Wiki Wednesday #51 - 座頭イサ / Zatou Isa

Last week, I complained about how hard it was to navigate a website based on frames. This one is based on modern principals and it's somewhat worse. Actually, I was really, really lost and had no idea where I was or where I was going. I was really, really confused.

Wiki Wednesday #51 - 座頭イサ / Zatou Isa

This UTAU was originally going to be part of an investigation, but then I stopped doing those. The way I picked her was because her two website-mates sandwiched her in my spreadsheet. The first UTAU had the link to the website, and the third one had "END OF GROUP" next to it. So, I went straight for Isa in the middle.

Anyway, I'm going to have fun just trying to figure out what Isa is all about.

Who is Isa Zatou?

Official Icon Packaged with Bank

So, there were three options with romanizing her name. Zatoo, Zatou, and the o with the little hat. I couldn't type the o with a little hat easily, so that left it down to Zatoo and Zatou. I obviously when with "Zatou" because there's literally an "u" in the katakana reading, as opposed to a line.

Now, let me tell you about Genki textbooks. I've tried to sit down and go through one, but I just got distracted. And part of it was how the romanized long "o"s. 

I believed for a long time, that おう was pronounced as "o-u". Incorrect! It is pronounced as "o-o". So, writing it as "Zatoo" would be closer to the actual pronunciation. But here's the thing about that... "oo" will almost always default to some form of "u" for Americans. Genki would always romanize it as "oo". So, I know 学校 is gakkou. But seeing it as "gakkoo".. I know it's the same thing. It's the same exact thing. But it hits different. 

Anyway, Isa is a magical-not-human UTAU. You know how you know that? Her gender is たぶんメス. Which is basically "IDK? Probs female?" Only "mesu" doesn't mean a woman - it means a female animal! Okay, you can also tell she's not human when her ethnic group / species is a marine mammal living in the water. She doesn't seem to have many mermaid traits other than her hair being shaped like a tail, but her design is still really pretty.

On a whim, I looked up "座頭" on Jisho. Is means Blind Man? Huh. (座頭鯨 means humpback whale, so that's likely where it came from. But why is a humpback whale a blind man?!)

How are Zatou Isa's banks?

Isa has two banks. She has a CV bank and a VCV bank. Both are only one pitch. The OTOs are pretty good, and I'm going to do something out of character.

Generally, I pick apart the differences between CV and VCV and post separate samples. This time, I'll do something different. I'll post one sample with both. The first will be her CV and the second her VCV. The clip signals the end of the section, so I'll keep on talking a bit before I throw the sample down.

I really, really like this voice. The CV is clearer and more assertive, which I prefer sometimes. The VCV is breathier and... okay, I prefer voices like the VCV eighty-five percent of the time. But, I believe most people in the current state of the fandom would gravitate to the CV.

It is a little unfair to the UTAU that I'm not really in my normal, analytical state of mind. There are times where I can find meaning to every choice, but right now I'm just like "Yes, that is a voice. It is pleasing."

As a note, the VCV (second section) is using a UST I'm working on. It still needs enveloping and velocities edited, but before I do that, I also have to tune the last of the song. It took nearly two hours just to get like 20 seconds done. I was working hard on it, but I abandoned it when I realized that I really, really need to get my blog pushed out as far as possible in case my computer dies. 

Where can I download Isa Zatou?

Last week I said just giving people the download page was unethical, but this website is so hard to navigate. So here's Isa's download page! This wasn't up to my usual article writing abilities... Or maybe it was? I'm just worried about losing the ability to write the blog before I have squirreled away a year of articles.