Crypton Future Media
Encyclopedia
, or Crypton, is a media company based in Sapporo, Japan. It develops, imports, and sells products for music, such as sound generator
software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect
and background music
libraries. The company also provides services of online shopping, online community
, and mobile content
.
The company has licensed software to the following organizations:
Crypton also operates a number of Japanese mobile websites, mainly for i-mode
of NTT docomo
, EZweb of au by KDDI, and Yahoo! Keitai of SoftBank Mobile, to distribute ringtones, sound effects, and voice ringtones (chaku-voice), including:
A mobile entertainment firm in Israel
, Eurocom Cellular Communications, is Crypton's international partner.
In 2010, Crypton Future Media were announced as the no.1 company for sound related software, bringing a share of 21.4% of the market for their related product.
software for computer music
. Its products use the Vocaloid
singing synthesis engine developed by Yamaha Corporation, they were also charged with finding and contacting English Studios in order to gain recommendations for the English version of the Vocaloid software. The company released Meiko in 2004 and Kaito in 2006. The release of the first Character Vocal Series Hatsune Miku
, which uses the upgraded engine Vocaloid 2, greatly raised Crypton's profile. The second and third Character Vocal Series are Kagamine Rin and Len and Megurine Luka. Because the popularity of these Vocaloids grew, Crypton launched a website Piapro to upload fan-made content and its own music label KarenT to sell Vocaloid songs.
Due to the success of placing a character on the box art of Meiko, the concept was carried over to her successor Kaito and later Vocaloids to encourage creativity, however neither Vocaloid's box art originally had the intention to represent that Vocaloid. Though Meiko experienced good sales, Kaito was the only one who initially failed commercially, causing less demand for male voices for a while after Kaito's initial release. However, sales eventually picked up and Kaito later won the Nico Nico Douga
second best seller award of 2008. Meiko and Kaito are reported to be in discussion for an update. Several updated vocal expressions have already been recorded for Kaito.
In April 2011, it was confirmed six vocal expressions had been recorded for Kaito, two of which were dropped and the remaining four were being brought forward with one having reached alpha stage already. The Character Vocal (Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin/Len and Megurine Luka) series Appends had been created from vocal performances of their voice providers, however the new Kaito Appends were created by adding echo, force and tension to the samples.
On April 30, 2010, an updated version of Miku called Hatsune Miku Append was released containing a package of six different tones of Miku's voice: Soft (gentle, delicate voice), Sweet (young, chibi voice), Dark (mature, heartbroken-like voice), Vivid (bright, cheerful voice), Solid (loud, clear voice), and Light (innocent, heavenly voice). Crypton Future Media also released Kagamine Rin/Len Append on December 27, 2010.
The third product of Crypton's Character Vocal Series is Megurine Luka, the first bilingual Vocaloid.
According to Crypton, a petition started on Facebook
exceeded the needed 39,390 members in November 2010 to join Hatsune Miku's account for an English version to be released; an announcement is due to be released from Crypton.
Sound generator
A sound generator is a vibrating object which produces a sound. There are two main kinds of sound generators ....
software, sampling CDs and DVDs, and sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
and background music
Background music
Although background music was by the end of the 20th century generally identified with Muzak or elevator music, there are several stages in the development of this concept.-Antecedents:...
libraries. The company also provides services of online shopping, online community
Online community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
, and mobile content
Mobile content
Mobile content is any type of media which is viewed or used on mobile phones, like ringtones, graphics, discount offers, games, movies, and GPS navigation. As mobile phone use has grown since the mid 1990s, the significance of the devices in everyday life has grown accordingly...
.
Overview
Crypton started business of importing audio products in 1995, and has been involved in the development, import, and sales of sampling CDs and DVDs, sound effect and background music libraries, and musical synthesizer applications. Its main business partners in Japan include musical instrument shops, computer stores, and software distributors.The company has licensed software to the following organizations:
- Video game publishers, such as KonamiKonamiis a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
, SegaSega, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
, Sony Computer EntertainmentSony Computer EntertainmentSony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
, NamcoNamcois a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
, and NintendoNintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.... - Public and private broadcasting media (TV, radio, and cable), such as NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
- Computer software and hardware companies, such as Apple Inc., DellDellDell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
, and MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions... - Musical instrument makers, such as Roland CorporationRoland Corporationis a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
and Yamaha Corporation - Public institutions, such as local governments, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Educational institutions, such as high schools, universities, and vocational schools
Crypton also operates a number of Japanese mobile websites, mainly for i-mode
I-mode
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode is a mobile internet service popular in Japan. Unlike Wireless Application Protocol, i-mode encompasses a wider variety of internet standards, including web access, e-mail and the packet-switched network that delivers the data...
of NTT docomo
NTT DoCoMo
is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone , i-mode , and mail services...
, EZweb of au by KDDI, and Yahoo! Keitai of SoftBank Mobile, to distribute ringtones, sound effects, and voice ringtones (chaku-voice), including:
- Hatsune Miku Mobile (初音ミクモバイル)
- Miku to Utaou (ミクと歌おう♪)
- Pocket Sound Effect Pro (ポケット効果音Pro)
- Mazeteyo Nama Voice (まぜてよ☆生ボイス)
A mobile entertainment firm in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Eurocom Cellular Communications, is Crypton's international partner.
In 2010, Crypton Future Media were announced as the no.1 company for sound related software, bringing a share of 21.4% of the market for their related product.
Vocaloid products and services
Crypton is best known for production and sales of speech synthesisSpeech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
software for computer music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
. Its products use the Vocaloid
Vocaloid
is a singing synthesizer application, with its signal processing part developed through a joint research project between the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and Japan's Yamaha Corporation, who backed the development financially—and later developed the software into the commercial product...
singing synthesis engine developed by Yamaha Corporation, they were also charged with finding and contacting English Studios in order to gain recommendations for the English version of the Vocaloid software. The company released Meiko in 2004 and Kaito in 2006. The release of the first Character Vocal Series Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku
is a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, developed by Crypton Future Media. It uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology. The name of the character comes from a fusion of the Japanese for , and future , referring to her position as the first of Crypton's...
, which uses the upgraded engine Vocaloid 2, greatly raised Crypton's profile. The second and third Character Vocal Series are Kagamine Rin and Len and Megurine Luka. Because the popularity of these Vocaloids grew, Crypton launched a website Piapro to upload fan-made content and its own music label KarenT to sell Vocaloid songs.
Vocaloid products
Kaito was the only one sold using the Vocaloid 1.1 engine; the previous Vocaloids before him were sold as Vocaloid 1.0, which he was also supplied with. However, he needed the additional Vocaloid 1.1.2 patch to work on the Vocaloid 1.0 engine. A patch was later released to update all Vocaloid engines to Vocaloid 1.1.2, adding new features to the software, although there were differences between the output results of the engine. Even though Kaito and Meiko were Japanese and sung using Japanese phonetics, the main interface was in written using English for both English and Japanese Vocaloids.Due to the success of placing a character on the box art of Meiko, the concept was carried over to her successor Kaito and later Vocaloids to encourage creativity, however neither Vocaloid's box art originally had the intention to represent that Vocaloid. Though Meiko experienced good sales, Kaito was the only one who initially failed commercially, causing less demand for male voices for a while after Kaito's initial release. However, sales eventually picked up and Kaito later won the Nico Nico Douga
Nico Nico Douga
is a popular video sharing website in Japan managed by Niwango, a subsidiary of Dwango. Its nickname is "Niconico" or "Nico-dō", where "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. Nico Nico Douga is the thirteenth most visited website in Japan...
second best seller award of 2008. Meiko and Kaito are reported to be in discussion for an update. Several updated vocal expressions have already been recorded for Kaito.
In April 2011, it was confirmed six vocal expressions had been recorded for Kaito, two of which were dropped and the remaining four were being brought forward with one having reached alpha stage already. The Character Vocal (Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin/Len and Megurine Luka) series Appends had been created from vocal performances of their voice providers, however the new Kaito Appends were created by adding echo, force and tension to the samples.
| Product | Language | Sex | Voice sampled | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meiko | Japanese | Female | Meiko Haigō | November 5, 2004 |
| Kaito | Male | Naoto Fūga | February 17, 2006 |
Vocaloid 2 products
Crypton released Hatsune Miku, on August 31, 2007. The second of the Character Vocal Series is the first dual Vocaloid Kagamine Len and Kagamine Rin, a Japanese male and female, released on December 27, 2007. On July 18, 2008, the updated edition of Kagamine Rin and Len, named "act2" was released. For a period of time, users who had bought the old version were allowed to get the new version for free. On June 18, 2008, beta demonstration songs using the new version were released on the company's official blog. The expansion disc is an entirely different software and does not affect the original Kagamine Rin/Len installation in any way, giving the user options to either use the old or new voice sets exclusively or combine their usage. Crypton Future Media have now retired the sale of their old Kagamine Vocaloid and it is now no longer possible to buy the software from them. This was also the very first Vocaloid update to be done for any Vocaloid.On April 30, 2010, an updated version of Miku called Hatsune Miku Append was released containing a package of six different tones of Miku's voice: Soft (gentle, delicate voice), Sweet (young, chibi voice), Dark (mature, heartbroken-like voice), Vivid (bright, cheerful voice), Solid (loud, clear voice), and Light (innocent, heavenly voice). Crypton Future Media also released Kagamine Rin/Len Append on December 27, 2010.
The third product of Crypton's Character Vocal Series is Megurine Luka, the first bilingual Vocaloid.
According to Crypton, a petition started on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
exceeded the needed 39,390 members in November 2010 to join Hatsune Miku's account for an English version to be released; an announcement is due to be released from Crypton.
Released products
| Product | Language | Sex | Voice sampled | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatsune Miku Hatsune Miku is a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, developed by Crypton Future Media. It uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology. The name of the character comes from a fusion of the Japanese for , and future , referring to her position as the first of Crypton's... (CV01) |
Japanese | Female | August 31, 2007 | |
| Kagamine Rin and Len (CV02) | Japanese | Female (Rin) Male (Len) |
December 27, 2007 | |
| Kagamine Rin and Len (CV02) Act 2 | Japanese | Female (Rin) Male (Len) |
July 18, 2008 | |
| Megurine Luka (CV03) | Japanese and English | Female | January 30, 2009 | |
| Hatsune Miku Append | Japanese | Female | April 30, 2010 | |
| Kagamine Rin and Len Append | Japanese | Female (Rin) Male (Len) |
December 27, 2010 |
Upcoming products
| Product | Language | Sex | Voice sampled | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaito Append | Japanese | Male | Naoto Fūga | TBA |
| Megurine Luka Append | Japanese and English | Female | Yū Asakawa | TBA |
| Meiko Append | Japanese | Female | Meiko Haigō | TBA |
| CV04 | Japanese | Male | TBA | |
| Hatsune Miku | English | Female | TBA | |
- Crypton has a "Project if..." with a mysterious, child-like voice.
See also
- VocaloidVocaloidis a singing synthesizer application, with its signal processing part developed through a joint research project between the Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and Japan's Yamaha Corporation, who backed the development financially—and later developed the software into the commercial product...
- ja:Meiko
- ja:Kaito
- Hatsune MikuHatsune Mikuis a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, developed by Crypton Future Media. It uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology. The name of the character comes from a fusion of the Japanese for , and future , referring to her position as the first of Crypton's...
- ja:Kagamine Rin and Len
- ja:Megurine Luka
- Speech synthesisSpeech synthesisSpeech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...
- Computer musicComputer musicComputer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...