Macne Nana (マクネナナ, Mac音ナナ) is a Japanese VOCALOID formally developed by Bplats, Inc., under YAMAHA Corporation, and was created in collaboration with the Macne Nana Project (MI7 Japan Inc.). She was released on March 2009 for her initial release and in January 2014 for the VOCALOID3 engine. Her voice is provided by the Japanese voice actress and actress, Ikezawa Haruna (池澤春菜).
She was updated to the VOCALOID4 engine in December 2016 and was developed in collaboration with AH-Software Co. Ltd. rather than Bplats.[1]
She is the first of the Macne Series to be a part of the VOCALOID software.
Concept[]
Nana was not originally created for the VOCALOID engine. In 2008, VOCALOID was only available on Windows and there was no equivalent software for the Mac. This inspired Haruna Ikezawa to start working on something using her own voice: Macne Nana. Nana's first voicebank did not use the VOCALOID engine, but was instead created as an alternative synthesiser. She was intended to be the first vocal synthesiser for Mac. She was inspired by the success of Hatsune Miku.
Nana's original voicebank, along with a compact version called "Macne Petit", was released on March 28, 2009, for the software Reason and GarageBand. This led to a series of vocals similar to Nana being added to the "Macne Family". Users were also able to take advantage of Macne Nana and Macne Nana Petit's open license status to exploit her vocals into other software such as the UTAU conversions. The last Macne series vocal built for Nana was "Macne Nana 2S". This included a vocal that worked for GarageBand and AppleLoops, as well as a pre-built UTAU voicebank. "Macne Nana Petit" became her own character completely separate from Nana entirely as "Macne Petit" and had her own 2S release "Macne Petit 2S".
Nana is considered the main character of the Macne series and remains the most focused character. She is described as a bright and cheerful girl who can be a bit of a klutz. She is accident prone and is often late for work, but always looks on the bright side of life. She and her sisters run the "Macne Cafe" (Mac音カフェ).[2]
Like other VOCALOIDs, Nana's age and height are known, but Nana is also the first to give out her 3 sizes (B87 W57 H87), which is common amongst the Macne family females.
Etymology[]
Macne is a combination of the word "Mac", referring to the Macintosh related products, and Ne (音), that means "sound", so, her name means "Mac Sound".
In early developments, she had the codename of "Macne Miku" (Mac音ミク(マクネミク)). "Miku" was dropped in favor of "Nana" when the project became serious. "Nana" came from Haruna Ikezawa's nickname.[3]
Appearance[]
Her first design was mainly inspired by Hatsune Miku. The design of the Macne series, in general, incorporate various aspects of the Mac computer and its physical appearances, such as USB ports and disk drives, or portable devices such as the iPod. Nana's 2S design was said to be "princess" themed.
Relations[]
- Macne Coco Black - Older sister
- Macne Coco White - Older sister
- Macne Petit - Younger sister and a vocal voiced by Haruna Ikezawa.
- Macne Papa - Father
History[]
Marketing[]
App icon for "Macne Percussion"
Macne Nana was originally developed as the "Sound Princess for the Mac" and had much marketing prior to being considered for VOCALOID™. This included merchandise such as a keyboard with her image printed on it and a G3 iPhone.[4]
A Macne Percussion app for the iPad2 and iPad3 was released. Another app called "Mac音Clock" was also released for Macne Nana.
Launched in 2009, a booklet called "Makunebon" ("マクネボン") was released. Two more volumes were released in 2010 and 2011.[5]
And Nana has an official Twitter account.
Voicebanks[]
- Macne Nana
- The original Macne Nana vocal was made for Reason ad Garage Band before it was updated to VOCALOID. There exists several versions of this vocal for this reason across different engines and consequential versions can have major differences between the quality and overall vocal itself. The vocal is design to be cute, cheerful and light Japanese vocal.
- Macne Nana (Reason and Garageband), March 28, 2009
- Macne Nana 2S (Garageband, Apple Loops and UTAU), March 29, 2012
- Macne Nana (VOCALOID NEO and VOCALOID3), January 31, 2014
- Macne Nana V4 (VOCALOID4), December 15, 2016
- Other voicebanks
- A "lite" version of the vocal, this later went onto become its own character "Macne Petit" or "Macne Nana Petit". It was the same as the normal Nana vocal but was missing treble and bass ranges and was meant to be a cheaper version of the Nana vocal. Further versions of the vocal have seen it become a separate development of its own as a result.
- Macne Nana Petit (Reason and Garageband), March 28, 2009
- Macne Nana - English
- The English version of the Macne Nana vocal.
- Macne Nana (VOCALOID NEO and VOCALOID3), January 31, 2014
- Macne Nana V4 (VOCALOID4), December 15, 2016
- Macne Nana - Mandarin Chinese
- While its existence is known, the vocal has thus far existed only as a test voicebank and it remains unknown if this will ever be released. It is the Macne Nana vocal in Mandarin Chinese.[6]
- Macne Nana - French
- It was confirmed that Macne Nana French was noted to be a possible future vocal due to her provider also being able to speak French. With the cancellation of ALYS on the VOCALOID software however, the possibility of a French Nana is now limited at least as a VOCALOID voicebank.
Reputation[]
Reaction[]
While Macne Nana was not as popular for her intended software, Garageband, she was fairly popular with UTAU users. The vocal samples that made up the Macne series presented a "VOCALOID-like" quality to which was often absent from many other UTAU vocals. However, they were still limited to the quality of the UTAU engine restrictions.
Impact[]
The overall success for the original Macne Nana/Macne Nana Petite product led to further Macnes being produced. The concept of the Macnes being a family unit proved to be popular with their fans and it was carried on with all further releases.
Trivia[]
- She is the first vocal in the "Macne" series to receive a voicebank for VOCALOID™, as well as the first character to have both an UTAU (for her 2S release) and a VOCALOID vocal.
- 7 can be pronounced as "Nana" in Japanese. This is why the number sometimes appear on her designs.
Achievements[]
- First VOCALOID from MI7 Japan Inc.
- First product originally built for another engine to become part of VOCALOID™.
- First character of the Macne Series to receive an English voicebank.
- Only vocal supported for different engines (Garageband/Reason4/UTAU/VOCALOID)
- First English voicebank developed by Bplats, Inc.
- First English voicebank developed by AH-Software Co. Ltd.
References[]
External links[]
Articles[]
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