ZOLA Project (ゾラ プロジェクト), also stylized as ZOLA PROJECT, consists of three male Japanese vocal synth characters, KYO, YUU, and WIL. They were released in June 2013 for the VOCALOID3 engine, marking the 10th anniversary of the VOCALOID software. YUU, KYO, and WIL were developed and are distributed by the YAMAHA Corporation.[1]
Their voices were provided by the members of the "ZOLA" group, with Minoru Takahashi as YUU, Yuu Miyazaki as KYO, and M.Cayton as WIL. They were introduced as the world's first "VOCALOID Boy Group you can meet!", a way for ZOLA PROJECT to "expand into the real world" as if the VOCALOIDs were "installed" into them.
ZOLA PROJECT was later updated as AI voicebanks for the VOCALOID6 engine as well as speaking voicebanks for the A.I.VOICE text-to-speech synthesizer in June 2023, with Yuu Miyazaki reprising his role as KYO while YUU and WIL were reconstructed by using the original VOCALOID3 voicebank data.[2]
Concept[]
Etymology[]
"ZOLA" is an acronym for "Zenithal Operated Liaison Aggregation".
Appearance[]
Yuki Seto confirmed that hiring Amano Yoshitaka (character designer for the Final Fantasy series), for "image illustrations," was part of an effort to expand the VOCALOID™ fanbase beyond the current segment of listeners. This was to create a new image for the software.[3] Yuki Seto has stressed that Amano's artwork of the three vocalists are "image illustrations" and not "character designs." In other words, the artwork is like concept art, conveying a specific image instead of a specific character design. For the logo design, it is credited to Souun Takeda.
Though Amano's designs remained the primary focus of advertisement and identity of the ZOLA product, additional designs were also produced with the intent of being additional, yet official, boxart designs. One of the reasons for this was to highlight different interpretations of the original Amano artwork, while giving YUU, KYO, and WIL, additional promotional art as well as alternative designs.
Official profiles[]
- KYO Blood type B; Aquarius; fair, strong voice.
- YUU Blood type B; Gemini; age in adolescence; sweet voice.
- WIL Blood type A; Capricorn; exotic, husky voice.
History[]
Marketing[]
ZOLA PROJECT was heavily advertised prior to release; a number of interviews and spotlight events were hosted as part of this. YUU, KYO, and WIL later appeared on the cover of DTM magazine.[4]
In September 2015, a manga was produced featuring ZOLA PROJECT titled "ZOLAの人たち―僕らはいかにボカロで人気者になるために作戦会議をしたか―". Published by PHP Institute, created by VOCALOID producer 卓球少年 (Takkyuu Shounen) and Illustrated by 夢乃ハルカ (Yumeno Haruka), the manga follows the ZOLA PROJECT members and their quest to become popular.[5][6]
In March 2019, ZOLA PROJECT's KYO, voiced by Yuu Miyazaki, was an invited speaker to the 7th International Conference for Universal Design in Bangkok 2019 as a moderator of the opening ceremony of the event.[7][8]
On June 8, 2023, three silhouettes were featured in an announcement for a June 16 stream featuring upcoming A.I.VOICE news.[9] On June 13, in celebration of ZOLA PROJECT's tenth anniversary, Yamaha announced that a VOCALOID6 update was expected to release on June 20. It was noted that in this update, KYO was rerecorded with the singing voice of Yuu Miyazaki (also known as "NANOX."). YUU (voiced by Minoru Takahashi, a.k.a Minorun) and WIL (voiced by M.Cayton, a.k.a. Maui) were reconstructed by using the VOCALOID3 voicebank data. All voicebanks were noted to be AI, allowing them to make use of the VOCALO CHANGER and Multilingual functions. The illustrator was confirmed to be Ryo Fujiwara.[10] ZOLA PROJECT was also confirmed to be receiving talk voice libraries for A.I.VOICE, revealing the previously teased silhouettes from June 8. The A.I.VOICE libraries opened up for preorder on June 14 and would be simultaneously released on the same day as the VOCALOID6 voicebanks. The A.I.VOICE libraries were also packaged with exVOICE files.[11] On June 16, ZOLA PROJECT was featured in A.I.VOICE's livestream. In the livestream, the characters were introduced and a segment was dedicated to demonstrating the talk libraries, with brief discussion about the VOCALOID6 release and a showcase of mock physical boxes. While there were no plans to release physical packages, an official printable DVD sleeve would be made available.[12]
ZOLA PROJECT V6 released on June 20. Despite that, Yamaha announced that they would still have the V3 version available for purchase, encouraging comparisons and using the voicebanks together.[13]
Voicebanks[]
- KYO
- KYO is the middle range vocal, acting as the bridge between the vocals of YUU and WIL. He has a shallow vocal range, but a large tempo range. His voice is made to blend with YUU and WIL when used together.
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID3), June 20, 2013
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID NEO), September 2013
- KYO (Mobile VOCALOID Editor), April 3, 2015
- KYO (VOCALOID NET), August 8, 2014
- ZOLA Project (VOCALOID6), June 20, 2023
- ZOLA Project (A.I.VOICE), June 20, 2023
- YUU
- YUU is the high pitch vocal of the trio, made to cover upper ranges. He has a shallow vocal range, but a large tempo range. His voice is made to blend with KYO and WIL when used together.
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID3), June 20, 2013
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID NEO), September 2013
- YUU (Mobile VOCALOID Editor), April 3, 2015
- YUU (VOCALOID NET), August 8, 2014
- ZOLA Project (VOCALOID6), June 20, 2023
- ZOLA Project (A.I.VOICE), June 20, 2023
- WIL
- WIL reaches the lowest vocal range of the 3. He has a shallow vocal range, but a large tempo range. His voice is made to blend with YUU and KYO when used together. He has a foreign accent compared to the other two.
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID3), June 20, 2013
- ZOLA PROJECT (VOCALOID NEO), September 2013
- WIL (Mobile VOCALOID Editor), April 3, 2015
- WIL (VOCALOID NET), August 8, 2014
- ZOLA Project (VOCALOID6), June 20, 2023
- ZOLA Project (A.I.VOICE), June 20, 2023
Reputation[]
Trivia[]
- KYO's original star-sign was given as "Leo" and YUU's as "Aquarius."
- As well as being a 10th anniversary release, ZOLA's release marked a few other events for VOCALOID™ overall:
- Being the 23rd product released for VOCALOID3, ZOLA was the product that oversaw VOCALOID3, beating the overall number of released packages for VOCALOID2 (it had reached 22 releases).
- With the release of ZOLA, VOCALOID3 consisted of a total of 35 vocals released between its 23 packages, the same number of vocals released within the lifespan of the VOCALOID2 engine.
- In addition, this was the first time a multi-bank release had contained vocals from more than one singer.
- Was originally intended to be a limited edition package.
References[]
- ↑ YAMAHA VOCALOID™3 Library ZOLA PROJECT April 25, 2013
- ↑ https://www.yamaha.com/ja/news_release/2023/23061302/
- ↑ https://vocaloidism.com/2013/05/05/yamaha-panel-at-niconico-chokaigi-2/
- ↑ link
- ↑ link
- ↑ link
- ↑ link
- ↑ link
- ↑ https://twitter.com/AIVOICE_PR/status/1666981178312904704
- ↑ https://www.yamaha.com/ja/news_release/2023/23061302/
- ↑ https://www.ai-j.jp/topics/8524/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4SgbX_zko
- ↑ https://twitter.com/vocaloid_yamaha/status/1671048346063237121
External links[]
Articles[]
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