UTAU: First impressions, misconceptions?

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partial

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I'm asking what you thought when you first found UTAU, if you thought anything at all.

I personally thought being able to create your own was really cool, and I did design some horrible OCs. They never got a voice though. I never thought I would actually make my own UTAU, but as I began to get more active in the community I decided to try it out.

But anyway, aside from thinking it was cool that anyone could make one, I didn't really like the choppiness of CV banks (however now I have no preference when it comes to Japanese, I'll use anything. But VCCV English is best English hoh) My next thought after thinking it was cool was that it was sort of a double edged sword, and I still think that today. There's no quality control, and hitting "random article" on the UTAU wiki is like playing with a slot machine. You never know what you'll get in terms of oto or recording quality. (Obviously having attractive art helps but it's not really the important thing here.) Also can we please edit all the pages that are tagged VCCV and are, in fact, not VCCV.
 

OngakuCD

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
When I first found out about utau, I was obsessive. I was so entranced at the idea that I could use my voice to make a character sing. Because this was back in 2009, everyone voicebank was choppy and static, but it was the norm so no one complained. First starting out, I didn't see UTAU evolving as much as it did. When dipthong/tripthong first came out as we called it (omfg) the game changed. Like, VCV started an entire new era and the emergence of multipitch banks.

I could never imagine that UTAU would have produce voicebanks that not only rival vocaloids, but also cross bridges and become vocaloids themselves
 

kimchi-tan

Your local Mikotard
Global Mod
Defender of Defoko
My first impression is what I think most people who were already Vocaloid fans also had: a choppier, lower quality version of Vocaloid. Although despite that, I warmed up to it as I eventually became a fan of the Vipperloids which eventually led me to downloading UTAU since I wanted to make them cover songs.
 
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Wolfe Nebula

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
At first I actually wasn't a fan of UTAU because the only Utau I heard was Kasane Teto, I was a big Oliver fan. But then at somepoint while I was looking for some new music I found an Utau Cover using Mine Laru, and I was like "Why the heck not", AND OH MY GOODNESS HIS VOICE AND DESIGN SUCKED ME INTO THE UTAU PIT I'VE BEEN IN FOR 3 YEARS.... To say the least I reaallly liked him and I still do, and now I have my own Utau and I'm working on some Originals, so I'm thankful I found the dragon shark boi :uhuhu:
 
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Alessandra

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
I'm asking what you thought when you first found UTAU, if you thought anything at all.

I personally thought being able to create your own was really cool, and I did design some horrible OCs. They never got a voice though. I never thought I would actually make my own UTAU, but as I began to get more active in the community I decided to try it out.

But anyway, aside from thinking it was cool that anyone could make one, I didn't really like the choppiness of CV banks (however now I have no preference when it comes to Japanese, I'll use anything. But VCCV English is best English hoh) My next thought after thinking it was cool was that it was sort of a double edged sword, and I still think that today. There's no quality control, and hitting "random article" on the UTAU wiki is like playing with a slot machine. You never know what you'll get in terms of oto or recording quality. (Obviously having attractive art helps but it's not really the important thing here.) Also can we please edit all the pages that are tagged VCCV and are, in fact, not VCCV.
I thought UTAU was just included with VBs. The first VB I downloaded was Samura Tomi, and I thought it was a program, in which you could do everything. Then I discovered the .rar folder and some 2strange2 samples saying like 2ka ka ki ka ku ke ka".. I was like... wow!
 
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June

Momo's Minion
I was never interested in UTAU buT after listening to Akem's cover of white happy last month i was shook. I started to listen to covers from kyaami and other big names and i was inspired to make covers. I installed UTAU and spend quite a long time suffering while learning how to use UTAU but it was worth it since tuning is really fun.
 
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Sors

Local Guppie & UTAU Korean Advocate
Tutor
Defender of Defoko
Since I came very late (2016) to the Vocaloid fandom, I arrived even later to UTAU. However, at first I also had the misconception: choppier, lower quality version of Vocaloid. Oh boy, did my perception change; ever since i saw the greatness that Ritsu, Meiji, Karasu etc. are, and comparing some covers to their original version (Meiji's Anti Beat cover, Shima's cover of Miki Miki Romantic Night, basically every Ritsu cover of a niki song), I have come to the conclusion that imo UTAU is superior, due to it being developed for amateurs, and thus, getting good results much easier than with VOCALOID.
 

Yoichi-Masaki

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
I started making my own utau's back in 2012 after finding out that Teto was an utau and not a vocaloid. I always thought utau was better because Teto and Ritsu's cover of Matryoska was so good.

At first I tryed to use teto but I couldn't figure it out at all. Then I started seeing Aido (When he was black and blue) Kai Kim, and Neko Kanoichi covers and it dawned on me I could make my own utau.

The amout of changes utau has made over that time have been amazing! I started with a bank like Neko's because that was the only english I could find at the the time, then there was CV-VC which was good, but had some pronunciation bugs, then VCCV changed everything.

utau has really come into it's own
 

someguyperson

i am no longer exist
Defender of Defoko
Ah yes, back when i was just a youngin' I found this mystical program called Utau. I heard that you could make your own so I looked up a Wikihow article and recorded some stuff on audacity! No reclist, just me making noises and saying things...
It didn't do anything. I totally ditched it. Oto? Alias? What's that??????????
Here I am now.....Boy.
 

Orbittals

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
Then, as a 13/14-year-old: Ooh, what's this? Vocaloid but free? *Downloads, becomes obsessed with but never makes voicebank or understands otoing, forgets about*

Now: wow this fandom's standards grew. also my favourite utau seems to have disappeared along with the creator.
 

Soursop the fruit

✧ Fruity & Happy ✧
Defender of Defoko
I've been liking vocaloid since i was 13
When i was on 'vocalonoob' phase, i used to take UTAUs like
"Pfff...they sound metallic..Nope. They also have CV design on them lol no, Miku ish besto."​
But as i get older i started having curiosity about UTAU, so i listened to Ritsu, Aiko, Karasu and got
"Whoa...they sound good, they even can sing better than vocaloids!"​
I also found out that UTAU is free, open-source, and you can make your own bank in any language.
So now, for me, UTAU is an awesome program and i'm not wrong to spend my time in here 'u'​
 
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taigz

dead
Defender of Defoko
My first impression was it's just like a lower quality version of Vocaloid. However, I then discovered about those well-known people like kyaami and boy was I astonished at how many of the covers I've found sound better than the original songs, with all the expression and such. Then I found out it was the work of tuning and such and I was like, "I must try this...!"

Also, some misconceptions of mine when I was a noob:
  • "Oto? We don't need those bahahahahahha--"
  • "200 Consonant Velocity is besuto desu ne~"
  • "A la carte: the best alternative to pitchbending muahahaha!"
  • *plugs and plays with popular banks like Meiji and Ritsu* "They ain't even as great as peeps said smfh..."
 

◉EYERIS◉

I am okay
Defender of Defoko
I think I was 8 when I became a huge fan of vocaloid then when i was 12 I started using UTAU but never posting.. Then i dropped it for a while and picked it back up 2 years ago? (Anniversary is the day after Christmas woo) Then here I am now.. o gosh looking at my old stuff makes me so happy
 

OnegaiKudasai

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
It was the usual 'discount Vocaloid that is less HQ and no payment' back when I was 12 and was amazed with Vocaloid stuff
I tried it out and installed it, but got bothered too much with all the locale-changing things, so I uninstalled it and vowed to buy a Vocaloid instead someday...
Flash forward to when I was 14, reinstalled it along with the demo for Kaai Yuki, realized that UTAU was easier for me to use than Vocaloid despite the roboticness, and decided to stick with UTAU for a while since I won't be able to afford that in a long time anyway
And I may not be that active, but I still do UTAU stuff ohohohoh
 
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lunari162

Defoko's Slaves
Defender of Defoko
First impression: "ooh, a free program?! Awesome, now I can see how vocal synths sound compared to the recordings! Maybe I'll find a way to learn some coding from it?" (no idea how I would've done that, but younger me was optimistic)
Misconceptions:
- the popular banks, such as Teto (that was ironic) are overrated
- consonant velocity is bad and glitchy
- extreme pitch bends are the bEST
- "I'm not going to listen to the popular covers because they're popular" or something like that
Fast-forward 9 months later, and you have a small child with horrific tuning, no knowledge of which UTAU are HQ/popular, and a low quality voicebank with a not-so-good oto. Good job, younger me.
 

kimchi-tan

Your local Mikotard
Global Mod
Defender of Defoko
ahahahaha im stupid, what's a la carte?
Tools --> Built-in Tools --> A LA CARTE

It's a feature that allows you to apply an assortment of tuning options over selected (or all) notes, but as a turner, I don't recommend using it ^^;
 
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