Kagamine Rin & Len Append

Kagamine Rin \ Len Append software for the Vocaloid 2 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
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 completed and with help of the main 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, was being gather 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 it was done.


 * test "Len_Soft" test
 * test Rin "Power"

Work was being done on 2 Len Append vocals, "Power" and "Moody", "power" especially had some nuances to work out. The bass was being trial 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 and 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.


 * sample Len "Moody" α (bass test)
 * sample Rin "Sweet" α

September
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 were "Power", "Moody" and "Serious".


 * page Len and Rin power
 * sample Power Len β
 * sample Power Len β

On the 1st of October, a short demo of Len power β was produced to help adjust the treble on, another for was produced to check the tone of the voice. A demo of Rin and Len's Power demo was prepared. Rin's "Power" had work done to adjust so songs could be published with it. In radiance to Rin's "Sweet" and Len's "Serious" (working names), there was a high amount of whipsering they had to either allow to become part of the vocal or get rid of. 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", but they were still quite rough. "Sweet" consonants were adjusted. Rin's "tired" Append was being considered to be renamed "Warm" for its all-round "warm" feeling. Later it was confirmed that two of the vocals were being renamed (Tired -> War, moody -> Cold). The balance of consonants were being adjusted on "warm" to balance out their second part.

Demo released were;
 * Servant of Evil Power Len β
 * sample Power Len β
 * link Power Rin & Len β
 * song Rin Power
 * two demos showing Rin "warm" and "Warm" + "Power"
 * song using Rin Sweet β

In november, Wat mentioned the intention of the Appends was to have two "twin" voice (Power, Power), a mirror pair (warm, cold) and contrasting (Sweet, Len's vocal was still in process and there was a possibility it would be called possibly "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 mention gave a cold atmospheric feeling similar to Rin's "Warm" Append. Wat was also was working on "Power" which had a strong breath, giving way to a "sex appeal" due to the bass giving a heavy breath sound. When production "Len Serious", Wat noted he should be doing a "whisper". Wat noted there was too much likewise to Luka's vocal and his bass needed adjusting, his voice had many annoyances and could not go below C2 well.

Wat mentioned that it was easy to get tones was hard work out of the vocals themselves, but 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 and was hoping things 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. Wast created a soft voice for him hat he described as "sexy", it was to him "beautiful" he switched to automatically begin recording the voice during the "test" recording. The next Append was worked upon in Mid-November 2010.

In November demos were posted of beta vocals.
 * "Get Wild" Len Append "Cold"
 * "Again" was posted of Rin Power β
 * song was posted of Len and Rin Power β.

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. . 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.

Voicebank Libraries
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. Though there are differences in the 6 Append voicebanks in terms of performance and smoothness, the Appends themselves were overall much smoother and of a higher quality than the original voicebanks with Len's intended to simulate more "manly" tones then Rin's, while Rin's Appends are softer/gentler in tone compared to Len's.

Unlike the previous Hatsune Miku Append (in regards to her Append; SOFT voicebank), this particular Append has no voicebanks that match the original optimum range and tempo. Thus, it is much harder to escape the need to edit VSQ files that originally fit the Kagamine Rin/Len Act2 vocals. If one complies with using the vocals offered with the Append with the correct Kagamine vocal, they will find that there is a lot less options to expand Rin or Len than what the Miku Append offered (just 3 vocals for each compared to Miku's 6). This makes the Kagamine Appends much harder to use overall, while fitting in with the Kagamine's intention of being a more advance product than the Hatsune Miku vocal was. However, due to the increased contrast in vocals compared to the Miku Append, this particular Append allows the Kagamines to expand out into very different genres, more so than the Miku append offered for Miku.

The Appends also are designed to be a "expression of colour" for the pair and like the two original Kagamine vocals are not based on a professional singer's results. They can often fail to maintain a natural sounding tone and are not intended to sound natural.


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


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