Forgotten Friday #17 - 御楽 奈々子 / Ongaku Nanashi
At what point does an UTAU stop being an UTAU? Does an UTAU need a name, a design, and a bank to be considered an UTAU, or does it only need a bank? You can tell that this UTAU has at least a name and a bank. However, that name was only meant to be temporary. Taking that into account, this UTAU has no official name or design. Of course, there's one video, and it has a design.
But that design is never referenced or mentioned again. Despite having that video displayed on the UTAU Visual Archive, it lists this UTAU as having no image.
Who is Nanashi Ongaku?
No one knows! The only definitive information I could find on who made Nanashi is that the voice provider . . . went by the name Nanashi.
As I said above, there's no official name or design, only the banks and the placeholder name. It makes you wonder exactly if you should be using these banks. However, this UTAU was updated in 2013. The last time this UTAU was updated, it had been using a placeholder name for nearly half a decade. I feel like that's some kind of permission that it is okay to use this UTAU.
How are the banks?
There are three banks available for download. However, the bank with "NG" in the name isn't a full bank and can be ignored. (I've always assumed "NG" meant "no good".)
The first bank is the CV bank. It is has two pitches and is recorded really well. The samples are clear and well pronounced. I really, really enjoy this bank.
The second bank is a two pitch VCV bank. You know I'm crazy about VCV! However, I am extremely conflicted. The CV bank and the VCV bank are both have their pros and cons, and I can't decide if I'd rather use the CV or the VCV!
How can I download the banks?
With Geocities being pulled from the internet for good soon, I did my part and saved the distribution page to the Wayback Machne!
To access the download page, go to this page. All of the download links are there! I know it's bad form to share the distribution page itself and not the landing page, but with Geocities closing down, it makes more sense to make someone only visit one page using the WayBack machine than two.
The banks themselves are safe because they are stored on the Microsoft cloud with OneDrive.
I'm not sure how much utility a bank with no design has, but these banks are really good. I would love to chat with Nanashi to see her thoughts on someone making a new design, but I have no idea how to contact her. Maybe someday she will make a new page for her UTAU on a site that isn't shutting down and we will see new updates 😃
Not sure if you'll see this, but since Yahoo Japan shut down it seems that the download link is unavailable. Is there another way you could share the voicebanks?
ReplyDeleteGreat news :D ! The page was backed up by the Way Back Machine before Geocities was closed. The links to the bank still work, but you will need to copy the addresses of the banks and remove the "way back machine" part of the URL so that they'll open the actual download link and not an archive.
Delete