Kasukabe Tsumugi Vocal Synth Debut With VOICEVOX Announced
If you haven’t heard about VOICEVOX yet, we wouldn’t be too surprised: the opensource software was only released in July this year (July 31st, to be precise), and as of yet only features two usable character voices. It was created by ヒホ / Hiho, who also created AI voice changer “Seiren Voice” and “Yukarin Library”, which would suggest that Hiho has quite a bit of experience in the field of voice synthesis!
The name is probably rather self-explanatory, since it’s meant to be a piece of software acting as a “box where you can put lots of voices”. For the sake of Japanese-speaking fans, it’s written as 「ボイスボックス」(Boisu Bokkusu), to help with pronunciation. The official abbreviation is 「ボイボ」(BoiBo) which could potentially also be pronounced as “VoiVo” if you wish.
The first characters announced for the software were Shikoku Metan and Zundamon, two characters from the “Zundaverse” (consisting of a variety of vocal synths and supporting characters linked to Tohoku Zunko), which is why many people might be excited that a new, completely unrelated character voice would be being added very soon – Kasukabe Tsumugi, a representative of Saitama prefecture in Japan!
🎉🎉We have an announcement of the newest voice being aded to VOICEVOX🎉🎉
The character is called “Kasukabe Tsumugi”, who is being brought to you by Kasukabe Tsukushi!
When I released the video introducing the VOICEVOX software, they got in touch with us to propose this idea! I’m so happy that they contacted us! ! We plan to release Kasukabe Tsumugi around mid-November, so we hope you’ll look forward to this…!
In the introduction video quote retweeted above, Kasukabe Tsumugi introduces herself, something made possible by her voice being added to VOICEVOX:
“Nice to meet you! I’m Kasukabe Tsumugi, a gyaru from Saitama prefecture. My favourite food is curry, and one of my notable features is the beauty spot under my eye.
I look like Kasukabe Tsukushi? Well, that’s ’cause I’m her cousin!”
Text in video: A virtual gyaru who can start to talk with the help of people like you!
I’ll be able to be with you guys soon, so just wait a lil’ longer for me, ‘kay?”
※This article, and all translations and transliterations are unofficial
**UPDATE ON 26/11/2021**
Kasukabe Tsumugi has now been released! Check out our coverage of the VOICEVOX updates here!
About Kasukabe Tsumugi
(春日部つむぎ)
On the logo for her name, she’s described as a “hyper Saitama gyaru (gal)”-type character. “Gyaru”, especially gyaru characters in pop culture, are ones shown as having a sort of rebellious tomboy-ish attitude and look. This is reflected by Tsumugi’s speech patterns, such as her using “aashi” (あーし) for her personal pronoun (which is quite casual) as opposed to the more feminine “watashi” or “atashi”. She also seems to use less formal speech, such as by saying the plain forms of verbs (“-da”/”-ta” for anyone familiar with Japanese studies) instead of formal ones (-desu/-masu).
Her design seems to have a cat-like concept, considering the cat and fishbone badges on her cardigan and small fang tooth. Another interesting design aspect is the magatama necklace around her neck. She also has lots of colourful plasters/band-aids attached to her cardigan, as well as a black/purple armband and what looks like a scrunchie hair tie around her right wrist. This casual way of wearing her school uniform also helps to convey the fact that she’s a “gyaru”-type character.
>Age: 18 years old
>Height: 155cm
>Birthday: 14th November
>Hometown: Saitama
>Favourite food: curry
>Hobby: checking out video streaming websites
“Kasukabe Tsumugi is here to support Saitama!”
She wants to help promote events in Saitama, as well as introduce people to various locally produced products.
She is the cousin of the character called “Kasukabe Tsukushi”, who is also listed as Tsumugi’s “creator”. Tsukushi has been an active YouTuber since 2018, supporting Saitama through activities such as collaborating with the popular anime “Crayon Shin-chan” and more (see below for more about Tsukushi).
>Also note that “Kasukabe” is actually the name of a city in Saitama, where the aforementioned anime Crayon Shin-chan is set!
Hearing about this other character might still have you curious – who exactly is this “Kasukabe Tsukushi” we keep talking about?
Kasukabe Tsukushi is actually Tsumugi’s younger cousin:
A 17 year old girl who lives in a virtual version of Saitama prefecture.
She used to live in Saitama when she was younger, but at the age of ten, her and her family (as well as the other local residents) all moved to the “virtual Saitama”.
From her second home of “virtual Saitama”, she’s living and working in the hope of bringing Saitama closer to people by engaging with and promoting various local activities.
Her most noticable features are how she uses “(desu) wa” at the end of sentences, as well as her thick eyelashes.
>Name: Kasukabe Tsukushi (春日部つくし)
>Height: 155cm
>Trademark(s): The plasters she wears, her blueray tied around her waist and her “magatama” necklace
>Hometown: Saitama
>Birthday: October 31st
>Favorite thing(s): Mint chocolate, horror and the occult and cats
>Her dream: To have a live concert at the Saitama Super Arena (SSA)
While Tsumugi is a new character who will be released as a vocal synth soon, Tsukushi has been a virtual YouTuber for two years already! It’s useful to note that the voice provider for Tsumugi is listed as “Kasukabe Tsukushi”, which tells us that their voices will be by and large the same, although their appearances and personalities are slightly different!
So now that you’re familiar with the characters, let’s focus on this new speech synthesis software, shall we?
VOICEVOX & how to use it
For anyone wondering, the software is completely free, and so are any voicebanks included, so it’s a great way for beginners to get started!
Here’s a video from Hiho themself, showing how to download and use the program (the video is Japanese language only). For an English explanation, please take a look below the video!
Illustration of Shikoku Metan and Zundamon by 浅井麻 / Asaiasa
To start off with, you’ll need to download the software from the official link here (click on the green ダウンロード button):
You’ll see a pop-up (shown below) asking how you want to download the file.
–OS (operating system): The system of your computer, either Windows or Linux (Mac isn’t supported at this current time).
–Compatability mode: GPU/CPU or CPU. It’s said that GPU mode works better, but for this you’ll need a GPU from Nvidia with at least 3GB of memory (on Windows PCs, you can check your PC settings via “Task Manager”). In the newest version of the software, these settings can easily be changed from within the program, so going for GPU/CPU might be a good idea.
–Package: Installer/zip file (it’s recommended that you go for the installer). The software, when downloaded as a .zip file will be about 3.26GB (unzipped is about 5.5GB).
Terms of use can be found under the yellow button, and “how to use this software” information can be read via the purple button. When you’re happy with your selection, choose the green ダウンロード button.
Now save the file.
Go into your downloads and run the installer for the program. If your PC doesn’t want to run the installer because of an “unrecognised app”, click “more info” and “run anyway” (on Windows).
You’ll need an additional 417MB of data to fully install the program.
Choose whether you want the software to be available to any users on the PC or just the current user.
Keep going and click “install” when prompted.
Choose to “run VOICEVOX” or “Delete any files that aren’t needed anymore for downloading the software”. I personally went for the former option.
If you chose “run” then you’ll have a screen looking somewhat like this:
Choose which voice type you’d like to use as default for Shikoku Metan (more info on the specific voice types below):
- Top left: Normal
- Top right: Sweet
- Bottom left: “Tsuntsun”
- Bottom right: Sexy
Then click on the 次へ button (highlighted in orange) to go to the next character, and repeat this process for them.
Then this screen will show up:
To start using the program, you can click on the character icon in the upper left hand corner. As of writing, Shikoku Metan is the default character shown (the girl with the pink hair).
As of yet, only Shikoku Metan and Zundamon’s voicebanks are available to use, at least until Kasukabe Tsumugi is released.
When you choose the voice type you want to use, you’ll have noticed some will be “standard” character voices, indicated by having just the character name in Japanese, and these are neutral sounding voices.
There will be others, such as “あまあま”(sweet)、ツンツン (tsuntsun/tsundere) and セクシー (sexy), using Shikoku Metan as an example. I tested some of them out so you know roughly how it works.
“Sweet” has a slightly more chipper, cute tone to it compared to her standard voice.
“Tsutsun” sounds somewhat colder, and the speech output is faster by default.
“Sexy” has a deeper voice profile compared to the others, and is slightly slower by default, but considering how she’s supposed to be a senior high school student, some people might rather opt for one of the other voices available, described above.
Here’s a shorter video showing how to use the basic functions of the program:
You type what you want the character to say (in Japanese) in the box next to their icon, and it’ll appear at the bottom of the window. Also note that typing in numbers (such as the year 2021年) is fine and can be read by the program.
If you right-click any text you type, there’ll also be the following functions offered, so make sure you know what each means! :
切り取り – Cut (kiretori)
コピー – Copy
貼り付け – Paste (haritsuke)
全選択 – Select all (zensentaku)
To create and save files, you’ll need to go to the ファイル (file) tab at the top.
新規プロジェクト – Create new project
音声書き出す -Export file
一つだけ書き出し – Export single line of text
テキスト読み込み – Import text file
プロジェクト上書き保存 – Overwrite file
プロジェクトを名前付けて保存 – Save as
プロジェクト読み込み – Import project
You can adjust accent by clicking on アクセント and dragging the sliders left and right.
Click back to イントネーション (intonation) to adjust intonation with sliders going up and down.
And click on 長さ (length) to adjust the length of each syllable (this is very useful if you want to make the characters speak in languages other than Japanese).
You can use these to make characters speak in specific dialects too, if you know the characteristics of the said dialect(s)!
To the right of the screen you have different sliders for speech speed, pitch, accent, volume (how loud they talk), starting volume and ending volume.
If you want to add another line of text, such as to create a conversation between characters, click on the “+” button, and to play what you have so far, click the green play button. You can alternate between different characters talking by creating a new line of speech (“+” button) and choosing a new character from teh dropdown menu.
To save what you’ve done, click on the download button (next to the green play button).
Terms of use – VOICEVOX
Make sure to read these thoroughly before starting work on your projects with VOICEVOX!
License details
- This software can be used for the sake of commercial or non-commercial projects
- Please follow the terms of use for each individual voice synth you are using as well as those of VOICEVOX listed here.
Prohibited acts
- Redistribution of all or part of this software without permission
- Decompilation/reverse engineering and the disclosure of how to do this
- Acts that harm a creator or third party/parties
- Acts that go against public order and morals
Disclaimer
The creator does not take any responsibility for any damage or harm caused through your use of this software.
In addition, it would be appreciated if you could credit the software (VOICEVOX) when uploading/sharing any videos you make with it.
Full terms of use can be found on the official download page for the software (JP).
>Click on ダウンロード (download) and then 利用規約 (terms of use) at the bottom of the the pop-up window.
Software Updates
This software is opensource and there are regular updates you can get! Make sure to follow @hiho_karuta for info on when the updates will come, and what they’ll entail! All you’ll need to do is download the latest version of the software from the homepage each time an update is released. As of writing, the software is version 0.8.1, where the major updates include adding undo/redo functions, parameter inheritance and updating how the length of sounds work:
Community discord
An unofficial Discord server was created by @hk_coil424, which you should still be able to join! The server is for the sake of sharing projects, asking questions and more, and even the creator hiho joined it themself. Do keep in mind though that conversation/discussions will be all in Japanese:
It’s common for Saitama prefecture to be seen as boring, especially considering how its location places it right in the shadow of Tokyo, Chiba etc., so hopefully Kasukabe Tsumugi can join Tsukushi in promoting all the fun of this prefecture to people far and wide, so it can get the appreciation it deserves!
What do you think of the program and how it works so far? Have you encountered any problems so far? And what sort of characters and voices would you like to see added? Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments here, on Facebook or on Twitter!
We hope that this new vocal synth has piqued your interest, and that creators will be able to enjoy using Kasukabe Tsumugi for a whole variety of exciting projects.
**UPDATE ON NOVEMBER 22 2021**
Although up til now, we only knew that Kasukabe Tsumugi would be being released sometime in November 2021, we now have word that she will be formally released for the VOICEVOX software on November 26th 2021:
This was also covered during Kasukabe Tsukushi’s livestream on November 22nd, which you can catch up on here:
Look forward to her release (alongside some more additions to VOICEVOX) coming very soon!
Links
VOICEVOX
- Official download page
- Hiho’s Official Twitter
- Hiho’s Official YouTube
- Hiho’s Blog
- Hiho’s Marshmallow (ask them a question!)
Kasukabe Tsumugi
Updates
- 8/11/2021 – Information about how to create and save files added
- 22/11/2021 – Release date of Kasukabe Tsumugi announced as 26/11/2021
- 26/11/2021 – Kasukabe Tsumugi release added, terms of use (VOICEVOX) section added, 一つだけ書き出し (export a single line of text) button information added
2 Responses
[…] the newest character voices for it have been released – Kasukabe Tsumugi and Namine Ritsu! We first covered the announcement of the Saitama-gal early this month, then wrote about the two new members of the 2nd generation of VOICEVOX girls coming soon! And […]
[…] recently wrote about the brand new voice synth being added to the software called “Kasukabe Tsumugi”, but were delighted to find out that two more characters were recently added to the upcoming vocals […]