Hello,
So, I'd like to think of myself as a rather advanced UTAU user with a bit of a taste for quality and picking out both the flaws and good parts of a vocal. And so, I thought I'd start a small thread where I give critique and tips to popular voicebanks as something to do when I'm bored or as a little bit of a beginner's guide.
Before we begin, I'd like to give some warnings:
1. These are all my opinions, and sometimes my opinions suck. You should always try things for yourself and form your own opinion rather than blindly trusting someone else, even if they're popular (can I call myself that? eh.) or experienced.
2. I have personal biases. I am not a fan of noise, roboticness, or choppiness. I am so picky to the point that I don't like Kasane Teto SynthV, and character comes second to me as almost an afterthought. Virtually the only things I care about are range and clean audio, and I once said a 20 pitch voicebank wasn't realistic enough for me. I also heavily prefer masculine vocals to feminine ones, and almost never use anything other than furloids. There's probably more that I don't even know about.
3. I won't be reviewing English voicebanks. Just don't use them enough.
Basically, Tl;dr, don't take my word as gospel and only take your opinion and taste into consideration when considering which voicebank you want to download or use. The point of vocal synthesis is to have fun, and I get my fun from pretending to be a professional on a dead forum from the 2010s.
Now, without further ado, let's get onto my first utau review. And what better vocal to review first than the vocal both you and I likely used and heard of first?
All in all, Kasane Teto isn't good, but is also far from the worst. She has various problems and is okay for beginners, but probably isn't recommended if you want to do more professional and realistic works. Of course, if your goal is more realistic and stylized works and you want to be the next Haraguchi Sasuke for some teenage furry to make a medley of your songs (hah), then go for it. However, if you want to dip your toes into the more extreme depths of the engine, you may want to look elsewhere.
So, I'd like to think of myself as a rather advanced UTAU user with a bit of a taste for quality and picking out both the flaws and good parts of a vocal. And so, I thought I'd start a small thread where I give critique and tips to popular voicebanks as something to do when I'm bored or as a little bit of a beginner's guide.
Before we begin, I'd like to give some warnings:
1. These are all my opinions, and sometimes my opinions suck. You should always try things for yourself and form your own opinion rather than blindly trusting someone else, even if they're popular (can I call myself that? eh.) or experienced.
2. I have personal biases. I am not a fan of noise, roboticness, or choppiness. I am so picky to the point that I don't like Kasane Teto SynthV, and character comes second to me as almost an afterthought. Virtually the only things I care about are range and clean audio, and I once said a 20 pitch voicebank wasn't realistic enough for me. I also heavily prefer masculine vocals to feminine ones, and almost never use anything other than furloids. There's probably more that I don't even know about.
3. I won't be reviewing English voicebanks. Just don't use them enough.
Basically, Tl;dr, don't take my word as gospel and only take your opinion and taste into consideration when considering which voicebank you want to download or use. The point of vocal synthesis is to have fun, and I get my fun from pretending to be a professional on a dead forum from the 2010s.
Now, without further ado, let's get onto my first utau review. And what better vocal to review first than the vocal both you and I likely used and heard of first?
Kasane Teto
The Good:
Kasane Teto is a classic voicebank with a very versatile and recognizable sound. Using her is guaranteed to be easy and pull in use. She works good with almost every resampler and most flags and has a very consistent quality and tone. Her status as a multiexpression voicebank allows her to switch between her voicebanks rather easily, while her aforementioned consistent quality and tone allows her to do so without much loss of quality. Skilled use of her expressions allows you to get realism or stylization fairly easily.The Bad:
Kasane Teto's voicebank is rather buggy and has a good few errors. Her voicebanks are also all rather noisy compared to more modern voicebank standards, likely due to the older status of her voicebanks. The main issue I also regularly run into is her rather limited range due to her only having a single pitch recorded for all of her expressions (why is the most popular and profitable utau voicebank only a monopitch? the world may never know).All in all, Kasane Teto isn't good, but is also far from the worst. She has various problems and is okay for beginners, but probably isn't recommended if you want to do more professional and realistic works. Of course, if your goal is more realistic and stylized works and you want to be the next Haraguchi Sasuke for some teenage furry to make a medley of your songs (hah), then go for it. However, if you want to dip your toes into the more extreme depths of the engine, you may want to look elsewhere.