The Current State Of Utau?

SyntheticToy

Momo's Minion
I've been an Vocal Synthesizer artist and creator since 2012, I'm posting this thread to ask a few questions as I'm very outdated to my knowledge and would love to learn more to continue creating and even innovating some ideas I have planned.

First of all I want to speak of voicebanks. I first started when Japanese CV was most popular and used. then stayed around until Japanese VCV was the most popular. after that I took a long break from UTAU and missed the rise of English CVVC AND VCCV. I came back when Arpasing was actively being updated. I'm a little lost at the moment and a little disappointed to see the development of Moresampler and Arpasing has slowed down and no longer is being supported by the creator. I've been looking at the resources and most of the websites are broken or outdated. I currently have a 8 Pitch Japanese VCV. Monopitch English VCCV and Monopitch Arpasing (using the original creators 1.0 and 2.0 recording list) all are finished. I'm currently brainstorming the marketing and design of my UTAU character but as I'm lost I don't know where or how to share my voicebanks or if anyone is even actively using UTAU anymore. I am interested in DEEPVOCAL but I do not understand at all how it works.

Second. I'd like to speak of the UTAU program itself. from my knowledge the Windows version has not been updated since 2013/9/5 and I'm wondering in the future if it'll become almost unusable as technology advances and I'm wondering if it'll be less engaging for future creators as it's appearance and the way it functions is very obsolete, I was actually working on my own synthesizer for awhile but as I'm battling PTSD and PD and receiving professional help for these diagnoses it's hard for me to truly focus on creating the program. I do think DEEPVOCAL looks modern and could be the next UTAU. I'm being brave saying that but what I've seen from it so far has been incredible but again I do not understand how to use it or import my voicebanks into it. if any of you have resources to help me better understand DEEPVOCAL please let me know.

Third. this may be controversial to speak of but I believe there's a huge factor missing nowadays in terms of UTAU design and marketing. there's a lot of people against following the Crypton Future Media formula but there's a reason it succeeded. think of the VIPPERLOIDS, I do not agree with the "trolling" aspect of their releases but I do believe they have some of the best and most memorable UTAU designs and voices I've seen and heard. we may need to think about marketing our UTAU characters in a way that's memorable and impactful. Kasane Teto is even featured in Project Diva. I have a project in the back of my mind that includes taking some aspects of VOCALOID design and modernizing them to look more "techwear" I also really am losing interest in Japanese music. don't get me wrong I definitely love Japan and it's culture and even some music but as I do not understand Japanese I'd like to focus on English.

Final. I am interested in finding a way to use, innovate and market english voicebanks in a way that is clean, polished and realistic. my final question is what is the best formula for creating english voicebanks. I honestly find it much easier to use English VCCV compared to Arpasing. even then it's a lot of work for not much or nothing in return and I want to find the missing key we need to break into mainstream pop culture as the Crypton Future Media VOCALOIDS did. this thread is not mean to be negative in anyway. if anything it's me asking how we can further this community into the future. I look forward to your responses. thank you for reading.
 
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Sheanna122

Ruko's Ruffians
Defender of Defoko
For English, there has been a new reclist that is very minimal when it comes to how many samples need to be recorded. That is CV-C by Yin-p! A great reclist that has a lot of potential.

CV-C's website
https://cv-c.weebly.com/about.html

There is also another user who is on this forum who goes by Zany! They have updated old world resamplers to be more user friendly/less buggy! Currently, they are working on EFB-BS (According to their twitter. Yes, the name for EFB-BS was decided by a sadistic Twitter poll.)

Here are some of the resamplers they've reworked:

Young3
http://utaforum.net/threads/release-of-experimental-resampler-young3.19342/
W4U
http://utaforum.net/threads/world4utau-update.20035/
TN_FNDSX
http://utaforum.net/threads/tn_fndsx-resampler-download.19373/
 
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WinterdrivE

Ritsu's Renegades
Defender of Defoko
Re:voicebanks, if you’d like to learn more about Arpasing in particular, there’s a small-ish Arpasing Discord server dedicated to it. There’s also a server for learning and helping with UTAU stuff in general. Feel free to DM me if you’re interested.

Cuz that’s also related to your question about where people advertise their UTAUs and where the UTAU community is. It’s largely on discord nowadays. There are a couple of bigger vocalsynth discords floating around and those in addition to twitter seem to be where most people hang out.

Re:UTAU itself, yes this is an actual phenomenon and it’s called abandonware, which up until a month or two ago I would’ve firmly categorized UTAU as. However, Ameya, UTAU’s creator, has recently become active again and has since posted an early build of a new resampler and had also hinted at some other dates last year. I think this means good things as far as UTAU not being totally abandoned, but that said I’m not sure if it means anything as far as UTAU’s interface or general... old crustiness... goes. There hasn’t been any indication that Ameya is doing anything to the front end or the basic framework of the program. But who knows. At least Ameya is alive.

Re:Designs, I know the reason I personally generally dislike Crypton style designs is because it reeks of 2009 and at this point feels kind of old and hackneyed. But more than that I dislike it because vocal synths in general are so much more than just Miku and Crypton and more than even just VOCALOID. I don’t particularly like the idea that Crypton and VOCALOID are the golden standard that needs to be emulated. Each vocal synth can be valued in its own right. And on a more practical note, it’s easier to market a design that’s unique and eye catching rather than one that gets lost in the sea of millions of Miku/Crypton clones. But that’s just my two cents. At the end of the day it’s your UTAU and your character to do with as you please, and ultimately you should do what makes you happy.

Re:English VBs, frankly I don’t think this is possible within the limitations of UTAU simply because of how clunky and unwieldy the program itself is. But I guess my question is why do we, does UTAU, need to aim for Crypton’s level of popularity? I don’t think popularity necessarily needs to be the measuring stick for success. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy it and do it because we enjoy it.

(Also sorry for not really addressing DV. Tbh I haven’t really used it)

[edit]
Oh also I forgot to mention that you can also share your UTAUs in the Showcase here on UF
 
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SyntheticToy

Momo's Minion
Thread starter
Re:I might actually be interested! I think I was just sort of lost after Moresampler development audibly went *poof* I may have to make a discord as this sounds like something I'd be interested in!

Re:UTAU let's just pray that Ameya atleast does some core updates if she feels up to it. maybe she'll see that a lot of us still adore UTAU and would love to see the software grow more.

Re:Designs I agree there I think I just have a soft spot for the pop culture of Crypton VOCALOIDS as this is when I joined but I agree, my idea for my personal design would be techwear which is an actual street style (utility vests, cargo pants) it's futuristic without looking like actual technology if that makes sense.

Re:English VB's I've seen some impressive DEEPVOCAL english voicebanks but until someone makes a tutorial on how to import VB's I have no idea how to use it I just know it supports english quite well.

Re: I may release my UTAU voicebanks in showcase, I'm sick at the moment so don't really have anything else to work on, I might doodle up some concept designs and work on a demo!

I just hope UTAU can stay alive or in general open source vocal synthesis singing programs stay alive.
 

ReticentResolve

Ancient Master of Filibustering
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Re:I might actually be interested! I think I was just sort of lost after Moresampler development audibly went *poof* I may have to make a discord as this sounds like something I'd be interested in!

Re:UTAU let's just pray that Ameya atleast does some core updates if she feels up to it. maybe she'll see that a lot of us still adore UTAU and would love to see the software grow more.

Re:Designs I agree there I think I just have a soft spot for the pop culture of Crypton VOCALOIDS as this is when I joined but I agree, my idea for my personal design would be techwear which is an actual street style (utility vests, cargo pants) it's futuristic without looking like actual technology if that makes sense.

Re:English VB's I've seen some impressive DEEPVOCAL english voicebanks but until someone makes a tutorial on how to import VB's I have no idea how to use it I just know it supports english quite well.

Re: I may release my UTAU voicebanks in showcase, I'm sick at the moment so don't really have anything else to work on, I might doodle up some concept designs and work on a demo!

I just hope UTAU can stay alive or in general open source vocal synthesis singing programs stay alive.

Just in case you want it, here is a tutorial that helped me learn Deep Vocal. (It's really long, but it works in the end lol)

 

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