Shiki Rowen (VOCALOID6)

Shiki Rowen VOCALOID6 UTAU DeepVocal A.I.VOICE & others | Songs Albums Notable Originals

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Shiki Rowen (VOCALOID6)
Product information
Catalog No.	V6VB_SHIKIROWEN
Company	MUGEN Co., Ltd.
Release	April 24, 2024
Status	Released
System	Windows, Mac
Base Language(s)	Japanese
Type	VOCALOID6 AI voicebank
License	Proprietary
Affiliation	YAMAHA Corporation
Website	VOCALOID SHOP (Japanese) VOCALOID SHOP (English)

This article is about the VOCALOID6 software known as a voicebank, dubbed Shiki Rowen AI. If you are looking for the VOCALOID character then click here.

History

2021

On May 17, 2021, yuuma tweeted that Kemonone Row and Shiki Taigen were expected to have commercial voicebanks developed on a software that would support English input. It was noted that the English voicebanks would be based on Japanese pronunciation. The platform was not confirmed at the time. In regards to Row's name, yuuma noted that he wasn't sure which would be better for a person's name as he didn't know enough English to make a decision, leaving this to fans to give suggestions. This later led to yuuma tweeting that the name would be changed to "Shiki Rowen", Row's real name, after the development of a commercial voicebank was decided. It would serve to unify with the family name "Shiki", which was the same as Shiki Taigen, Row's great-grandfather.

Later on July 5, yuuma expressed interest in creating a Synthesizer V AI voice database for Rowen, though a crowdfund would be necessary to produce it. He later asked overseas fans on July 7 if Rowen's voicebank should be on Synthesizer V Studio, and if so, a Standard voice database was considered due to budget. Synthesizer V was not a final decision, but it was confirmed to still be a consideration. A decision on crowdfunding would be dependent on support and encouragement from fans. The estimated budget would be based on previous successful Synthesizer V crowdfunds.

2022

On July 26, 2022, yuuma announced that Shiki Rowen was now being recorded for an AI singing voicebank which would be first released for free on the NNSVS engine. In response to inquiries by fans, he said that Synthesizer V was no longer in consideration but that other commercial platforms were being considered; budgetary reasons (allocating everything for Rowen and Taigen's A.I.VOICE text-to-speech voicebanks, which were released earlier on March 24 under the A.I.VOICE Junior subbrand, and blanking out AI singing synthesis) were cited for the dismissal of Synthesizer V as a platform for Rowen.

2023

On December 21, 2023, yuuma tweeted that Rowen would get a new singing voice on a commercial software (as well as a new commercial text-to-speech voicebank), but did not name any specific synth engines. He dismissed CeVIO AI as a possibility on December 22; after a fan later that same day speculated whether the singing vocal would be on either VOCALOID6 or Synthesizer V AI (and whether the talking vocal would be on either A.I.VOICE2 or VOICEPEAK), yuuma assured on December 25 that the engines were not related to AH-Software Co. Ltd. at all, thus ruling out Synthesizer V and VOICEPEAK as possibilities. Instead, in spite of hinting at VOCALOID6 as a hypothetical, he declared that the synthesis platform would be "still a secret" before also dismissing ACE Studio as a possibility.

2024

On January 8, 2024, yuuma started to tweet strongly-veiled words regarding Rowen's upcoming commercial singing voicebank: it would be the first beast-headed voicebank ever under the still-unrevealed engine's brand, although he was also teasing that "it would be better if it was a V6" (hinting at VOCALOID6); and AH-Software was again reiterated to not be involved at all. He also revealed that a new text-to-speech voicebank was being developed along with the singing voicebank, but did not reveal the engine. He was also aware of various other companies planning development of furry-character voicebanks, but then teased whether everyone would want to see a furry voicebank "coming from a famous Japanese manufacturer" "with a great track record in Japan" (hinting possibly at Yamaha Corporation). He also opined that Rowen would have sounded flat under the Piapro Studio NT engine had he been developed for it.

On February 15, yuuma tweeted that a new Shiki Rowen project had begun and that on February 26, a voicebank "under the brand of a commercial singing synthesis software" would be announced, with no mention of any specific voice engine. This commercial software was finally revealed to be VOCALOID6 on the announcement date, however it was not stated when his voicebank would be released for sale; it was also announced that on Rowen's 14th anniversary, March 23, his first full-length VOCALOID6 demo song would be published. yuuma also announced that he would be completely transferring the rights to both Rowen and Shiki Taigen to MUGEN Co., Ltd., having fulfilled the lifelong dream he had of Rowen becoming a VOCALOID vocal ever since he created him when he was a middle-school student; from then on, MUGEN would continue to manage projects related to the pair, while yuuma would spend the rest of his life working on his Virtual YouTuber career as well as drawing artworks and creating games. It was also revealed that the trademarks for Shiki Rowen and Shiki Taigen had been transferred to MUGEN the year prior, though no exact date was disclosed.

On February 27, it was confirmed that Rowen, primarily a Japanese vocalist, was practicing his English pronunciation to make it better correspond to it under VOCALOID6's Multilingual feature, "so that English speakers can also touch Rowen!", as stated by yuuma. He followed up shortly later that the decision to choose VOCALOID over other commercial singing-synthesis engines was because (1) English- and Chinese-speaking users always worked hard to make Rowen and Taigen's Japanese UTAU voices sing English and Chinese words and thus MUGEN wanted to return the favor by choosing a VOCALOID capable of singing in multiple languages, and (2) they wanted the VOCALOID to sound close enough to his UTAU's voice quality.

On March 23, Shiki Rowen's first official demo was uploaded, and his VOCALOID6 design (penned by Yukanuntiusel, who previously illustrated his UTAU .Revo designs in 2014 and 2016) was revealed, alongside a release date set for April 24.

Shiki Rowen AI released on April 24 as scheduled.

Product Information

Demonstrations

Demonstrations

アウトサイドアウトライダー (Outside Outrider) (unavailable)	Twitter (deleted)
LowFi HeartBit VOCALOID6 Ver. (unavailable)	YouTube
ハッピーシック！ (Happy Sick!)	YouTube
花笠音頭 (Hanagasa Ondo)	YouTube
LowFi HeartBit VOCALOID6 Ver. (revised reupload)	YouTube

System Requirements

• OS: Windows 10 Version 21H2 (or later), Windows 11 Version 21H2 (or later), 10.15 (Catalina), macOS 11 (Big Sur), macOS 12 (Monterey)
• CPU: Haswell (4th generation) or later Intel Core series or Xeon series
• RAM: 8 GB minimum recommended
• HDD: At least 25 GB
• Other: Audio device, internet connection (for authentication, deauthentication, software updates, etc.)
• Monitor size:
  • Minimum operating environment: 1366 × 768

Voicebanks

Product Information
Optimum
Optimum Range: C2 ~ A4
Versions
Trial/Demo Vers?: No  Starter Available?: No  App vers.?: No
Voicebank sample
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