kimchi's tuning tips dump

[kimchi-tan]

Since I plan to make a tuning tips guide thing someday and I am teaching some of my friends tuning techniques, I might as well make a dump of tuning tips.

I'll be dumping screenshots of my side of the conversation so it'll probably be confusing and very unpolished.

Feel free to correct me on incorrect terms or provide better explanations!

Pitchbending:

Spoiler: riffs/runs

Hey Kimchi! Just letting you know that those are called "riffs/runs," not rifts. Nice mini-tutorial btw! I like using a lot of riffs in my USTS. :3

Heyo, Kimchi

I think the easiest way to explain riffs and riffing to someone in UTAU is to break down the riff into a rhythm. let's say 3 triplet 8th notes (quantize)
but instead of writing in 3 separate notes you just write in the original pitch of the note and you pitch bend your riff (from the top of that original pitch) to roughly the size of those 3 triplet notes and leave the rest of the note as is or vibrato or whatever. It just requires a visual memory or possibly a reference.

and if the riff goes from bottom to top then write in the starting pitch and riff your way to the top one?? I guess

*Correction: It's around a quarter note to a 1/8 note's length. Depends on the tempo.

Others:

Spoiler: misconceptions

• Adding 200 Consonant Velocity does NOT magically make a voicebank sound better. If it does, then there's something wrong with the oto. The only exception is when the voicebank was recorded in a slow tempo while being used in a high-tempo song or just a really high-tempo song in general
• A vibrato on every note does NOT make a voicebank sound realistic. Unless it's very weak vibrato, it will sound off-pitch and/or the voice will sound like it's struggling. Even so, a vibrato on every note will make the UST look messy
• You don't need to make your pitchbends overly complicated-looking to sound nice. For example, this
  Spoiler

  
  and this
  Spoiler

  
  look very similar yet the small change from the first to second example drastically changes how the notes sound

 

[partial]

I just woke up and I am trying too hard to understand this. What do you mean? Sorry.

 

[kimchi-tan]

I just woke up and I am trying too hard to understand this. What do you mean? Sorry.

The purpose of this thread or the first tip I dumped? If it's the former, I'm just compiling whatever tuning techniques I taught to my friends through screenshots of our conversation (but my side only because permission hassle and stuff). If it's the latter, the first dump tip is on where to place vocal rifts/runs.

 

[partial]

It's the second one. Your description has me confused and looking at your images doesn't help, haha. I just woke up. Sorry.

 

[kristian-dee]

Hey Kimchi! Just letting you know that those are called "riffs/runs," not rifts. Nice mini-tutorial btw! I like using a lot of riffs in my USTS. :3

 

[Ressa]

Heyo, Kimchi

I think the easiest way to explain riffs and riffing to someone in UTAU is to break down the riff into a rhythm. let's say 3 triplet 8th notes (quantize)
but instead of writing in 3 separate notes you just write in the original pitch of the note and you pitch bend your riff (from the top of that original pitch) to roughly the size of those 3 triplet notes and leave the rest of the note as is or vibrato or whatever. It just requires a visual memory or possibly a reference.

and if the riff goes from bottom to top then write in the starting pitch and riff your way to the top one?? I guess

 

[kimchi-tan]

Hey Kimchi! Just letting you know that those are called "riffs/runs," not rifts. Nice mini-tutorial btw! I like using a lot of riffs in my USTS. :3

Heyo, Kimchi

I think the easiest way to explain riffs and riffing to someone in UTAU is to break down the riff into a rhythm. let's say 3 triplet 8th notes (quantize)
but instead of writing in 3 separate notes you just write in the original pitch of the note and you pitch bend your riff (from the top of that original pitch) to roughly the size of those 3 triplet notes and leave the rest of the note as is or vibrato or whatever. It just requires a visual memory or possibly a reference.

and if the riff goes from bottom to top then write in the starting pitch and riff your way to the top one?? I guess

Thanks for pointing out @kristian-dee and explaining better @Ressa! I added your posts in the spoiler for reference if you don't mind ^^;

I also added another riff style in the spoiler.

And why tf does the OP have so many likes :^(

 

[idol]

Honestly bless you. I'm always looking for more ways to improve! (from my....one ust)

 

[kimchi-tan]

Added a misconceptions section! I also organized the sections by category.

 

[kimchi-tan]

Added another misconception. Feel free to suggest other misconceptions or what you think might be a misconception and I'll do my best to explain it

 

[Leigh's❤️Tea]

Added another misconception. Feel free to suggest other misconceptions or what you think might be a misconception and I'll do my best to explain it

Hi~ This tutorial is actually really helpful, but, how do you get those colored bars like in the first image?

 

[Mougeki Mero]

Hi~ This tutorial is actually really helpful, but, how do you get those colored bars like in the first image?

I think she made it on something like paint just to give people some idea

 

[Soursop the fruit]

Sensei! *raises hand* i want to ask a question!
Do we have to apply a la carte on every notes? when is the best time to use it?
Because i have heard that using a la carte on every notes isn't good...

 

[Leigh's❤️Tea]

I think she made it on something like paint just to give people some idea

ohhh

 

[kimchi-tan]

Hi~ This tutorial is actually really helpful, but, how do you get those colored bars like in the first image?

It's all here: http://utaforum.net/threads/utau-colors.8872/
But if you're talking about the orange, yellow-orange, and yellow lines, I just used paint to point out the notes.

Sensei! *raises hand* i want to ask a question!
Do we have to apply a la carte on every notes? when is the best time to use it?
Because i have heard that using a la carte on every notes isn't good...

Yes, A La Carte is the secret to hyper realistic tuning. You don't even need this terrible dump to help you tune gud. In fact it's the opposite.

Spoiler

What A La Carte does can be done with other settings in UTAU. You can blend CV vowels with Crossfade (Tools --> Built-in Tools --> Crossfade), add portemento and vibrato with Pitch Control (go to Mode 2, right click on the intended notes --> Pitch) or Pitch Automation for just portamento alone or Auto Vibrato for vibrato alone (though it's more convenient to use Pitch Control imo since you can do both of these at the same time without affecting the other and you get more control over the vibrato with the Exclude setting), and add modulation with the note Property.

The advantage it has is the you can do all these things at once. Imo, the disadvantage is that you lack control over the vibratos, because if you select all notes and apply vibrato, vibrato is applied on ALL notes. Go the point #2 in Misconceptions to know why it's bad.

 

[Soursop the fruit]

Yes, A La Carte is the secret to hyper realistic tuning. You don't even need this terrible dump to help you tune gud. In fact it's the opposite.

Spoiler

What A La Carte does can be done with other settings in UTAU. View attachment 4665 You can blend CV vowels with Crossfade (Tools --> Built-in Tools --> Crossfade), add portemento and vibrato with Pitch Control (go to Mode 2, right click on the intended notes --> Pitch) or Pitch Automation for just portamento alone or Auto Vibrato for vibrato alone (though it's more convenient to use Pitch Control imo since you can do both of these at the same time without affecting the other and you get more control over the vibrato with the Exclude setting), and add modulation with the note Property.

The advantage it has is the you can do all these things at once. Imo, the disadvantage is that you lack control over the vibratos, because if you select all notes and apply vibrato, vibrato is applied on ALL notes. Go the point #2 in Misconceptions to know why it's bad.

*le gasp* I just found gold!
I'll keep that in mind, thank youuu!!

 

[Mougeki Mero]

Oh, I got a question too: Recently I got some USTs of different peeps and a lot of them makes the "n" vowels (when it is in the same note as the previous, like raC4 then nC4) without any pitchbends. If I apply the simple 2 point pitchbends to it, the sound is the same, so I dont really get why people do this...Any particular reason you might know?

 

[kimchi-tan]

Oh, I got a question too: Recently I got some USTs of different peeps and a lot of them makes the "n" vowels (when it is in the same note as the previous, like raC4 then nC4) without any pitchbends. If I apply the simple 2 point pitchbends to it, the sound is the same, so I dont really get why people do this...Any particular reason you might know?

Are u you talking about something like this? Because I have a hard time understanding what you mean ^^; Can you please send a screenshot?

 

[Mougeki Mero]

Are u you talking about something like this? View attachment 4669 Because I have a hard time understanding what you mean ^^; Can you please send a screenshot?

Oh sorry, I am very shit when explaining things and in english it is even worse XD I mean like this
I've come across lots of USTs with unpitched "n" notes when they are on the same note as the previous syllable.

 

[kimchi-tan]

Oh sorry, I am very shit when explaining things and in english it is even worse XD I mean like thisView attachment 4672
I've come across lots of USTs with unpitched "n" notes when they are on the same note as the previous syllable.

They're on the same pitch, so there isn't a need for a pitchbend in the first place if you're just keeping the pitch steady.