VOCALOID vs UTAU

Which do you prefer or find better?


  • Total voters
    7

nirereru

Teto's Territory
Which do you believe is the better program? Why?
List what you like about each (if you've used both) or just one.
Are there any features you wish could be swapped or added to one program that the other program has?

I'm curious.
 

Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Despite quality inconsistencies between voicebanks that UTAU may suffer and it's smaller general popularity compared to VOCALOID, I still feel that the program itself is very versatile. I have only briefly used vocaloid, Galaco's tiny editor but mostly experience with nonlegitimate versions. While it's pretty easy to make notes, input lyrics, and have it sound decent, I think UTAU offers more flexibility especially because of being able to configure voices directly.
 

Tema

Living Katsudon
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I haven't used Vocaloid much yet, but I agree with Adlez that UTAU is more flexible. I read a post on Tumblr once where someone said that UTAU is a lot better for English since it gives you more control over pronunciation and things like that. The fact that it's free and there's a wide variety of banks readily available are probably my favorite things about UTAU.

That said, I'm not super skilled with UTAU, so the more professional quality of Vocaloid is appealing to me. The main problem I'm having with getting used to it, though, is not being able to see the portamentos directly on the notes. Pitchbending seems more straightforward in UTAU.

One thing I'd like to see in both of them is better search/jump functions. Songs with lots of/big instrumental breaks are a bit of a pain to me because I find myself scrolling a lot. The start and stop markers in Vocaloid are kind of helpful, but they could use a little improvement. What would be really nice, although I don't know how practical it would be to implement, are DAW-like markers.

Overall I'd say which program is better depends on the individual goals someone has. The more I think about it, the more I lean towards UTAU, but I don't regret getting Vocaloid (I feel hella guilty for not using it much yet though).
 

nirereru

Teto's Territory
Thread starter
I have very little experience with UTAU, so I'm leaning more towards VOCALOID. I've had a lot of experience with it, so I naturally find it easier to use. I also think pitchbending is pretty easy. ((Why do so many people say pitchbending in UTAU is easier, anyway?))

But my opinion is really only based on my experience, and I'm not smart enough to try to figure out how to use a VCV UTAU when I'm not even good with CV.
 

shinami

Procrastination Queen
Tutor
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I think it will always depend on which one you started with first. They are very different when it comes to editing VSQs/USTs, so often if you're used to one you'll find the other when you start using it confusing, irritating, and difficult.

At least, that's how I feel about Vocaloid. :'D

To give Vocaloid some credit, I've been using UTAU for over 3 years now and I own two very hard to use Vocaloids (Tonio, who I regret buying since it was full price whyyy did I, and Miki, who was in the AHS bundle sale and a good catch but is VERY hard to work with).

But there's lots of things they do differently. UTAU gets the advantage of being free, so point for that. Vocaloid has an interesting method of editing the note qualities with OPE and DYN and such that would be nice to have in UTAU - it's much more dynamic than what we have. Also Vocaloid voices are fairly guaranteed to be high quality, and even when they aren't (initial Galaco, trial Lily) they are still better than your average UTAU.

Now, I feel that the advantages of the Vocaloid software start to die off however when you compare it what UTAU is capable of. Vocaloid will never have scream voices. I highly doubt they will ever get a Kire, a Sakebi, anything dynamically multi pitch, nothing like that. The closest Vocaloid ever got was Meiko V1 (Meiko V3 is still strong but kinda nerfed), though some incredibly good editors can make Kaito and Iroha and such do well. In the voices category I don't think Vocaloid can ever hope to meet the level of quality and variety that UTAU boasts. It may be only 5% of UTAU banks that can do that, but assuming there's 5000 UTAUs (close to 4000 in last official count in last year but that was only counting YT and NND), that's still 250 UTAUs.

We say pitchbending in UTAU is easier because it's quicker to understand. You have a piano roll, and while the notes are the basic area for the note, the lines and portamentos you add directly illustrate where the note will be. There is no guessing, it's right in your face where it goes. A single "a" can go crazy and hit many notes in a dramatic sequence with pitchbends.

With Vocaloid, I still don't understand it well. It's the same basic principle, but don't you have to use PIT (and POR apparently does something? I never got it explained well). And that confuses me. How do I know where the PIT is going when I draw the curve? How far down do I need to go to hit two semitones lower? It feels so tedious to have to place a bunch of a single note to get it to move around because I can't judge where PIT goes.

But again, I'm not very experienced with Vocaloid so it's all very foreign to me.
 

moonst4r

Witch of the Night
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I think I'm more biased towards UTAU because it was the first program I used haha Each programs have their ups and downs I suppose.

For UTAU, pitchbending is a lot easier than Vocaloid because you can apply them directly on the notes and have a better idea of what you're doing. There are so many voice types for UTAU compared to Vocaloid and some UTAUs even have multiple appends while only a few Vocaloid do. However a lot of times UTAUs tend to have poor quality, but that doesn't mean there aren't any UTAU with good audio quality.

As for Vocaloid, they tend to be higher quality considering they use studio quality recordings. I really like how easier it is to manipulate the dynamics in it and of course not worrying as much about otos. Multitrack, multitrack, multitrack is beautiful. I also like how you don't have to worry as much about rests ruining the whole VSQ/x as opposed to UTAU and USTs. Pitchbending in Vocaloid is a pain compared to UTAU though.

But they're probably equal depending on what your personal preference is.