Must-Haves for your utau bank?

Arissa

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
So this time I'm wondering about the must-haves for everyone's own utau voicebanks! Be it VCV, CV, CVVC, VCCV and something along those types, what are the must-haves for your banks? To reiterate, I'm asking about certain appends, minibanks included into the normal one, any pitching/multipitch, whatever you deem necessary to have to have an efficient bank ^=^ and please include the reasoning, I'm curious as always lol
 

Sors

Local Guppie & UTAU Korean Advocate
Tutor
Defender of Defoko
Definitely a power and soft append. Like, you can't make a ballad if your UTAU is powerful, and can't make a hard-rock song if your UTAU is soft.
While not in the first bank, you should have a multipitch voicebank at one point. It increases the range, and if you make a powerscale, that's even better.
If you start with a CV VB, you should make a VCV or CVVC aftwerwards as well. Now, while a good oto'd CV can sound smooth, nothing's smoother than VCV and CVVC.
Oh, and best is having hiragana encoding and romaji aliasing, or vice versa. It will safe some time, because when converting, the shi can often become a si, chi ti, etc.
 

Kitcat190

Defoko's Slaves
Defender of Defoko
My must haves (with any bank, CV, VCV, CVVC, VCCV etc.)

~Good Oto. I can work with a CV bank but I'd hate to re-oto it, and it's especially painful for anything beyond that

~Decent Quality. I'm not looking or expecting the best, but banks that have so much bg noise it sounds like the t.v noise, It's a turn off

~A nice tone. This will make or break it, even if you have a decent quality, if the bank sounds so, smug(?) or just icky to me, it's a no

~A broad range. I've seen some mono and bipitch banks with good range so it's not so much of the number of pitches. But if it's a good range, I can use it for more songs

~Some expression. I envy those who can record a power or soft bank and have it still sound like the character. And if there's an UTAU with different expression banks it's a win for me. I can use them more, and it's a lot more fun.

~Correctly recorded samples. I'm fine with most accents, but things that are completely wrong I'm like 'wai'

~End breaths. I don't just mean the basic ones, end breaths (and beginning) in different styles can add a lot of emotion to a song so it's nice

~Glottal Stops and Vocal fry. Useful and nice to add flavor to a cover

~Fixed frq. problems. Kinda self explanitory

This doesn't mean I wont like or use a bank that doesn't have these, but these are things I like the most, especially with my own
 
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partial

Guest
Well, I'm no good at power vbs, so I can't really say power is a necessity.

I do prefer CVVC over CV and VCV, and generally will download only CVVC voicebanks.

So I guess my must haves are multipitch and CVVC, really. At least, as far as Japanese goes.

For English, I don't care about multipitch as much.
I much prefer VCCV because of the familiarity, but I don't mind arpasing.
 
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Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
When it comes to my test tier banks, there are no standards. Absolutely none.
When it comes to the poop tier banks, as I will politely call them, the standard is that they're absolutely horrible. If at any point it sounds nice, I'm doing something wrong.

As for my actual main/release tier, well, those keep going so much higher that I haven't released any lately.
A 100% complete OTO. Even if the base was generated, I must have gone through and fine tuned every single entry. This is especially important for when I make my own reclists, because the way the aliases are set up is the key to easily using the bank.
I think that having extra samples, multipitch, etc. is nice, but not vital.
Upon release, I'd write an original song.
 

Shasta

Professional Lurker
Global Mod
Defender of Defoko
I'm easy to please, while I prefer stronger voice banks, they're not a must for me. The voice bank just has to be functional, and in a format I can use, which ia CV and/or VCV. Hiragana aliases are nice too, but not mandatory.
 

Arissa

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
I'm easy to please, while I prefer stronger voice banks, they're not a must for me. The voice bank just has to be functional, and in a format I can use, which ia CV and/or VCV. Hiragana aliases are nice too, but not mandatory.
Well, of course a voicebank that works is a must! ^^;
[doublepost=1491227682][/doublepost]
Well, I'm no good at power vbs, so I can't really say power is a necessity.

I do prefer CVVC over CV and VCV, and generally will download only CVVC voicebanks.

So I guess my must haves are multipitch and CVVC, really. At least, as far as Japanese goes.

For English, I don't care about multipitch as much.
I much prefer VCCV because of the familiarity, but I don't mind arpasing.
That CVVC representation, tho
 

kimchi-tan

Your local Mikotard
Global Mod
Defender of Defoko
I just want breaths and end breaths dammit since I find them the most essential in tuning. It's such a pain to hunt them down in the samples only to find out that all breaths were silenced and end breaths are nonexistent because the voicer stopped recording mid-vowel ;v;
 

Cheese

cured meat enthusiast
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
honestly i can work with/without anything but........i cry when a bank doesn't have glottal stops. i love them so much
 
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Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
(I thought this thread was about what we want to include in our own voicebanks, not what we want to get in other people's banks...)
 

Arissa

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
(I thought this thread was about what we want to include in our own voicebanks, not what we want to get in other people's banks...)

Uh, that's what ppl should be talking about ^^; I wanted to use these tips to help me decide what I should incorporate into my own banks, breaths, pitches, vocal fry, etc.
 

KNΞMΛTCS

Just an UtaForum user
Defender of Defoko
I have 2 wants. First, the samples must be recorded well - pronunciation is spot-on, no background noise, everything is even, tone is consistent, and so on. Second, the oto.ini must be complete. Not as in "entry for every .wav" but as in "went through and made sure every file has a perfect entry." Everything from there is gravy, but only if these 2 qualities do not suffer.

A possible third want would be frequent updates and active support from the creator. I learned awhile back that the fandom tends to actually frown upon releasing many updates. I think that's BS and you should release any update that's needed.
 
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Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I wanted to use these tips to help me decide what I should incorporate into my own banks, breaths, pitches, vocal fry, etc.

Oh! If that was the case, why didn't you say so? Please don't be too hard on yourself and think anything like "If I don't include absolutely everything, nobody will like my UTAU." I think the most important thing to focus on is consistent tone quality, a well made and complete oto, and good FRQs. Those make the basic experience of a bank pleasurable, and only after that's achieved would be when to consider extra things. Honestly, it's more frustrating to me to have messy FRQs than to leave out things like breaths or vocal fries, which I never really use.
[doublepost=1491356425][/doublepost]Though, I was honestly really interested in a discussion about our personal standards for what we create. People talk all the time about what they want from others, so this was a chance to turn that around...
 
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Arissa

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
Oh! If that was the case, why didn't you say so? Please don't be too hard on yourself and think anything like "If I don't include absolutely everything, nobody will like my UTAU." I think the most important thing to focus on is consistent tone quality, a well made and complete oto, and good FRQs. Those make the basic experience of a bank pleasurable, and only after that's achieved would be when to consider extra things. Honestly, it's more frustrating to me to have messy FRQs than to leave out things like breaths or vocal fries, which I never really use.
[doublepost=1491356425][/doublepost]Though, I was honestly really interested in a discussion about our personal standards for what we create. People talk all the time about what they want from others, so this was a chance to turn that around...

Thx ^=^ I was worried that I'd have to do a ton of stuff for my utau since I had the idea that she wouldn't sound good just being monopitch ;^^ But for now I'm just working with the program and otos and whatnot.... Hope you don't mind me asking, (I've heard a bit about them) what are fqrs?? (Frequency??) Oh, and take the chance to talk about personal standards, that sounds more fun than hearing complaints
 

Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
FRQs are frequency tables that the default resampler and some other resamplers use to reference the pitch of the sample. When they generate incorrectly, it can result in a distorted or hiccuppy sound. This guide explains how to fix them when things go wrong.
http://utaforum.net/resources/frq-file-editing-guide.8/

You could also use nmasao's frqeditor instead of the default utility, which also allows you to edit the desc.mrq if your bank is to be used with moresampler.
https://twitter.com/namiyome/status/444460801210843136
 
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Arissa

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
FRQs are frequency tables that the default resampler and some other resamplers use to reference the pitch of the sample. When they generate incorrectly, it can result in a distorted or hiccuppy sound. This guide explains how to fix them when things go wrong.
http://utaforum.net/resources/frq-file-editing-guide.8/

You could also use nmasao's frqeditor instead of the default utility, which also allows you to edit the desc.mrq if your bank is to be used with moresampler.
https://twitter.com/namiyome/status/444460801210843136

Oh, I see, more good info to take note of, thx ^=^
 
K

Kassandra

Guest
-hiragana (if a jp bank) aliasing at least
-correctly recorded pronunciation for whatever language. i can be pretty forgiving about some things but when the vowels are just completely wrong then no.
-really good oto (which is why i don't let other people oto my banks)
-broad range (not always, but i prefer multipitch)
-vcv for any language. i do have some cv vc banks but i barely use them.
-pitches that BLEND. too many "kire" banks have got a loud belt and then the rest are super quiet and the bottom pitch is whispery it annoys me to no end like there's this thing called a chest voice.
-end breaths (i would prefer if the bank had these, but if not, i can live without them)
-extra sounds in general for fun or useful for other reasons like vc add ons, extra appends added in, whatever.
-mostly decent quality. as long as i can mix out any bg noise then it's fine.
-not too nasally. my banks can get nasally and i'm more forgiving if it's a loud/belting bank or pitch, but if that's just the voice and the nasal overkills it then no thanks.
-unique voice that can be identified with the character. which is why i'm ok with voice acting. i hate when the voice is so generic and boring it just sounds like every average overseas bank.

i think i covered everything?
i'd also prefer if it screamed or growled. like, death voices, not that rikimi sh1t lol.
not a requirement, but it'd be a nice extra :wink:

sh1tty frqs can be annoying, but can be fixed so i can forgive them or just re render them with old resampler.
 
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