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English CV Tricks

After some searching, I decided that the internet might like a text resource on making CV 'loids sing in english. I'm not by any means an expert, but my futzing around may have yielded results that people may find helpful. If you have any corrections, suggestions, additions, then please post below.

If you're interested in working with UTAU for english, then your best bet is CV VC. However, if you want a specific CV 'loid to sing in english, read on. This probably isn't the only method, it probably isn't even the best method: but if it sounds new, give it a whirl, eh?

a. Keyboard Shortcuts
b. Japanese Syllable Substitutions
c. Step 1: initial notes
d. Step 2: consonants
e. Step 3: Whittling it down

a. Keyboard Shortcuts

This method involves a bunch of futzing around with preutterances, lengths, overlap, so please consider the following shortcuts:

Ctrl+E – note property, where you can change the length, preutterance, overlap, and other fun things. This is an important dialog.
Ctrl+Y – envelop dialog, where you can muck about with the volume envelop and fix (!) notes.
Ctrl+G – OTO editor. When you select a note and press Ctrl+G, the syllable’s sample and OTO points will appear.
Shift+Del – this shortcut removes selected notes from the piano roll.

Take note! In the note property (Ctrl+E) the length is defined as a number. The length L4 (quarter note, default length) is defined in this dialog as "480". The smallest length UTAU will tolerate is L64, or "30".

b. Japanese Syllable Substitutions

First of all, again, if I’ve made a mistake here, please tell me. I ain’t an expert.

Many CV lists are based on a Japanese list, so that’s why this section is here.
Because it’s not always immediately obvious what syllables to enter, I’m here to suggest which ones you choose. Ultimately, you have to listen to what your UTAU is pronouncing – that’s what it all comes down to.

I’ll say it again: listen to what your UTAU is saying.

If you’re feeling lost then say the phrase you’re  trying to create to yourself, and pay attention to what you are saying.

Anyways, firstly: English has 10 vowel sounds – long and short a e i o u. Japanese has 5 – a i u e o. Here are my suggestions for vowel substitutions:

Long vowels:
a (ay, think “hay”) →  え+い (e then i)(dipthong)
e (ee, think “knee”) →  い (i)
i (eye, think…”lie”) →  あ+い (a then i) (dipthong)
o (oh, think “bone”) →  お (o)
u (oo, think “you”) →  う (u)

You can simulate a dipthong vowel by putting the two vowels together, extending the preutterance of the second part to 60-120 ms, and pressing the p2 p3 crossfade button.

Short vowels:
a (ah? think “bat”) →  あ (a)
e (eh, think “bet”) → え(e)
i (ih, think “bit”) → え (e)
o (ah? think “bot”) → あ (a)
u (uh, think “butt”) → あ (a)

As you can see Japanese a or Japanese e will usually do the trick, but listen to the way you say it. When in doubt, trial and error is the way to go.

Japanese also doesn’t have consonant sounds analogous to English – most obviously, it lacks a “th”. There are substitutions for this and other (more egregious) consonants.

Remember that if a consonant doesn’t sound right, you can try another syllable with the same consonant. So, if you’re looking for a good “l”, then you have five syllables to choose from – ra, ri, ru, re, ro. You can pick and choose the one that your UTAU pronounces the most like “l”.

Consonants
th → sub s- or z-.
b → use b-
v → sub b-

Note that if your UTAU is Japanese, your ‘loids  pronounciation of ba-bi-bu-be-bo  may range between b or v sounding pronunciation. When comparing your set, note that a b sound tends to have a shorter preutterance than a v sound.

f → use f- or sub b-

I find that the Japanese pronunciation of “f” can sometimes be almost nonexistent. If you want to take it up a notch, a v-sounding “b” might work.

s → use s- or sub z-

For plural ending english s,  z- is often preferable.

r → use r- or sub w-

If you need a hard r, and your 'loid's r-s are more l-sounding, then w- is close enough.

l → sub r-

like b-, your r-s might range from “l” to “r”

c. Step 1: initial notes

Okay, let's get going.

When I get ready to enter English I usually put down CV bases first. Here’s a test phrase – “this is a frickin’ pen”. I would grind this down to “ze e e we ke pe”.

You grind it down like this: You break down the phrase into syllables:

this is a fri ken pen

Take off the ending consonants:

thi i a fri ke pe

Chop off any extra consonants at the beginning:

thi i a ri cke pe

and, naturally, convert to CV consonants.

ze e e wi ke pe.

d. Step 2: consonants

Next you create notes where your 'loid pronounces the consonants you eliminated in the preliminary stage. These notes are short enough that the note is bascially all preutterance -- the consonant.

For the above sentence ("this is a frickin' pen), I would add (these) notes in at L64 (Len. 30):

ze (zu) e (zu) e (bu)wi ke (n) pe (n)

Again, Each consonant sound should be 100% preutterance. It’s set to a low length like Len. 30 so that the vowel part doesn’t have time to be pronounced.

In the case that you have two consonants next to each other:

Ex. 1 (two words): Ze (zu) sa
Ex. 2 (one word): Za (zu) (su)

The preutterance of the “s” will be cut off by the severely cut down “zu”, and the word won't be understandable. To fix this, you add a rest in between:

Ex. 1 (two words): Ze (su) (R) sa
Ex. 2 (one word): Za (su) (R) (su)

A rest which is as long as the note's actual preutterance. When doing this, set your Quantize to 64 and your Length to L4, for convenience’s sake.

e. Step 3: Whittling it down

After you add your consonants and rests, you should cut down the syllables you added initially (ze e e we pe) to accomadate what you added. For example, “cry baby” might look like this:

(ku)wa (i) (R) be bi

“be” and “bi” by themselves have the right timing, but the extra consonants in “cry” will set them off time. To fix this: Let’s say that “wa” is Len. 480, and that (R) and (ku) and (i) are all Len. 30. All together, the added notes add up to Len. 90. 480-90 = 390, so we change “wa” to Len. 390 in the Note Property window (Ctrl+E). Now all the words are on-time.

Give it a spin. Does it sound about right? Cool.

...And that is my entire method. I hope this helps. Please tell me if any clarification or corrections are needed. If you have a suggestion to improve this method/tutorial, please post here.
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