kagamine rin shrine
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what is vocaloid?
vocaloid is a vocal synthesis software; it allows users to create and render vocal tracks by laying out a melody using a keyboard roll and layout track, as well as map lyrics to the melody. it was not originally developed with commercial release in mind, instead being a research project conducted in 2000, headed by kenmochi hideki at spain's pompeu fabra university. during project development, yamaha corporation became aware of it and gave the project financial backing in order to create a commercial release of the software. (1*) the first commercial release of the vocaloid software engine released on january 15th, 2004, with 5 vocal packages from zero-g and crypton future media following throughout 2004 and 2005. sales of the first iteration of vocaloid were reported to be sluggish, despite there being praise within the industry for it being a technological marvel and trailblazer. (2)
following the release of vocaloid, vocaloid 2 was announced in 2007 and released by yamaha on june 29, alongside the sweet ann vocal package by powerfx. (3) vocaloid 2 exploded in popularity following the release of the hatsune miku vocal package by crypton future media on august 31st, 2007, with miku selling 40,000 units in her first 11 months of sale and generating considerable buzz online in the months following her release. (4) the popularity of hatsune miku led to increased interest in vocal synthesis software and works created using vocal synthesizers, which influenced further development of vocal packages for the vocaloid engine, later iterations of the vocaloid engine, and the development of other vocal synthesis engines, such as utau, synthv, and cevio.
*^ due to source rot, i cannot entirely verify this particular bit of information. any sources that the nerdist may have linked to were not properly archived when the article was taken offline at an unknown date, as nerdist seems to clear out their back catalog of articles regularly. as such, please take this particular bit of information with a grain of salt.
who is kagamine rin?
the release of miku was followed by the release of the kagamine rin and len vocal package on december 27th, 2007, being the second additions to crypton future media's character vocal series after miku, and crypton's fourth vocal package release overall. (5) due to poor reception of the vocal quality of the initial release, an updated package called "act2" was released on july 18th, 2008. (6) compared to miku, rin and len were not as much of a commercial success, with sales being sluggish for their initial release. despite this, they gained popularity following the release of their act2 package, in part due to their association with miku, and also due to their increased ease of use and vocal quality compared to their initial release. both were given subsequent releases on later versions of the vocaloid engine, including kagamine rin/len append for the vocaloid 2 engine on december 26th, 2010 (7) and kagamine rin/len v4x for the vocaloid 4 engine on december 23rd, 2015. (8)
regarding character design, rin was the first to be designed, with len being modeled after her.(9) as with all characters in the character vocal series, her initial design was created by KEI, who is primarily known for doing design work for various vocal synthesizer production companies and other associated companies, such as with SEGA for the project diva game series. (10) her append design was created by osamu, an illustrator who gained popularity by providing artwork for vocaloid songs published to the nico nico douga video platform starting in 2008 and continuing up to now. (11) her v4x design was created by iXima, crypton future media's primary box art designer and promotional illustrator since 2013, who was involved in the production of artwork for vocaloid songs since late 2010. (12) her character item (as informally decided among fans following her release) is oranges, with her bow thought to resemble the leaves of an orange tree. additionally, each kagamine has a musical clef incorporated into their designs for all releases, with rin having a treble clef and len having a bass clef. this is found on their shirts in their v2 design, on their chokers in their append design, and on their headphones in their v4x design.
the vocal samples used for all releases of kagamine rin and len were provided by voice actress asami shimoda. she is best known for voicing twins ami and mami futami in the idolmaster since 2005. she has also held minor and background roles in popular anime such as gintama, kuroshitsuji, and princess connect. (13) her debut solo album, prism, was a collection of her covering songs originally produced using rin and/or len as vocalists, and it was released on june 10th, 2009 by peertone. (14) the album was produced following a public call for song submissions by crypton future media for a cover album featuring shimoda, which was open from december 27th, 2008, to february 2nd, 2009. it garnered 278 responses, of which 12 were chosen. (15) an original song, 'prism', composed by vocaloid producer signal-p, was also included.
notable original songs:
amatsu kitsune (10th anniversary version) - marasy
devil's manner - tatsuya kitani
fools are attracted to anomaly - utsuP
migikata no chou - kazearashiP
mitsugetsu un deux trois - DATEKEN
remote control - wonderful opportunity
gallery:
Rin's Act2 artwork | Rin's Append artwork | Rin's V4X artwork
Rin's initial concept art
Rin's Append concept art | Rin and Len's V4X concept art
Rin in Project Diva (PSP) | Rin in PD: Future Tone | Rin in Project Mirai
Rin in Project Sekai
Rin and Len 'if' artwork | Rin and Len 10th anniversary artwork
1) https://archive.nerdist.com/hatsune-miku-and-the-vocaloid-idol-revolution/
2) Eidsheim, Nina. "Synthesizing Race: Towards an Analysis of the Performativity of Vocal Timbre" (PDF). Trans. Revista Transcultural de Musica. Retrieved August 5th, 2023. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/822/82220946009.pdf
4) https://www.itmedia.co.jp/news/articles/0807/23/news046.html
5) https://ec.crypton.co.jp/pages/prod/virtualsinger/cv02
6) https://ec.crypton.co.jp/product/detail/30121
8) https://vocadb.net/Ar/43192
9) http://www.p-tina.net/interview/99
10) https://vocadb.net/Ar/9213
11) https://vocadb.net/Ar/15623
12) https://vocadb.net/Ar/2230
13) https://anidb.net/creator/1735
