Forgotten Friday #19 - 蛙歌ナク / Kawazuga Naku
So, there isn't much information on Naku's voice provider. In an upcoming blog post, I will go into further detail about not having enough time. I am presented with a dilemma. Spend an hour tracking down every lead to see if his voice provider, listed as sanzan_yamato on the NicoPedia, still has an online presence . . . or, you know, not care and just write an article pretending that Naku was birthed out of the ether. I'll go with pretending the guy doesn't exist.
Another problem with Naku is that there are no surviving images of him. His Nicopedia entry says he has glasses and brown eyes. But, there's text art of a cute froggy on his Nicopedia page, so that's how I'll imagine him.
How does Naku sound?
Have you ever imagined what would happen if Kenta Chikune had a twin who was separated at birth and raised in Japan? You probably haven't, but that's basically what Naku is.
Naku's level of noise is to the point where it physically hurts my ears to listen to the raw samples, but UTAU is very kind and makes the noise a lot less noticeable. It is completely possible and easy to remove the noise using the subtract function of ReaFIR. Simply play the silence and it will build up a profile of the noise. Then, it will remove the noise. I would usually process the bank to show off how cool the concept is, but I don't have that kind of time anymore!
If you really like that robotic sound, this bank will be great for you!
How can I download Kawazuga Naku?
Well, this is one of those "but why?" situations. Naku is divided into three separate ZIP files. Together, the ZIP files are just over 30 MB. That compression rate is atrocious, though. The unzipped files are also just over 30 MB.
To download and use this bank, first download all three parts from the GetUploader. Once you have all three parts, put all of the files into one folder. You'll be ready to go!
No matter how advanced and realistic vocal synths become, there will always be a place for noisy and robotic voices. According to the statistics on the GetUploader page, only about fifty people have downloaded Naku. Downloading and using Naku will put you in a pretty exclusive club 😉
I can't figure out the password to download him, there aren't any links I can click on either, what's the password for his files?
ReplyDeleteI'm AFK so I can't check rn, but I think it's ナク.
DeleteI may be wrong, though.
same anon, i tried to download him by copypasting that password, it didn't work either
DeleteI've tried the full name in Japanese, the full name in romaji, kaeru, kaeru in hiragana and katakana, frog, UTAU, utau, naku... I tried everything I could think of.
DeleteI'm so sorry I didn't write it out - it's bad form to post passwords, but I had no idea that nicovideo would stop letting you read the descriptions of deleted videos (in this case, sm7565991). It's not on the wayback machine, but there may be other ways to access the description.
I sent out a tweet, but my tweets tend to not get much interaction. The only advice I can give is that if you find the description of the release video, you'll find the password. You may know someone who can help with that, but I'm just out of ideas.
Hi, I know this comment is nearly two years old, but I had figured out the passwords. Copy and paste them to their corresponding files if needed:
Delete(1) 古池や
(2) 蛙飛び込む
(3) 水の音
Hopefully this had helped, even if I was about two years late.
Normie Weeb, you are magical and this Fandom is so lucky to have you 😭 thank you so much for solving a mystery that I thought would never be solved!!
DeleteNo problem! I'm glad I was able to help ^^
DeleteAlso, if you're interested, there is one image of Kawazuga Naku that I had managed to find: https://imgur.com/BsA2oGW
I hope this helps as well :3