided. Their given names of Rin and Len were said to be based on " ri ght" and " le ft" according to Asami Shimoda. She later confirmed in an interview after the Append release, the name itself was based on the names of Ken and Rin from Hokuto no Ken, the names were derived from a discussion about names that were familiar from her childhood. According to Asami Shimoda, Len's voice was achieved by singing within her chest, while Rin's at the top of her head.

Act 2
On June 12, 2008, Crypton announced that the updated edition, named "Act2", would be released in early July 2008. Users who had bought the old version got an expansion disc free of charge. On June 18, 2008, beta demonstration songs using the new version were released on the company's official blog. On July 18, 2008, act2 was released. The new version was released to address issues with the original voicebanks that affected their ability to sing clearly. It acted as an independent installation, coexisting with the initial software. The original version of the software is now retired from sale by Crypton Future Media themselves and it is now no longer possible to buy the software from them.

Append - the Future of Rin/Len
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. Len Append was in the process of production first and demos of his voice were given out; (high voice demo), (low voice demo). 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 and had been created from vocal performance of their voice providers. . Sample demo songs have been given out on Crypton's official page and their official Youtube channel online. Rin's appends are "power", "warm", and "sweet". Len's appends are "power", "cold", and "serious".

Their Append outsold the Miku Append during the period after their release. However, they did not maintain this, in June 2011, their Append had fallen to 8th place, one below Kaito's vocaloid voicebank.

Marketing
As they were under development, Crypton had the concept of making a pair of male and female voicebanks. The first idea of the concept was twin voices of a girl and her mirror image of opposite gender, just like twins.

CFM had an intention to distribute them as twins, but this was not adopted either. After seeing many works that depict their relationships differently, Crypton announced on a magazine interview that those would meet their ideal. Crypton did not decide to announce they are neither siblings nor lovers, as they did not want to tie down each user's free creative activities.

KEI was given the concept Crypton intended, their approximate ages, an image of mirror, and an image of androids, but was not given any other directions when he was asked to illustrate Rin and Len by Crypton, as Kei had already illustrated Miku before. Rin was the first one to be illustrated and Len was made to match her, following Crypton's concept. Their leg parts are designed to mimic speakers.

Their Append design and the Official Illustration of those ones were made by オサム (osamu).

Good Smile Racing
See Good Smile Racing

Figurines


The Kagamines have had several figurines made for them. Some are based on one and not the other, other times they have had a model each but were released seperately and on some occasions together.

Kagamine Rin has more figurines than Kagamine Len. As well as having a standard Figma and Nendoroid figurine each, Rin has had a figurine based on the "Meltdown Hard R.K. mix" PV. She has also appeared alongside Miku and Luka in the Good smile racing figurine promotions. When the first Pullip Dolls were released, both Rin and Len were released alongside Miku, they were based on the same body model as each other.

The pair have seen a number of Garage Kit packs as well.


 * For more Figurines see Template:Nav Figurines

US Debut
The Kagamines appeared in the Los Angeles Mikunopolis concert in July 2, 2011, along with Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. Len performed 'Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder' (Ft. Rin), and Rin performed 'Meltdown' in her Hard Rock remix outfit. A rumor says Crypton Future Media is currently selling them as "twins" to the American audience, unlike in Japan where their relationship has never been defined and left to interpretation.

Guest Appearances
In Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei a pair of Len and Rin look a likes are seen in the waiting queue during the auditions of the role of Meru Meru, however they do not have the Kagamine's known colors.

In the anime Maria†Holic Rin and Miku appear on a scene on episode 12, which can be seen on Youtube

In the manga Comic Party, during the fair there is a person wearing Rin's ribbon and has the same hairstyle as hers.

Vocaloid 2

 * The Kagamines have songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame
 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider

Kagamine Rin/Len (CV02)
The Kagamine were released as a more advanced Vocaloid package then Hatsune Miku and contained 2 voicebanks for a male and a female Vocal. Kagamine Rin's vocal is set as the default and users will have to switch to Kagamine Len's vocal manually.

Kagamine Rin

 * Optimum genre: Electro-pop, Enka, Pop, rock
 * Optimum tempo: 85～175BPM
 * Optimum range: F # 3 ~ C # 5

Strengths
The Character vocal series have characteristics about them which centres around their vocal abilities, and the Kagamine's focus is on the two opposing vocal packagaes Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len and are sold as one package. Rin is a deeper teenage vocal than Hatsune Miku. Rin's pronounications are sharp compared to Kagamine Len's.

Weaknesses
In terms of realism, however, she is about the same as Kagamine Len as that was not the focus of the Character Vocal series and is not very realisitic at all. Her vowel sounds are choppy and overall lacked smoothness with a number of vowel related sounds being absent. Compared to Hatsune Miku, Rin is considered difficult to use and requires some experience to be able to use her successfully. There are some complaints towards the Vocaloid within the Japanese fandom on how she sounds. One of the major issues is that she hardly pronounces her consonants.

According to Asami Shimoda, some say Rin's voice echoes within their head and makes them feel dizzy.

Kagamine Len

 * Optimum genre: Dance, Enka, Pop, rock
 * Optimum tempo: 70～160BPM
 * Optimum range: D 3 ~ C # 5

Strengths
The Character vocal series have characteristics about them which centres around their vocal abilities, and the Kagamine's focus is on the two opposiing vocal packagaes Rin and Len. Len's vocal expands the software capablities by offering a vocal that fulfills a male role. He is a young boy sounding singer and the vocal range is in the Soprano scale. He can harmonize with Rin relatively easier than most Vocaloids due to having similar vocal capablities.

Weaknesses
Len has a slight lisp-like sound which seperates his voice from Kagamine Rin. Even by retuning the voice of either Kagamine to sound like the other, results are never identical, and veteran Vocaloid fans can tell who is actually voicing the song. His vocals are not always as strong as Rin's on the high notes. Of the two voicebanks however, Len is often considered more difficult to work with than his counterpart, Rin. A particular noted weakness of Len's voicebank is that he is limited in his capabilities of matching masculine vocal tones, owed to his voice provider being female. Therefore, he cannot produce a satisfactory low masculine vocal tone. In terms of realism, however, he is about the same as Kagamine Rin as that was not the focus of the Character Vocal series and is not very realisitic at all. His vowel sounds are choppy and overall lacked smoothness with a number of vowel related sounds being absent. Compared to Hatsune Miku, Len is considered difficult to use and requires some experience to be able to use him successfully.

According to Asami Shimoda, there are some complaints towards the Vocaloid within the Japanese fandom on how they sound. Some say Len's high vocals do not appeal to those not fond of the pair.

Kagamine Rin/Len - Act 2 (CV02)
Act 2 was released to solve the Kagamine's pronunciation problems. Act 2 is a separate installation, this version of the software later replaced the original and the original voicebanks were phased out of sale completely. Just as with the original, the default voicebank is Kagamine Rin and users will have to manually select Kagamine Len.


 * (Rin Act1, Rin Act2), (Len Act1, Len Act2)

Kagamine Rin

 * Optimum genre: Electro-pop, Enka, Pop, rock
 * Optimum tempo: 85～175BPM
 * Optimum range: F # 3 ~ C # 5

Strengths
Kagamine Rin Act 2 has improved vocals in Act 2 and is clearer and easier to use. The improvements mean the vocals are smoother and better suited for less exeprienced Vocaloid users than the previous voicebank was. For users with both versions, they have a choice between four voicebanks overall: the newer voicebanks or the older voicebanks, both with slightly different results. Rin's consonants issue has also been adjusted so that they sound clearer.

Weaknesses
Her voicebank is less vivid and flexible and does not allow delicate settings or editing which gives a wider range of expression to experienced users. She cannot pronounce the h\ phonetic data and is missing other phonetic pronunciations in addition to what was missing from their original software release. Despite improvements, the remaining missing data still makes the Act 2 voicebank sound choppy in comparison to other Vocaloid voicebanks. Like Hatsune Miku, the Kagamine Rin is one of the more out dated voicebanks and has some difficulty competing against newer voicebanks in terms of quality.

Kagamine Len

 * Optimum genre: Dance, Enka, Pop, rock
 * Optimum tempo: 70～160BPM
 * Optimum range: D 3 ~ C # 5

Strengths
Kagamine Len Act 2 has improved vocals in Act 2 and is clearer and easier to use. The improvements mean the vocals are smoother and better suited for less exeprienced Vocaloid users than the previous voicebank was. For users with both versions, they have a choice between four voicebanks overall: the newer voicebanks or the older voicebanks, both with slightly different results. Len's vocal has the most improvements overall out of the two voicebanks within the package and was much closer sounding to his intended vocal type (young boy) than his previous version.

Weaknesses
It is less vivid and flexible and does not allow delicate settings or editing which gives a wider range of expression to experienced users. He cannot pronounce the h\ phonetic data and is missing other phonetic pronunciations in addition to what was missing from their original software release. Despite improvements, the remaining missing data still makes the Act 2 voicebanks sound choppy in comparison to other Vocaloid voicebanks. Like Hatsune Miku, the Kagamine Len is one of the more out dated voicebanks and has some difficulty competing against newer voicebanks in terms of quality.

Kagamine Rin/Len (CV02); Append
The Append release also gave older Kagamine users the chance to update the Vocaloid2 engine to a newer version, as the Append had the latest engine version. Users also need the Kagamine Rin/Len Act2 voicebanks to be able to install and use the Append voicebanks - the Append will not work with the original voicebanks. There are differences in the 6 Append voicebanks in terms of performance and some are more smoother then others, the Appends themselves were overall much smoother and of a higher quality than the original voicebanks.

Kagamine Rin Append: POWER

 * Optimum genre: Rocks/Pops/Dance musics/Enka
 * Optimum tempo: 65~170BPM
 * Optimum range: F#3 ~ B#4

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
More details to follow.

Kagamine Rin Append: WARM

 * Optimum genre: Soft rocks/Ballades/Pops/Folks
 * Optimum tempo: 60~160BPM
 * Optimum range: F#3 ~ B#4

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
This is the weakest voicebank in terms of smoothness for Rin out of the Appends.

Kagamine Rin Append: SWEET

 * Optimum genre: Bossa Nova/French Pops/Ambient music/Electronica
 * Optimum tempo:55~155BPM
 * Optimum range: G#3 ~ C#5

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
More details to follow.

Kagamine LEN Append: POWER

 * Optimum genre: Rocks/Pops/Dance musics/Enka
 * Optimum tempo:65~170BPM
 * Optimum range: A#2 ~ D#4

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
More details to follow.

Kagamine LEN Append: COLD

 * Optimum genre: Soft rocks/Ballades/Pops/Folks
 * Optimum tempo:65~160BPM
 * Optimum range: B#2 ~ C#4

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
This is the weakest of the Append voicebanks for Len in terms of easy trasnactions between a few vowels.

Kagamine LEN Append: SERIOUS

 * Optimum genre: Post Rocks/Phsyke/Ambient music/Ambient dub/Electronica
 * Optimum tempo: 55~155BPM
 * Optimum range: Range:A#2 ~ C#4

Strengths
More details to follow.

Weaknesses
More details to follow.

Popularity
They were slow to gain popularity in the Japanese fandom after the backlash of their original voicebanks and although they have 2nd highest number of songs combined, they are not as popular as Hatsune Miku who came before them. Thier designs have also spawned many producer based derivatives.

In the Japanese fandom, Rin is the more popular of the two Vocaloids with more related works than her counterpart Len. Part of the problem in the Japanese fandom was owed to the backlash of Kaito's failure, male voicebanks had so little demand at that time and Len's voicebank was left as the only male Vocaloid 2 vocal until Gakupo's release, and was not used as often as Rin's voicebank.

A independant Vocaloid search on Nico Nico Douga revealed that most Vocaloids had less then 1,000 videos uploaded on Nico Nico Douga in between July 1 and December 15 2011. The Kagamines, however had managed to gain enough views not to fall into this problem. Rin had received 2811 uploads while Len had received 2021. Rin had the 3rd highest total views during this period of any Vocaloid with 5327456 views and 477046 mylists, and Len managed with 4555580 views and 413901 mylists. When sorted by average, Len was third with 2254.12 views per video (and 204.8 mylists, which was more than Miku’s) and Rin’s was 1895.22/169.71. However, when the views were based on the more accurate mean total number of views, Len and Rin rounded out the top six with 355 views/16 mylists and 349 views/16 mylists respectively per video coming bottom of the top 6 Vocaloids. The Kagamine software was the only Vocaloid package to be be in all top 6 lists besides Gumi.

The Appends for the Kagamine Vocaloids were better received than the Miku Append, though they did not sell as well overall as the Miku Append and did not remain in the top ten Crypton Future Media software rankings.

Trivia

 * It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.
 * Some call Rin and Len the incorrect names "Lin" and/or "Ren". Though the romanized version of the word could be either, the English version has been confirmed as "Rin and Len" and since there is no dubbed version to content with, the name remain the only official names in existence for the Vocals. This is also backed up by the origins of their names as "R" (Rin)" and "L" (Len).
 * Note; "L" and "R" mean "Left and Right", they are the letters you find on a set of headphones (and sometimes other equipment such as speakers). Usually there is not enough space to write "left" and "right" on headphones. "L" refers to left ear and "R" is right ear.
 * On the Mikunopolis website their profile reads the following statement; "The Kagamine twins are well known for their very clear and precise vocals". Considering their history of lack of clarity and/or pronounication problems, as well as Act 2 of the software missing a pronounication entirely, this is a little bit of an exaggeration on the website host's part. Also the statement "Just with a few tweaks here and there they could sing almost any other genres as well" is also some questionable due to their reputation of requiring previous experience to use and often at times needed more then just a few tweaks to make them work.
 * Rin has a G-clef (Treble-clef) on her shirt, Len has a F-clef (Bass-clef) on his, in their Append they are found on chokers rather then their shirts.
 * KEI stated there are differences between Rin/Len's design for ACT1 and ACT2, such as the addition of 'ACT 2' on Rin's arm and 'ACT 2' on Len's headset.
 * With a total of 10 voicebanks Asami Shimoda is the vocal provider with the most Vocaloid voicebanks for commerical sale based on any single vocaloid provider. This also makes the Kagamine package the most expansive set of vocals within the Vocaloid 2 era and to date the most of any Vocaloid package. However, most new users will only have access to 8 vocals due to the original's retirement.
 * Continuing the tradition of the Item War Internet Meme, many items were preposed for the pair. In the end Len's hair was commented to resemble a bunch of bananas and this became his item while Rin's bow gave the impression of a Orange leaves on a orange and this became her item.  Before her release, Rin had the Road Roller assigned to her by accident in a video that recieved many views suddenly on Dec 01 2007.  Kagamine Len had yet to be revealled at the time of the Road Roller meme.

Notable for...

 * First and only dual voicebanks released
 * First Vocaloids to be updated
 * First male (Len) released for Vocaloid 2
 * First vocal (Len) released not to be the same gender as the provider
 * First male (Len) to be Appended