Wiki Wednesday #57 - 蓮音こん / Hasune Kon
Another Vegedol! Vegedol is an UTAU collective where UTAU is assigned a vegetable. I was proud of myself for this one. I had no idea what vegetable this chick represented. So I dragged her vegetable icon into the address bar. It said "renkon". So I did some searching, and this UTAU is based off of lotus roots! Not the lotus itself - just the root.
Anyway, I have a lot of samples to analyze, so let's nyoom.
Who is Kon Hasune?
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| Official Icon Packaged with Bank |
So, I'm really curious if Kon's biography has a typo. It says she likes "おひさまタルト". But Ohisama is either childish language for the sun or a TV show. But, I think Ohimisama tart is an actual dessert. But what does that have to do with vegetables?! She has no sense of direction and apparently says "Meltdoooown!" while eating tarts. Her head is as empty as a lotus root.
How are Hasune Kon's voice banks?
Like last time, I think I'll go in order. Only, this time, I'll start at the bottom of the list and go up. I believe they put the newest on top.
The first bank up is 蓮音こんCV-VC. It is a one pitch CV-VC which I will treat as a CV bank. Really weirdly, there are random VCV samples thrown in. I'll just turn off the "automatically make it VCV" button so I won't have weird overlap issues. Now, the banks span a really long time frame, and this was the first bank (if I am understanding correctly). The accent feels a bit forced, like it was someone with a deeper voice pushing themselves to have a cuter voice. Her voice provider has recorded another UTAU for Vegedol named 秋葵ネリ, and that one sounds more natural than this. Voice acting isn't bad! I love Macfu Fifi! But, I'm just pointing out something that may push people away, or draw in more people. (Some people really like voice acted banks!)
Next is 蓮音こん連続音つめあわせ. It is a combination of Shakkiri, Shinnari, HoroHoro, and Girl Power. Only Shakkiri is exclusive to this bank, with the others being available in their own download. The description for this very large package says that the banks aren't distributed separately, but they are!
Seeing as all of that is the case, I'll only demonstrate Shakkiri here. But, there's an issue. There's no OTO file. It's Moresampler to the rescue time! I won't really humor the idea of this bank being particularly worth it to gussy up. It's lite VCV, but it's missing the CV component. You can fix that by cutting CV from the VCV section, but when I tried to do that with Moresampler, it went really, really poorly. It's not a bad voice, but not great enough to put all that effort into.
After that, we have 蓮音こんキレ音源. This one should completely make up for Shakkiri being a little lacking, as Kire means stronk. The bank has four pitches: A4, E4, and D5. I really, really am concerned about that pitch distribution. The spacing is really good! It's just that it's all really high. Everyone know I prefer things in the third octave and balk at anything even looking at the fifth octave. But, this bank will prove once and for all whether the voice provider has mastery over this voice or not. The prefix map was the wrong prefix map - it only had down arrows when the bank itself has no down arrows. That was an easy fix, though.
Please do not do what Kon's voice provider did. My throat hurt for her listening to her D5 samples. Her voice breaks in a lot of samples. It doesn't ruin the D5 pitch, but seriously. Don't hurt yourself to the point your voice breaks for an entire VCV bank!!! It's not worth it!
Her A4 pitch has inconsistencies in the voice acting. One second it's Haruka Nana, and the next it's Kanipan. I dislike this pitch because I'm not the biggest fan of those voices. If you are, there's nothing really wrong with it.
But E4?! E4 is amazing and perfection. I even blocked out the first part of the sample to only be E4 because it makes me happy.
Next is (ほろほろ). It is a one pitch where all of the samples end with G4, but the OTO is correct and has no suffixes? An OTO is included... With different suffixes.
Now, I know right away I'm going to love the heck out of this bank. So much so, I'm grabbing one of my Koe tester USTs.
For all my side eyes at voice acting, when a bank is voice acted like this, I am absolutely in love. I love this bank a lot. It's pretty and soft and adorable!!
Next is (女子力【物理】) . I swear, I thought that it would translate as girl power. I mean, I was joking when I called it that earlier, but I didn't expect the actual definition: "woman's level of motivation in fashion". Blech. I have no girl power in Japan, I guess. Then it says physics? Or law of nature? My favorite piece of clothing is an XXL men's hoodie. (My mom bought it for me. I don't need a man to get a men's hoodie!)
But I am so completely confused by the naming choice here. Butsuri is meant to be a low pitch, as it has down arrows in the aliases. That explains why so many of the banks had random prefix maps with only arrows. So, okay, it's a low pitch recorded at C4. In Horohoro, the pitch is lower (not C4 low, granted) but the voice acting still works because the voice acting is shifted to a softer and more gentle vibe. This is trying to voice act the high pitched voice at C4? I mean, I did that kind of stuff, but the last bank I recorded was at like D3.
I think I can put together the logic. The voice is lower and less childish and more womanly. So, it's named womanly fashion sense. But... it really isn't! It's the weirdest confluence of voice acting factors!
Now, on to (しんなり) . This is meant to be the fundamental VCV bank for Kon. It is lite VCV with a full CV bank. It was recorded at G4, like Horohoro. Horohoro means the gurgling of birds, and shin'nari means soft. This isn't soft! (comparatively to Horohoro)
But... She has mouth sounds. I'm not even kidding, you can hear lip smacking in this bank! Okay, maybe it's something else, but when I heard that I was like "Wait, really? This is really, really rare." I don't think there's much to be said about this bank, because it is the quintessential Hasune Kon. This is what she is meant to sound like.
Finally, we have her rentan: mustard lotus root. (please do not make fun of me that it took until now to realize that her name was Lotus sound Root)
It, again, is recorded at G4. The rentan was recorded in 2016 and uploaded in 2017. There isn't a great deal of time between this and the banks before it... but, well, I think I can hear the strain on the voice provider's throat. The voice acting pops in and out like crazy. It's just a CV bank, and there were weird choices... I don't know what makes it sound like a 2011 bank. I really don't know what's up. It's not a bad bank, especially if you seek out that 2011 sound. But, it really only seems to fit in with the banks that don't suit Kon at all. If this is the definitive version of Kon in the eyes of Vegedol, then I don't know what's up.
Where can I download Kon Hasune?
You can download her on the Vegedol download page. I love articles like this because I really get to look into the differences between banks. But boy howdy, do they take forever to write. I'm hoping that tomorrow, I can do even more. Maybe I'll be able to stick to my diet again if I have to digest fourteen banks in one day!
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