Distributing USTs

[Kiyoteru]

I don't like when people include voicebank-specific things in USTs that they distribute for public use. Such as end breaths, or note suffixes, or special flags, or any other extra samples. They make it more finicky and confusing for the end user. Ideally, a publicly distributed UST only has the essential notes and lyrics and maybe whatever pitchbends/vibrato is absolutely necessary. And most definitely for the USTs to be straightforwardly made- like complete melody and harmony tracks.
When you personalize a UST to a specific cover, to a specific voicebank and specific expressive choices, it becomes harder to adapt it otherwise. That kind of detail work should be down to the individual. When I'm making things from scratch for my own use, I'll often break a song down into different USTs for the chorus, etc. because I find it easier to copy+paste sections while mixing. However, an end-user would not be happy to use such a segmented UST.

Do other people think there's a distinction between USTs for distribution and USTs for personal use?

 

[Sors]

I completely agree. There are a lot of usts I've encountered that were that way. When I make a cover, I start by trying out the ust, but well, that's no use because sometimes there are weird breath samples, end breaths and extras...once I encountered a giggle lol.

I think a private ust can include that, but a publicly available one shouldn't. Like, for my Electric Angel Remix/Arrangement cover I use Gahata Meiji, and since she has her ending breaths weirdly aliased, I decided once I release the ust, I'll remove the end breaths in total...

 

[Kiyoteru]

I can think of an argument that can be made against having different styles of USTs. When you put out a cover, you want it to be as impressive as possible, so you use all of the voicebank-specific samples, and lots of cool mixing techniques, and your best tuning. So, it seems kind of dishonest when the actual UST you're giving to people doesn't match the demo at all.

(Then again, having different USTs is a method of combating plug-and-play.)

 

[VocAddict]

I remember a time when I download a UST and there was both a tuned and untuned version. It was really good and saved me a bit of time to retune for another UTAU.

I've gotten used to the extras that are used. End breaths, glottal stops, tone suffixes and prefixes, the whole works. Most of those things could be removed with the suffix system that UTAU has built-in so I never had a problem with it.

The only problem I ever had is the pitchbends that are specific to that voicebank and it sounds weird with everyone else. I'll have to reset the pitchbends and start from scratch (I do this for everything either way) and I understand how it may frustrate end-users, especially newer ones. But I believe that the more experienced you get, you'll know how to handle those weird notes.

As for the actual distribution in terms of parts, I have no preference to either one. Once they're properly timed, I'm good.