Which qualities you value the most in a UTAU?

[Shine]

So, this a question I asked myself a few days ago. I tried to understand why do I download some UTAU's, while there are others that I dont even look at.

This therad will turn around these two questions:

- Which qualities you value the most in a UTAU?

- What makes you download a voicebank?

( As users (like we most are), we can answer the both questions, and the fans of UTAu here on UTAforum can answer the first question. )

So, you must talk about whaat do you like to hear when you hear a cover with UTAU or a original song.
Do you like the voice to be soft, and tender? Or strong, and loud?
Is clearness and quality what you look for? Or for you, the quantity is important (like, having lots of useful Appends)?
The design is really important for you?


Say what do you think about it in this topic!

I'll give my opinion later, so, you can start! ^_^

 

[IsOakun]

- I think voice and design are the most valuable traits of an UTAUloid.
- I download a voice bank if I intend to use it.  '~'
- I prefer to hear UTAU's get their own originals, but not all of them are good, so....
- I prefer my voices to be in the middle.  Not whispery, Not screamish or operatic.  Just steady.
- Clearness over Quantity any day.
- Somewhat.  If I were to use an UTAU, It would have to have a design that was decent or no design at all// Open for interpretation.

 

[Alexei-Lidell]

well I look for quality of the voice to be decent and also a good oto is key in my eyes also voices that aren't forced

 

[Rokurin]

Usually I download voicebanks with stronger voices, since I'm really not good with mixing soft voices into covers. But I also download softer ones if they're clear. I prefer voices that don't sound bored =x=

I also judge the hell out of UTAUs based on their design PFFT I've found myself downloading voicebanks jsut because I liked their designs. I'd lie if I'd say that I wouldn't pick a better designed UTAU over a badly designed one, even if the voicebank's qualty is better.

 

[Shine]

Usually I download voicebanks with stronger voices, since I'm really not good with mixing soft voices into covers. But I also download softer ones if they're clear. I prefer voices that don't sound bored =x=

I also judge the hell out of UTAUs based on their design PFFT I've found myself downloading voicebanks jsut because I liked their designs. I'd lie if I'd say that I wouldn't pick a better designed UTAU over a badly designed one, even if the voicebank's qualty is better.

I'm what here in my country they call of "Boa Boca"/"Good Mouth", it means that I like almost everything. 
I love strong voices, cause they are naturally more clear, I agree with you, cause I also prefer upbeat songs than calm ones. Thats one of the principal reason I downloaded CRINA (the design is the other reason, its wonderful), and Sorane Rana too.

But I have a crush for soft and mature voices, like Sonone Linako, Sonone Remu and Kazuko Yonagine, cause even If they are not so versatile, soft songs and ballads sound so much better with them.

The design is other important point. I'm creating my UTAU's design so carefully, I want it to be catchy and pleasant to see.

I also like cute and girly voices, but only on VCV format, like LADATA VCV, Trixie Pixels, Haruka Nana.

 

[Meta]

Hmm... I don't download UTAU too often actually. I'll usually go on a quest for a voice type I'm looking for for a song I'm planning to cover or a UST I want to make. And if I find a suitable voice type, I'll download it.

Design doesn't matter to me. I know not all UTAU users are great artists, so I focus only on the sound of the voice. The voice has to be of good quality, and not a bored-sounding voice. UTAU is about singing so if the voicer didn't actually sing, the voice reflects that, and it won't be good in my opinion. If I hear a bad-quality voice in a song I'll usually instantly click away from the video and keep looking.

But sometimes I'm not looking for a voice, and I'll happen upon a voicebank that just really wow's me, and I think, I have to download it. I NEED it. I don't know what I'll use it for, but I want this voicebank. It's usually a super clear voice with a unique quality, or pretty realistic sounding that just makes me so impressed with it.

Though I am really really annoyed when I download a voice and i need to fix the oto. This has happened in pretty much ever voicebank I've downloaded so... I guess it's just the norm now.

 

[SkyIsland21]

To me, I focus more on the voice.
I want understandability, and clearness. Smoothness would be next, but I generally focus on VCV nowadays. I also hate useless features in a bank that hog up my Gigs, like I heard that there's a full VCV 14 note voicebank? Oh my god.
On of my pet peeves is when things aren't pronounced correctly. I also look at the otos as well when using a new voicebank. I've noticed a lot of banks **** up here and there, but sometimes it's all the time, like put the overlap too far into the note, and vice versa. I'd prefer to not have to fix otos when using a voicebank, if I download one with that issue, I'll delete it right away.

 

[glaciachan]

It honestly depends for me. Usually, I get drawn in by the design first, since that's the first thing I see. And, if the voice is good, then I download it. Voice wise, I like VB's that have unique voices. If the voice is good enough, I don't really pay too much attention to design.

 

[Lemondolly]

I download an UTAU because I thin that the voice is unique and has overall good quality. ^^

 

[dCatharsis]

If an UTAUloids is from my country (Chile) and is of average quality, I download it Y/Y. There aren't too many UTAUloids from my country, lol.
I just download those that really catch my attention...and that actually work in my computer >.>

 

[zinfandel]

Most of the voicebank I download are usually based on finding out what makes it work. Like rentan voicebanks or other not standard setup.

 

[Cdra]

I download UTAU when they sound really good and I like their voices, or I'm curious about them.  Usually though, it's because I love them and want to use them.  Mostly for me that's unique, high-quality voices of any type/format.  CV, VCV, CVVC--I don't care, if I like the tone and the quality, it's mine. :V  Of course I won't say I'm not picky about the tone I like, ahahaha...

Sometimes I download them because they sound like they'll be fun to use, too.  That's the only reason I have Matsudappoiyo Retake Edge... it's fun as crap to play with.

I... don't care about design.  As long as I don't just absolutely hate it, I'm good.

 

[adriann]

I value, over all, multilinguality. I really love to play around with the extra phonemes people provide and I find it fascinating, the way people determine what sounds are necessary for an acceptable capability for "x" language. Even languages I have no experience with, e.g. CRINA's Romanian bank, I got it mainly because of the fact it contains sounds that I wouldn't hear in a voicebank that's simply Japanese. And Plus, the demo of her singing in Romanian got me thinking I could probably get her to sing in Spanish! Same with SELEN, Kanti Kokusaine, and others, specifically English banks as well. It may not seem like I do, but I play around a LOT with these banks!

Of course, after my attention is caught with "multilingual bank!" or "x-language capability!", I look to see if it really is clear and understandable. Of course I couldn't really be too good of a judge for CRINA's Romanian, but I was able to appreciate the clarity of her consonants and pronunciation.

Even with Japanese language banks that have certain pronunciation quirks, (and an L sound set lmao), I find it really entertaining to try emulating Spanish or English.

Low microphone quality, as nice higher quality facilitates the use of a voice while mixing, I don't find it too much of a problem? As long as the consonants are still there and clear enough, I don't find it too hard to just edit envelopes to make everything clearer. Of course that might be because I'm generally more of an voicebank user/ UTAU cover artist than a full-blown UST maker... so I really try to put as MUCH effort I can into using a bank to it's fullest to at least make up for my inability to make usts, ahaha.

Um, long post is long! tl;dr, what I value:

• Multilingual, extra samples
• Consonant clarity
• CV-VC, CVC (did not mention up there, but I have a preference for those kinds of banks.)

/ollies out

 

[Aline]

Aaaaahhhh... It's hard to explain, my mind tends to be really random in the voicebank criteria...

But I'll try to separate it in categories.

• Melodic Empathy: if the voice clicks with me, I'm downloading it. That's how it works. And you know, as much as I prefer male whispery/soft voices, I'm not going to download every shooshy male out there because some won't even match my tastes. Sometimes, I'll prefer to download a screamo female just because her voice clicked more with me.
  
• Voice Uniqueness: I'm not going to download 30 voicebanks that sound like that sorta airy and kind of bored-sounding mezzo-soprano/tenor voice with a funny accent. You guys know which voicetypes I'm talking about. BTW, put more emotion in those recordings, dammit.
  
• Usefulness: All voicebanks are useful to some extent, but sometimes, there's something only few voicebanks can do for me. Like Tsurigane Sou being Kaito in a Vocappoid UTAU chorus, for example. Or maybe Ackie Kahn as the percussion in a MIDI chorus. My mind works in the most strange ways when it comes to choosing which voicebanks will be the more useful to me.
  
• Voicebank Quality: It independs of recording technique, in all honesty (which means that if I like it, I'll use it, be it CV, VCV, CVVC or whatever else you want to record). All I ask for is that you guys don't cut the consonants off (leave a small space before the recording and I'll love you forever) nor record it in a webcam mic; also, training your accent a bit will help me liking it more, because I personally don't like english Rs in Japanese banks. If the voice is slightly muffled or a bit staticy, I can EQ it out in the mix without any major worries, but there are limits to what EQs and compressors can do. I don't worry about the oto.ini that much because I almost always edit it to my own personal taste (as long as the consonants aren't cut off, as I said before).
  
• User Karma: If we aren't getting along too well, chances are I'm probably not going to use your voicebank, even if its voice clicks with me a whole lot. I'd prefer to do it than to get someone nagging to me about how they didn't want me to taint their precious voicebank with my evilness. Or to get too upset with myself while using their stuff.
  
• Pleasant Design: In fact, this is the least important factor of all of those. There are UTAUs with AMAZING designs out there, but I'd prefer to draw them than to use them because their voices just don't click with me/are too generic/aren't too useful for what I want to do. I'm pretty sure some people might think the same about my voicebank and I don't care too much. I'm thankful enough that they liked her design enough to draw her.
  

I think that's it? Or am I forgetting something?

 

[KitWistful]

Usually I'd say just "english", but since Macnes are my mainstay in my usual work, I guess I have more qualifiers than that.

- Commercial License: This is...unusual. And I'm an amateur, so I won't be selling anything anytime soon. But I feel so much more comfortable using a VB that's cleared for commercial use, at the very least because I feel less like somebody's gonna be personally offended if I make, like, a Radiohead cover, or something.
- Cool Design/Character: The visual half of UTAU/VOCALOID is important to me, so if a design isn't compelling then I probably won't stick around long enough to hear the voice. And if the character concept is interesting, well, sometimes I'll overlook lots of things.
-  I don't have to learn a whole new encoding to use that VB: If I do have to learn a whole new encoding to use a VB, then I probably won't ever use it. I know, I know, I'm a hypocrite, I just said I like english, but I'm still learning how to use CVVC, and I haven't found a VB I like enough yet to convince me to learn my way around it's weird jargon.
- English: But yeah, I'm not familiar with japanese, so clear/easy entry of english is a huge bonus.
- Unusual Voicetype: Not, like, an alien voicetype, but I like working with a variety of voices. If a VB has a "quirk" to it, then I'll probably like it a whole lot. (the quirkiness of Macne Nana 2S comes to mind, the weird raspiness. And I've never heard anything like Cz before)
-Tinkering Potential: One of my favourite things about getting the Macne Voicebanks was that I had to set it up myself. Figuring out how to integrate Sasayaki-san's breaths, pitch changes, etc. was actually super fun! I'm not sure how a voicebank with a better setup would invoke this feeling, but the awesomeness of experimentation, and feeling like a smart cookie is just too great.
-Quality of Beauty: I'm not sure what triggers this, but sometimes I'll be working with a bank and I'll listen and be like OH GOD THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL I'M CRYING ;O; And that's when one knows it's a keeper, eh?

Also:

• [li]Voice Uniqueness: I'm not going to download 30 voicebanks that sound like that sorta airy and kind of bored-sounding mezzo-soprano/tenor voice with a funny accent.

• 
  
  haha yes I do know what you mean haha

 

[Shine]

Aaaaahhhh... It's hard to explain, my mind tends to be really random in the voicebank criteria...

But I'll try to separate it in categories.

• Melodic Empathy: if the voice clicks with me, I'm downloading it. That's how it works. And you know, as much as I prefer male whispery/soft voices, I'm not going to download every shooshy male out there because some won't even match my tastes. Sometimes, I'll prefer to download a screamo female just because her voice clicked more with me.
  
• Voice Uniqueness: I'm not going to download 30 voicebanks that sound like that sorta airy and kind of bored-sounding mezzo-soprano/tenor voice with a funny accent. You guys know which voicetypes I'm talking about. BTW, put more emotion in those recordings, dammit.
  
• Usefulness: All voicebanks are useful to some extent, but sometimes, there's something only few voicebanks can do for me. Like Tsurigane Sou being Kaito in a Vocappoid UTAU chorus, for example. Or maybe Ackie Kahn as the percussion in a MIDI chorus. My mind works in the most strange ways when it comes to choosing which voicebanks will be the more useful to me.
  
• Voicebank Quality: It independs of recording technique, in all honesty (which means that if I like it, I'll use it, be it CV, VCV, CVVC or whatever else you want to record). All I ask for is that you guys don't cut the consonants off (leave a small space before the recording and I'll love you forever) nor record it in a webcam mic; also, training your accent a bit will help me liking it more, because I personally don't like english Rs in Japanese banks. If the voice is slightly muffled or a bit staticy, I can EQ it out in the mix without any major worries, but there are limits to what EQs and compressors can do. I don't worry about the oto.ini that much because I almost always edit it to my own personal taste (as long as the consonants aren't cut off, as I said before).
  
• User Karma: If we aren't getting along too well, chances are I'm probably not going to use your voicebank, even if its voice clicks with me a whole lot. I'd prefer to do it than to get someone nagging to me about how they didn't want me to taint their precious voicebank with my evilness. Or to get too upset with myself while using their stuff.
  
• Pleasant Design: In fact, this is the least important factor of all of those. There are UTAUs with AMAZING designs out there, but I'd prefer to draw them than to use them because their voices just don't click with me/are too generic/aren't too useful for what I want to do. I'm pretty sure some people might think the same about my voicebank and I don't care too much. I'm thankful enough that they liked her design enough to draw her.
  

I think that's it? Or am I forgetting something?

I liked your review a lot! I completly agree.


Even If I'm a beginner,I have an opinion too, and those are the criterials I follow:

- Good art/Good design: I 'm writing this one firts, cause actually, its the first thing we notice in a video. If a UTAU has a good design and the video has a good art cover, then it will catch me up, and I'll check out the voice. So, yeah, unless I'm hearing it on Soundcloud or on another uploader that doesn't supports video/images, the design will catch my mind first.
Personallity is not important for me, and I like UTAUs with little backstory and things like that, so I can make them sing what I want them to sing, accoridng to a voice type. If a UTAU has a soft voice that I like, but the personallity shows a confindent and cheerful character, I will not have the same pleasure to make it sing what I want.

- Like Aline and Kit said before, Interesting Voice Type: For me, even if it has a good design, I know what I want, and If I didn't find what I want, I will not download it. For me, I have two "ideal voices": Clear, and strong, with LOTS of emotion in singing; and soft, whispering, calm vocals. Yes, they are opposite, but anyway xD
I agree with Kit, cause sometimes, when I see a awesome deisgn, I'll overlookl lots of qualities that the VB doesn't have.

- Emotion: In both soft voices and strong voices, a UTAU needs emotion in the recordings, just like Aline said. This is crucial. I know that for soft voices this might be hard to find, and I agree, so, anyways, this  criterial works more for strong voicebanks. If I like a strong voicebank but, when singing, the voice is too normal and plain, and I have to work A LOT with pitchbends to make it sound good, well, I will not like it. I'm not asking to be so dramatical and things when recording, but god, if you are having PLEASURE in recording a UTAU, a thing that you like, than, express yourself!!!

- Quality: I can't evaluate this myself, cause I have no otoing experience, but form what I heard and from what I like, a good oto., and recoridngs coming from a good mic are crucial too. A clear voice with good pronunciation pleases me, also.

 

[smeen]

I download an UTAU because I thin that the voice is unique and has overall good quality. ^^

All of this.

 

[mangosiryan12]

Voice Quality: Not so high pitched and not to airy or whispery
Sample Quality: HQ samples is a must!
Design: not so complicated
VB size: my PC cant hold large files
VB download site: i prefer mediafire
Popularity: not so important~
Uniqueness: Most important

 

[Raiyux]

As far as the voice of an UTAU, I don't particularly favor any 'type' over the other. High, low, soft, loud, cute, strong...Any type can potentially make for a good UTAU. What DOES immediately make or break one for me, is the quality. I don't mean you have to have some kind of superstar recording equipment--I understand that great mics don't come cheap! But as long as the UTAU isn't so muffled/whispery that I can't understand one sample from the next...then, yeah. It's okay. I include oto's when I say 'quality', though. Those are important, too.

Oh, and originality! While I said that I like any voice type, I don't like UTAUs that generally sound the same. There are too many that sound 'average', sometimes even bored...if that makes sense. Whatever kind of voice you're going for, I think people should try to breathe some life into their UTAU's voice! If your voice sounds a bit plain, try to change it a bit. If you're going for the 'cutesy' type, don't overdo it. Know what I mean?

As for how I view design...While I don't bash people who can't draw very good, I think people should at least put good effort into their UTAU's design. I also value good characterization, which involves a little bit of writing skill. I think characterization can even be overdone, though. Generally happy UTAU = okay. Super candy lolipop rainbow girl = no.

 

[MioDioDaVinci]

For me, it's mainly clarity, quality, and uniqueness.

...

Essentially, MioDio's picky when it comes to UTAUs because she's been spoiled by some of the higher quality ones. ;_;