PowerFX Systems AB, commonly referred to simply as PowerFX, was a small recording company, based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company has been producing music samples, loops and sound effects since 1995. They also developed singing synthesizers using the

VOCALOID is a singing Speech synthesis, voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project between Yamaha Corporation and the Music Technology Group at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. The s ...

engine developed by

Yamaha Corporation is a Japanese multinational musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing company. The former motorcycle division was establishe ...

Products and services

VOCALOID

PowerFX was first introduced to the

software after the introduction of the first VOCALOIDs (LEON and LOLA) from the British studio Zero-G at the

NAMM Show The NAMM Show is an annual trade show in the United States organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), which describes it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...

on January 15, 2004, and were later recommended to Yamaha Corporation by

Crypton Future Media , or simply Crypton, is a Japanese 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, FX and background music, BGM libraries. The ...

. Their first product for the software was " Sweet ANN" a VOCALOID2 voicebank and was first introduced at the

Musikmesse Musikmesse Frankfurt was an international trade show and music festival for the music products industry that took place annually in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 1980 until 2019. At its peak, the fair was one of the largest international trade ...

fair and later released on June 29, 2007. The boxart of Sweet ANN is based on an edited picture of actress

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

from the theatrical poster of the 1943 film Stormy Weather. Their second VOCALOID2 " Big Al" was released with the voice provided by former employee Frank S. after the intended provider,

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

impersonator An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Living history: After close study of some historical figure, a performer may dress and speak "as" that ...

Michael King, was unable to return for further recordings after their initial samples were considered not at a high enough quality to be released. PowerFX began their distribution of voicebanks for the VOCALOID3 engine, with " OLIVER" as their first VOCALOID3, and the first male VOCALOID3. OLIVER was developed under Anders Sodergren, the leader of VocaTone, a team of fan-based VOCALOID producers. VocaTone then had PowerFX release their second VOCALOID3, "

YOHIOloid Yohioloid (stylized as YOHIOloid) is an English Vocaloid developed VocaTone and distributed by PowerFX who also has an additional Japanese voice bank. The vocalist sampled for his vocals was Swedish singer Yohio. He was released for Vocaloid ...

", a bilingual male vocal that is capable of singing in English and Japanese, sampled from Swedish singer

Yohio Kevin Johio Lucas Rehn Eires (born 12 July 1995), known professionally as Yohio (stylized as YOHIO), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. He is best known for his performances as Yohio, wearing a lolita dress in previous years, with an androgyn ...

. PowerFX released their own VOCALOIDs into Taiwan boasting new box art for the releases. PowerFX released an American-accented VOCALOID4 voicebank "RUBY" in 2015. RUBY was developed as a collaboration between PrinceSyo and Mishakeet, her voice actress, with a strong and bright voice in mind. After Bil Bryant left in 2017, PowerFX announced that they would no longer make VOCALOID products, despite Bil having said more were planned after RUBY. PowerFX's other music composers include: *''SoundShuttle'' *''Swiss Army Synth'' *''Miracle Drumlooper'' *''Dyad'' *''Humbox VM1''

Soundation Studio

PowerFX also offers Soundation Studio, an on-line free music making station complete with a number of samples and loops. Users can open their own account and buy additional samples for their account or upload their own samples into the software to work with. Those who sign up can have their own profile and save their work using ''AudioLocker''. Extracts of PowerFX's Sweet ANN and BIG AL were included in Soundation Studio in their Christmas loops and sound release with a competition included.

References

External links

* Vocaloid production companies Privately held companies of Sweden {{Sweden-company-stub