MAIKA

MAIKA is a Spanish VOCALOID developed and distributed by Voctro Labs, S.L., and was released in December 2013 for the VOCALOID3 engine.

In 2014, Giuseppe revealed that both MAIKA and ONA are the same VOCALOID3 library. While MAIKA represents the Spanish usage of the vocals, ONA represents the Catalan usage.

On May 5, 2014, Voctro Labs confirmed on twitter that ONA and MAIKA were actually two different designs for the same voicebank.

Appearance
According to Noriko Hayashi, MAIKA was based on the "Pop Diva" appearance requested by Voctro Labs.

She has a play/pause tattoo (▶ ll) located on her left cheek. The little droid that accompanies her acts as a pet, microphone and speaker; on October 16, MAIKA's Facebook page started a poll asking fans to give a name to the floating droid. Later, on December 22, the site stated that the winning name was "NOVA".

It was reported via a YouTube video that MAIKA's design was made to look mature like MEIKO's. However, it was accepted that MEIKO's design was a little plain, and so Noriko Hayashi went for a design that was more like Lady Gaga. The hairstyle was a main focus in the design. Due to the number of female VOCALOIDs out, it was felt that if the hair was not something bold, MAIKA would not stand out. The lineart was completed first; Voctro Labs requested Noriko to adjust the hair color scheme. The last one was to avoid comparisons with previous VOCALOIDs like IA or Luka, as originally, the hair was a gradient of peach to light pink. Noriko tested various color combinations with Voctro choosing the final color scheme. She was asked also to make MAIKA look a little happier, so her face was adjusted slightly. NOVA was purposely created to make her design different from other VOCALOIDs. The design itself did not pull any references from Spanish culture, as it was decided that a more international feel would make her more approachable by non-Spanish people and would avoid racial cliches.

Examples of Usage

 * -|MAIKA =

Illustration Contest
The illustration contest before her release helped increase awareness of the upcoming VOCALOID, with many artists submitting their designs.

Original Song Contest
On February 25, 2014 Voctro-Labs started an original song contest with the purpose of promoting MAIKA. The deadline was set for May 19, 2014 and the judging will begin on June 1 of the same year.

The winners of the contest have since been chosen and have received their prizes, with the first, second and third place winning videos going to "La Audición" by Maubox, "Fujioshi" by darkbluecat and "Define Me" by nostraightanswer (Kenji-B). The two favorite videos selected by Voctro Labs included "Tiempos" by YZYX and "Define Me" by nostraightanswer (Kenji-B). There were also 16 other videos in the "Special Mentions" section of the contest results. The final rankings and exact totals of results can be found here.

Boxed Limited Edition
MAIKA's boxed version was sold as a limited edition of 100 copies; they could be pre-ordered since her release date (December 19), but shipping won't start until January 2014. The Boxed Limited Edition includes:
 * Immediate access to the downloadable version of MAIKA's library.
 * 1x DVD MAIKA with all the content of the download version.
 * 1x DVD with trial versions of Bruno and Clara's voicebank (14 day trial).
 * Four page instructional booklet for MAIKA with phoneme table and concept art.
 * Four high quality MAIKA prints designed by Noriko Hayashi in A6 format.
 * Printed and hand numbered outer box.

Notable For...

 * First Spanish voicebank developed for both VOCALOID3 and NEO engines.
 * Vocal with the most breath samples (33).
 * Largest optimum range of any Spanish voice bank.
 * First Spanish VOCALOID with a boxed version.
 * Only VOCALOID library with two completely different official mascots.