Is UTAU Complicated?

[meichan]

A controversial text post on tumblr lead me to this question:
Is UTAU complicated?
Is UTAU difficult?

For me, I think UTAU is very simple. It can be boiled down to "record the sample, play back the sample with changed pitch."
OTOs are simply placing the lines in the correct place.
And if you download someone else's USTs, you can render a full cover in about 5 minutes with about no work.

I agree that it can be difficult to make USTs and record voicebanks, but that's not the point of this, as making the USTs is very simple, and not complicated. (make the MIDI, put in the lyrics, tune.)
I agree that tuning and OTOing is tedious, but I wouldn't call it complicated. In mode 1, the pitchbends are literally drawn in with the line tools. In mode 2, the pitchbends are very easy to manipulate.

What is your take? Why would you consider UTAU "complicated" or "difficult"?

 

[TheSnowSongstress]

it depends on the person

For me ust making without a midi is easy, but it's easy for me to learn songs by ear. Plus i took music theory so harmonies aren't too hard to do either

As for otoing, it depends on the style
I HATE otoing CV, but i find VCV incredibly easy and simple. Howver most users think the opposite.

The real question should be "Is UTAU complicated for you?"

 

[shinami]

I think the difficult part about UTAU is learning it and getting into the community. It's a LOT to absorb and memorize, and then there's load of social norms you need to adhere to that newbies often don't know about. Even now every now and then I learn something new about the program/community despite being around for three years.

So yeah, unless someone has a mentor to guide them through everything, UTAU is tough to figure out on one's own. But once you've got it all down it's fairly simple.

 

[Obakebaka]

It depends on what level of quality you want to acheive. Sure, you can throw out a basic CV voicebank with minimal otoing, no aliases and no testing in an hour, but why would you if you wanted to take it more seriously? Especially if you want to render a song with it since you need to choose a resampler, fit and edit the voice for the ust, then render it, send it through to a sound editing program and tweak the parameters 'til you have the best result and then you can say you're finished.

 

[Miramiee]

I think the skill and participation levels of the user kinda determines his/her opinion of utau's difficulty. I mean, if you know what you're doing, everything is easier. If you WANT to know what you're doing, then everything WILL get easier.

The answer to the question really actually depends on the person(like everyone above kinda said). If you ask a newbie, well, they might say it IS complicated. But if you ask a veteran, then it definitely WOULDN'T be complicated.

The only part of utau is that is difficult (for me) is getting into the community. That isn't even so related to utau either. It's just me being too shy to do anything OTL. /patheticsob

 

[kimchi-tan]

If you want to do it the "simple" way: download UST and instrumental, fit the voice, render, sync vocals and instrumental, make a video, post on Nico or YT, BAM, you're done.

But no! We make it complicated: we change the pitch bends/vibrato, put in flags, use plug-in for other stuff, use different resamplers, edit the vocals, edit the instrumental, put it in a video, hear it again if it's okay, THEN post it.

But once you get used to it, what you thought was complicated ends up being simple. It's just how long you do makes it seem complicated.