Wiki Wednesday #46 - 薄歌 / Showoh Ryuka's Hakka

Fancy pants kanji time! 薄 means "dilute" and its level on Wanikani is 40. That's a really high level kanji. There are two kinds of UTAU names when it comes to kanji. You either pick the most accessible or go all out with obscurity. Anyone knows that 重 means heavy. It's level nine! But who knows what this UTAU's name means?! Well, anyone who reads a Japanese newspaper.

Wiki Wednesday #46 - 薄歌 / Showoh Ryuka's Hakka

Please do not make your UTAU voicebanks explode into my folder!! Please include everything nicely put into its own folder and then zip it! I just had a spill and when I tried to press undo to undo, it just moved the ZIP file back to my downloads folder! It's a real mess, I tell you what. I was able to delete everything and then unzip it to its own folder. It's really just the difference of moving your mouse slightly lower to extract to its own folder. No real extra work. But you don't expect you'll need to, and them bam. Flooded folder. 

Anyway, I got distracted for a few hours and lost my train of thought.

Who is Hakka?

Official Art Packaged with Bank

I actually don't think this gal has an UTAU Wiki page. She loves mint chocolate and herbal tea, if Google Translate isn't just messing with me. She's in her twenties.

I kind of don't know much else to say other than I am in love with her design. In 2013, I was a basic white girl who died the tips of my hair electric blue, which faded to the color of her tips with time. I would like it better if there was a little less yellow tint and it was a little more blue, but that's a nitpick. 

The outfit itself is just so classic. Neat, clean, and professional while still being wistful. That's a lot to pin on a skirt and a collared shirt, but I'm vamping.

Her voice provider has another UTAU, who I won't really mention much of here because that UTAU gets an article later. However, that UTAU has the Misa from Death Note look that you'd think I'd be all over as a former 2008 emo kid. But naw, I like this one way better. I used to be Enoby Darkness Dementia Way, but I've changed.

How is her bank?

Hakka has one bank. It is a two pitch CVVC. Now, you know me. When it comes to English, I will do everything in my power to make the CVVC spotless and perfect. Japanese, however? Haha! Nope. I'm either CV or VCV. CVVC doesn't allow you to just make one UST that works perfectly for every bank. Can you reuse USTs? Yeah, of course. But to make it perfect, you'll need to adjust the lengths of each VC to correspond with the following CV.

Also, the bank went wonky on me when I tested with my one CVVC testing UST. の would randomly just not play, for example. Her OTOs are just pretty wonky in general.

I really don't know what I think of her voice. It kind of is this weird area where it feels voice acted. Maybe that's just the voice provider's voice. I think perhaps the issue may just be in the high pitch. I did something unusual and rendered off two clips - one with the normal prefix map and one with it edited to only be the low pitch. I prefer the second version as I'm not the biggest fan of falsetto. 

It still isn't my favorite type of voice, but it's still a good bank.

Where can I download Hakka?

You can download Hakka from her website. I expected the voice to be different when I saw the design. But when I heard the voice provider's other UTAU, I understood pretty well what was up. This is likely a voice acted UTAU with their other being their normal voice. Or the other is a voice acted voice and this is that voice acted voice being used as a base to voice act this voice. Either way, it isn't my favorite, but it's still a good bank that does grow on you with each listen.