Wiki Wednesday #7 - Ami Yami and Fokkusu Keki
This is one of those cases of fudging the numbers because I have a story to tell.
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| Not included: The release video with around 400 views because it used the katakana name |
This article was originally just going to be about Ami Yami, who barely squeaks in with her release video at almost 300 views. However, I like to write about all of a user's UTAUs at the same time so that there's no backtracking. Besides, I did say that duets get counted differently. A jump from 900 to 90 views shows that it was a fluke as far as Fokkusu Keki's name recognition goes.
Art used to be enough.
In the early days of UTAU, if an overseas user had good art, that user had a famous UTAU. It was really as simple as that. The voice didn't matter nearly as much as the design and cover art. For people like me who completely blow at art, it was stressful as heck. No matter what I did, I was still fighting against a current unless I bummed art off people.
However, that all changed with Stella.
Most people hear Stella and think of that weird VOCALOID hoax, but that was after my time. When I hear Stella, I think about poor Hoshine Stella. Her voice provider, Felicia Val, was not bad at art. She may have not been the best, but she had another thing going for her. She was a sweet Spaniard who got along really well with Yesi, meaning she was cool with some of the kindest and sweetest UTAU users to ever exist. Stella's most viewed video was a video posted by Utaune Nami's voice provider. (That woman is a beautiful saint, but she started getting flack too after releasing a VCV that was seen as inferior to her CV.)
Despite having some of the best anime-style artists in the overseas fandom on her side and helping her out with art, Stella was despised for not having a "good enough" bank. For the first time, the fandom was overwhelmingly screaming that great art alone didn't matter. There were mainly two camps. The "UTAUs only matter with great art and a great bank" camp and the "Art shouldn't mean jack" camp. (Don't forget that there were still sweethearts who didn't care at all!)
The harassment for being the first UTAU to overwhelmingly get this treatment has caused Felicia to take down all of her videos and deactivate her deviantArt account. An important note is that there was nothing wrong with her banks. She just sounded like a standard 2010 UTAU. She sounded perfectly average for that era - all of the hate for her banks came mostly from her getting popular. (Seriously listen to how cute she is.)
Why bring this up? These banks have really good concept art and art still virtually unknown. Being part of the Brazilian fanbase helps lower the chances of the voicebanks getting super popular, but part of me is stuck in 2010. I see good art and think "Wow! These will be stars!" nope.
Who is Ami Yami?
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| Official Art by Kiita-kun packaged with bank |
I love this design. It's silly and cute and adorable!
Released in 2018, she is a really new UTAU all the way from Brazil. Her bank has a feature that I don't know if I've ever actually seen before, and I don't know what words to use to describe it.
There's not too much more to say about her character, other than the fact that she obviously loves candy.
How is her bank?
I love it. It is a romaji encoded one pitch CV bank, but it sounds a lot like the popular yell-y banks that are so in vogue right now. While I prefer soft banks, when a yell-y bank is done right, I am for it. I was actually afraid there would be a lot of "forced Kawaii" given her design, but nope!
She also has one of the best OTOs I've seen in writing for this blog.
How can I download Ami Yami?
The download link for her CV bank is on her UTAU Wiki page. If her super cute design sold you, the quality of the CV bank won't sour you!
Who is Fokkusu Keki?
My dyslexia kills me with that name. Something about it makes it so hard for me to not accidentally add an extra "k". (Which, given where I am is a really bad thing to accidentally leave in.)
Usually I put the image at the top of the section, but I just have to say that with that name, I expected this design to be a young boy. Luckily for me, she's a girl!
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| Official Art Packaged with Bank by Kiita-kun |
Keki was created all the way back in 2015. There were originally plans for her to have a voicebank created for her brother, but it seems as though that fell through.
And I really love the art.
How is the bank?
Let me start by saying I had the weirdest OTO error. The red line was far ahead of the blue line, the green line was far behind the pink line, and the final blue line was several mora past the intended mora.
I'm not putting a ding on the bank for that as I've made weird errors over the years. I had just never seen UTAU do that.
As far as the voice, I love it.
It is only a one pitch VCV, but the voice is the kind of voice that makes me just feel happy. The accent is obvious, but it's also adorable. It's one of those cases of not being able to tell if it's slight "forced kawaii" or if that's just how the voice provider sounds naturally. I love manageable amounts of "forced Kawaii", so it doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
The only major ding this bank has for me is the fact that it is just a one pitch VCV. Of course, I will loudly shout that sometimes one pitch is better than five pitches. But with the microphone quality and how good this girl's voice sounds? I'd love more banks for Keki. However, I would love to workshop a possible new name with Kiita-kun. Like I said, I struggle with writing Fokkusu so much.
An important note is that this bank is only accessible through an "exe" file. I was a little freaked out at the idea of using a random "exe" file from the internet, but it worked out fine!
How can I download Keki Fokkusu?
The only download link that I know to work is on Keki's release video.
Ami Yami and Fokkusu Keki aren't six pitch VCV kire banks, but they are really nice for a one pitch CV and a one pitch VCV. I would love to see these two get more love in the future 😃
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