Any advice for someone who has never tuned before [OpenUtau]

[-ZERO-]

I just completed filling out the phonetics of my piece and got to start tuning. However, I have never tuned in before and I don't know the process for doing so. The only thing I know is pitch bends and vibrato, so I got a few questions.
(For context I'm currently using AICA VCCV (english).)

What is a flag
What is a resampler (I downloaded freesamp and tn_fnds because that's what AICA's readme mentioned but the only sampler that shows up is worldline-r leading me to believe that I'm misunderstanding how resamplers work)
What is fry
What is A la Carte
How does velocity work
What are expressions
What is a vocal shifter (and should I use it since I'm creating an OG work, or does it only work for covers?)
Can you copy pitch bends and paste them on a different set of notes like you can do using the clipboard plug-in in the OG Utau
Why can't I find the tab for modulation (is it an extra plugin I got to download?)


Also just a final question, but with AICA I noticed she has a few weird popping sounds, the sort you'd expect from someone bumping against a microphone, something I haven't seen happen with CZloid, which is weird because in AICA's release video she doesn't seem to have that problem.

I'm very sorry if these are a lot of common knowledge questions, I have been trying to do research on these topics all day and some of these are bit hard to find (and tbh this list was a lot longer originally).
If there are any tutorials out there that already deal with these questions feel free to link them to me, and if you got any visual examples that would be greatly appreciated ^_^

 

[Kiyoteru]

Resamplers are the rendering engines for processing notes. You need to change the renderer from WORLDLINE-R to CLASSIC, and then you can use the gear icon to pick your default resampler for the track.

Flags are used by resamplers as adjustable parameters. You can add and edit them in Tools > Expressions. There's a few already there, but you can add extras if there are some default values you want to set, or something you want to edit throughout the song.

Vocal fry is a vocal technique. Sometimes a few voicebanks might include extra samples for this. Check what kinds of extra samples are included in the one you're using, like breaths, vocal fry, glottal stops, etc. These are not standard inclusions so you won't always find them.

"Omakase" or "a la carte" is a menu in classic UTAU that adjusts crossfsde and vibrato. In OpenUtau the crossfades are automatic, and you can use note defaults to specify when you want automatic vibrato (eg. Always on notes longer than quarter notes) so that you don't have to manually add it to each note.

The VEL parameter in openutau corresponds exactly to consonant velocity in classic UTAU. This will stretch/shrink the area of the envelope that sticks out to the left of the actual note. (Yes, the envelope SHOULD stick out to the left of the note. This is how it's able to blend smoothly with the previous note and have correct timing.)

Vocalshifter is an external application for viewing and editing vocal tracks. For an original song you might want to try singing the song yourself and using Vocalshifter just to view the pitch you sing. Then use it for visual reference while editing the pitch in openutau, so that you know where you want to put pitchbends and vibrato.

Copying and pasting pitchbends without copying the entire note is not yet supported. For now, you'll need to copy the whole note and then change the lyrics.

To use additional expressions, click on the arrow to open the menu. Modulation isn't shown by default but it should always be an option in the menu.

 

[-ZERO-]

Holy hell that was quick O_o, thank you very much, the advice you have given me throughout this process has been of great help.

On the note of copying pitchbends not yet being supported, would I be able to take the ust from openutau, put it into og utau, paste the pitchbends and then import it back to open utau, or would that just mess things up?

 

[Kiyoteru]

If you export to UST, you'll lose everything that's openutau-only. For example, expression edits or phoneme edits.