Critique Requested When it comes to translation

CometStre

Teto's Territory
For new music producers, or I suppose producers in general, how do you go about translating songs into Japanese or other languages for your own songs? How long does it take usually? I'm familiar with the fact that there are translators out there but I'm not one for many social media platforms other than Discord, and I have no clue where to start looking or how to ask for help in this regard. I am going onto my second year studying Japanese but I'm still only on very basic grammatical structures and I wouldn't be able to do any song justice by trying to write it in Japanese.
 

Avalia-Kasa

probably a potato tbh
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
i usually depend a lot on conjugator sites because im really bad at remembering how to conjugate things lmaoooo

a really good thing to help is to translate other people's songs as practice, that way you get a feel for how different lyrics in japanese are as opposed to everyday conversation!

as people normally say don't use google translate to plug in your lyrics BUT i think it's totally okay to use google translate to check them or use as a dictionary! sometime it may not translate the exact right word in the context you want, but if you use it as a dictionary it shows you a list of different meanings for that word! so it can be super helpful actually!!

there are also people in the fandom that take translation commissions iirc, like geiky from the ARM music circle takes lyrics/translation commissions (idk if they're still open rn tho??)
 

Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
I know this isn't what you asked for, but I think the best way to go about writing songs is to write them in your native language, or any language that you're comfortably fluent in. If you want to write in other languages, you'll get better results by passing complete creative freedom to the writer and making the project into a collab rather than being directed by only one person. The reason I believe this is because using your most fluent language gives you the ability to express yourself as creatively and as poetically as you want, which is important for lyrics (a form of poetry!) You're also more likely to be aware of nuances that language-learners aren't. For example, with English, syllable stress is fairly important for a natural-sounding melody, and mistimed stress is a common feature in lyrics written by English learners.

I wouldn't be able to do any song justice by trying to write it in Japanese.

Then write it in English and do it full justice! There's plenty of English vocalsynths available now, and even if the specific voice you want to know doesn't have English capabilities available, you can certainly make do with a Japanese library.

At one point I had wanted to learn Japanese in order to write lyrics, but once I let myself write in my native language, I could focus so much more time on music production and on tuning the vocals than on studying grammar. In the end, I was more satisfied with the flow of the songs, and not terrified to publish in fear that I wrote something wrong. (I'm still studying Japanese, but my goals have shifted towards working in Japan.)
 

CometStre

Teto's Territory
Thread starter
Thank you for the detailed reply, I really appreciate it! I'm still delving into the world of English vocalsynths, so I'm sure that as I get more experienced and learn about my different options I'll be able to find what I need for vocalists. For now, would you be able to give any recommendations for some that may be best suited for beginners, etc?
Again, thank you for the great response!
 
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Kiyoteru

UtaForum power user
Supporter
Defender of Defoko
Software like Vocaloid, Alter/Ego, and SynthV are more useful for songwriters who don't want to spend a lot of time on tweaking vocals, since they can automatically handle word-to-phoneme conversion. But working strictly within UTAU, I suggest giving Arpasing a try. It has the Arpasing Assistant plugin, which you can apply to a UST to convert words to phonemes as well.
VCCV English voicebanks are popular in the community, but they primarily appeal to those making covers, since there are more premade USTs available for that format.