AH-Software Co. Ltd.

AH-Software Co. Ltd. (株式会社AH-Software, originally Artist House Solutions Co., Ltd. or ArtistHouse Softwarehttps://www.ah-soft.com/regist/howto.html) or AHS Co., Ltd. (株式会社AHS) officially, is an importer of digital audio workstation and encoders in Tokyo, Japan. It is also known as the developer of the VOICEROID text-to-speech series.
==History==
AH-Software was established in 2005 as an importer and seller of music software in Tokyo, Japan. Planning of the first three AH-Software Co. Ltd. vocals began in 2007. In November 2009, they announced that they were going to distribute VOCALOID2 and VOICEROID products in December 2009. AH-Software became the fifth developer of music voice synthesis software with this release.
At some point in 2012, the company founder and then-president Tomohide Ogata came into contact with , the voice provider of Kasane Teto, to discuss the idea of turning Teto into a VOCALOID. However, the voice could not be reproduced in a satisfactory manner.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-tMiZmwLvY"Synthesizer V AI Kasane Teto Announced by AHS and Twindrill" - a summary and translation of Kasane Teto's debut contents by MARUMAIN Despite that Teto was unable to release for VOCALOID, she was eventually released as a Synthesizer V Studio product as an in April 2023 as a collaboration between AH-Software and .
After the retirement of the VOCALOID STORE, they also began to sell physical copies of Macne Nana. 
After a successful campaign in Germany, they began to expand and announced their plans in Vienna, Austria.https://comemo.nikkei.com/n/nb2b5f62397f5 
===VOICEROID===
VOICEROID is a speech synthesizer program developed by AH-Software, released on December 4, 2009. Its name is derived from "VOCALOID"; however, while VOCALOID is meant for singing, VOICEROID is meant for speaking.
The VOICEROID software has several uses including music, education, and for those with disabilities that may impede speech. Later versions are capable of several emotions, and the software is overall considered very simple to use. 
====Usage====
The user is able to adjust the speed, pitch, and intonation to make the speech generated by the program sound more natural. VOICEROID enables the user to type in any word or phrase and the selected character will repeat it back to them.Vocaloidism All original VOICEROID and VOICEROID+ products were packaged with the animating software, Crazy Talk SE.Gigazine
There have been two major versions of the software so far: (updated by , then by ) and .
It uses AITalk, though it is not compatible with any other Talk software used by other VOCALOIDs. Because it uses a different engine from VOCALOID-flex, it does not use the same licensing as VOCALOID, and is restricted to just AH-Software as a voicebank development source.
====Voices====
* (月読アイ) & (月読ショウタ), two children with an elementary school theme. They were released for the original software. 
* (吉田くん) is a character from the flash animation series, "Eagle Talon". He was the first .
* (弦巻マキ) is a part of the fictional band, . She was released for VOICEROID+; later she migrated to Talk and also got singing libraries (now as a bilingual Japanese/English voice).
* (結月ゆかり) was the first vocal developed by VOCALOMAKETS for both VOCALOID3 and VOICEROID+. She later got CeVIO AI Song and libraries, though not distributed or marketed by AH-Software.
* (東北ずん子) was the second VOICEROID+ to become a VOCALOID3 vocal. She later got and CeVIO AI Song libraries; she is also expected to receive a voicebank in December 2022.
* (水奈瀬コウ) is the third male voice for the VOICEROID+, and a fellow teacher to Hiyama Kiyoteru.
* (京町セイカ) is a VOICEROID+ and was created as a mascot for Seika, Kyoto in Japan. She later got a Synthesizer V Studio singing library.
* (東北きりたん) is a VOICEROID+ and little sister of Zunko. After getting an singing voicebank, she became one of the first NEUTRINO singing libraries; later she also got a CeVIO AI Song library.
* (琴葉 茜 ・ 葵) are two pairs of voices released for VOICEROID+. They are considered sisters. They also got a Synthesizer V Studio singing library; later, they got A.I.VOICE speech libraries for both Japanese and English, though not distributed or marketed by AH-Software.
* (紲星 あかり) was the second vocal developed by VOCALOMAKETS for both VOCALOID4 and . Like Yukari, she later got an A.I.VOICE speech library, also with no AH-Software involvement in distribution or marketing.
* (桜乃そら) was released as both a VOCALOID5 voicebank and a VOICEROID2.
* (東北イタコ) is the eldest of the Tohoku sisters. She is a VOICEROID2. Like Kiritan, she also got an UTAU singing voicebank; also like both Kiritan and Zunko, she later got both NEUTRINO and CeVIO AI Song libraries.
* (ついなちゃん) is the first VOICEROID2 to have both standard and Kansai-ben dialects. Later she also got a Synthesizer V Studio singing library.
* (伊織弓鶴) is the latest male voice released as a VOICEROID2. Like the Kotonoha sisters, he later got an A.I.VOICE talk library which was also not sold by AH-Software.
* (小春六花) is a female voice originally announced for VOICEROID2 in partnership with TOKYO6 ENTERTAINMENT. She too got a Synthesizer V Studio singing library, while her VOICEROID2 talk bank was cancelled in favor of a CeVIO AI Talk bank.
====End of VOICEROID development====
On December 25, 2020, it was revealed by some producers that VOICEROID development had silently ceased due to conflicts between AH-Software Co. Ltd. and , developer of the AITalk software which VOICEROID was based on (and which also powers AI's new program, which AHS did not adopt).Bumpy tweet 1Bumpy tweet 2Amanokei's tweet (deleted; archive) This partly explains why:
* Development of an English version of VOICEROID2 (with Tohoku Zunko as its first voice, which would have been a crowdfunded project)https://x.com/t_zunko/status/1197836222497878016/ was put on hold, with no indication of whether it would be cancelled or moved to a different text-to-speech engine like . Such version was initially announced by AHS on November 22nd, 2019 in a VOICEROID 10th Anniversary livestream.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaGMnAzh9I
* Development of 's talk software (initially crowdfunded by as a VOICEROID2 library to be distributed by AHS) was moved to CeVIO AI Talk, although for this case it was already revealed on October 30 that TOKYO6 desired to be on all the latest technology (namely, artificial-intelligence-based synthesis as opposed to sample-based synthesis) at the time of Rikka's eventual release.https://www.ah-soft.com/images/press/cevio/rikka_cevio.jpg Those who were disappointed with the decision to move from VOICEROID to CeVIO were given the option to apply for a refund if they had contributed to her crowdfunding campaign.
* An updated version of (originally a VOICEROID+) was instead developed for CeVIO AI along with an English version.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqBPc-ps4A
===Affiliation with Dreamtonics===
On June 26, 2020, in collaboration with , AH-Software announced they would distribute products based on , a new singing-synthesis software by Dreamtonics, starting on July 30.https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1276349537079029760 AHS, however, did not explicitly call this a migration from VOCALOID software, and to this day they still market and sell VOCALOID products.
On February 17, 2022, Dreamtonics unveiled , a text-to-speech synthesizer described to be "ultra-realistic"https://x.com/dreamtonics_en/status/1438854449766682629 which was developed in collaboration with AH-Software.https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1494145188352397314 According to AHS' product page, VOICEPEAK was equipped with the high-quality AI speech synthesis engine "Syllaflow", which was developed by Dreamtonics.https://www.ah-soft.com/voice/6nare/ A trial version of VOICEPEAK, along with one male and one female voice, was released on the same day, with the commercial version set to release for Windows, MacOS, and Linux on March 11 with four females and three males.https://x.com/dreamtonics_jp/status/1494154666917363712
On June 30, during the company's 181st livestream, Tomohide Ogata appointed Dreamtonics' founder and president as the new Representative Director and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of AH-Software; Tomo himself remains as the Executive Chairman of the company. In exchange, Tomo was appointed by Kanru as new director at Dreamtonics while Kanru remains there as Representative Director.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2246 - Announcement of Kanru Hua as new Representative Director & CTO of AHS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2430 - Tomohide Ogata stays as Executive Chairman of AHS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJVmg0cIZrM&t=2485 - Kanru Hua as Representative Director of Dreamtonics, Tomohide Ogata as new Director at Dreamtonics.
On November 18, AH-Software announced a new character-themed lineup of voice libraries for VOICEPEAK, including Tohoku Zunko; they were originally expected to be released on December 15,https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1593076410675257344 but staff illness delayed their release to January 13, 2023.https://x.com/dreamtonics_jp/status/1599646739111505920https://x.com/ahsoft/status/1599646153079132160 These VOICEPEAK libraries are being marketed in the same fashion as VOICEROID libraries, and thus they can be seen as the spiritual successors to VOICEROID.
===Key people===
	Tomohide Ogata (尾形友秀; Ogata Tomohide), sometimes shortened to just Tomo, is the founder and current Executive Chairman of AH-Software Co. Ltd.;https://www.ah-soft.com/company/english/010_corpo.html until June 30, 2022, he was the President (or Representative Director) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.
* LinkedIn profile
* Facebook profile (@tomohide.ogata)
* Twitter profile (@tomo_ahs)
==Voicebanks==
===Developed Voicebanks===
Voicebanks that the company developed.
====VOCALOID2====
Ofclboxart_ahs_SF-A2_miki.jpg|SF-A2 miki|link=SF-A2 miki (VOCALOID2)
Ofclboxart_ahs_Kaai_Yuki.jpg|Kaai Yuki|link=Kaai Yuki (VOCALOID2)
Ofclboxart_ahs_Hiyama_Kiyoteru.jpg|Hiyama Kiyoteru|link=Hiyama Kiyoteru (VOCALOID2)
Ofclboxart_ahs_Nekomura_Iroha.jpg|Nekomura Iroha|link=Nekomura Iroha (VOCALOID2)
====VOCALOID3====
YuzukiYukari_box.png|Yuzuki Yukari|link=Yuzuki Yukari (VOCALOID3)
V3_zunko_box_2t1.png|Tohoku Zunko|link=Tohoku Zunko (VOCALOID3)
====VOCALOID4====
Yukari v4 box.jpg|Yuzuki Yukari V4|link=Yuzuki Yukari V4
MikiNatural boxart.png|SF-A2 miki V4|link=SF-A2 miki V4
Iroha v4 box.jpg|Nekomura Iroha V4|link=Nekomura Iroha V4
YukiNatural boxart.png|Kaai Yuki V4|link=Kaai Yuki V4
Kiyoteru package.jpg|Hiyama Kiyoteru|link=Hiyama Kiyoteru V4
zunko v4 box.png|Tohoku Zunko V4|link=Tohoku Zunko V4
V4_Nana_Complete_box.png|Macne Nana V4|link=Macne Nana V4
akari standalone.png|Kizuna Akari|link=Kizuna Akari (VOCALOID4)
====VOCALOID5====
Haruno Sora Complete.png|Haruno Sora|link=Haruno Sora (VOCALOID5)
===Distributed Voicebanks===
Voicebanks that the company did not develop, but are distributing.
====VOCALOID3====
Nanabundlebox.png|Macne Nana|link=Macne Nana (VOCALOID3)
RION_boxart.png |Tone Rion|link=Tone Rion (VOCALOID3)
====VOCALOID4====
GUMIV4Complete.png|Megpoid V4|link=Megpoid V4
Una boxart.png|Otomachi Una|link=Otomachi Una (VOCALOID4)
==Promotional involvement==
===Figurines===
===Literature===
Tohoku Zunko received a novel that was published in Japan in Summer 2013, published by PHP Institute Inc.. Her book contains stories from her Twitter, posted by, the voice provider of Zunko herself, Satomi Satō.
===Apps===
An android smartphone widget was made for Tohoku Zunko. The widget stars a chibi version of Zunko, where users teach her archery skills.
===Christmas Illustration Contest===
From December 12, 2011 to January 10, 2012, AH-Software held an illustration contest of Nekomura Iroha with the theme Nyanglebell (Nyan and Jingle Bell).
===Social Media===
A Twitter account was made for Tohoku Zunko.
===Sites===
====Piapro====
AH-Software made the agreement with Piapro and users are able to post AHS's VOCALOIDs and creations onto the site (No VOICEROIDs). Announcement of Piapro about AHS VOCALOIDs
==References==
==External links==
*AHS Co., Ltd.
*AH-Software (products)
*AH-Software Vocaloid4 teaser page
*ah-soft (@ahsoft) Twitter
*AHS (@ahsinst) Instagram
*AHS Co.Ltd Facebook
*AHSoftware Youtube Channel
*AHS Ustream
*AHS Freshlive
*
*
*Product page VOICEROID
es:AH-Software
Category:Companies
Category:AH-Software Co. Ltd.