The Kit Kat Challenge

[Hentai]

When developing Otakune Weeaboo's English VB "Otakune Extenzed" one of the goals was for him to be able to sing in "passable" American English.

One of the questions that popped up during his development was how would we define "passable". I proposed this question to Laura, I'llSeeU-P, Myst, and anyone with an ear for UTAU, or interest in linguistics.

Together, in the end we developed a simple phrase, one that we like to call "The Kit Kat Challenge". Is your UTAU's English "passable" or is that "Engloid" more of an "Engroid" than anything?

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With all the existing English-Language Vocal-Synthesis Voicebanks, and new ones on the horizon, it’s sometimes hard draw a line between which are “Engloids” and which are “Engroids”.

Luckily for us, some people got together and decided to create an English Test for Voicebanks and figure out whcih ones can ‘passably’ sing English.

We like to call it the “Kit Kat Challenge”.

The test is designed to contain a number of phoneme combinations that Japanese voicebanks (and speakers) find difficult to properly emulate and is similar in purpose to the famous English Alphabet test-sentence, “The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.

[Continue reading “The English Test Challenge” »]

You can read the full article here as part of the latest entry in I'llSeeU-P's Kolumn.

Along with overviewing the challenge itself I'llSeeU-P included examples using the PowerFX Engloids he owns. Check it out, try it yourself, discuss it, post your results.

It might be fun to try out on your UTAU!

 

[smeen]

This is beautiful! Not only does it involve Kit Kat, but it really shows of English... I should try this later on.

 

[poundthemochi]

Could I try this with a couple of Japanese UTAU banks?

 

[Hentai]

Could I try this with a couple of Japanese UTAU banks?

You can try but it will be a bit challenging, and results will likely sound very Engrishy. Not that its a bad thing, that is sorta the point of the test. Its just a standard set of phonemes to compare a VB's usability in English with.

 

[poundthemochi]

[quote author=poundthemochi link=topic=1895.msg17697#msg17697 date=1339957199]
Could I try this with a couple of Japanese UTAU banks?

You can try but it will be a bit challenging, and results will likely sound very Engrishy. Not that its a bad thing, that is sorta the point of the test. Its just a standard set of phonemes to compare a VB's usability in English with.
[/quote]
Okay, I'll post the soundcloud results when I'm done.

 

[EspeonLady]

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/espeonlady/i-always-love-a-good-kit-kat[/soundcloud]

Well, nowhere near Engloid perfection, but I tried.

 

[Aline]

I tried it with Aline; She's a Japanese-only bank, but has a few extra phonemes.

http://kiwi6.com/file/2f4b7xi35e

... Not too bad, I guess.*

[sub]*Equalized for your convenience.[/sub]

Another good phrase to test English would be "I'm a member of the Midnight Crew". *shotded*

 

[Ciel Phantomhive]

I tested it with Ciel's VCV ACT2. It's a Japanese-only VCV bank, but I think the result is quite good!
http://soundcloud.com/syekun-2/ciel-shiin-kit-kat-challenge