ALYS

Unreleased

ALYS is planned to be VoxWave's first VOCALOID, as well as the first French language VOCALOID. She will be for the VOCALOID3 engine and will have both a French and a Japanese voicebank if her crowdfunding campaign succeeds.

History
On January 13, 2013, the first hint of the possible French VOCALOID was given when enthusiastic news was posted on Vocaloid.fr with the intention of announcing the project. Some communities were skeptical due to the lack of news from well-known sources. However, on October 16 of  the same year, Anders of VocaTone confirmed their legitimacy. Since then, another thread was created on VocaloidOtaku.

In November of  2013, a survey to gauge potential interest in a French vocal was announced from VoxWave's Twitter. A secondary language choice was included in this survey: English or Japanese. The secondary language chosen in the survey was Japanese.

On January 14, 2014, a demonstration of the provider's voice was uploaded by VoxWave. This was an a capella version of "Koibito wo Uchiotoshita Hi" from Sound Horizon (it should be noted that this is not the VOCALOID voice). It was later confirmed that there would be another demonstration with the voice actor in French.

On the website, it was announced that crowdfunding for the product would be launched in March or April and would end in May. This would be to pay for the license and the voice provider, as well as for renting the recording studio; it was estimated that the total amount needed would not exceed €7000. Other costs would be covered by VoxWave.

On January 31, 2014, a design contest was announced for ALYS. The deadline for this contest was February 28, 2014, and the winner would receive €500 and a physical copy of ALYS.

On Feburary 15, 2014, another video was posted to VoxWave's YouTube channel which gave another sample of the voice provider, and also revealed the provider to be Poucet, a Youtube-based utaite.

On March 5, 2014, VoxWave revealed the silhouette for ALYS' design in their newsletter. The final design, as well as the 4 runner ups, was revealed on March 10.

More information about ALYS' development was revealed during a special presentation at the Japan Party Conference in Nanterre, Paris, France, held on March 15, 2014. Details about the planned development process included production costs, relations and contact with other VOCALOID-related companies (VocaTone, Macne.net, and Voctro Labs), the preparation for the recording process as well as awaiting YAMAHA's response, and a brief overview of ALYS' concept as a fan community VOCALOID. The period of ALYS' projected release was also announced for early 2015.

Concept
The idea of ALYS is to bring the French language to the rest of the world. The reason she is French and Japanese bilingual is due to the friendly relationships between French-speaking cultures and Japan.

Etymology
The name "ALYS" was chosen because the company members thought it sounded pleasant and sweet. It was also said to be easy to pronounce, especially in French, Japanese, and English. VoxWave's website also suggests a connection to "a certain literary culture". "ALYS" is a variant of the name "Alice", which possesses the meaning "of nobility". It originates from the Old French name "Adelais", which, in turn, is actually the derivation of the German name "Adalhaidis", or "Adelaide".

Appearance
According to VoxWave, the main reasons behind picking the design was that she:
 * Looks like a virtual singer while maintaining a human-like appearance
 * Fits ALYS's soft and dynamic voice
 * Does not look too French, as to appeal to both French- and non-French-speaking people
 * Is easy for producers to adjust the design for PVs, Illustrations, etc.
 * Is manga-styled as to appeal to the Japanese audience, and acts as a bridge between French and Japanese cultures
 * The blue color scheme gives off a futuristic mood

VoxWave has also mentioned that her braid was added by their request as a way to make ALYS stand out.

Saphirya revealed that to create the design, she researched recent VOCALOIDs to see what she felt she should and shouldn't do. The headphones were originally meant to be mechanical flowers. She was also inspired by the character designs of Hyperdimsension Neptunia.