Forgotten Friday #23 - Hikaru Hoshi / 星ヒカル
Today is another case of "I should know you, I feel like I know you... Why don't I know you?" I recognize the icon on the YouTube channel, and I vaguely recognize the name Ulquorraet10, but I don't even know the name she went by and I never used her UTAU. (As we'll see below, I was somehow wrong.)
The design has also changed throughout the years, though the most recent design was not included in any of the banks. In a quest to find more information, I found that the readme of Act 5 was left blank. The only information on her I've really found is that she's colorblind, sixteen, and loves being the center of attention.
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| Official Icon Packaged with Bank |
This article will be strangely formatted because otherwise the flow of information would be wonky.
Hikaru Hoshi has five acts, however, finding them all is a little difficult. To begin, Ulquorraet10 has always stated that though Hikaru had (n) banks, only (n - 1) were available to download. In addition to the first act being unavailable, the second act was removed from the internet after Megaupload was shut down by the Government. That means that there are only three acts available for download. The process of finding the acts was a mess, so I will do an illegal and post at least one download link directly. I do my best to not do this, but giving instructions on how to browse page history on the UTAU fandom site is a lot more finicky than just giving the upload link.
Act 5 is the most recent and the easiest to find. To download Act 5, simple go to Hikaru Hoshi's UTAU Wiki page and scroll to the bottom.
Act 4 was a little difficult to find. What I did was to go through the revision history of Hoshi's page until I found the link to Act 4, which is here.
Finally, the last remaining act is Act 3. This one was a bit easier to find, as all I had to do was search YouTube for "Hikaru Hoshi Download". Here is the release video, and here's a fun little thing I found that proves that I actually did know Ulquorraet10 to some degree:
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| I am the UTAU fandom equivalent to glitter. |
How are the banks?
We'll go in the opposite order of the above section so that you can see the growth of the UTAU.
Act 3 has one thing about it that feels so strange. All of the samples are capitalized. Not all caps, just Saved Like This. This doesn't affect synthesis, but it's still a little strange! Act 3's OTOs are wonky in that the red line and the green line just stay at zero. Everything looks right except for their placement, so that's even wonkier.
Aside from the OTOs, this is a really good 2009 overseas bank. Of course I'd say that though. She did what I told her to do apparently!
Act 4 is another one pitch CV bank. It is a bit clearer than Act 3, but in a trade off, has more issues with things like popping. I don't have much to say about it as it is very similar to Act 3, though my love for soft voices makes me prefer Act 3 just a bit.
Finally, there is the Act 5. This is the first one where the red and green lines were moved around in the OTO! They weren't done one hundred percent correctly, but they were used at least!
This bank is very different in the volume on the samples. The waveforms of the other banks were pretty normal. Not clipping, but still loud. These waveforms are tiny, short, and whispery. Since UTAU is good at normalizing things, you can't tell too much of a difference between the loud samples and the soft samples for the most part. However, if you listen very closely, you can hear the static from UTAU normalizing everything. This is most noticeable in the "no" sample.
If it weren't for the static, this would be my favorite Hikaru bank. However, it is possible to deal with the static with equalization.
In Conclusion,
Hikaru Hoshi is a great overseas UTAU from a decade ago. Her most recent released bank was still recorded in 2010. However, back in 2011, a solid append was teased. I really like that demo. After than and a few more videos, Ulquorraet10 went missing from the UTAU fandom.
I did leave a comment on that solid append demo, and there's no telling if she still uses the email associated with that account.
We'll see.
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