UTAU that lacks emotion

Pazuru

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Hey there!

I've recorded mutliple banks, and, recently, I thought about releasing them. However, I think that my voicebank is monotone. Like it's lacking emotion or something.

All the UTAUs I see have at least a bit of emotion and power in their voices, but I can't seem to do the same when recording with my natural voice.

So, I was wondering, is it better to voice act when you're making UTAU voicebanks? I try to keep my voice as neutral as possible when I'm recording, is this a problem? Do other people feel the same way about their UTAU?

Sorry is tht was unclear, I rushed it.

Have a good day/night!
 

mahalisyarifuddin

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
The key is all about the tone/timbre! Make sure that you record the samples with your singing timbre instead of boring speaking timbre. This applies to natural voice and even voice-acted one.

In short, sing the samples, and you Utau will also sing for you!

You could listen to examples provided by rev and HydroChromatic. And if you still don't sure what's the difference between singing and speaking timbre, you could read this thread!

I hope this will help!
 
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Pazuru

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
Thank you so much for the tip!

I can't believe I've been recording UTAUs for over than a year without knowing this.
It will greatly improve my voicebanks!
 

Sheanna122

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
What have you done for voice training? Usually it takes a lot of practice to form a good sounding timbre. Have you also practiced warm ups every day before recording? Because if you haven't and you want to do a long recording session, I'd advice against that until you have some experience. Mainly to save your vocals but, also because training your voice is also a key part in UTAU recording; as mahalisyarifuddin said, it's good to sing your samples.

So if you haven't done either of those things, I'd say practice for a week before you plan on recording again.
 

Pazuru

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
What have you done for voice training? Usually it takes a lot of practice to form a good sounding timbre. Have you also practiced warm ups every day before recording? Because if you haven't and you want to do a long recording session, I'd advice against that until you have some experience. Mainly to save your vocals but, also because training your voice is also a key part in UTAU recording; as mahalisyarifuddin said, it's good to sing your samples.

So if you haven't done either of those things, I'd say practice for a week before you plan on recording again.
Well, I'm an untrained singer. I do warmups everyday though. Also, before recording, I always do a few scales.

I'll try to train more before recording again though!
 

VY2's Sexy Lover

Teto's Territory
Defender of Defoko
The voice warm-ups are a great start. A lot also has to do with your energy you're willing to invest in the recording/how you mood is. Some days you just don't feel like recording, and that's okay. Many people also feel they need to sacrifice tone for consistency, which isn't true at all!

Just find a tone you're comfortable with/like the sound of.

Do a couple of test recordings (of the same note) with different tones to see how they render in UTAU. And when you find one that you like and can do it consistently, then you're golden.
 

Awaclus

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
A lot also has to do with your energy you're willing to invest in the recording/how you mood is. Some days you just don't feel like recording, and that's okay.

It's actually better if you don't record every day. You can get the most out of your voice if you take your time warming up, then record for 1-2 hours maximum, and let your voice rest for two days, meaning no singing, no shouting, etc.

It's also worth keeping in mind that the emotion comes largely from tuning and groove. If you have completely flat pitches programmed to the grid, it's pretty much never going to sound emotional no matter what the samples were like, and you can get pretty far with any samples as long as your tuning and groove are appropriate for the song. The samples still matter, like there's a limit to how much it can be tuned to sound pissed off if it's a very soft voice in the samples or vice versa, but ultimately the emotion in vocals comes from feeling the music, and there's no music for you to feel when you're recording the samples, so in practice it's going to end up being the producer's job to do their best to add the appropriate emotion to whatever you have.
 

VY2's Sexy Lover

Teto's Territory
Defender of Defoko
It's actually better if you don't record every day. You can get the most out of your voice if you take your time warming up, then record for 1-2 hours maximum, and let your voice rest for two days, meaning no singing, no shouting, etc.
I never said someone needs to sing every day, I said that there are some days where you don't have the energy for you to emote naturally in your singing. I too would also advise against singing for long periods of time over several days without proper rest for your voice.

I personally feel that having multiple pitches/appends helps a lot if you're looking for a specific sound or vibe for an UTAU, especially if you want one that specializes in only a handful of genres. Otherwise if we were looking at a standard monopitch UTAU, you want to be emotive but consistent in your recordings.

Heck, even throw in some extra recordings for ending breaths, vocal fry, growl or whatever tickles your fancy. It can make a world of difference when it comes to emotion in a singer's performance.
 

Pazuru

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Thread starter
I never said someone needs to sing every day, I said that there are some days where you don't have the energy for you to emote naturally in your singing. I too would also advise against singing for long periods of time over several days without proper rest for your voice.

I personally feel that having multiple pitches/appends helps a lot if you're looking for a specific sound or vibe for an UTAU, especially if you want one that specializes in only a handful of genres. Otherwise if we were looking at a standard monopitch UTAU, you want to be emotive but consistent in your recordings.

Heck, even throw in some extra recordings for ending breaths, vocal fry, growl or whatever tickles your fancy. It can make a world of difference when it comes to emotion in a singer's performance.
The UTAU I'm currently planning to record someday is a multipitch VCV. It will be like a " reboot " of my old multipitch. I'll add ending breaths, as you said. I can't seem to do vocal fry nor growl, so I'll just do breaths and glottal stops.
 
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