VOCALOID

Unlike other languages.

The Japan language has a unique characteristic that's hard to define as either a flaw or a strength.

Syllable structure is limited.

The fifty sounds, plus various sound changes, and necessary connections.

In fact, the desired effect can be achieved by piecing together a very limited number of syllables.

This advantage seems meaningless in the postmodern era, where processors have explosive performance and any gaming card can locally deploy TTS sound clone models.

But in today's era...

Or rather, in this era where it's impossible to create a sound clone simply by piecing together a model, that's where their advantage lies.

Because in this day and age, the only way to synthesize human voices procedurally is through splicing synthesis.

Simply put, it involves recording all possible sounds and creating a sound library.

Given this, the simpler the syllables of a language, the easier they are to enumerate, and the more natural the resulting effect will be.

This means that if Lin Lixin wants to synthesize human voices, Japan language is one of the most suitable choices. Perhaps this is also why Vocaloid first developed in Japan.

In comparison, if it were in English, it would be an absolute disaster.

Even a single word requires an extremely complex combination of phonemes; synthesizing them by splicing them together would look very unnatural.

"Cough cough..."

Yui Asaka stood in the recording studio, facing the large... high-resolution large-diaphragm condenser microphone in front of her, and cleared her throat.

Honestly, from the time she signed with Roppongi until now, she has never done a lack of voice acting work.

Especially now that she's associated with the national goddess image of Shiori Fujisaki, her voice has become something akin to a national treasure.

Mr. Lin was not exaggerating.

He truly succeeded in creating a national superstar from scratch.

Now it's time to take this a step further.

"Ah--ah--ah--"

She opened her mouth, but instead of saying or singing as usual, she mechanically uttered the same sound. The only difference was that her pitch rose slightly each time.

This is Mr. Lin's request.

She wasn't really sure why, but she could only obediently do as she was told.

Compared to previous recordings, today's recording content may seem simpler, but it still requires a tremendous amount of effort.

It's pure manual labor.

Again and again, the same sound may be repeated dozens or even hundreds of times.

Do the low-pitched version once, and the high-pitched version again.

Even after it was over, it still wasn't enough. They played the short version once, and the long version again.

Add to that the connections with various different sounds, and you have a whole bunch of versions.

My throat was practically burning by the end of the day, but I'd only managed to complete a small portion of the recording.

"Bzzzz..." "You've worked hard, take a break."

The sound director's voice came through the loudspeaker.

Yui Asaka breathed a sigh of relief, and all the muscles in her body relaxed instantly.

Who would have thought that recording an audio recording could leave you drenched in sweat?

"Good job, Xiao Yui. Go get some water or rest your throat. We need to make sure your performance is consistent every time we record."

Lin Lixin looked up at Yui Asaka, who was walking out of the recording studio, and nodded in satisfaction.

"You have half an hour to recover. After all, I'm not some kind of monster."

"Thank you so much."

Okay, that's just a joke, of course.

The most important aspect of recording audio is the voice actor's own state of mind.

A person's daily water intake, sleep patterns, and even their posture, Mike distance, and recording time can all have an impact.

To ensure the final recorded audio is up to standard and reliable, they had to standardize these aspects. It's important to understand that while current computer technology offers post-production editing capabilities, it's not yet capable of correcting significantly large errors.

The better the dry audio recording looks, the less post-production work will be required.

"Luckily, we brought our own equipment; the amount of data is even larger than expected."

After seeing the other party leave the recording studio, Lin Lixin turned around and began to discuss things with Hans Zimmer, who had flown in specifically for this purpose.

After all, it's an audio industry, so it's very appropriate to have Hans Zimmer Studio in charge.

"The 24-bit 48kHz specification is too high. If we could downsample to 16-bit 44.1kHz, it would save a lot of trouble."

Hans Zimmer adjusted a bunch of knobs on the workstation, burning the recordings to CDs for backup, while also starting the tape transfer to ensure multiple backups across multiple media.

The raw audio data recorded today, in accordance with Lin Lixin's requirements for hi-fi quality, is frighteningly large.

Even their professional workstation cannot handle real-time processing.

Recording must be done first, and then the data must be processed by multiple computers.

Even if the encoding is handled well, saving it all is a huge hassle.

Based on the current amount of data, it would probably take several boxes of CDs to complete the task.

"Let's ask Skywalker Sound for help. This workload... it's really giving me a headache."

Lin Lixin nodded slightly, neither confirming nor denying.

Vocaloid was something Yamaha came up with back in the day.

In the 1990s, Yamaha was the absolute dominant force in the Japan audio industry.

Literally, an absolute hegemon.

Everything related to sound has been fully automated by Yamaha, to the point that they have even monopolized the entire market.

In terms of sheer size, it can rival companies like Panasonic, Sony, and NEC.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that game companies like Nintendo are already highly dependent on audio chips manufactured by Yamaha.

Yamaha is capable of independently developing and producing digital synthesizers.

This includes various semiconductor components such as custom processors, DSP chips, ADCs, DACs, audio sources, filters, and MIDI chips.

In fact, Yamaha has already fully localized everything. In the early days, before Gamenova and Motorola reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation, Lin Lixin and his team used a lot of Yamaha's products.

Because it is indeed easy to use and the cost is relatively low.

These facts clearly demonstrate that while Yamaha is extremely focused, its research and development capabilities in its field are terrifyingly strong.

While Hans Zimmer Studio boasts advanced and cutting-edge technology, its biggest weakness lies in its lack of manpower.

Throughout his career, Hans Zimmer has always maintained a "better to have none than to have something of poor quality" attitude.

Everyone who joins the group is an "apprentice," and they are expected to learn from him thoroughly and diligently.

The advantages are obvious: a high degree of talent development, meaning anyone can step forward and become an excellent composer.

But there really aren't enough people.

"Have Sam tell Lucas that's all for now, I'm going back to Shinagawa."

Lin Lixin checked it over and, after confirming there were no problems, went out to Sega.

Arcade games also need to be developed in parallel.

... It must be said that Yu Suzuki is indeed a genius in the arcade game field.

In just a few days, he had created a decent-looking frame from scratch.

The machine has a huge body, paired with a drum that resembles a front-loading washing machine.

There are eight large plastic buttons arranged around the circumference.

"Given the large range of motion and the strong rhythm of the music, it's difficult for players to control their intensity, so I put a lot of Kung-Fu Master into durability."

Yu Suzuki, pressing the button heavily a few times.

The larger the component, the easier it is to hide parts, and the lower the integration requirement.

The lower the integration level, the simpler the structure, and consequently, the more robust and resistant to grass.

Green-skinned technology, terrifying indeed.

"That's right."

Lin Lixin went up to the machine and stuck his head directly into the washing machine drum.

Logically, this should be the screen. But right now it's empty.

The entire machine consists of only an outer frame.

Where's the monitor?

He asked, puzzled.

"Here's the thing, Chairman Lin, I'm considering ordering a batch of 36-inch LCD panels from Micro-Nova Semiconductor. Without screen distortion, a flat and clear panel would definitely make it a revolutionary product!"

With a flushed face, Yu Suzuki excitedly described a grand vision to Lin Lixin.

But he didn't notice at all that Lin Lixin's face was getting darker and darker.

"Seize the grand prize?"

Lin Lixin slapped his forehead speechlessly.

Yu Suzuki is great in every way, except he always goes too far.

To put it kindly, this is called craftsmanship; to put it bluntly, it's just a complete spendthrift who doesn't know anything about the world.

"A 36-inch LCD screen? The price of just one is enough to buy a car." LCD screens require extremely high manufacturing standards.

As the area increases, the yield rate will drop sharply.

The small size of a handheld console is not a problem.

If it's an extra-large panel for arcade machines, only a few usable panels can be produced per day.

Not to mention that with current processor performance, such a large panel would be a major problem in terms of response speed and ghosting.

This is highly unsuitable for rhythm games, which have extremely high time requirements.

"A CRT monitor is sufficient. Since we already have the frame, just order a monitor that's slightly larger than the circle; no additional modifications are needed."

Lin Lixin measured the dimensions of the frame.

By fitting in a CRT television of roughly the same size, the cost can be significantly reduced.

Just because the game itself is circular doesn't mean the screen has to be circular as well.

All you need to do is crop the game screen into a circle and design the entire UI in a circle; the actual shape of the screen is completely unimportant.

Anyway, it'll be blocked by the outer frame eventually. "Cathode ray tube?"

Yu Suzuki was stunned for a moment.

"But didn't you say the screen needs to support touch? CRT monitors simply can't have external touch panels attached."

The curved surface of the cathode ray tube itself poses a huge challenge for touchscreen design.

This means they need to customize a glass substrate specifically for this curved surface.

They might even set up a separate production line.

Even if you go with your long-time partner Corning, it will still cost a lot of money.

"That's right, so we'll be using... infrared touch."

LCDs have their own features, and so do CRTs.

Although small devices like handheld consoles cannot use structures like infrared gratings that are difficult to compress.

However, it's not impossible to fit an infrared touch module into such a behemoth as an arcade machine.