Forgotten Friday #59 - 金平糖押し売りPのモル / Moll
So, all my fellow grains will appreciate when I say "But Moll, you're doing it wrong!" I can't be too bent out of shape when a bank from 2010 attempts English in a way that gives me almost everything I need. But I can be really concerned when separate phonemes are denoted with suffixes. Boy howdy, would setting up a prefix map be a bad idea.
And while I'm complaining, virtually none of the downloads were actually named. The names were "001, 002, 003..." And should I complain? I think that's a flaw of the uploader they used, and the images I upload to this blog have the same issue. When you open the archives, they do have named folders so that you aren't extremely lost... If you have any idea what's going on. I don't! I tried hitting up the website and just gave up when I saw that the recording equipment looked like it was from the 80s. No shade to the 80s! No shade for using things until they break! Moll's recording quality is good. But I was just like, "The thing that logically should tell me what bank does what has Pikachu in a medical mask."
Green Bug put a lot of effort into recording Moll, and I respect them so much for it. They did everything they could to get noise free recordings, including pausing every time a car passed. Living in the country with moo-cows (screw cows, by the way. I hate cows) means that I don't have to deal with cars as much, and I still can't be bothered to put in as much effort as Green Bug. Anyway...
Who is Moll?
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| Official Art Packaged with Bank |
So, instead of drawing this out with anecdotes about television shows, I'll just relay her character information quickly. If Jisho is correct, her gender is scrubbing brush. If Google translate is correct, she is either a chip of a deer's antlers, a coral, or a He-Man character. Her character item is a tool to cut door chains. Why? I don't care, because I could translate it to English! Everything else listed about her, you can see in her character image. (Except her weight and height, but when do those even matter?)
How are Moll's banks?
Let me start with AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
I found the folder structure (the uploader has a rather low maximum file size) on the website. I'll go in the order on the website because AAAAAAAAA
This is rather difficult compared to banks that weren't subjected to a rather low maximum file size. The first bank listed is Third Edition. It consists of files 001 - 004. The last ZIP file, 004, is for a pitch called "Cormorant". Why?! I don't know! It's the name of a family of birds. From far away, some of them look like perfect little skinny penguins. But close up, they look mean.
003 is "Scattered in drops" and is a very harsh growl noise. I have no use for that!
002 is the low pitch, but it lacks the English phonemes. Meaning, you can use both pitches for Japanese, but only one for English. Using her as a three pitch, with family of birds as the pitch between normal and low makes for a... I don't know if she was intended to be used this way.
Her English is a literal nightmare to use. It wouldn't be so bad if I could copy and paste directly from her promotional information... But I can't. It turns into question marks, because I don't know why! Generally, this wouldn't be so bad. I can handle switching between Japanese and English within the same note. Except.. The notes are named things like "ざ_∂∞". Even if I learned how to type those, it would be a mess. So, I mostly went into her OTOs and added the phonetics I used. But even then, hunting them down was awful. I'd happily add my phonetics to this bank, because I love the output, if it weren't for the fact that she has not VC. Only CV and isolated consonants. So, I'd be eliminating one issue, just to adopt another. I would still need to edit the heck out of my USTs for a worse result. On a different day, I likely would go full force making her sing English. But today is today, and this was all I could stomach:
The next section was "these were supposed to be dead". (I don't know if Google Translate is really correct, but I've already translated the page.)
This covers 005 - 007 with 006 split into two parts. I believe these are not meant to be used as a "multi-expression" bank. Two of the banks have the English capabilities, and one is just a standard CV bank with VCV "r"s for some reason?
I'll start by rendering off English examples of two of the banks: weak and falsetto. For some reason, isolated consonants are missing from weak! That's not an issue, but dang it. I thought the UST would work without modifications. Falsetto has them, but has missing OTOs in some places. This is a mess aaaaa.
The last bank in this section (well, I believe it is the first on the website, but it didn't have English) is "dry". The OTOs are okay enough, and it was recorded as a low pitch. It doesn't fit in with the other banks very well, but if you like deep, mature voices, this bank is pretty awesome. The recording quality sounds pretty dang good, and the recordings sound pretty consistent. Also, I didn't have to edit a UST to use it!
Moll did receive a VCV in her "New Edition Sound Source", but every bank from that section has 404'd. Meaning, I have no way of getting to them.
She has one more section on her distribution page: Moll配布. In the Google translate version, it is called old version sound source. Does it have English samples? Yes.
Her Japanese usage with this bank is a slightly better version of Dry, and she already has way more samples than most Forgotten Friday UTAUs get, so that's that.
Where can I download Moll?
Here is Moll's distribution page. Everyone is free to use UTAU however they want. If that means adding English functionality using a system that takes half a minute to type each note name (exaggeration, but that's what it felt like!) please don't. First, (as someone who did not create your UTAU) you have to learn the system that the UTAU uses. Then, you have to find what exists and what doesn't. Then, you have to type all of the notes in. Unless, of course, you edit the OTO to use your favorite phonetic system. But, then you run into the issue of things straight up being missing. So, if someone wants to make your UTAU sing, they need to edit every UST by hand, because your system isn't used by anyone else.
As I said before, it is your UTAU and you should do what makes you happy. If doing what Moll did makes you happy, then do it! You aren't hurting anyone, and it brings you joy. But it is so hard to use this system. But, the honest truth is that we are at a point in the fandom where there's a good chance that someone like me will be the only other person to use your UTAU. I don't want that to be the case, but making an UTAU with the intention of someone else using it isn't the best plan. If you're willing to edit all of the USTs by hand with your UTAU's esoteric list, then that's awesome and the best plan!
But, if you want to have a guarantee that at least one person uses your English bank, check out my English list here.
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