Forgotten Friday #194 - 兎音ロプ / Usane Ropu

 . I really hope the text to speech works today. (it didn't.)

Forgotten Friday #194 - 兎音ロプ / Usane Ropu

Ropu is a quiet, twelve year old rabbit themed girl. She loves cute things and carrots, but hates leeks and spicy things. It says her weaknesses are insects and ghosts. I'm not sure why it says 苦手 (literally not good at, but can mean not someone's cup of tea) for insects, but says 嫌いなもの (literally hated things) for leeks.

Her official art in her cream bank is a bit of a hoot!

Who is Ropu Usane?

Official art from Bank

In this chapter of A Spectrum of Apple Skins, we begin to meet a character of minimal importance via a flashback!

When Franz Feldman walked into his living room, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Sobs rang out and bounced against the walls. It took him a moment to find the source. His wife was sitting on the faux hardwood floor, shaking. He rushed to her side and dropped to his knees. As he ran his pale hand through her frizzy auburn hair, she shook the paper she grasped tightly. 

His heart fell to his stomach as he pulled her into an awkward, sideways embrace. He looked up at the walls. The dark resin paneling manipulated into an effigy of wood was dotted with photographs in maroon frames.

They were a nice family: him, his wife, and their daughter. While he was lanky and had a hard time staying in the frame, the two women were short and stout in a way that romantically hinted at the times of the pioneers.

"No…" The woman's voice was labored as she fought against choking on the phlegm cascading down her throat. She shook as she tried to explain herself before whimpering out, "Happy."

"Marissa?" Franz pulled away from her and gently put his hand under her chin. She leaned against it as she turned her head towards him. He softly asked, "Why are you so happy?"

Marissa sniffed her nose. She knew that her freckled face was soaked with saline and snot. She knew that it was contorted into some mask that betrayed grief. She tried to force a smile as she warbled, "I'm mad, but I'm happy."

"I'm so sorry…" Franz took a deep breath as he pulled her close again. "I never would have…"

"No," Marissa pulled away just enough to kiss his forehead. "You did good."

Franz slowly stood and reached out his hand to help her up. She smiled softly as she wiped her hand on her blouse and took his hand. He gently guided her upwards before leading her to the kitchen where she sat down at the island. 

"What are you feeling?" Franz asked in a sing-song tone as he opened the refrigerator. 

"Electrolyte drink," Marissa let out a labored attempt at a laugh. "I need what plants crave."

Franz laughed as he pulled an opaque white bottle out of the refrigerator. The door slowly closed itself as he made his way to the island, opening the bottle in the process.

He watched as Marissa took the bottle and started chugging.

Idiocracy was their movie in the most ironic sense. They found some sort of solace in just how wrong the premise was on a personal level. In the film, the uneducated breeded an uneducated populace while the elites simply ceased to be.

In their reality, it was somehow the opposite. Marissa was the end of a long line of distinguished scientists who were lauded as the greatest minds of their generation. She was a slightly dense, ditzy woman who couldn't balance a chemical equation. She was a beautiful artist who could make an angel sob with her voice, but that didn't matter on Mars.

Franz, on the other hand, came from a long line of… nothing. Even as a child, prattling about his school work to his family would make their eyes glaze over. His father was the worst about it. Every time Franz said something too erudite, his father would grab the axe and make him chop firewood. Somehow, even in the thirty-first century, Appalachia remained Appalachia.

Whereas Marissa reveled in her status to a small degree, Franz hid his past. No one on Mars knew his birth name… not even his own wife and child. 

"When manual labor jobs are required," Marissa took a deep breath as she sat down the empty bottle, "No one is above or below doing what society needs."

She's going to finish that thought next week! Tune in at the same bat time on the same bat channel to hear the rest of her speech!

How are Usane Ropu's banks?

Ropu has either four or five banks - I'll just count four as I downloaded only 2.5 instead of 2 and 2.5. 

We should probably start with 2.5, as it is the first in the list and is CV. The OTOs aren't very good, but I didn't realize until after I had rendered the wav. Whoops! 

The voice is a bit cloyingly sweet, but it isn't squeaky. It's okay!

Since it's CV, let's look at the old version next. I would have done it first, but for some reason I thought it was VCV. I am not the smartest right now. Oh wait, it IS VCV! Except it isn't. There is a VCV OTO with no VCV files. Except, there ARE VCV files. Because… you either need to edit the oto file, or yoink all of the VCV files from the VCV folder and put them into the main folder. 

And… the OTOs are not good. The voice is much, much nicer than the CV, though! It's very kind and sweet without sounding fake. 

Next is VCV version 1. OTOs, again. I can't even fully tell how bad they are, because the files are so quiet! In praat, I can tell. They're off enough to be off time. But, the voice is very nice and lovely!

Finally, there is cream, The one pitch vcv. They were all one pitch, I just forgot to say that. 

The archive was corrupted to heck and back according to 7zip. But, it appears to work fine! The otos here are the best, and this is my favorite because it is a whisper bank! Yay!

But, uh, strange consonants kind of break the flatten and multiply intensity copying script. 

Where can I download Ropu Usane?

It's a little difficult to navigate because it's one of those frame websites, but here is the link! This is a fun, retro utau that has really nice one pitch vcv banks! The youngest Bank is from 2012. I think a lot of people will really like her.