Recording a voicebank

[nishikinoki]

Hi guys! I'm recording a voicebank for UTAU- I've looked up a ton of tutorials, and this will definitely be a learning experience, but there are things I want to ask before I get started.

- Are there any tips that really give a voicebank that really push them to higher quality?
- How do I go about actually recording vocal fry or growl samples? Or a power edge to the end of the note?
- How many pitches should I record at for a CV voicebank? My power range is from B4 to about D5, but my full range is an F4 to a C#6. I know I shouldn't record every note, and I'll probably do two separate voice banks with different strengths.

tbh i should've put this in help and advice but i'm new idk what i'm doing.

 

[the-neo-romantic]

Well the quality of your voice samples depends on your mic's quality. So yeah - use a decent mic. (there is like, tons of threads about microphones, so I won't go on a tangent about this) Also removing background noise from your samples is a nice thing to do, although I wouldn't advise on editing the samples in any other way than this, or just adjusting their volume. (they shouldn't be too quiet so you can do the oto properly)

About growls and vocal fries - if you don't feel comfortable recording them onto your vb right now, then you could always make an update, and add them later.
Although not many CV voicebanks use growls and vocal fries? So you could add them to a possible VCV/CVVC/what else vb, if you ever want to record them.
About multipitch - you could record two pitches if it suits your vb and it would be fine! But many voicebanks use from 3 to maybe 6 pitches. Choose whatever pitches you're comfortable with, but if your range is close to F4 -C#6, maybe it could be G4-C5-E5-A5?( But that's just my idea, don't even quote me on this. :D) Also, that's pretty high, I would like to hear a voicebank with a high range that comes of as natural.

 

[taigz]

Neo said everything I was gonna say. But I'll add up some things.

For multipitch, I'd recommend at least 3 pitches. Record first your main pitch, then 4-5 semitones down, then 4-5 semitones up. DON'T make them too near/too far, or else it'll sound weird. The more pitches, the more natural-sounding your UTAU will be, but the voicebank will be large. Not much of a problem with CV voicebanks but those like multipitch VCV voicebanks are really large.

CV voicebanks rarely have growls and vocal fries. But who knows? Might be a cool addition. A CV voicebank with add-ons like those.

 

[Kiyoteru]

- Are there any tips that really give a voicebank that really push them to higher quality?

If you're already a singer, it'll likely turn out better than if you're a non-singer.
Good equipment helps a lot. I don't know what microphone you're currently planning to use, but if you want advice on buying the right microphone in the future, I recommend talking to @_caustic_ about it.
Commission someone for the OTO. While it's good to learn how the voicebank works and understand the concepts, that's more of a "learning how to UTAU" thing. If you're only focused on the quality, you should find someone who's already very proficient at OTOing and can do a thorough job.

 

[nishikinoki]

If you're already a singer, it'll likely turn out better than if you're a non-singer.
Good equipment helps a lot. I don't know what microphone you're currently planning to use, but if you want advice on buying the right microphone in the future, I recommend talking to @_caustic_ about it.
Commission someone for the OTO. While it's good to learn how the voicebank works and understand the concepts, that's more of a "learning how to UTAU" thing. If you're only focused on the quality, you should find someone who's already very proficient at OTOing and can do a thorough job.

Ahhhh, thanks for the commission advice. Since I've been thinking about maybe doing sets of VCV instead, that's probably more efficient for me, too.
[doublepost=1492735194][/doublepost]

Neo said everything I was gonna say. But I'll add up some things.

For multipitch, I'd recommend at least 3 pitches. Record first your main pitch, then 4-5 semitones down, then 4-5 semitones up. DON'T make them too near/too far, or else it'll sound weird. The more pitches, the more natural-sounding your UTAU will be, but the voicebank will be large. Not much of a problem with CV voicebanks but those like multipitch VCV voicebanks are really large.

CV voicebanks rarely have growls and vocal fries. But who knows? Might be a cool addition. A CV voicebank with add-ons like those.

Is it better to do a lower mora VCV or a higher one? Is there any quality difference?

 

[Kiyoteru]

Is it better to do a lower mora VCV or a higher one? Is there any quality difference?

If you do a higher mora reclist, you'll be able to record it more quickly. However, if you're not a trained singer, you may run out of breath at the end of each string. This can have adverse effects on the tone consistency. In that case, you'd want to use a lower mora reclist.
The downside of low mora is that you end up with lots of duplicate samples in the OTO, so it's not very efficient. But an efficient low mora reclist is Suyeon's No Nonsense list. Alternatively, you can use my tool for numbering duplicates, and set the maximum to 0 to delete them all.