New art by the lovely, melobunii! I updated the site with it and the thread. (silhouette again for now.)
That's a weird error, the site works just fine for the team. We added about who made Festival on the SELENA page and answered some of those questions, but apparently there's that error, so we'll work on it.The artistic presentation is looking better (though I'm going by the new silhouette), but the site still needs a lot of work.
- Selena's page - upon clicking on it - leads to nowhere (I'm looking at a blank white page) and doesn't even have a link back to the home page
- The Home page is now baffling in that it is bereft of any information whatsoever but for that single news blurb.
You still need a FAQ page answering the following questions:
1. What is Festival and why should we (the audience) invest in a voice made for it? What makes it a better synth than the higher profile competition (UTAU, Vocaloid, Voiceroid, Cevio, NiaoNiao, Synsy, etc.)?
2. Who develops for Festival?
3. Why did Selena's team join in this project and why do they feel that she'll be worth the audience use of her (will she be easy to use for people who've never used this software before? will she be of high quality and recorded in a studio environment or at the very least on an xlr with an interface?)
4. Will the profits for this project go toward Festival development? Have they themselves endorsed this product and are aware of its existence?
5. Provide notable examples of the engine's use for both speech and singing.
Transparency is key in projects like these, especially since the group has not developed any hype beyond this thread or by way of heavy promotion. No one knows who this group is, so you need to come off as professional as possible. Don't expose the site until all usability bugs has been dealt with and all questions in said FAQ has been answered. If you don't want this project to fail, I hope this advice will be of some use.
Minor spelling correction. I also think you should mention why it's also something people should consider over Vocaloid, CeVIO, ect. Not just UTAU. You have to attract your audience.1. What is Festival and why is it better than UTAU? Festival is a text to speech synthesizer that is also able to sing with the plugin Flinger. It was made by the University of Edinburgh and gets updates normally. It is better than UTAU because it is able tospeekspeak AND sing which proves useful seeing as how many YouTube videos use text to speech software.
Perhaps it would be better to word this in a more inviting way, like...3. Will it be easy to work with SELENA? Yes, it is a normal experience and is not truly difficult.
Don't you think it's a bit rude to not give some money to the people who created the synth that makes your so-called "diva" possible? Especially because Festival isn't popular.4. Will the profits for this project go toward Festival development? Sadly, no. It will go to future divas instead.
1. What is Festival and why is it better than UTAU? Festival is a text to speech synthesizer that is also able to sing with the plugin Flinger. It was made by the University of Edinburgh and gets updates normally. It is better than UTAU because it is able tospeekspeak AND sing which proves useful seeing as how many YouTube videos use text to speech software.
A unique selling proposition (USP, also seen as unique selling point) is a factor that differentiates a product from its competitors, such as the lowest cost, the highest quality or the first-ever product of its kind. A USP could be thought of as “what you have that competitors don't.”
Will it be easy to work with SELENA? Yes, it is a normal experience and is not truly difficult.
Will the profits for this project go toward Festival development? Sadly, no. It will go to future divas instead.
Digital_S is a team of UTAU members who wanted to make a voice for the community.
Yes, Festival itself is for non-commercial use. This does not apply to voicebanks created with the engine. We own full ownership of those files. The reason we aren't giving a compensation or paying their research team is because we do not have the info to do so. They do not list a paypal on their site or any other means of paying them. If they reply to our email about wanting to pay them any time soon we would gladly pay them. The spelling mistakes are simple mistakes. They will be fixed. EDIT: Also those sources might have been old since Festival was first made in 2001. Their updated site says unrestricted commercial use and non-commercial use. (Also, we are making tutorials.)Okay, so I have some more pointers and problems that you will face,
First off, I have done some research into festival. Festival is for non commercialised use and is, as such, a research project. This means you will run into legalities if you choose to move forward with this. Besides also not offering to donate monies to the actual cause is wrong on so many levels. If you were to obtain a license to do this they would look for compensation for it. Honestly it leaves a bad taste in ones mouth. Festival is still early beta days, it is not of high enough standard and quality wise is worse then common freeware synthesisers.
The way you have described things on the website can appear arrogant to most people, this means a lot of people will not look twice at this project. Attitude goes a long way if you are trying to make something commercially viable.
Honestly I would recommend sticking to UTAU its still commercially viable. It would be less legalities and less of a chance to be sued if you choose to sell it. Honestly, I would not look at selling something unless it was proper home studio quality or above.
Look again, I’m not here to make enemies more to warn you of your outcomes coming from a business sort of field when it comes to synth production and products.
You can do voice acting if you would like. If it truly feels like it's the only way. No editing in programs though.Festival? I thought it's only a TTS program Owo
One Q tho, can we act out the voices instead of using our natural voice? For the contest, I meandespite the fact that there's a 0% chance I'll be ever trying out.
You can do voice acting if you would like. If it truly feels like it's the only way. No editing in programs though.
Ok it's already been said but I'd like to throw in my two cents here-
For one, since Festival is for non-commercial use, you can't sell anything made with it. For instance, say someone has it in their UTAU TOU that their voicebank cannot be used for commercial purposes. You can argue that you own the song or w/e that you're using it for and therefore can sell it , but the TOU still prohibits it. Sorta the case you're facing here with Festival
Also, the fact that you won't be giving at least a tiny bit of compensation to the Festival developers for letting you use their software commercially (assuming they do) is just rude tbh
Ok it's already been said but I'd like to throw in my two cents here-
Also, the fact that you won't be giving at least a tiny bit of compensation to the Festival developers for letting you use their software commercially (assuming they do) is just rude tbh
Ehhh she did say that they would if their email about compensating them gets a response, so at the current time they won't/can't?
That may be the case, but if, say, one of the Festival developers looks on their site and doesn't sit here and read through this whole thread, the only answer they would see to the question "Will you be compensating the developers?" is a pretty solid "nope"