Studio Nekoyanagi's Kagamiusagi / かがみうさぎ - Found!

Who is that cute bunny UTAU? Where can I download Kagami Usagi? What is Studio Nekoyanagi?

Studio Nekoyanagi's Kagamiusagi / かがみうさぎ - Found!

Thank goodness for the WayBack Machine. Without it, this UTAU would be lost forever! The design feels insanely familiar, but I could never remember hearing the name Kagamiusagi. 

Official Art Packaged with Bank

There is no information on what the voice is or how it was created. The only lead is that it was made by Studio Nekoyanagi. Studio Nekoyanagi is a company that mostly exists to create media for people as far as I can tell. However, when they had their foray into UTAU, they used Kagamiusagi as the singer on albums they sold online.

The album preview is really, really cute.

The voice honestly sounds computer generated. However, I'm stumped on how they would make it. The things that make me think it's probably computer generated is how awkward the vowels sound. Looking really closely at the pitch line and waveform doesn't exactly confirm it. There is some obvious crossfade in some samples, but that could be a human who recorded short samples, then looped the vowels.

Regardless of all of that, this UTAU can sound amazing in the right hands. (Unless there's a new bank I have no idea about, of course.)

Let's talk about ん

Sometimes when people seemingly have no idea what they are doing, they end up doing something so smart, a learned person would wish they thought of it first. There are two versions of every required kana. The first is normal with a (very likely) looped vowel. That first set of samples is around four seconds long on average. The second set's samples are much shorter. Windows File Explorer reports their length as zero seconds, and half of that is taken up by an ん. 

UTAU with VC support is on the horizon, but this bank was recorded in June of 2009. I have no idea what they were thinking at that point. However, what they were thinking doesn't matter. What does matter is that by putting ん into the suffix broker will result in a bank with shorter, clearer samples if you cover the "n" sound with the blue part at the end in the OTOs.

For example, here is Kagamiusagi singing a UST with only the regular CV files:

Because the samples are so long, it has an effect I used to call "cheese cloth". For some reason, when you give UTAU samples that are of a certain length, it starts to sound weirdly hollow like it has been pulled through a cheese cloth. . . or was it that the voice had holes like it was cheese cloth? I forget the reason for the mental image, but it still stuck! Because of the weird looping of the vowels, it also adds a tad bit of vibrato where there isn't any in the UST. Contrast that with a sample rendered with the samples ending in ん (with the ん covered by the blank, of course). Long notes remained the "normal" samples.
Big difference, huh! Technically, you can do this with almost any bank by simply adding aliases and pulling the blue blank really close to the consonant . . . but I was really excited when I figured out this little feature!

About OTOs . . .

This bank comes with a blank OTO. Ouch. A kind soul on NicoVideo released an OTO file for Kagamiusagi. However, it doesn't take advantage of the cool trick with the ん samples and it made me sigh when I saw it. However, it is better than a blank OTO! 

How can I download KagamiUsagi?!

First off, you need to use the WayBack Machine. This UTAU voicebank is actually stored on the WayBack Machine! If that's not cool, I don't know what is!

To use the WayBack Machine, go to this address and paste the address you want to go to next to the pretty text art that says "WayBackMachine". There are two addresses that will work.

• http://studionekoyanagi.jp/kagami/
• http://studionekoyanagi.jp/ダウンロード

Once you pick a date, you will be taken to the page you pasted in. All you need to do is click the the big link. Once you do that you should have your very own copy of KagamiUsagi! I hope that someone finds this useful and plays around with this cute little rabbit ☺️

Kiru, Zena, and Lorelei - Rukia's UTAUs - Found!

Where can I download Hakune Kiru? Who is Raon Zena? Who is Lorelei? 

Kiru, Zena, and Lorelei - Rukia's UTAUs - Found!

Merry Christmas!

Let me start by saying that Rukia has explicitly stated that redistribution of her UTAUs is prohibited. That means that even if I have them all, I'm not allowed to upload them to share them. If you love these UTAUs, save them in a special place so that if 4Shared dies off, you still have them. (If you secretly send someone a RAR in an email, no one will ever know.)

Rukia was a Korean UTAU user who spoke English well enough to interact with the Western fandom a bit. Or, at least to the degree that I OTO'd some of her banks! I loved her voice, but I loved Lorelei the most. I loved her to the point of making her duet with my number one favorite overseas UTAU in an original song!

The one with the rose on her eye is Lorelei - it's a bit exaggerated with official art just having the rose inside the iris of the eye.

One important distinction to make is that Rukia's UTAUs have never been dead. They've continuously had their 4shared links up and valid since the upload of the banks. However, their distribution page is in Korean. I had to use Google Translate to figure out how to get to the right page! The fact that these banks are hard to find for Westerners is why I'm writing about them here.

But, I finally found the page. Scroll down to the bottom for the link if you're not here for details.

Who is Hakune Kiru?

Hakune Kiru is Rukia's flagship UTAU. His design is adorable!

Art by Rukia

Kiru has CV, VCV, and a Korean bank. Sadly, I don't know how to do Korean USTs and all of the links to samples on Rukia's blog return something other than actual samples. 

Thankfully, I do know how to make a sample using a Japanese UTAU!

Rukia usually used the bank in the third octave to give the voice more of a huskier sound. However, it is up to you to decide which octave you want Kiru to sing in.

Who is Raon Zena?

Raon Zena looks really cool, also.

Art by Rukia

Ok, that's not a very great description. However, you can tell she is meant to have some similarities with Kiru. But that's not the thing that's great about her. Listen to this sample that Rukia created:

I always say I should be more professional when I do this, but AAA I LOVE IT!!

She has a clear and powerful voice with a slight accent to make her unique. She also has a Korean bank, just like Kiru. It isn't listed (as far as I know) that her most recent bank has VCV . . . but she does! Apart from being only one pitch, I don't see anything bad to say about Zena's bank.

Who is Lorelei? 

Lorelei basically has no resemblance to the other UTAUs.

Art by Noel

But I love her. I love her with a passion. She has a sweet voice while still packing a bit of a punch, as you may have heard in the original song I posted above. However, without me knowing it, Rukia went and created the Rosemary append.

If I had known about the Rosemary append, I would have never searched for WHITE and started this blog. The Rosemary append is soft and sweet without the punch Lorelei previously packed.

Where can I download them?!

The distribution page is on Rukia's blog. If you want to go straight to the download links, search (CTRL + F on windows) for "4shared". Rukia uploaded each bank twice. Some of the backup links are dead, but all of the 4Shared links work. Alternatively, once you are on her 4Shared page, you can access all of the banks from there.

I hope I've helped someone find a bank that they love! I always welcome comments with the awesome stuff you've made. 😃

Vy Onnarashikoe / VY ReDUX - Found!

Who is Vy Onnarashikoe? Where can I download VY ReDUX? Is Vy a girl or boy?

Vy Onnarashikoe / VY ReDUX - Found!

I tore my room apart trying to find a flash drive where I backed up my old UTAUs recently. Amazingly, it didn't exist. Despite my old PC only having about 30GB of UTAU stuff on it, flash drives that giant weren't really available back in 2012 as far as I remember.

Of course, I did it mostly to find another bank I'll write about later. The reason this is going first is because, well, I don't have to completely overhaul this OTO file! (Also, of course, I don't have to grapple with the concept of the morality of uploading the work of others.)

Thankfully, my old laptop still booted after half a decade. While looking through my folders, I saw a name that felt familiar. I tried to place it, but I really couldn't. I tried to figure out if I had personally known the person who made it or if it was from one of my download binges.

Vy Onnarashikoe

Art by Riki/Ree

The surname is peak 2010. It means "Woman-like voice" and definitely isn't a valid Japanese surname. I don't mean that to come off as an insult when the naming method is just so darn nostalgic. That stuff really doesn't happen now that everyone takes UTAU way too seriously. 

I've done as much research I can when it comes to pronoun usage. It really all comes down to Riki's icon on Photobucket. It's the default avatar for people who report their gender as female. I will use female pronouns for Riki, Vy's creator, and male pronouns for Vy.

Vy was created nearly a decade ago by arrogantchild632 with his distribution sites and YouTube page using his name. When I was first looking at Vy, I was 100% sure that Vy was a 100% dead UTAU. Every link given in his Read Me was dead.

Usually when someone leaves a fandom, they leave all of their old accounts to just rot. You'll hop onto their dA and see that they haven't logged on since 2010. This is the thing that made me think Vy was 100% dead.

But Hark! The UTAU Wikia!

Googling Vy's name got me to the UTAU Wikia. There, I found that you can download all of his banks! And boy howdy is it worth it.
Other than some problems that can likely be fixed with OTO modification, I see nothing wrong with this voicebank beyond being a basic early 2011 one pitch. I legit love the voice!

In addition to that, the design is really adorable.

Art by Riki/Ree

As a note, the voicebank design is gendered male despite how the voicebank sounds. It was done as a joke and Riki seemed to be resigned to the misgendering. I'll save my politics talk to the DMs, but just be aware of the voice provider's wishes.

I was already drafting the outline of this article in my head as soon as I found the Wikia page. Cute UTAU dies sad death when voice provider disappears. But then . . . I found it.

Wikia 2.0 - Vy ReDUX

I can't exactly tell you how I got to Vy's updated voicebanks. I kind of just start googling and opening tabs like a hurricane as opposed to carefully noting what I search. Regardless, I found his Wiki 2.0 page. That lead me to this:

I should be more professional, but AAAAA I LOVE IT.

Such a pretty and clear voice with a cute accent!

Sadly, there are a lot of UTAU users like Riki. There is really no end-game to UTAU, really. Once it stop being fun, there's really nothing that can make putting all of that effort into making new banks feel worth it. I hope no one takes it the wrong way - I bailed hard when it stopped being fun, also. Her last update was in 2016. There's a good chance she will eventually come back and update Vy. However, part of me doubt it with how less and less fun it becomes over time. (Until Ameya pushes out VC support. Then it will be 2010 all over again.)

If Riki comes back in full force, Vy will get a multi-pitch VCV and a good number of non-Japanese banks. The existing demos for those unreleased banks are posted on the missRee soundcloud and linked on the Wiki 2.0 page.

Along with the Wiki 2.0 page is the weirdest little detail.

His new concept art is hosted on Photobucket! That either means Photobucket has stopped being a jerk or Riki is paying money to host art of her UTAU. If she's paying money to host her UTAU's art, she'll surely come back . . . right? We can hope.

Downloads

If you skipped the entire article, which I don't blame you for, here are the pages to download Vy's banks.

The original CV and VCV for Vy Onnarashikoe are on his UTAU Wikia page which can be found here.

All available Vy ReDUX banks can be found on his UTAU Wiki 2.0 page here. 

I hope that someone finds Vy and falls in love with him! Feel free to leave a comment with the things you create using him. 😊

Marine Yuzuriha and SKLK's UTAUs - Found!

Who is SKLK? What are these UTAUs like? How can I find Marine Yuzuriha?

SKLK's UTAUs - Found!

The story of how I learned about these UTAUs is a little funny. I actually was just trying to get a link to show off the UTAU Visual Archive to someone who might have needed to find a new UTAU to use when I saw this:

The name of the UTAU put through Google Translated amused me, but the design and her voice on the database really spoke to me. However, the only link provided was dead as a doornail. So, here comes the Way Back machine!

Clicking around will quickly show you how dead it is. The only page I could get to show up (as far as I could remember) was the main page. That means that all we have is the Japanese name, English name, and designs of all of the characters. However, the database link posted earlier had almost all of that information also, along with the release videos. 

That meant that I had to google names and see what came up. Truth Acknowledgement Blade's (Joking, Yuzuriha's) voice provider was 手ブラP. Having such a name made trying to Google her too risky to mess with. I did find what would supposedly be her twitter page through googling "真理音譲刃". A bot twitter account showed up with her defunct username in the sidebar. 

This was no use. It was time to turn my sights on SKLK, or すこるこ. I was able to turn up a few different defunct twitter handles, but ironically, simply googling some of SKLK's UTAUs names turned up her BowlRoll. 

And that was it!

I had found all of her UTAUs!

Who all is there?

• 真理音譲刃 - Marine Yuzuriha
• 卒音メル - Clarine Mel
• 飽音モネ - Ane Mone
• 雑音イズ - Zatsuneno Iz
• 真理音緋炎 - Marine Hien
• 神音ノノ♂♀ - Kamine Nono Male / Female
• 燐音イオ - Rinne Io
• クレム - Clem
• 九重深櫻 - Kokonoe Miou
• 九重黎人 - Kokonoe Akito
• 名無しさん (this is a joke I think)

Despite the vast majority of the UTAUs being there, there is one that is still lost as far as I know. 真理音霊羽, Marine Reu, isn't on the BowlRoll with all of her UTAU brothers and sisters.

Was the search worth it?

YEAH!

The UTAU that truly caught my eye was Yuzuriha, so I downloaded her VCV and WOW!

She's an older bank, which means that she doesn't have multiple pitches or end breaths. But I really don't care because she's adorable with a clear voice.

Some of SLKL's UTAUs are a bit of an acquired taste, but some of them legitimately should be more well known.

In Summary,

The UTAU Visual Archive has links on Yuzuriha's page to the design and demos for all of SKLK's UTAUs. When you find one you want, hit up SKLK's BowlRoll to download them!