CV Tips and Suggestions?

[LightBadger]

I much prefer CV banks because they sound more like when the UTAU community first started. Like with the Teto song "Kasane Territory"

I've been wondering though. There are some REALLY high quality CV voicebanks out there that sound almost like CV. Nukupoid and Ritsu Namine for example. (I know they also have VCV voicebanks)

Does anyone know how I could get mine to sound smooth like that? I've been experimenting a lot and just about the only thing I haven't done is tried a new mic. Maybe there are some preferred mics out there? I've been really wanting a smooth voicebank, but I really don't want to sit and oto a VCV voicebank for four hours .-. I just don't have the motivation xP

 

[PurinPuff]

I think it's mainly how you record your samples (mic quality and voice consistency) and how you .oto.

I wouldn't be able to say this for certain, but I believe that rentan encoding has potential to make things sound smoother.

Rentan recording is similar to recording in VCV because it is recorded in strings, but instead of the sample being like: ababobabeba, it would be recorded in strings of CV: a e i o u n, then: ba be bi bo bu, and so on. I can't confirm that it's effective, for sure; I have two of these voicebanks, but one is MUCH more smooth than the other.

【UTAU】　NOIR　＋　なぎっぽいど　【音源配布所リンク】 +VBs

The first voicebank is NOIR, who is rentan encoded. I'm not too sure about the second voicebank, Nagipoid.

 

[tady159]

Good quality generally helps with realism. I don't say "BUY THE BEST MICROPHONE YOU CAN", because this is not necessarily true. But if you can get a good quality, this is enough.
The problem of CV is that it can easily sound choppy, and this breaks the realism.
Consistency on recording is needed to help on the realism (in other words: to not record a strong sample, and then a weak sample, nor to change the accent suddenly).
Since CV repeats the syllables a lot more often than VCV (on VCV each syllable has at least 7 variations), it is needed to avoid anything that can make the repetition stand out, like an air poof, or any characteristic that would make the syllable stand out.

And, for smoothnes itself, it is needed to have a good CV configuration. There is a way that on most of the time CAN mimic how the transition between sounds work, BUT in sometimes it will sound choppy, needing some tweaking while working on the song.

A very plain CV configuration will work too, but with some consonants, it will not mimic the transition properly, then, this reduces the realism, but doesn't affect the smoothnes

 

[LightBadger]

Wow, thanks for this. I never would have thought to do any of that xP
I'm pretty dumb sometimes :P
Thanks for these things, I'm gonna attempt some of them as soon as I can.

 

[Raiyux]

What they said. XD

Basically, just make sure that you record everything at the same volume and pitch. Making sure your oto's are done right also helps things to flow. ^^

However...Don't forget that there are things other than recording techniques that make those UTAU sound smoother. I think editing is also important. For example, TIPS resampler makes CV banks sound smoother. A lot of it is also in the mixing. Plus, if the UST you use has great pitchbends and envelopes, that also contributes to better flowiness.

 

[LightBadger]

Do you know where I can find TIPS?
I've looked every corner of the internet and I can't find it xP
Links would be great, but just telling me where is nice too :3

 

[tady159]

This page has links to all available synthesis engines for UTAU http://www20.atwiki.jp/utaou/pages/65.html you will just not be able to get the old TIPS version.