Forgotten Friday #80 - 弦音ジェン / Jen Genne

Hey there - I borked it. There are likely several articles that link to banks that are impossible to download because the password was in the description of a deleted Nicovideo. When I went through and downloaded each bank, I assumed the description would stay up forever. I mean, part of it is hardcoded into the thumbnails. I tried editing the code of the thumbnails to make it show up in full... But no such luck. Here's the thing about redistributing banks: only the person who made it can tell you you're a poop face and it hold weight. If you have any of those banks or know how to access the password, let me know! I avoided giving out passwords because that is literally why half of the most talented MMD artist straight up quit (users giving out passwords publicly). But... Ya know, if someone has been AFK for a decade, maybe, just maybe, giving out that specific password won't hurt in the future. 

Forgotten Friday #80 - 弦音ジェン / Jen Genne

In depth UTAU biographies! I love those things! Like, they tell you who the UTAU is and let you imagine stories in your head about what exactly the UTAU would do. I mean, you'll see what I end up doing when the only defining character description is "vegetables" in upcoming Wiki Wednesday articles. 

And let me tell y'all, this UTAU's whole thing could be classed as "cringe", but, her age is listed as 15, and I think that younger users will always make their UTAU around two years older than themselves. So, I kind of think that her voice provider or manager was pretty young at the time of making. I will not make fun of anything because, even if she was fifteen, being a minor and expressing yourself and having fun... Can't we have that again? The fandom is so cutthroat now. I just want to have fun reading biographies that had love and imagination put into them. 

Who is Genne Jen?

Official Icon Packaged with Bank

Jen's birthday is listed as February 2nd, 19xx. That's a fancy way of saying "some time between 1900 and 1999." However, her age is set at fifteen. I mean, it feels so crazy, but a fifteen year old at the time of writing was born in the 2000s. But I totally get it, because I still refuse to believe it's a day past 2013 a lot of the time! 

I love her backstory so much. So, Jen is an angel. However, Jen couldn't handle it. She is a fun loving, cheerful girl who wants nothing more than to be an international super star. She was meant to hide in the shadows and do good from the Celestial Realm. It broke her in half knowing her duty, until her parents told her that she can go to Earth and act as a human. The rules governing angels does not prohibit disguising themselves as humans. She simply cannot reveal her status as an angel. 

This is a big problem for fun loving Jen! She does her best, but she had a problem of accidentally answering questions suspiciously. Paraphrased, maybe poorly, when she is asked her age, she says "Well, I can't say... I mean, I'm actually fifteen. Yeah. Fifteen."

She pulls her hair back into an elaborate system of loops and rings, because in reality, it is longer than she is tall. 

When she enrolls herself in school, she sees what good she can do to fulfill her duties as an angel all around her. One day, her voice provider met her in a cafe and asked her to become an UTAU. I love that little detail of the user being a character inside the world! It makes it more personal. 

It's a super adorable backstory, and it has nods to her and the voice provider's Malaysian heritage. Her favorite food is a really yummy looking shaved ice dessert and her catchphrase is a Malaysian saying "Walao A". 

Also, her biography makes quite extensive use of tildes. (this thing: ~). Tildes have fallen out of use because many sites and services use them as part of their markup language. I think mostly, using them will strike-through your text if two are in the same message. The way around this is by using an escape character... but like, it's so much effort to do that, especially on mobile. I miss using tildes to express whimsy.

How are Jen Genne's banks?

I didn't download all three - the beta bank had beta in the title. I figured that it would be more fair to only review ones that were, in a sense, "approved" by being an "act" and not a "beta". 

She has some random samples, with some of them sounding like they're imitating a Chinese vowel, and some sounding like they're meant for English with a hard American "r"? I'm really not sure. 

However, she has the mufflebaby audio quality I absolutely adore. 

Let's start by popping open my UST folder and finding something that would sound nice for her. 

Act 1 is a hiragana encoded CV bank with some romaji samples I don't understand the usage of. The average pitch is F#4, but she pitches up extremely well with a logical range that goes to up to G5. 

Some of the consonants feel a little eaten, but I love this voicebank. 

The Act 2 bank has better quality, and none of the consonants that I had seen felt even remotely eaten. They were strong and understandable. I prefer the tone of Act 1, but I can also acknowledge that Act 2 is a more technically correct bank.

Where can I download Genne Jen?

You can download her from her UTAU Wikia page. I really like this UTAU. The design is just insanely adorable, and the voice matches it also. On top of that, I love the backstory. I'm glad I found this UTAU, and hopefully, it won't become inaccessible!