Are Southern US Accents Desirable?

[Chianachini]

Food for thought, are there any opinions on English Utau with a southern accent or drawl?

A lot of people in my area, including me, draw out our vowels and our 'r' sounds are pretty funnycompared to the rest of the US. Hardly anyone has such a thick accent that it couldn't be understood by "Nertherrnerrs" lol, but there are extreme cases. I suppose I can compare it to Miley Cyrus's accent, even though our's is different.

How would an accent affect recording and oto-ing Utau? Do you think it would work out for a country music centered bank? Would it just ruin other voice banks?

 

[✧ Elfrida ✧]

Well, I have a semi-southern accent (probably not a drawl) and I've made a couple of English banks. Aside from my oto andbroken samples it sounded fine and understandable. I imagine overall it'd sound fine in most cases.

 

[Shasta]

if you are doing an English voice bank, a country English voice bank would be interesting and something I'd like to see. Though, wouldn't you have to modify, or create your own reclist so is more suitable for your accent?

 

[Chianachini]

Yes I wonder about the reclist; I don't think Cz's VCCV is designed for accents. I'm not a language expert, so I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

[Shasta]

Yes I wonder about the reclist; I don't think Cz's VCCV is designed for accents. I'm not a language expert, so I wouldn't even know where to start.

I'm not of much help, I'm not an expert either, and I'm not familiar with southern accents. (I'm from the north, Baltimore/New York area..)

 

[✧ Elfrida ✧]

Yes I wonder about the reclist; I don't think Cz's VCCV is designed for accents. I'm not a language expert, so I wouldn't even know where to start.

I think its designed for any sort of American accent, but even British/Australians have used it too.

 

[Cdra]

Accents are greatly reduced when singing, and even more so by the process of breaking apart the samples and reconstructing them in UTAU. However, the unique nature of your vowels can be communicated in UTAU if you so choose -- harder "3" sounds, "@" sounds, drawled "9" sounds, that kind of thing -- for any accent. Just listen to an UTAU made by a British English speaker versus one made by an American English speaker and you'll see what I mean.

So, yes, you can put a Southern accent in an UTAU, but don't over-exaggerate it too much or it won't sound good. Moreso, you can think about how Southern speakers shift their pronunciations and replace phonemes accordingly in the program and you could get the accent to come out more that way.

(Cz's list is more accent-neutral than they originally predicted, so I forsee you being able to use it.)

 

[luiysia]

I think a southern-accented utau would be cool! I dunno if it'd work out but I feel like it should...?

 

[MystSaphyr]

That'd be amazing tbh and I'd love to see other southern-accented banks! I'm planning on making Aiko a heavily accented Tennessean-sounding bank as part of her VCCV options, for the express purpose of covering and/or mocking country music (I grew up in Nashville oops)

 

[HoneyPai]

I think it would be cool! You don't see very many southern accented utau, I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Chianachini]

Accents are greatly reduced when singing, and even more so by the process of breaking apart the samples and reconstructing them in UTAU. However, the unique nature of your vowels can be communicated in UTAU if you so choose -- harder "3" sounds, "@" sounds, drawled "9" sounds, that kind of thing -- for any accent. Just listen to an UTAU made by a British English speaker versus one made by an American English speaker and you'll see what I mean.

So, yes, you can put a Southern accent in an UTAU, but don't over-exaggerate it too much or it won't sound good. Moreso, you can think about how Southern speakers shift their pronunciations and replace phonemes accordingly in the program and you could get the accent to come out more that way.

(Cz's list is more accent-neutral than they originally predicted, so I forsee you being able to use it.)

I can certainly agree that accents shouldn't be exaggerated, and I've also noticed most accents are reduced in song, with the exception of country. I'm not entirely sure if it's the singer or genre that causes that. I should take a close look at English and US singers and Utau to observe their differences.

Glad to know you guys like the idea~

 

[AsheNeff]

I can certainly agree that accents shouldn't be exaggerated, and I've also noticed most accents are reduced in song, with the exception of country. I'm not entirely sure if it's the singer or genre that causes that. I should take a close look at English and US singers and Utau to observe their differences.

Glad to know you guys like the idea~

From what ive noticed both by having a southern accent (native texan) and being raised about country singing it's both singer and genre. People with very little of a southern accent will often play it up for a country song; and those with more prominent accents will find it hard not to have it bleed into their songs no matter what genre; The Band Perry for an example.

Thats how i see it, anyway.

 

[ExistenceReaper]

I don't see the problem, just remember that southern/country accents can vary greatly depending on where you're from, pronunciation wise, phrases, etc.

I'm from Nashville and have heard many people try and mock a "Nashville accent" and get so far from it they only embarrass themselves. My cousin on the other hand is from right outside Nashville and despite the similarity, I'm already having to make minor adjustments to what samples to use.