Forgotten Friday #53 - 仲田ルボ / Nakata Rubo

Ya know what's a really weird thing to be broken? The search bar in Windows Explorer. I tried searching for these banks and it just said they didn't exist. Instead, I just picked a file I knew I had previously downloaded before these banks and pressed "r" to jump to them after cycling through every other file starting with "r". If these names weren't romaji, that wouldn't have worked nearly as well. 

Forgotten Friday #53 - 仲田ルボ / Nakata Rubo

So, Rubo's gender is glasses. Generally, I take effort to make sure that I don't misgender non-binary UTAUs, but really? Glasses? I'm just going to use she / her. Her genderbend uses "g+15", which means that her genderbend is more masculine than her. I did something rare and actually rendered off a sample before I even got to the "Who is this UTAU?" section to confirm, yeah, this is a feminine voice. 

Thank the good lord for the UTAU Visual Archive. Even if I was able to download the bank with a link to the distribution site, the distribution site is long gone and replaced with something really, really concerning and spammy. I did find an email, though, and I compulsively asked if the voice provider would record my English list. I do have a problem. 

Who is Rubo Nakata?

official icon packaged with bank

Wiki Wednesday #42 - 梨音ナツカ / Nashine Natsuka

All I want to do is download more UTAUs! But, I can't download more until I use the ones I already have. So, okay, I'll write more Wiki Wednesday! Well. No. I had written so many Wiki Wednesday articles between writing Forgotten Friday articles, I had to select the label to even see the articles on the first page of my blog queue. But, I got caught up. And now I can finally write another Wiki Wednesday! Hurrah! It's like it is a Christmas Present!

Wiki Wednesday #42 - 梨音ナツカ / Nashine Natsuka

First, wow! This article was released on Christmas! It's so crazy to me when articles fall on significant dates. Sadly, this article has nothing to do with Christmas and isn't very special when compared to my other articles. I'd say it will be pleasant and average.

Well, except for one thing. This is my first Wiki Wednesday hosting samples on Google Drive! That means that I don't have to worry so much about running out of time. This UTAU has four banks, and I can upload samples from all four banks if I want to!

Another something special is just that every time I see this UTAU, I think, "This has to be a lie. This cannot be correct. How does this UTAU not show up on YouTube with thousands of views?" The only time she shows up at all is if you search her romanized name, and even then it's just a video with under 200 views. This UTAU feels like she should be super popular! Regardless, I just sent a tweet to her voice provider asking if they want to record English for Natsuka. Well, I'm tired and I'm not exactly sure what I wrote. But I tried!

Who is Natsuka Nashine?

Official Icon Packaged with Bank

Forgotten Friday #52 - 鳩音キユ / Hatone Kiyu

Is this problematic? Usually, if you have to ask, it is. The name of the bank makes me think this will be an issue, but at the same time, they listed her age as 2010 years old. At release, that would mean she was either two millennia old or two months old. After searching through her bank, yeah, this is problematic. It's not the problematic you expected, but it's still there.

Forgotten Friday #52 - 鳩音キユ / Hatone Kiyu

So, well, this is a joke UTAU. I tried watching the release video to figure out what was going on, but as you may have read in my "hiatus over" post, I kind of lost the ability to can Japanese. What I have found is that the voice provider is someone named Himeno. It's completely impossible to google such a common collection of kana, so I have no idea who that is. She was credited as "姫乃" in the readme, and I went down a rabbit hole. Himeno is also the voice provider for 白滝イト as far as I can tell. Well, Ito was a special UTAU to be used by a small group of producers. I've tweeted about her twice, so we'll see if anyone knows anything.

I wasted a few hours tracking down leads all because of this UTAU, so you know she's getting an article even if she's just a joke. If the leads end up leading to a nice place, you'll be getting an article on a better, not joke version of this UTAU. 

Who is Kiyu Hatone?

Art from release video

Wiki Wednesday #41 - skuidd's wallows

I utterly and completely dislike Arpabet, but I understand completely why it is how it is. I'm not mad about the intuitive design that allows people who don't understand phonemes to see how it works in a sense. The reason I really dislike it is my dyslexia, and that's a me problem. But it's a good system that I dislike due to my own mental handicaps. I have other issues with Arpasing in general, but using it isn't complete torture like other systems. 

Wiki Wednesday #41 - skuidd's wallows

Why does this UTAU have no YouTube videos?! Why is skuidd's dA completely and utterly wiped?? When someone deletes their account, that's one thing. When they go through and delete every single thing on there? That's a different thing. The answer is that skuiid got a new dA account. She is insanely good at art, so I'm really glad she has an account with all of her awesome deviations on it. That doesn't explain, however, why she hasn't posted a single video of Wallows on her YouTube channel. I do get that her channel is mostly speedpaints, but she does have UTAU videos regardless of that!

Anyway, sometimes life doesn't give you answers.

Who is wallows?

Official Icon Packaged with Bank

Forgotten Friday #51 - ライト音トゥワイ / Tuwai Raitone

I actually was going to write about Onnanoko Hen, but I ran into an issue. I have two banks of hers, but I can only find the download link for one, and you have to go into the Wikia's history tab to find it. The voice provider switched dA profiles without saying what her new one was. She had powerwashed her YouTube profile, but uploaded a video six days ago? I left a comment there to just ask if I should delete the banks or not. I literally have no idea how I found the Act 2 at this point.

Forgotten Friday #51 - ライト音トゥワイ  / Tuwai Raitone

I did a no-no in researching for this article and rehosted a bank. The link was still up, but it went through forumotion and it didn't go through to MediaFire for some reason. So, in the interest of people being able to download the bank, I just made it slightly easier. I imagine Lenexia has no control over forumotion and would have taken the link down if she didn't want people to use it. Lenexia has powerwashed all of her accounts, but left the banks up for download. So, I have a feeling she won't hunt me down and yell at me for reuploading something because forumotion is wonky. 

And I know I figured it out previously, because I had the bank to rehost. It's been a few months and maybe something has changed, because I magically had an Onnanoko Hen bank that also just seems like it doesn't exist now. So, I'm just like, huh.

Who is Raitone Tuwai?

official art packaged with bank

Wiki Wednesday #40 - Mal-Cat's XYZNeko / XYZ猫

Another Mal-Cat article! I don't actually think about the schedule, I just remember and then say "oh yeah, that's something I should tackle next." I realized while writing this that I had been convinced Mal-cat's name was actually Mel-cat and I was confused how "mel" came from "malice". It doesn't. I had to edit all the previous articles because of that weird mistake.

Wiki Wednesday #40 - Mal-Cat's XYZNeko / XYZ猫

We're back with another Mal-Cat UTAU! This time, the UTAU's voice provider is Machine. I don't know who Machine is, as there is no link back. I assume it is ClearlyMachine on deviantArt, but I can't be fully sure. But, finally, this bank comes with an image to use, so that I don't have to use an image from anywhere other than the bank itself!

Who is XYZNeko?

Official Icon Packaged with Bank

Forgotten Friday #50 - 変わった音レック / Rekku Kawattane

It doesn't bother me, and I think it's really cute now, but it's not completely correct to format names in this way. Family names (and also given names, but they are separate and not dependent on each other) can either have kanji or kana. Kawatta comes from the verb "to be different", meaning it has all of the verb stem goodness. I'm not sure exactly what the voice provider would choose if told this, so I won't go on a search to find an alternate name for the funzies.

Forgotten Friday #50 - 変わった音レック / Rekku Kawattane

This is my first article back from my hiatus! But, I also have nearly a month's worth of Wiki Wednesdays scheduled out after this goes live, so it's almost like the hiatus never even happened.

In the spirit of nyoom-nyoom, I will only be focusing on the one bank that was easily accessible through the Wikia page. I'm really out of practice, so let's just jump in.

official icon packaged with bank

Wiki Wednesday #39 - TDRloid's Lovecraft

I cannot describe how deeply I loathe the phoneme system CZ set up for her CVVC / VCCV system. I was converting a UST to use as a tester for English banks and I just felt ill. "o" means "u:" ?? "V" is "u"?? "E" is "i:"?!!?! If you speak more than one language, you probably see the main issue with all of those examples. Vowels pretty consistently follow the same rules across most non-English languages. In Spanish (and almost all romance languages), Japanese Romaji... "i" means "bee". I can't name a language where the symbol "i" doesn't mean the vowel in "bee" (Except for occasionally in Chinese). Except maybe English, but ... I'm sorry. I respect CZ for what she has done, but seriously?!!?

Wiki Wednesday #39 - TDRloid's Lovecraft

This actually was a big question of is this UTAU really Wiki Wednesday material? TDRloid was pretty popular and well known back in the day. Well, I knew he was popular and I can remember his UTAU's design and how all the Southeast Asian girls looked upon him with dreamy eyes. But I can't even remember his UTAU's full name. Takayawa Yoshi? Yawane Yoshi? Yawatane Yoshi?

It took looking it up to remember it was Kazune Yoshi. Kazune Yoshi was a big deal, and his videos involving more popular UTAUs were pretty successful. But, TDRloid has moved on. (Okay, not really. He did update Yoshi after releasing Lovecraft, but his icon is Lovecraft.) I'm shocked he only has around 600 subscribers, because I'd swear he'd have more. 

Regardless, on to the article.

Who is Lovecraft?

Official icon packaged with bank,
which is also TDR's current icon on YT

RSL English Recording List Review

Want your UTAU recording list reviewed? Leave a comment or send me a message on dA or Twitter! (annamaeblythe)

RSL English Recording List Review

Here's a fun new thing I might do monthly if enough people write in with their lists! Recording list reviews. Except for the fact that I will be using UTAUs created by the people who made the recording list to demonstrate the recording lists, these articles will be completely divorced from the UTAUs themselves. No character images or bios, just technical details.

What is the RSL English Recording List?

So, I get manic and download things. That's just part of being me. I have no idea where this bank came from, but I vaguely remember seeing the name on an old Mediafire page.

There is absolutely no information that I can find on this UTAU or on this list. I can read the name of the person who made it in the Readme, but I have no idea who they are because I can't find information. Should I make this article? Probably not without permission... But I don't think I'll find the person to get permission, so this is what we got. I believe the UTAU's name is Lia Skye, but as I said, I don't have any proof for anything at all.

This list hasn't been used much. I believe that there is a sentiment that if you aren't following CZ or Hua, you're wrong. I stan my list hard, and it is tempting to just say "use my list plz". However, doing that makes me as bad as the people who talk down to people for trying their own path. I'd be talking down to myself with that kind of attitude!

Voicebank structure

When I see a single pitch separated into several folders, I hiss. CZ's method involves several folders, so I can't fault anyone for following her lead. That being said, this bank is divided into C, CV_E, CVC, and V. 

An important note is that the easiest way to describe this UTAU is 単独音, or "solo sound". Kidding, it's CV. But tandokuon describes it better, because there is both CV and VC within CVC. Each recording is a single, unstringed syllable. 

C is a bit strange. The vowels are presented in CV format, which means that you can only realistically get "- C" from them, and not "C -". This is made redundant by the CVC folder. Is this because of the "separate sections, separate folders" philosophy? Probably, but I never fully understood the appeal. It allows you to be in separate mindsets for "- C" and "CV", but you are able to replicate that in SetParam as long as you don't edit the OTO in UTAU. Once the base is done, I see no real use for this kind of structure. (I blame this on CZ, not on the person who made this list.)

CV_E is for consonants that cannot realistically have a "V C -" sample. This is the first thing that can pose an issue for someone obsessed with realism and clarity like myself. But I calmed my behind down the moment I realized that I'm totally fine with how Japanese CV banks work in UTAU. This section is lacking "V C" that a stringed list would give you. However, overlap will blend the preceding vowel and the consonant really well. 

CVC is, as the name would suggest, CVC samples (or CV and VC samples, depending on if you go by the recording name or the alias name.) There's a rather esoteric discussion to be had about the merits of stringed and unstringed, but the important thing is that it looks like, at first glance, all required samples exist. 

V is simply standalone recordings of each vowel. This is really useful and a nice addition to have.

What is missing?

I don't believe in triphones (or quadphones) in English banks. Why? Because I'm a control freak who wants to make sure that I have control of every single phoneme. So, my criteria for a full bank is simple:

• Does the bank have "- V", "V", "V -"? (RSL does.)
• Does the bank have "CV", "VC"? (RSL does.)
• Does the bank have "- C" and "C -"? (RSL does.)
• Does the bank have all common consonant clusters? (Sadly, not here.)

Having C - and - C means that I am able to smush together standalone consonants to make Lia sing something like "stoves".

audio

How is the phonetic system?

Let me start by saying that this isn't recorded with an American accent, so anyone who speaks with an American accent will be confused. I can't find any documentation with what is supposed to sound like what, so I'm just guessing. However, I know "er" universally means "@r as in bird". This bank has it sounding closer to "V". 

This isn't a fault of the list itself, and anyone who records it can record it in whatever accent they choose to. However, if you notice that it sounds off, it isn't the list's fault. It's my fault for not understanding British English.

The system is intuitive enough that I don't think I need to remake the OTO with my phonetic system. I'll be annoyed that the symbol for an aspirated "t" is used for "T" and that an umlaut vowel is used for "dZ", but I expected to be way more in the weeds with this than I am. "N" is missing from CVC, and I believe "ir" is pulling double time for "I@" and "e@".

vowel list

How is using the bank?

First, let me complain about a dumb nit-pick. I really dislike when there aren't spaces between the phonemes. For example, I want to input "l e", but to get the bank to recognize it, I have to write "le". That's the silliest little nitpick, and I could fix it in the OTO in no time.

The current OTOs are set so that all VC are actually "V C -". Depending on the exact usage, this may need to be fixed to add "V C". (Note, V C - includes the consonant inside of the pink with silence after it in white, whereas with V C, the consonant (or the space before it with plosives) itself is stretched out in the white.)

An issue with diphthongs is that you need to make sure that CV does not contain any of the second element, and I am needed to fix that a bit. That's why my list lacked them. But, for some accents they're a requirement. 

I feel like one way to improve this bank may be to have separate OTO entries for diphthong pairings that will be used in conjunction with VC and those that will be by themselves. See? I don't have to worry about this with my list!

But, it's actually fun to use a bank that uses this list. There's less worries about having VC transitions for everything, and I do like puzzles.

Who is this for?

... I don't know. CV English sounds pretty tempting. It's an interesting puzzle, but you'll get more bang for less work with a list like mine. 

I don't feel comfortable distributing someone else's list without permission, and I don't think I'll ever get permission from someone who seemingly doesn't exist. That means that for now, no one else can  really try this list out. But, if I could point you to a link, I'd say that it's a fun experiment to see how CV English fits into the larger picture of UTAU.