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VB Release Checklist

When making a voicebank, there can be a lot of planning going into it. This checklist can help with planning your release, and anything involving your new voicebank!
This tutorial is relatively newbie-friendly (although it does require a little bit of tech knowledge, including some basic knowledge of UTAU) , so if this is your first UTAU, welcome, and I hope my checklist here helps you out! I will briefly describe each step, but will often be linking to other people's tutorials.
If you're a returning UTAU user, and are just looking for extra steps to make your voicebank better, then skip to the "Post-Recording" Section!

PRE-RECORDING
  • Before you can start doing anything, make sure you have a good quality microphone. A good one for beginners that I can suggest is a Blue Snowball (or it's higher quality, but more expensive, counterpart, the Yeti). Other cheap alternatives for beginner microphones are the Behringer C1u and the Samson C01u. These are connected through USB, and you don't need to buy anything extra, like XLR converter cables, phantom power generators, or a USB converter such as an Icicle. You shouldn't need to spend too much money on a microphone, though it really does help to have one with clear, crisp quality. Putting a lot of research into what microphone to get will help you dramatically.
  • Recording in a place with good acoustics and the least amount of background noise possible will help with the quality of your voicebank, as well. Make sure there are no fans, A/C, or computer fan noises in the background. Test this out with your microphone, to make sure that it's not picking up noises that you might not think would be picked up. If your computer fan creates too loud of a noise when you attempt to record, try moving the microphone away from your computer. Test different angles and placements of your microphone as well.
  • Along with having a nice recording area set up, you should also plan what kind of voicebank you'll be recording. There are plenty of types to choose from -
    • CV (consonant vowel - [sa][yo][na][ra] / [さ][よ][な][ら] )
    • VCV (vowel consonant vowel - [- sa][a yo][o na][a ra] / [- さ][a よ][o な][a ら] )
    • CVVC (consonant vowel vowel consonant - [sa][a y][yo][o n][na][a r][ra] / [さ][a y][よ][o n][な][a r][ら] - there are many different variations of CVVC, such as VCCV, CVVCV, CV-VV, etc.)
    • Additional information:
      CV: CV is generally considered the most basic style of voicebank, and is used for Japanese
      voicebanks. CV banks are generally small and easy to create, but they are limited; Japanese is
      one of the only languages that can be perfectly replicated using a CV voicebank, since it does not
      have any ending consonant sounds.
      •VCV: VCV is a more advanced recording style that utilizes leading-in vowels on each note,
      such that a clean crossfade can be created between vowels. These voicebanks are much larger
      than CV banks, but generally have smoother singing results with more realistic note transitions.
      However, VCV is, like CV, not an effective method for languages other than Japanese, as it relies
      on vowel-based transitions that may not occur in the same way in many other languages.
      Additionally, Japanese has very few phonemes (required sounds) than most other languages; a
      VCV voicebank for another language is made less viable by the fact that almost all other
      languages have a lot more required phonemes than Japanese. Non-Japanese VCV banks would be
      extremely large.
      •CV VC: CV VC is generally the best recording style for non-Japanese languages, as the
      “VC” represents its ability to handle ending consonants. The examples show previously in
      illustrations 2, 4, and 5 show a CV VC English voicebank. CV VC is also usable for Japanese;
      essentially it is recorded like VCV, then the VC sounds are used in between notes to create
      “manual VCV” sounds. CV VC editing will be covered in depth in Appendix B: “CV VC Editing.”
      Check out the Big UTAU User Guide for tons more helpful tips on how to use UTAU!
    • In reference to how much time it should take to record and configure the oto for each recording style, CV takes the shortest, then CVVC, then VCV.
    • You can use this guide to help you choose a reclist, too!
    • Plugins like AutoCVVC and Presamp are great for CVVC!
      • AutoCVVC is a plugin that converts CV Hiragana to CVVC.
      • Presamp is a combination Resampler and Wavtool, which converts almost anything to anything. Got a CV voicebank but a VCV ust? CVVC voicebank but a CV ust? Don't worry about it! Presamp will do all the work behind the scenes for you, although from my experience it doesn't work with suffixes.
  • As well as the voicebank type, you should also figure out what language(s) it will be compatible with, along with if it will have any appends, multiple pitches, or any extra banks such as falsetto or growl banks. These extra things can add nice touches to the final product.
    • If you're recording a multipitch bank, figure out what your range is and determine your pitches. a common base pitch is C4. If you are doing more than 3 total pitches, you're also going to need to figure out what suffixes each pitch will have. The easiest way to suffix all of your recordings is either to do them as you're recording in OREMO with a typelist, or using SETPARAM to do it afterwards. This will be explained shortly.
    • I've found that laying out empty, named folders for voicebanks with multiple pitches, appends, or languages really helps with organization. It also makes recording go by a little bit faster since this step is already done
  • Pick a reclist! There are so many out there, especially on the forums here. Search through them, and find one you think will be the best for you. If you can't read hiragana, then find a romaji reclist. If you want extra sounds such as "v's" or "l's", find one with them! Making your own reclist will provide originality for your voicebank.
  • Other things to consider are: is your voicebank going to have a design? A character? A personality? A backstory? These can be completely up to you, or they can be left alone for the user to interpret.
RECORDING TIME!
  • Download OREMO and SETPARAM. These are programs designed specifically for UTAU. OREMO is the program used to record, and SETPARAM is the program used for configuring your oto.ini later on. OREMO uses two lists to record - reclists and typelists. Reclists are self-explanatory, and typelists are used for suffixes. The default typelist has a blank suffix, an up arrow for the higher pitch in a tripitch bank, and a down arrow for the lower pitch in a tripitch bank. You can make your own typelists for multipitch and appends, as well.
  • Record your UTAU! This should be pretty easy to understand, some reclists even have tutorials on how to record to that specific reclist. PaintedCZ's VCCV English Reclist is one of those. There are also plenty of general voicebank recording tutorials on YouTube.
    • Use BGMs included in reclists whenever possible, it makes configuring oto.ini's a lot easier later on down the road.
    • You can even make your own BGM if a reclist doesn't have one, or if you're using your own.
  • Go over your samples once you're done. Sometimes when you're recording, you don't notice yourself getting slightly off-pitch, or off-beat, or sometimes even just saying the wrong syllable! Revising your samples can help your voicebank sound the best it can.
  • Oto your voicebank. This is a crucial step that a lot of newbies don't take. Each recording style has a different way of oto-ing, so look up a tutorial for the reclist that you're using!
POST-RECORDING - This is all stuff that you can do to make your voicebank's release even better! Mostly optional, but it will make your voicebank look more professional, and more user friendly.
  • Get commissions/more art of your UTAU (if they have a design). Including a few different transparent, fullbody pictures with your voicebank will give users images to use as references, or to use in videos or on SoundCloud.
  • Make a character.txt and a readme.txt for your voicebank. These two small text files will give your voicebank the info screen. If you add an image to this as well, it will show up in the top left corner of your UTAU window, above the name of the UTAU.
    • name=Your UTAU's Name
      image=utau-icon.bmp
      sample=utau-sample.wav
      web=www.your-utau-website.tk
      author=Your name
    • The name specified in the "name=" line will be the name used in the UTAU program, regardless of what the folder is titled.
    • You can also add other things to the character.txt such as appearance "Gender=Female, Eye Color=Green", etc)
  • Create a website for your UTAU. A website including download links, art, and more info about your voicebank will make your UTAU more accessible.
  • If your UTAU has a character, make social media sites for them. Things like Twitter, to post in-character updates, Facebook, to post finished media and developer updates, and sometimes even specific Demo Soundcloud Accounts specifically for posting Demos and Tests.
  • Test out different resamplers and flags. Different voicebanks sound good with different resamplers, wavtools, and flags, so experiment with those until you find a combination you like! You can put these recommended things in the readme, and on a website if you choose to make one.
  • Record extra samples such as falsetto, growl, vocal fries, and breaths if your reclist didn't include any.
  • Try compressing your voicebank into a .UAR or a .EXE! .UARs are good for newbie UTAU users, because all your have to do to install the voicebank is drag the UAR into UTAU. However, I don't believe you can change the export path, so for people who have changed their path in the options of UTAU, I'm not sure if this will work. (Correct me if I'm wrong, please!) .EXEs are good for more advanced users, because I do know that you can edit the export path. The installer is also able to be customized, which can make your voicebank even more unique.
  • Make a release video/demo reel! Pick out a few songs to show the amazingness of the voicebank you've worked so hard on, cover them, and make a video! Put info about your voicebank in the video, and put download links in the description.
CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR VOICEBANK IS RELEASED!!
Author
LunarConstruct
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