AH-Software Co. Ltd. (株式会社AH-Software, originally Artist House Solutions Co., Ltd. or ArtistHouse Software[1]) or AHS Co., Ltd. (株式会社AHS) officially, is an importer of digital audio workstation and encoders in Tokyo, Japan. It is also known as the developer of the VOICEROID text-to-speech series.
History[]
AH-Software was established in 2005 as an importer and seller of music software in Tokyo, Japan. Planning of the first three AH-Software Co. Ltd. vocals began in 2007. In November 2009, they announced that they were going to distribute VOCALOID2 and VOICEROID products in December 2009. AH-Software became the fifth developer of music voice synthesis software with this release.
After the retirement of the VOCALOID STORE, they also began to sell physical copies of Macne Nana.
After a successful campaign in Germany, they began to expand and announced their plans in Vienna, Austria.[2]
2020[]
On June 26, 2020, in collaboration with Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., AH-Software announced they would distribute Synthesizer V Studio products starting on July 30.[3]
On October 30, it was revealed that VOICEROID2 plans for Koharu Rikka –a new speech voicebank by TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT which was to be distributed by AHS– had ceased in favor of having her talk software be on CeVIO AI instead due to a desire from TOKYO6 to be on all the latest technology (namely, artificial-intelligence-based synthesis as opposed to sample-based synthesis) at the time of Rikka's eventual release;[4] those who were disappointed with the decision were given the option to apply for a refund if they had contributed to her crowdfunding campaign.
On December 25, it was revealed by some producers that VOICEROID development had silently ceased due to conflicts between AH-Software Co. Ltd. and AI, Inc., developer of the AITalk software which VOICEROID was based on (and which also powers AI's new A.I.VOICE program, which AHS did not adopt).[5][6][7] This partly explains why:
- Development of an English version of VOICEROID2 (with Tohoku Zunko as its first voice, which would have been a crowdfunded project)[8] was put on hold, with no indication of whether it would be cancelled or moved to a different text-to-speech engine. Such version was initially announced by AHS on November 22nd, 2019 in a VOICEROID 10th Anniversary livestream.[9]
- An updated version of Tsurumaki Maki (originally a VOICEROID+) was instead developed for CeVIO AI along with an English version.[10]
2022[]
On February 17, 2022, Dreamtonics unveiled VOICEPEAK, a text-to-speech synthesizer described to be "ultra-realistic"[11] which was developed in collaboration with AH-Software.[12] According to AHS' product page, VOICEPEAK was equipped with the high-quality AI speech synthesis engine "Syllaflow", which was developed by Dreamtonics.[13] A trial version of VOICEPEAK, along with one male and one female voice, was released on the same day, with the commercial version set to release for Windows, MacOS, and Linux on March 11 with four females and three males.[14]
On June 30, during the company's 181st livestream, founder Tomohide Ogata appointed Dreamtonics' founder and president Kanru Hua as the new Representative Director and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of AH-Software; Tomo himself remains as the Executive Chairman of the company. In exchange, Tomo was appointed by Kanru as new director at Dreamtonics while Kanru remains there as Representative Director.[15]
On November 18, AH-Software announced a new character-themed lineup of voice libraries for VOICEPEAK, including Frimomen, Asumi Shuo and Ririse, and Tohoku Zunko; they were originally expected to be released on December 15,[16] but staff illness delayed the release until January 13, 2023.[17][18] These VOICEPEAK libraries are being marketed in the same fashion as VOICEROID libraries and thus can be seen as the spiritual successors to VOICEROID.
Key people[]
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Tomohide Ogata (尾形友秀; Ogata Tomohide), sometimes shortened to just Tomo, is the founder and current Executive Chairman of AH-Software Co. Ltd.;[19] until June 30, 2022, he was the President (or Representative Director) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company. |
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Kanru Hua (华侃如; in katakana, フア カンル) is a software engineer from Tokyo, Japan, best known as the creator of the Synthesizer V and Synthesizer V Studio voice synthesis applications. He became the President (or Representative Director) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of AH-Software Co. Ltd. on June 30, 2022.[15][19]
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Voicebanks[]
Voicebanks that the company developed and/or distributed, sometimes in collaboration with other companies.
VOCALOID[]
VOICEROID[]
Synthesizer V[]
Synthesizer V Studio Standard[]
CeVIO/VoiSona[]
VoiSona Talk[]
VOICEPEAK[]
Promotional involvement[]
Figurines[]
Literature[]
Tohoku Zunko received a novel that was published in Japan in Summer 2013, published by PHP Institute Inc.. Her book contains stories from her Twitter, posted by, the voice provider of Zunko herself, Satomi Satō.
Apps[]
An Android smartphone widget was made for Tohoku Zunko. The widget stars a chibi version of Zunko, where users teach her archery skills.
Christmas Illustration Contest[]
From December 12, 2011 to January 10, 2012, AH-Software held an illustration contest of Nekomura Iroha with the theme Nyanglebell (Nyan and Jingle Bell).
Social Media[]
A Twitter account was made for Tohoku Zunko.
Sites[]
Piapro[]
AH-Software made the agreement with Piapro and users are able to post AHS's VOCALOIDs and creations onto the site (No VOICEROIDs).[20]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/regist/howto.html
- ↑ https://comemo.nikkei.com/n/nb2b5f62397f5
- ↑ https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1276349537079029760
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/images/press/cevio/rikka_cevio.jpg
- ↑ Bumpy tweet 1
- ↑ Bumpy tweet 2
- ↑
Amanokei's tweet(deleted; archive) - ↑ https://x.com/t_zunko/status/1197836222497878016/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaGMnAzh9I
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqBPc-ps4A
- ↑ https://x.com/dreamtonics_en/status/1438854449766682629
- ↑ https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1494145188352397314
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/voice/6nare/
- ↑ https://x.com/dreamtonics_jp/status/1494154666917363712
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2246 - Announcement of Kanru Hua as new Representative Director & CTO of AHS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2430 - Tomohide Ogata stays as Executive Chairman of AHS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2485 - Kanru Hua as Representative Director of Dreamtonics, Tomohide Ogata as new Director at Dreamtonics.
- ↑ https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1593076410675257344
- ↑ https://x.com/dreamtonics_jp/status/1599646739111505920
- ↑ https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1599646153079132160
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 https://www.ah-soft.com/company/english/010_corpo.html
- ↑ [1] Announcement of Piapro about AHS VOCALOIDs
External links[]
- AHS Co., Ltd.
- AH-Software (products)
- ah-soft (@ahsoft) Twitter
- AHS Co.Ltd Facebook
- AHS (@ahsinst) Instagram
- AHSoftware Youtube Channel
- AHS Ustream
- AHS Freshlive