Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto Announced by AHS and Twindrill
This past Saturday, April 1st, 2023 marked the 15th anniversary of Kasane Teto! And her creators at Twindrill celebrated this monumental day in many big ways!
For instance, they announced a Teto 15th anniversary illustration contest on Pixiv…
…they held a Teto video upload fest on Niconico…
…they listened to a special medley of Teto songs on Kiite Cafe…
…and, of course, they streamed a lengthy celebratory livestream on their Niconico and YouTube channels where they made more special announcements like the Teto plushies coming to Round One as they ushered in the the chimera girl’s 15th anniversary!
Finally, we were treated to a wonderful video called “KASANE TETO ―Prologue to the 15th Anniversary and Beyond,” a heartfelt thank-you message to all the fans who made Teto what she is now.
However, they decided to save one last announcement for April 3rd at 12:00 JST. Many speculated that it must be something so major and important that it could not be announced on Teto’s anniversary day – a.k.a April Fool’s Day – or else fans may think it’s a joke!
And then came the day of the announcement: Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto from Twindrill and AHS has been confirmed, and will be released on April 27th, 2023!
This announcement caught many, many people by surprise, and we suspect more than a few fans needed to make sure that it wasn’t still April 1st anywhere in the world!
Read on to learn what has been announced about Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto so far!
※All translations on this page are unofficial
About Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto
Basic Info
Product name:
- Synthesizer V AI 重音テト / Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto
(also sometimes referred to as SV テト / SV Teto)
Product page:
Release date:
- April 27th, 2023
Voice provider:
Package illustrator:
Prices and purchase options
- Package version:￥10,780 JPY
https://www.ah-soft.net/shopdetail/000000001490
- Package version with AHS User discount: ￥8,580 JPY
https://www.ah-soft.net/shopdetail/000000001491
- Download version: ￥9,680 JPY
https://www.ah-soft.com/product/download.html
Demo songs
Title: エイプリルスター / April Star
Producer: OSTER Project
Engineer: 友達募集P / Tomodachi BoushuuP
Illustrator: 坂内 若 / Sakauchi Waka
Voice Style sample songs
Voice Style: Joyful sample
Title: 右に曲ガール / Migi ni Ma Girl
Producer: はるふり / Harufuri
Voice Style: Cute sample
Title: スカイスイマー / Sky Swimmer
Producer: ミナツキトーカ / Minatsuki Toka
Voice Style: Mellow sample
Title: S.A.S
Producer: Hario
Voice Style: Power sample
Title: Alive
Producer: デスおはぎ / Death Ohagi
Street Commercial
The reason why this is being called a street commercial is because it could be seen airing on the giant screens of the Osaka LINKS Umeda 1F Atrium Vision and Tokyo Akihabara ONODEN MX Vision!
Livestreams
Finally, along with Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto’s reveal came two announcements for livestreams from both of the companies managing her!
The first livestream was from Twindrill, and it aired on the evening of the very same day she was announced as an “emergency” livestream!
**UPDATE ON APRIL 4th, 2023**
Watch the Twindrill livestream in its entirety below, and keep reading for a summary of the main points covered!
- The main reason they waited until April 3rd to make the announcement is because the official press release could only be made on a weekday.
- The Twindrill team was very surprised and pleased at the incredibly warm reception that Synth V Teto received, especially from the overseas community.
- While she is billed as a “new Teto,” it was very important that her Synth V voice and all of her voice styles still sound like Teto and how people want her to sound, or else it would have been a failure.
- This all started last year when Oyamano-san suggested that they do something “interesting” for Teto’s 15th anniversary.
- They decided that they would start many new things after Teto’s 15th anniversary, though ideas were vague last year.
- Among the companies whom they contacted for ideas included piapro and Crypton Future Media for an official prize plushie.
- They also wanted to point out that they did not have any sort of dispute with Crypton or decided to distance themselves from them; on the contrary, their relationship with Crypton remains very strong.
- They had many ideas for SV Teto’s outfit design and spent a lot of time deciding; it was Oyamano-san who decided on the combination of military uniform and idol look and commissioned Sakauchi-san.
- Because SV Teto would sound more realistic, Oyamano-san wanted a touch of “real” to be part in her outfit.
- Because of how complicated the outfit is, the Twindrill team was really surprised by how quickly people started creating fan art for SV Teto.
- SV Teto’s reference sheet was also revealed during this part of the livestream, and was even uploaded online on piapro after the stream concluded.
- About SV Teto’s design:
・Teto’s signature “0401” number – which is a big part of her identity – is written on the front of her collar (not very visible in the artwork).
・They weren’t sure whether to put her belt on the inside or outside of her outfit at first, or even include it at all in place of a tail, but kept it in the end.
・Because Teto is over 30, they wondered if they should lengthen her skirt, but then decided to leave it short as it’s cuter that way.
・The skirt is waist-high pannier; they were really torn on the frill colors of the skirt at first.
・One part of her hair accessory is an asymmetrical bow (with one side being larger than the other).
・The other part is a white ribbon that is wound together with her left drill.
・The pattern on her skirt is meant to resemble a 5-line music staff.
・Her overall design also looks like a drum and fife corps uniform.
・They pondered over keeping knee-high boots or making them short, and wondered about her sock colors. - For SV Teto’s Voice Style demo songs, they went with covers of existing songs so that fans can compare them to their original versions, and better hear and understand what is different about SV Teto.
- They specifically chose songs that they feel fit well with each Voice Style.
- Fans on social media commented how Hario’s sample of her “Mellow” voice sounds like a whisper bank; but it was pointed out that her whisper-like voice in the song S.A.S was the result of Hario’s own personal tuning work, and that Mellow is not a whisper bank.
- With that said, producers will of course still be able to work with SV Teto’s parameters and tune her to sound however they like; the Twindrill team expressed how they look forward to hearing how people will use her once she is released.
- The Twindrill team first heard the full version of April Star during the Sapporo Snow Festival and remember crying a lot when they did.
- Both Oyamano-san and kappa-san wanted OSTER project to be the one to create SV Teto’s debut song; Oyamano-san specifically wanted to point out that the decision was not hers alone this time.
- A message from OSTER project was shared during the livestream:
Congratulations on the release of Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto
It has been 16 years since I started my activities as a full-fledged musician by creating VOCALOID music. I created April Star while looking back on all sorts of things, feeling like a large part of myself overlaps with Teto-san who never gave up until she became “real.” Teto-san has given me a lot of courage, like Cinderella rising from humble beginnings. I look forward to seeing her spread her wings and chase a brand new dream.
- The street commercial will continue being shown at Akihabara and Umeda until April 16th, 2023.
- To catch the very first airing of the commercial in Akihabara, Enamel says he was standing outside the building with a camera aimed at the screen for 10 minutes, probably looking more than a little suspicious.
- About the Teto 15th anniversary illustration contest:
・Entrants may upload past works with the appropriate tag
・Art entries that were uploaded for previous contests are not allowed
・Illustrations of SV Teto are okay
・Absolutely no AI art is allowed - Twindrill received a DM from Tsuina-chan earlier that day expressing surprise over the SV Teto announcement.
- Oyamano-san expressed how she was similarly surprised when she first heard Tsuina-chan sing and created the music video for one of Tsuina-chan’s demo songs.
- They would like to air the commercial at Niconico Cho Kaigi if possible.
- Answering a question asked, with enough playing around with SV Teto’s parameters, users can probably reproduce Kasane Ted‘s voice and whatever else they may want.
- Twindrill’s Twitter account gained over 3,000 new followers that day.
- Twindrill hopes to hear many overseas fans use SV Teto too, creating English and Chinese songs with her.
And the second informational livestream about Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto will come from AHS, and will be held on April 6th, 2023 at 20:00 JST! The special guests will be none other than the members of Twindrill themselves!
Make sure to tune in on April 6th at the right time to learn more about Teto’s Synth V software!
**UPDATE ON APRIL 6th, 2023**
The AHS livestream has concluded. You can watch its archive and read a summary of the main points covering SV Teto below!
- A “dummy” package of SV Teto’s product is shown at the beginning of the news corner starting at 18:45; however, the finalized package will resemble it.
- Ogata-san first came into contact with Oyamano-san back in 2012 over talks about turning Teto into a VOCALOID; however, they couldn’t reproduce her voice in a satisfactory way, so the talks stopped soon afterwards, but this did mark Twindrill’s first contact with AHS, and the start of their desire to get Teto’s voice reproduced on another engine.
- As for how it was decided that Teto would become a Synthesizer V voice bank:
・Ohenri Saki of the Tsuina-chan Project got in contact with Oyamano-san about promoting Tsuina-chan
・Then at the very same time, AHS also contacted them to tell them about Synthesizer V AI, stating how they could “now probably reproduce Kasane Teto’s voice”
・So AHS and Oyamano-san then resumed contact and decided to give Teto’s voice reproduction another go on Synthesizer V AI
・And the rest is history! - Over the next year, Oyamano-san would send a great many data files to AHS to help them understand Teto’s signature sound and reproduce it.
- Oyamano-san focused on 4 main types of voices with 4-6 songs provided for each for AHS to analyze and decide which they could create.
- The song April Star was first revealed in part to the public during Twindrill’s Teto Birthday 2023 livestream, and they updated Teto’s homepage with a teaser right on April Fool’s Day; and they had a really hard time staying silent about SV Teto afterwards amid all the questions that they got until Monday, April 3rd.
- Ogata-san re-iterated how because SV Teto is a commercial product, they needed to make a press release about her for sales purposes, which could only be done on a weekday.
- Oyamano-san herself didn’t realize until recently how popular Teto is overseas, and that Synthesizer V AI’s cross lingual feature would greatly expand her usage the world over.
- About Twindrill’s relationship with Crypton Future Media and SV Teto’s production:
・Because Teto started as something of a “Hatsune Miku ripoff,” they felt the need to first apologize to Crypton for the joke they made
・When it came to turning Teto’s voice into a commercial product, they needed Crypton’s permission as Crypton serves as the point of contact involving Teto’s commercial use
・If Crypton said “no,” then they would have to comply
・But to their delight, Crypton gave them their full support in commercializing Teto, so SV Teto could become a reality - SV Teto UI and parameters are demonstrated starting at 1:26:20 in the livestream.
- Her English cross-lingual function is demonstrated starting at 1:30:10 with a Teto cover of Dancing in the Binary (which was created just 1 minute before the start of the livestream!).
- Finally, an original song created by Oyamano-san herself called ねむたいの歌 / Nemutai no Uta (The Sleepy Song) was revealed and demonstrated at 1:31:42.**
- Responding to questions about a possible VOICEPEAK bank, they reminded fans that Teto has TALQu bank available for free; they also added how her TALQu bank and how real they could make her voice sound with it served as the catalyst for creating her Synth V bank.
- During the Q&A corner, it was confirmed that Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto Lite ver. will be made available around May 8th, 2023 (some time after the end of Golden Week).
- Ogata-san plans to attend NAMM 2023 to promote Synthesizer V and SV Teto, and encourages attendees to go see them, as well as Eclipsed Sounds‘ booth.
**UPDATE: an English version of the song – officially titled ねむたいの歌～Teto is Sleepy – has been uploaded online as a demo for SV Teto’s English song voice!
In related developments, it was even announced during the Saki-chan Space on that day that Oyamano-san and Death Ohagi would be the guests on the next Tsuina-chan Space on Monday, April 10th, 2023 at 20:00 JST! Make sure to listen in if you want to hear the creators of both twin-drill haired Synthesizer V voice banks talk with one another!
We are truly living in an age when anything is possible in the vocal synth world. Already we have seen former VOCALOID, VOICEROID, etc. characters becoming other software, and also at least one other case of an UTAU becoming a Synthesizer V product. Still, few probably predicted that Twindrill and AHS would have something quite like this up their sleeve, and ready to surprise the world with.
If you’re as excited as we are about the future of this fandom, and about Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto in particular, then keep following both AHS and Twindrill on social media for more exciting news!
And to close this article, we’ll leave you with this lovely artwork of Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto drawn by Oyamano-san herself!
Links
AHS
Kasane Teto / Twindrill
