I want to make my first voice bank. Where do I even start?

[Pinkie_draws_stuff]

Hi guys! I've been a UTAU and Vocaloid fan for years but up until very recently, I felt like giving this whole voice bank stuff a go! I have a LOT of questions so let's get this started.

So I've heard CV voice banks are the easiest ones to make. How do you go about recording your voice bank? Any other software you would recommend? I have heard of OREMO from doing research but I'm still very unsure of how all this works. Is there a right or wrong way to record? Do you need any music experience? I know this a lot but I'm very new to all of this. I still haven't even downloaded UTAU yet! And lastly, any tips for complete beginners who are starting from scratch?

Thank you guys! ^^

-Pinkie

 

[Berrweary]

One mistake a lot of newbies make is forgetting to set their computer's system locale to Japanese. Do that first, or everything might show up as weird text.
Just go to your pcs control panel and navigate to clock and region and then go to region and administrative which should look like this, then hit change system locale.

Recording CV voice banks isn't all that hard; just make sure you pronounce the syllables correctly. Once you're done recording, you'll want to oto the recordings so UTAU can read them properly. I recommend SetParam for the otoing since it has an auto-oto feature, but it's not perfect, so you'll need to edit the oto a bit. You can also oto inside UTAU, but I’d suggest doing that if a certain syllable sounds off, so you can listen to it and edit it. (To do that, just select the note that doesn't sound right and hit Ctrl + G.) And no, you don't need much music experience unless you plan on making original music.

If you want a more realistic or high-quality voice bank, then you should consider recording a VCV voice bank. VCV has the smoothest transitions and blends the notes together really well. Recording it can take some time, and otoing it can take a while, but the results will be amazing! However, for beginners, CV is recommended since it's easier.

If you want a voice bank that's somewhat close to VCV but don't feel ready to try VCV, I would suggest CVVC. It's easier to record, and there's not as much to record compared to VCV, which has over 160 recordings.

Some tips:

• Get Plugins: They help A LOT in UTAU, especially plugins like Hiragana to Romaji for people with romaji-aliased characters in their voice bank.
• Use Different Resamplers: I recommend Moresampler since it can make voice banks sound really good. There are other options like TIPS and fresamp, but you can use whatever fits your voice bank.
• Tune Your USTs: If you find an untuned UST or just made one yourself, adding some pitch bends and vibratos can really bring your USTs (the files used for UTAU songs) to life. This can take an hour or two, but it's worth it and can be fun sometimes.
• Record in a Quiet Place: Background noise can make your UTAU sound a bit muffled, so try to record in a quiet environment.

If you have any more questions, you can DM me on Discord if you'd like: @Berryweary. I'd be happy to answer whatever I can

 

[Pinkie_draws_stuff]

One mistake a lot of newbies make is forgetting to set their computer's system locale to Japanese. Do that first, or everything might show up as weird text.
Just go to your pcs control panel and navigate to clock and region and then go to region and administrative which should look like this, then hit change system locale.View attachment 12616

Recording CV voice banks isn't all that hard; just make sure you pronounce the syllables correctly. Once you're done recording, you'll want to oto the recordings so UTAU can read them properly. I recommend SetParam for the otoing since it has an auto-oto feature, but it's not perfect, so you'll need to edit the oto a bit. You can also oto inside UTAU, but I’d suggest doing that if a certain syllable sounds off, so you can listen to it and edit it. (To do that, just select the note that doesn't sound right and hit Ctrl + G.) And no, you don't need much music experience unless you plan on making original music.

If you want a more realistic or high-quality voice bank, then you should consider recording a VCV voice bank. VCV has the smoothest transitions and blends the notes together really well. Recording it can take some time, and otoing it can take a while, but the results will be amazing! However, for beginners, CV is recommended since it's easier.

If you want a voice bank that's somewhat close to VCV but don't feel ready to try VCV, I would suggest CVVC. It's easier to record, and there's not as much to record compared to VCV, which has over 160 recordings.

Some tips:

• Get Plugins: They help A LOT in UTAU, especially plugins like Hiragana to Romaji for people with romaji-aliased characters in their voice bank.
• Use Different Resamplers: I recommend Moresampler since it can make voice banks sound really good. There are other options like TIPS and fresamp, but you can use whatever fits your voice bank.
• Tune Your USTs: If you find an untuned UST or just made one yourself, adding some pitch bends and vibratos can really bring your USTs (the files used for UTAU songs) to life. This can take an hour or two, but it's worth it and can be fun sometimes.
• Record in a Quiet Place: Background noise can make your UTAU sound a bit muffled, so try to record in a quiet environment.

If you have any more questions, you can DM me on Discord if you'd like: @Berryweary. I'd be happy to answer whatever I can

Wow! Thank you so much for replying! Can you give me a run down on what otoing is exactly? I've heard of the term thrown around a lot as someone who listens to Vocaloid and UTAU songs a lot but never really knew what it meant. Is it kinda like tuning? How do you know 100% for sure if you have pronounced the Japanese syllables correctly? I did try and attempt to learn (Attempt being the key word here) Hiragana using one of those language learning songs for voicebank stuff since I want to get the pronunciation right and all but when I see the Japanese characters, I go "AHHH!!" Lol. I don't mean to be that person but is there a way to have the UTAU software in English or Romaji? How many recordings do CV voicebanks need? My mic is a cheap 25 dollar mic. Will that be ok to record with? Would I need a pop filter or anything? Would there be a way to find a reclist for the CV pronunciations? Also how on earth do you tune anyway?


This is more to do with the software itself but I saw a lot of how to download videos and it talks about downloading the version v0.4.18e which I was gonna download but then I saw a new version of it. This one to be more precise.

Will it work the same as the previous software versions before it? Have you tried this version out yourself personally? Last question but if I wanted to have a go at making songs with other UTAU voicebanks, is there a software you would recommend for newbies first vocaloid/UTAU song?

Thank you again and sorry to spam you with more questions!

 

[Kiyoteru]

I would recommend using more modern tools like OpenUtau, RecStar, and vLabeler, which are beginner friendly and actively maintained.

I understand that without any background knowledge or experience, you have a lot of questions all at once. However, that does make this thread a bit hard to answer, as there are many, many topics to discuss in quite a lot of depth. How has your journey been so far with researching UTAU tutorials? Over the past 15 years there should be plenty of resources that provide step by step guides. Could you highlight your most critical questions so that we can thoroughly answer them one at a time?

I also run a discord server called St. Defoko's School of UTAU, which is aimed at beginners who learn more easily from chatting with people in real time. However, forum threads allow us to have longer, more detailed conversations that can be read by anyone online. You may want to browse the rest of UtaForum and read other threads about the same questions you have, since these may provide the answers you're looking for too.

 

[Pinkie_draws_stuff]

I would recommend using more modern tools like OpenUtau, RecStar, and vLabeler, which are beginner friendly and actively maintained.

I understand that without any background knowledge or experience, you have a lot of questions all at once. However, that does make this thread a bit hard to answer, as there are many, many topics to discuss in quite a lot of depth. How has your journey been so far with researching UTAU tutorials? Over the past 15 years there should be plenty of resources that provide step by step guides. Could you highlight your most critical questions so that we can thoroughly answer them one at a time?

I also run a discord server called St. Defoko's School of UTAU, which is aimed at beginners who learn more easily from chatting with people in real time. However, forum threads allow us to have longer, more detailed conversations that can be read by anyone online. You may want to browse the rest of UtaForum and read other threads about the same questions you have, since these may provide the answers you're looking for too.

Hi! I'm so sorry for spamming questions! I'm just really keen and I got carried away! Lol.

I mostly just wanted to know where to start and how to make my first voice bank! Basically the questions in the first post in this thread.
Well I'm sort of aware that you need to change one of the settings to Japanese and then download UTAU. I feel like the more I google, the more intimating it is! Lol!

Wow that's so cool that you run a discord server! It seems like fun! Is it ok if I join the discord?

Thank you for answering my thread! Again, sorry for the spam!

 

[Kiyoteru]

Well I'm sort of aware that you need to change one of the settings to Japanese and then download UTAU.

If you want to use classic UTAU, follow these setup instructions.

Install UTAU in English on Windows 10

This tutorial will go over 4 steps to set up UTAU. Changing system locale Checking the decimal separator Installing UTAU Changing UTAU to English Changing system locale In order for UTAU to work correctly, you will need to set your system...

utaforum.net

No special setup is necessary if you want to use OpenUtau.
www.openutau.com/

how to make my first voice bank

What languages are you interested in?
It's common for English-speaking UTAU users to start with Japanese, because they often discover UTAU via Japanese music and the language is phonetically simpler than English. However, Japanese isn't strictly necessary. For example, Mandarin Chinese speakers will start by making mandarin voicebanks right away. If you're interested in constructed languages like Toki Pona, that's another language that will let you make a simple UTAU voicebank very quickly.

Wow that's so cool that you run a discord server! It seems like fun! Is it ok if I join the discord?

Feel free to join St. Defoko's School of UTAU from the link in my forum signature.

 

[Pinkie_draws_stuff]

If you want to use classic UTAU, follow these setup instructions.

Install UTAU in English on Windows 10

This tutorial will go over 4 steps to set up UTAU. Changing system locale Checking the decimal separator Installing UTAU Changing UTAU to English Changing system locale In order for UTAU to work correctly, you will need to set your system...

utaforum.net

No special setup is necessary if you want to use OpenUtau.
www.openutau.com/


What languages are you interested in?
It's common for English-speaking UTAU users to start with Japanese, because they often discover UTAU via Japanese music and the language is phonetically simpler than English. However, Japanese isn't strictly necessary. For example, Mandarin Chinese speakers will start by making mandarin voicebanks right away. If you're interested in constructed languages like Toki Pona, that's another language that will let you make a simple UTAU voicebank very quickly.


Feel free to join St. Defoko's School of UTAU from the link in my forum signature.

Thank you so much! ^^

Oh! I had no idea that were that many options! That's good to know. I have heard that making a Japanese CV voicebank is the easiest way to make/start a voicebank but I would like to make an English voicebank one day. That's if I get good at it of course! Is open UTAU any different from the classic UTAU?

 

[Kiyoteru]

I have heard that making a Japanese CV voicebank is the easiest way to make/start a voicebank

This is a voicebank that you'll make primarily for the purposes of setup and troubleshooting, to quickly resolve any technical issues.

Here's a link to a short, bare-essentials reclist.

JP CV | Wasteland UTAU

wastelandutau.neocities.org

Once you're able to make a basic voicebank, we can move on to making English voicebanks. But if you're interested in covering Japanese songs, we can also continue working on Japanese voicebanks for a while.

Is open UTAU any different from the classic UTAU?

OpenUtau has significantly more features that make it more beginner friendly. For example, when you use English voicebanks, you can type the lyrics as plain words. OpenUtau will automatically break the words into phonemes for you, so you don't need to edit everything manually.

 

[Berrweary]

Wow! Thank you so much for replying! Can you give me a run down on what otoing is exactly? I've heard of the term thrown around a lot as someone who listens to Vocaloid and UTAU songs a lot but never really knew what it meant. Is it kinda like tuning? How do you know 100% for sure if you have pronounced the Japanese syllables correctly? I did try and attempt to learn (Attempt being the key word here) Hiragana using one of those language learning songs for voicebank stuff since I want to get the pronunciation right and all but when I see the Japanese characters, I go "AHHH!!" Lol. I don't mean to be that person but is there a way to have the UTAU software in English or Romaji? How many recordings do CV voicebanks need? My mic is a cheap 25 dollar mic. Will that be ok to record with? Would I need a pop filter or anything? Would there be a way to find a reclist for the CV pronunciations? Also how on earth do you tune anyway?


This is more to do with the software itself but I saw a lot of how to download videos and it talks about downloading the version v0.4.18e which I was gonna download but then I saw a new version of it. This one to be more precise.
View attachment 12617
Will it work the same as the previous software versions before it? Have you tried this version out yourself personally? Last question but if I wanted to have a go at making songs with other UTAU voicebanks, is there a software you would recommend for newbies first vocaloid/UTAU song?

Thank you again and sorry to spam you with more questions!

otoing isn't really tuning, its basically setting marks on the audio which tells utau how to play the word correctly. and you can get utau in english you'll still need to have a Japanese locale so the installation doesn't mess up. In the download page of utau there should be a english version which if im correct is "2013/9/5 最新版 v0.4.18e" (thats the one i have rn) And you do not need a expensive mic to make a voice bank as long as theres no background noise a cheap mic can get the job done. as for reclist oremo english comes with a romaji cv reclist for recording.

For tuning i use an plugin to help me make the pitchbends more accurately. theres alot of tuning tutorials out there im sure you can find one!
I might make a tutorial because its really hard to find good tutorials but i can link to a person whos made good tuts that persons videos

if you need help with otoing you can dm me on discord, cv is very easy to oto so i'll be happy to help

(btw if you wanna test how your vb sounds before going all in i suggest you record till the "ya" sample also setparam has a auto oto feature which works well with cv)

link to oremo english