Kagamine Rin & Len

Kagamine Rin & 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).

Vocaloid 2
Crypton Future Media intended to project a Vocaloid with low-teen girl's voice at first following Miku Hatsune, but there was also a demand for a boy's voice, so Crypton Future Media hired a voice actress who could produce both sounds. Kagamine Rin was the first voicebank developed and introduced to the Vocaloid consumer market on November 8th 2007. 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 on December 3rd 2007. The package was priced at the same price as Hatsune Miku, even though there were two voicebanks in the box.

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. Crypton Future Media apologized for the bad quality of the original Kagamine Rin/Len product. They explained that they had rushed the Kagamine product onto the market in suite of Hatsune Miku's success and promised to produce a better quality version to correct their mistake. The product itself had been in production between April and September 2007 and had not been changed between then and their release. The following April they continued to work on the vocals from where they were left off to tweak the issues surrounding them. Crypton Future Media also promised to speak more closely with the fans and keep them up to date more on their Vocaloid software progress in future.

The new version was released to address issues with the original voicebanks that affected their ability to sing clearly. The Database was reshuffled around to allow the voicebank libraries to handle the samples better and Crypton Future Media worked heavily to improve the vocals. Act2 was as an independent installation, coexisting with the initial software. During the Kagamine Act2 production, Crypton Future Media also took the time to change the End User agreement on their CV series to make it easier to understand.

Users who had bought the old version got an expansion disc free of charge, this continued until 20th September 2008 after which users could no longer register to receive the Act2 software for free. On June 18, 2008, beta demonstration songs using the new version were released on the company's official blog; and on July 18th, the act2 was released. 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.

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

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.

English version
Crypton Future Media was considering an English version of the software. They later announced they will make one.

Concept
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. The keytar Len is often featured holding in merchandise is a Yamaha KX5 of which both the Kagamine designs take certain design elements from.

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 announced that they are neither siblings nor lovers. During Append production, Wat described them as one soul between the 2 of them, and stated he is to blame for that. During the boxart for the Append, Wat described it as making the pair seem like Twins. It was due the fetal position they were in. Wat also wanted the Appends to have a sense of transparency about their design to give a transparent feeling. The "transparency" was in reference to their hearts in clarification on what he meant due to confusion over what he meant by this.



As well as a new set of vocals during the Act2 release, KEI took the opportunity to fix art flaws in their artwork.

Kagamine Rin's introduction artwork
 * Rin has "Act2" on her arm under her "02" tattoo.
 * Rin's top was changed in the introductory image between versions around the armpit area. Frills were added to the bottom of her top in Act2
 * Her shoulder was not correctly drawn in the original version
 * All the yellow bands on her outfit were made bigger on Act2.
 * Her fringe was made thicker above the left eye.
 * In Kagamine Rin's artwork, her left knee was thicker and her right leg was too short. Kei corrected this in her Act2 version. Her right leg position changed and so did her Left foot position
 * Forearms have been shortened in Act2.
 * The cyber-on-normal clothing design on their detached sleeves were changed from a green bar to a blue one

Kagamine Len's introduction artwork
 * Kagamine Len has "Act 2" on his headphones.
 * The cyber-on-normal clothing design on the detached sleeves were changed from a green bar to a blue one
 * His fringe was reshaped, other strands were adjusted as well
 * Len's face, particularly around the cheekbones, have been reshaped.
 * His left knee has a minor tweak

Boxart changes;
 * Kagamine Rin's leg position was changed in their boxart so it was lifted up off the ground, the only way the previous position would have worked was if her leg was deformed or broken.
 * Kagamine Rin's knee is rounded instead of sharp
 * Both had the cyber-on details changed on their detached sleeves

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

Continuing the tradition of the Item War Internet Meme, many items were preposed for the pair. In the end, Len's item was a Banana because his hair was commented to resemble a bunch of bananas, while Rin's item was an Orange since her bow gave the impression of orange leaves. Before her release, Rin had the Road Roller assigned to her by accident in a video that recieved many views suddenly on December 1, 2007. Kagamine Len had yet to be revealed at the time of the Road Roller meme.

Etymology
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.

Their surname was from the developing code combining Kagami (鏡, mirror) and Ne (音, sound).

Marketing
The Kagamine's were marketed as a "2 vocals for the price of 1" package, and aimed to catch interest of the growing Vocaloid fandom. Unlike Hatsune Miku, they were not an imediate hit, failing to meet marketing expectations despite recieving the same level of promotion as Miku was recieving at the time of their release. After the release of "Act2" sales picked up steadily and are one of the more heavily market Vocaloids, though have never met the marketing strength Miku did before them.

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. Pullip Dolls were released for both Rin and Len alongside Miku. Rin and Len were released as Dal's, and Miku was released as Pullip.

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


 * For more see Figurines

Clothing
They have appeared on T-shirt designs, often to promote themselves or particular albums by Producers.

In 2011, Piapro held a contest with members to design Goth Lolita clothing for Vocaloids, the designs were produced by the company Putumayo. Amongst the winners were designs based on the Kagamines' own attaire.

ACOS have also produced an official cosplay outfit + wig.

US Debut
The Kagamines appeared in the Los Angeles Mikunopolis concert in July 2, 2011, along with Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. Rin performed "Meltdown" in her Hard Rock remix outfit and Len performed 'Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder' (Ft. Rin).

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.

From episode 12-16 of Hyouka, there are Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka cosplayers.

Calendar
Crypton Future Media vocaloids have also appeared in 2013 calendars.

5th Anniversary
Crypton Future Media are celebrating the Kagamine's 5th Anniversary, along with Megurine Luka's 4th, with a number of goodies.

Voicebank Libraries

 * The Kagamines have songs in the Nico Nico Douga Hall of Fame
 * Comparison between the Vocaloid and voice provider
 * Book on how to use Hatsune Miku & Kagamine Rin/Len

Vocaloid 2

 * Kagamine Rin/Len
 * Kagamine Rin/Len Act2
 * Kagamine Rin/Len Append

V3 Kagamine Rin/Len (CV02)
Unreleased

Update of their Vocaloid2 vocal "Kagamine Rin/Len Act2".


 * -|Kagamine Rin =
 * -|Kagamine Len =

V3 Kagamine Rin/Len (CV02); Append
Unreleased

Update of their Vocaloid2 vocal "Kagamine Rin/Len;Append". With the exception of improved being optimized for Vocaloid3, this package will receive no additional adjustments and will remain identical to the Vocaloid2 version.

V3 Kagamine Rin/Len (CV02); English
Unreleased

This is a new vocal that Crypton Future Media are planning. This vocal will allow much higher quality results in English than using their Japanese version for English results.
 * -|Kagamine Rin; English =
 * -|Kagamine Len; English =

Examples of Usage
To our readers and editors, for section notes please read; Notes; Examples sections.


 * -|Kagamine Rin/Len =
 * -|Kagamine Rin/Len "Act2" =
 * -|Kagamine Rin/Len Append =

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. Their 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 than 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 5,327,456 views and 477,046 mylists, and Len managed with 4,555,580 views and 413,901 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 Mylists. 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.

Their Append outsold the Miku Append during the period after their release. The Act2 package and Append secured 4th and 5th spot between them in Crypton's end of year top 10 Vocaloid sales despite only being released for a short period of time(mostly owed, but not entirely, to pre-orders). However, they did not maintain this, in June 2011, their Append had fallen to 8th place, one below Kaito's Vocaloid voicebank.

Google Trends "Kagamine Rin"

Google Trends "Len vs. Rin" in Japan

Trivia

 * It took 25 hours (4 hours a day) to record all the Kagamine Appends.
 * Some call Rin and Len by 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 contend with, the names 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 pronunciation problems, as well as Act 2 of the software missing a pronunciation entirely, this is a little bit of an exaggeration on the webhost's part. Also the statement, "Just with a few tweaks here and there they could sing almost any other genres as well," is also somewhat questionable due to their reputation of requiring previous experience to use and often at times needed more than just a few tweaks to make them work.
 * Rin has a G-clef (Treble-clef) on her shirt, and Len has a F-clef (Bass-clef) on his. In their Append redesigns they are found on chokers rather than their shirts.
 * 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.
 * In piano sheet music, the Bass-clef is played with the left hand, while the Treble-clef is played with the right hand. It is believed that this is used for Rin and Len's names (Right for Rin and Left for Len). There is also a Treble-clef on Rin's shirt and a Bass-clef on Len's shirt.

Notable for...

 * First and only dual voicebanks released with two "Vocaloids" in one package
 * 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

Gallery
[source]
 * -|Boxart =
 * -|Concept art =
 * -|Promotional art =
 * -|MMD models =
 * -|Game art =
 * -|Misc. =