Hello, all you beautiful people! We’ve wrapped up 2022 with a huge accomplishment; completing the rainbow of OGIENOIDs! It was a long time coming, filled with roadblocks. Still, it has finally happened, which means STUDIO OGIEN is ready to begin a new chapter, focusing on exciting new projects and expanding our girls to new languages already in the plans. Keep reading to see what’s coming!
Plans for Internal Change
At STUDIO OGIEN, we’ve always been focused on providing quality content to our community, and we are so honored and humbled that we can say we have a community at all. With that said, we do want to be transparent with you all. Our studio is downsizing. Initially, we started out as one person who worked with individuals as collaborations came up. We are going back to a very similar model, and going forward, we’ll be treating the studio as a hobby rather than a mission.
In simpler terms, the amount of time we can put in has lessened as many of our members have increased outside responsibilities. This reality paired with the pressure to constantly put out new content has just made the internal passion for this project difficult to maintain. Plainly speaking, we’re all just exhausted all of the time, and I think it’s been time to realize that fact for a while. We are encouraging our members to pursue their personal passions and hobbies rather than ours.
While these plans may sound grim, there is no reason to worry. The STUDIO OGIEN flame still burns bright, and we have many things planned for years to come. The team just wanted to inform all fans of the OGIENOIDs, as this downsizing means we will take much longer to put out anything new. Our goal moving forward is going to be a focus on quality over quantity, and enjoyability over competition. Playing the numbers game just isn’t what we’re about.
As of 2023, we are also switching focuses almost entirely. For more exciting plans on what you can expect from us, keep on a scrollin’!
The Ultimate Goal For Voicebank Production
Ideally, our ultimate goal is for each OGIENOID to possess a wide useable range and at least two languages. Eventually, we want to get to a point where we can consider the OGIENOIDs as “complete” with no plans to re-record or record different voicebank styles (ex: CV & VCV). We may choose in the future to add new languages depending on interest in the community or the voice provider’s general enthusiasm. As it stands right now, this is the full breakdown of our plans:
- Each OGIENOID is set to receive a SALIENT-style Japanese VB which includes:
- Tri/Quadpitch normal, soft, and power voicebanks, depending on the difficulty to record said voice. (Ex: Apollo PRIME is expected to be a very difficult voicebank to record, so each append/timbre may end up as tripitch instead of the pre-established quadpitch).
- glottal stops
- vocal fry
- growl
- Some OGIENOIDs may receive Goddess voicebanks
- Now that’s a blast from the past! One particular voice provider has expressed interest in doing this, and we’re very excited to see if it comes to fruition~
- Each OGIENOID is set to receive VCCV English
- Monopitch voicebanks, three timbre (normal, soft, strong). This is the plan for what the VCCV Alpha banks we produce (like Kasai IGNITE Alpha) will evolve into for their full release.
- There may be a possible expansion to make those timbres into tripitch later on. This will depend on the availability of each voice provider.
- We want to research more about VCCV additions, such as vocal fry, and may be able to include those later on as well.
Voicebank Production: What Comes Next
After these goals reach fruition, we will consider each language as complete and finalize development. However, we will still add additions to these completed voicebanks as add-on downloads. As the community develops new and interesting ways to use UTAU voicebanks, we will do our best to keep the OGIENOIDs as up-to-date and relevant as possible.
Citing the above, we consider KASAI OG01 as having completed her journey with the Japanese language for UTAU. It is only English development for her from here on out. After IGNITE hits completion, KASAI OG01 will also achieve completion status unless we potentially decide to give her a third language (which may or may not happen! If it ever does, it will be a total surprise to our audience as not to put undue stress on the voice provider).
Can I Tell You Something Exciting?
Alpha VCCV voicebanks for AXIS OG06 and HONOS OG04 are already recorded! Holy smokes! Each is a normal-style voice with a single pitch, just like KASAI IGNITE Alpha. We’ve decided to name these voicebanks TERRA (Axis) and SOL (Honos).
The next step is to get the voicebanks OTOd and debut their Alpha artwork. Depending on where we outsource the OTO process, these voicebanks could be out quickly. That would be an excellent way to start off 2023! Later in the year, we will focus on expanding HONOS SOL Alpha, as her VP has been hard at work recording more VCCV samples.
We are currently working on an improved vocal booth/studio revamp before proceeding. For the time being, we are taking a little break from recording. This affects all voices but HONOS OG04, as her Voice Provider records in a different location. Yes, that is correct, 7/8 OGIENOIDs are recorded in-house, and four of those are recorded by one person (which is why updates to the original four, Kasai/Axis/Atlas/Apollo, take longer to produce).
There’s a very real possibility we may put a pause on SALIENT-style releases in favor of more Alpha English VCCV as well. However, that will be a later decision (if we get that far!).
Expanding The OGIEN Universe And Creating More Original Content
Now that our rainbow is complete, we are eager to focus our attention on the OGIENOIDs as characters rather than just voices and fun facts. Our intent has never been for the girls to be solely instruments. We’re excited to explore their story and share it with you in the coming months!
We are setting our sights on first putting out HONOS ELITE and the new VCCV Alpha banks, then, once these voicebanks are out, we will officially be switching our focus to (almost) entirely original content. Our main YouTube channel will no longer feature covers after this point. Still, there may be an exception or two depending on the situation. Covers will still be found on our SoundCloud account. With more English voices, we plan to shy away from our girls being seen as a simple cover group.
Here’s to a new chapter for the OGIENOIDs and STUDIO OGIEN!
I’m sure many of you may feel as if this is the closing of a chapter, and that you might be near the end of this story. I want to personally thank you all for your support over the years as we completed our rainbow, and I want to reassure you all… The OGIENOIDs aren’t going anywhere, they are simply evolving. We will continue to expand on their world (and many others, mind you) as time goes on, and we are hoping you’ll join us for this journey.
We’re excited to put out more genuine works from the heart, focusing on more complex (and mature) content. We want this studio to go back to being that… A studio, with creativity, art, and enjoyment being the main focuses. We hope you are just as excited as we are about the future!
