Macne Nana (VOCALOID3)


 * This is an article about the Macne Nana software for the VOCALOID3 engine. This is to be the first VOCALOID release of the Macne Series.

History
In 2008, VOCALOID was only available on Windows, and there was no equivalent software for the Mac. This inspired Haruna Ikezawa to start working on something using her own voice: Macne Nana. Macne Nana, along with a compact version called "Macne Nana Petite", was released on March 28, 2009 for the software Reason and GarageBand. This lead to a series of vocals similarly to Nana being added to the "Macne Family". Users were also able to take advantage of the Macne Nana and Macne Nana Petite's open license status to exploit her vocals into other software; this had lead to UTAU conversions existing. The last Macne series vocal built for Nana herself was "Macne Nana 2S", which included a vocal that worked for both GarageBand and AppleLoops, as well as a pre-built UTAU voicebank.

In 2013, VOCALOID NEO (a version of VOCALOID3 for the Mac) was released. However, though the news was interesting, as a Magazine editor Haruna Ikezawa had no budget for a VOCALOID production. Later, after things were sorted to produce the VOCALOID3 version, teasers were left hinting at Macne Nana being produced for VOCALOID3. This was later confirmed on Macne Nana's Twitter account.

According to Mac Fan magazine, there was a conversation with Yamaha; no money was involved and the OK was given for the voice of Haruna Ikezawa to become a VOCALOID. The vocal would be reviewed at 70% completion. If the vocal does not meet with expectations, it will be scrapped. It will only be put forward to commercial release if the vocal is satisfactory.

Because of the lack of a budget, a sponsor had to be found to power the projects budget and the distributor had to be sorted also. In the end the issue was sorted with Bplats. The decision was made to make this a Vocaloid Store exclusive only. Originally the project was to be released in Jan, but Haruna Ikezawa wanted to challenge herself by doing a English vocal as well as she found the original recording of her vocal boring. Permission, however, had to be asked due to the time frame that had been set aside to produce the vocal. However, the go ahead was given and English went also into production. Adding English set the project back, making it take a years and a half to produce and delayed release.

During the summer, her Japanese and English was re-recorded to improve its vocal. The Japanese vocal took a day to record while 5 days were taken to record the English again. A Chinese vocal was also produced as Haruna Ikezawa knows Chinese, but production was stopped at a prototype stage. This vocal was left to be considered as a future release rather then a immediate one.

Editing began in August, of which much trial and error occurred. Due to the Jan deadline, only 3 months were left to edit the vocal. The vocal had to be delivered to Yamaha by November. A total of over 1,000 hours were put into producing the vocal, this amounted to a workload of 15 hours a day. The Japanese vocal had to be redone 6 times, the English about 11 times. The English vocal in particular was difficult for Haruna Ikezawa to work with.

In October 2013, it was confirmed she was going ahead and that she would have both a PC version and a Mac version. It was also confirmed she would include an English as well as a Japanese vocal. She was slated for a January 2014 release.

In November 2013, it was revealed that Bplats, Inc. will be the company that records her voicebanks. It was also stated that her English and Japanese voicebanks can be bought separately or as part of a bundle. The bundle went on pre-order in mid-december 2013. Those who pre-ordered would receive several bonuses, including the Macne Nana 2S vocal and wallpapers. Those who pre-ordered were also entered into a competition to win one of 10 signed hand-drawn pictures by Haruna Ikezawa and Gomoku Akatsuki.

Future development
It was mentioned in a interview that the Chinese vocal was not completely out of question yet, as they made a test vocal for Nana but it is not a complete version, they don't guarantee release for it. Haruna Ikezawa was also interested in the French Vocaloid by VoxWave which was being produced with the help of VocaTone. Since Haruna Ikezawa can also speak French, she put the idea of French Nana also on the table for future developments.

Currently the French project has been brought to a halt, decreasing Macne Nana's chances of getting a French vocal for the time being.

AHS Sales
In May 2015, due to the closure of the Vocaloid store, there was talk of selling Macne Nana in the AH-Software Co. Ltd. store. Although the Vocaloid shop was replacing the store, at the time the clause was considered "messy" – there were too many uncertain factors regarding what would happen after the switch.

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