A “Turning Point In History”: June 8 and 11 NicoLive Broadcasts

22 CommentsFriday • June 3, 2011 • by kurisuto

Source: live.nicovideo

Yamaha’s Hideki “Father of Miku” Kenmochi, the developer of the VOCALOID engine, participated in the May Festival held by the Department of Technology of the University of Tokyo, during which he mentioned that important events will occur during early June. There’s still a lot of mystery around it, but more info has filtered out.

The May Festival lecture, “Vocaloid and the music software industry”, took place in May 28 and 29. Kenmochi, who particpated in it along with Crypton’s Wataru Sasaki, told fans to “keep an eye on what will happen during the first ten days of June”. On May 30, it has been announced that “NicoNama Exclusive: Tonight, something will happen in the Vocaloid world ~ Secret Party” will be broadcast on NicoNama on June 8 at 18:00 Japan Standard Time (9:00 UTC); the NicoNama feed will be accessible here, and the gates will open at 17:50 JST. While being a premium member of NicoNicoDouga will ensure that you can watch the live broadcast in the best conditions (bandwidth priority), it will be available in free streaming.

Here’s the complete translation of the event’s description on NicoNama:

“We can’t reveal the content of this event, but make no mistake, this will be a turning point in [Vocaloid] history! Make sure you don’t miss tonight’s VocaloParty!

The VOCALOID vocal synthesizing engine has surprised fans time and again so far.

But tonight, something very important will take place in the brand new AKIHABARA85 (Akibako) club.

Here’s what has been revealed so far:

• the event doesn’t have a name.
• it has to do with new Vocaloid-related material.
• new songs will be performed.
• VocaloP’s will be present.
• three days later, on June 11, the “Let’s be loud with Vocaloid – VOCALOID MIX – at club Akibako”. Of course, it will be streamed live on NicoNama too!
• it’s organised by Yamaha.
• to attend the party (IRL) you have to be invited.
• only NicoNama is allowed to broadcast it.

“Something” will happen in this event… What do the organisers mean by “turning point”? You’ll find all the answers by watching the exclusive NicoNama broadcast! By all means, come witness history in the making.”

More info on the VOCALOID MIX event: as mentioned above, it will be held in the same place as the “secret party” (Akibako), on June 11, and organised by VOCALOID STORE. It will be 3 hours long, and while there will be an entrance fee (no need for invitation), the NicoNama stream will be free. he event won’t be streamed in its entirety; the feed will be accesible here, from 17:00 JST (8:00 UTC) to 21:00 JST.

There will be several activities, including the presentation, the possibility to try, and the sales of Vocaloid-related products; a VocaRevo Dance performance (15:00 to 17:00 JST, but it won’t be broadcast live), DJ’s (kazuP, HachioujiP, InuchiP, Cobalt Bakudan αΩ, etc.) will play Vocaloid songs. But the main event will be the live performances by: Hyakka-Ryouran, HirotoP, Yuzuki Kanon, Ieneko, Yui Sakana, Mattsun, Yui Akimoto, Yukohamu, Norakura, Chishiri and Shiinaccho.

No further info has been provided on that mysterious “turning point”, so what will follow is just my opinion, but surely it is shared by many of you: VOCALOID3. Kenmochi, who again, is VOCALOID’s developer, was most probably speaking about this “secret party” – the same Kenmochi who said during the Y2xVOCALOID CAFE event back in March 2011 that fans would have to “wait just a little bit more for announcements” concerning VOCALOID3. Furthermore, the event will be organised by Yamaha, and seeing how they’re promoting this event, it is unlikely to be about the VY series or new voicebanks…

But this is just a theory; for all we know, it could be something completely unrelated. With Crypton’s recent move towards the West (and more precisely, Asian Americans), it could be about new stategies to conquer foreign markets. Another reasonable theory would be an announcement about the release of VocaListener; according to an April 28 tweet by Yamaha’s Y2Project, a trial version of VocaLis is in the works, and they said we’d have to wait “a little bit” before an announcement is made… just like VOCALOID3.

The point is, we’ll have to wait until June 8 to know everything about it!

Sources: NicoNama pages for the Secret Party and VOCALOID MIX, VOCALOID STORE blog.

Posted in: General News

Tagged with: AKIHABARA85, Hideki Kenmochi, Secret party

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