ALYS is a vocal for Alter/Ego. was planned to be VoxWave's first VOCALOID, as well as the first French language vocal.
She was going to be for the VOCALOID3 engine and would have both a French and a Japanese voicebank if her crowdfunding campaign succeeds. However, on July 12, 2014, it was announced that ALYS would be available for the CeVIO Creative Studio engine and the VOCALOID project was dropped. On December 11th, it was announced that ALYS would release on March 10, this time for Alter/Ego. She also possesses an UTAU vocal.
On 2021, VoxWave as a company was officially closing, and ALYS became open-source and free for download. She might get a new voicebank with DeepVocal sometime in the future.
Vocal synthesisers[]
A vocal synthesiser is a program where someone (in this case, Poucet) records some specific parts of their voice, and the program makes it so that the user can make words from the voice samples. Therefore, a user can make songs after pitching the sounds. The character is a representative of the voice, and many music producers who use ALY's voice use her character too, although that is not always the case.
The term "vocaloids" are technically only valid because of Crypton Future Media's licensing of the engine with the same name, but Crypton had stopped licensing the program in 2019. All vocaloids are technically just vocal synthesisers, but "vocaloids" is still used as an umbrella term for vocal synthesisers, whether they are (past) vocaloids, UTAUs or synthVs.
ALYS is not from the vocaloid engine, although she was originally going to be released that. She is from the Alter/Ego engine, but there is no specific name for the synthesizers that come from that engine.
Release[]
2013[]
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.
2014[]
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. More info on the contest can be found.
On Feburary 15, 2014, another video containing the song "kyrie eleison French version (a capella)" 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.
Software jump[]
On July 12, 2014, Voxwave announced in a press release that ALYS will finally be developed for CeVIO Creative Studio rather than VOCALOID3. They maintained a positive outlook on this because:
- Possibility to make the voice speak as well as singing.
- Possibility to use CeVIO Creative Studio Free, making the voice available for more people
However, it was confirmed that because of this change, the minimal amount of money for the crowdfunding will be much higher than what was announced, and VoxWave stated they do not know in how much time the voice will be available.
It was also said that ALYS is actually developed "on another software" that will not be publicly released and given to producers with an interest in making songs with her.
Concept[]
The idea of ALYS was 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: Chibi-style ALYS by Saphirya
- 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 the pearl on 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.
Videos[]
External links[]
- Official site
- Facebook VoxWave
- Facebook ALYS Facebook Page
- Twitter @VocaloidVoxWave