Voctro Labs, S.L.

Voctro Labs, S.L. is a company born as an spin-off of the MTG, the group involved in the VOCALOID's development in association with Yamaha. The company's goal is to provide voice synth-related technology such as Voiceful, and they were the first one to release Spanish VOCALOID voicebanks: Bruno and Clara.MTG - MTG creates Voctro Labs, a new spin-off company 
==About==
Established on December 2011, Voctro-Labs, S.L. is the third spin-off company born from the (MTG) in the Department of Information and Communication Technologies of the (UPF). The company was founded by Jordi Janer, Oscar Mayor, Merlijn Blaauw and Jordi Bonada, with the support of the Innovation Unit of the UPF and the second prize of the Valortec 2011.Voctro Labs - Company
Around 2009 the MTG started to develop two Spanish voices for Vocaloid that eventually will become the Vocaloids Bruno and Clara. According Voctro Labs, the process wasn't continuous, as they had to adapt the Vocaloid engine to the Spanish language and establish the company first.link
Aware the Spanish market is more difficult than the English and Japanese ones (mainly due the piracy and as the software less known), the company has opted to a different business model to said markets.
In 2012, they presented a prototype of an English male voice during their press conference on the interest to the synthesized voice. In 2014, a sample of the voice (which is now improved) has resurfaced and is considered a test voice VOCALOID4 software. (growl at the end seems to show)
link
During an interview in a Spanish radio program, Voctro Labs confirmed that half of their team keeps working on developing VOCALOID via the MTG.http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/fallo-de-sistema/fallo-sistema-365-voz-maquinas-30-06-19/5297039/ - Radio Televisión Española 3, June 30, 2019
Voctro Labs eventually left VOCALOID to develop their own vocal synthesizing software: Voiceful. Despite this, they are still currently in partnership with YAMAHA, co-developing VOCALOID's regular engine. https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/fallo-de-sistema/fallo-sistema-365-voz-maquinas-30-06-19/5297039/ - Radio Televisión Española 3, June 30, 2019 (around 13:19)https://www.voiceful.io/ - Clients section mentions "Yamaha - Vocaloid" which was created/updated around July 2020
===Key people===
	Xavier Serra was born in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) and from a very young age he maintained a dual interest in music and science.
After obtaining the PhD, Xavier Serra was hired by the Japanese company YAMAHA at a research center that the company established in California, Yamaha Music Technologies. There he continued for two years his research on audio processing applied to sound synthesis, working specially with the singing voice.
*http://www.dtic.upf.edu/~xserra/
*http://mtg.upf.edu/home
*http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicTechnologyGroup
*http://www.freesound.org/
	Jordi Bonada is a researcher of the MTG in the same university while leading several projects funded by public and private institutions. In 2003 he was a visiting researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Sweden), and later in 2010 at the CIRMMT (McGill University) in Montreal (Canada).
Jordi Bonada received an award by Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation due his contribution and patents generated in collaboration with Yamaha, including Vocaloid softwareMTG - Award by the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation (JIII)
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===Interviews and presentations===
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==Voicebanks==
===VOCALOID3===
Brunoclara-boxed_edition-fs8.png|Bruno|link=Bruno (VOCALOID3)
Brunoclara-boxed_edition-fs8.png|Clara|link=Clara (VOCALOID3)
Maika_box.png|MAIKA|link=MAIKA (VOCALOID3)
===Unreleased===
ONA is an alternate avatar for MAIKA's voicebank, designed to appeal the western public less familiarized with the VOCALOID phenomena. The mascot and Catalan settings, however, are not commercially released.
ONA.jpg|ONA|link=ONA
==Promotional involvement==
===Fanart Contest===
During the promotions of both Bruno and Clara, a contest was announced on November 10, 2011. Submissions were closed on December 10, and voting (by visitors) was open from December 10 to December 17, 2011. The rules stated that the image depict both Bruno and Clara in a single submission. Both characters should be drawn in a similar style to their debut, that being the overall ‘look’ (clothing, hair/eye color, etc.) of the current characters. However, artistic freedom was allowed.
The winner(s) would earn the prize of having Bruno & Clara voice libraries as direct downloads, while the second prize was a choice between Bruno or Clara voice library (winner’s choice) as direct download.
The contest was spawned from negative messages from those who were disappointed with the art for the voices, as many were expecting a more "manga"-like style that is typically associated with Vocaloid such as Crypton.
The winners were announced on the 19th of December.Vocaloidism: Bruno and Clara fanart contest winners
===Job Plug-ins===
VoctroLabs have released various Plug-ins to help Bruno & Clara users, like Vocaloid users in general.
===Involvement in Plan B===
VoctroLabs collaborated in the 2nd edition of Plan Balletines (Plan B), a collaborative project sponsored by where the people can help to create the lyrics for a famous artist. In this edition participated the Spanish band, .Sony Music España - LA OREJA DE VAN GOGH PRESENTA PLAN B, UN PROYECTO REVOLUCIONARIO PARA LA CREACIÓN DE MÚSICA A TRAVÉS DE INTERNET
VoctroLabs provided the tools that allowed to the participants listen their written lyrics sung by a virtual female voice through the official website using NetVocaloid synthesis. It was revealed this voice was a new Vocaloid that was being developed by the company.Bruno & Clara's Facebook: Official Announcement Eventually the company announced they're planning on releasing this voice to the public, however they don't have a date for this yet.link
The contest ended the December 29, 2012 with the song chosen as winner among the 15,000 entries.Sony Music España - "Otra Vez Me Has Sacado A Bailar", La Canción De La Oreja De Van Gogh Y El Plan B The song was available for purchase and download at January 22, 2013 and the band officially debut it in the .
===La Mercè Concert===
Voctro Labs, in collaboration with The Lab Barcelona and La Merced (ICUB),VocaloidOtaku - Bilingual VOCALOID By VoctroLabs: ONA was behind the virtual concert display during at on September 20, 2013.link
This concert was the debut of ONA, the alternate avatar created for promote the new voicebank developed for Plan B among the western public, less familiarized with the VOCALOID phenomena. The novelty behind the concert was the interaction with the public as the people could either control the movement of the virtual singers and propose the lyrics sang in the concert via Twitter.Voctro's channel - Concert Cantants Virtuals Ona, Bruno i Clara a la Mercè 2013link
===MAIKA Original Song Contest===
To help promote MAIKA, Voctro Labs organized and set up an original song contest for her on 25th, February 2014.
==Trivia==
* The company's location is where the Vocaloid was developed between the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and Yamaha Corporations in Japan. Vocaloid
==References==
==External links ==
*Official Website (English) (Spanish)
*Vocaloid Site (English) (Spanish)
*Youtube Channel
*Company's Facebook
*Bruno & Clara's Official Facebook
*Bruno & Clara's Official Twitter
==Navigation==
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Category:Voctro Labs, S.L.