Macloids & Mactau

The Macne Series (Mac音シリーズ/ Macne Shiriizu) is a series of voice banks designed for Reason and GarageBand, music sequencer softwares for the Macintosh operating system, developed by MI7 Japan and distributed by Act2.Act2 does not distribute the Macloid Voicabanks anymore so to purchase them you'll have navigate Macneke.

History
The idea of releasing a voicebank for Macintosh computers was conceptualized in the Japanese voice actress Haruna Ikezawa's regular column 天声姫語 Vox Reginae, Vox Dei ("voice of princess, voice of god," a spoof of Asahi Shimbun's editorial article 天声人語 Vox Populi, Vox Dei or voice of the people, voice of god) carried in the magazine Mac Fan by Mainichi Communications.

Haruna provided her voice for the first voicebank Macne Nana, and other voice actor's and actress's joined the project as Macne gained popularity. Kikuko Inoue then provided the voice of Macne Coco Shiro, and Coco Kuro's voicebanks. During Macne Papa's release, a 6 day event was made that included samples of the voice actor Jōji Nakata.

Macne Coco Kuro's bank was removed from market sales, in February 2011 she returned with improved vocals and a new boxart. Macne Papa's voicebank was also dropped from sales for improvement purposes, but has yet to return. The newest character to this series is Macne Nana Whisper (or Sasayaki-san, meaning Whisper Angel) link

On 29/2/2012, Macne Nana's original voicebank retired from sale, and Act2 announced that they will be releasing newly-recorded updated voicebanks for Macne Nana and Macne Nana Petit, entitled "Macne Nana 2S" and "Macne Petit 2S", to celebrate Macne Nana's third anniversary. Their new designs were based on the new iPhone 4S. On 29/3/2012, the updated voicebanks were released, replacing the original Nana and Petit.

Earlier Before Mactau
At the time of release, Vocaloid and UTAU were both released for the PC, leaving Macintosh computers with no such software for music users in Japan. The Macne series would serve to fill that void. For Mac users, the Macne series is one of the best options for vocal music creation as at the time of their first release there were few alternatives. This made them popular with Japanese software users of Reason and GarageBand. The characters are used in Reason or GarageBand by selecting one of them as an instrument and altering pitches and lengths of sound files.

They can also work normally on UTAU by converting their samples to .wav format and providing a tuned oto.ini file. Although, the new files will not work with Reason or GarageBand so users still interested in using them for their intended purposes must purchase the original versions. The reason for this allowance for the vocals to be converted is because they are sold under a open-source license unlike Vocaloid. This does not permit users to share their voicebanks produced from UTAU or in their original state of course. Using them for Reason or GarageBand does not produce the same results when used for UTAU.

However, the fact they are able to be used with UTAU has resulted in an increased popularity, offering a "Vocaloid quality" voicebank for use in UTAU. This is notable considering there are hundreds of voicebanks for UTAU and their quality varies per creator. Out of the main releases like Kasane Teto, Macne are considered some of the more reliable voicebanks. They may also be seen as easier to use for UTAU than their intended software releases. However, they are under copyright and therefore have to be purchased to be legally used for such a thing, whereas most UTAU are handed out for free.

Macloids
The Macne's, or Macloids as every one calls them, are the Vocaloids for Mac. being only able to use them in GarageBand and Reason by pitching their samples to make a song. But as of Now they're capable to be ported into UTAU & Utau-Synth (Utau for mac). That being said, Macloid's have to payed for on their site Macne.net. As of now Nana and Puchi's Vb's have been Retired due to the 2S Voice banks being released. There is no yet information that the Coco's or Papa will be getting a 2S. More recent Voicebanks like Macne Sasayaki-san, or Macne Nana 2S come with a pre-made oto.ini(you'll have to edit it yourself, a it's not well-made), character image, and other various files to help with importing them into Utau. Since Macne Nana's release, all Macloids put out for sale have a three-tone bank, meaning a High, Middle and Low pitch for a wider range of using their voicbanks.

Unofficial Mac音's

Mactau
UTAU created to be based on the Macloids(Macne) should have their own group, or be organized a special way. I thought up "Mactau" as a "Mac Utau". I used this term mainly for my personal characters but soon my friends adopted the term as well and now it's gotten around a bit. What defines a Mactau? Here's a list that I thought up to help...

Mactau is spelled as Mactau. Mac is not in CAPS(i.e. MACtau)

Mactau characters are original creations based upon the idea of "The Vocaloid for Mac", despite them being used in UTAU

Mactau designs are original, being based upon Apple Products, the company itself or just simply being a fan of the Macne Family. While some designs are derived from the Macne themselves, direct copies of the official characters does not make your UTAU a Mactau(This means you can't use Nana's clothes with Coco's hair mixed with Sasayaki-san's tiara)

Mactau names don't have to be puns on the Family name of "Macne". Most Mactau families/characters are like this however it is not required.

Makune Hachi, Ichiro, Mami as well as Mackne Kyou and Kioshi do not count as Mactau as they were created before the term was invented, and i'm sure the creator of the Makune's does not want them affiliated with such a Stereo-Typical group

The name Makune belongs to MishaRoute of Deviantart, this means creating a Mactau character with this specific name should be consulted with her before official release of the design(and/or voicebank).

Mactau are the various Fan Made Macloids that can be found randomly on the internet (usually refered to as Mac音). they are made for UTAU/UTAU Synth, there for they aren't real Macloids. Various artist have perfected the Gomoku style being able to nearly fool some of the fans because the closeness of the style being so hard to perfect. But getting back on track, The first fan-mac to be created was Makune Hachi, she is what; or so we believe, sparked the Mactau fandom to grow so much bigger than it has today!

There are many different Families Within the Mactau fandom its self. they range from being iPad's, iPods, Mouses, to actual computers themselves.

MAKU音's

Mack音’s

MAKO音’s

MAKGU音’s

Mac不's

MAGU音's

Macヒ's