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Tutorial Basic Multipitch Bank Tutorial

Steel

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Basic Multipitch Bank Tutorial - Basic Multipitch Bank Tutorial

Basic Multipitch Bank Tutorial !

Hey guys, there seems to be little to no resources out there on how to make a multipitch UTAU bank, since some people asked, I decided to put together a little guide to help those who may be interested in creating one, or to quickly gleam over some information to see if it's a worthwhile endeavor for you. I would like to thank Aster/Fuzzle who helped, and started me off with the basic information on multipitch bank creation (since ten...

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Lorreine Geralde

lorreinegeralde@IRIS-SELECIA
Retired User
Defender of Defoko
Thank you for the tutorial. I always wish to make a multipitch voicebank for my UTAU but I don't understand how to make it until I've finally found this.

I will test this recording style if I get a nice microphone soon.
 

SmilingCat01

Teto's Territory
I've always wanted to do a Multipitch and a Powerscale bank but there are things that I just can't do. One is that I didn't how to do it (But now I do :D), second is that I want a shouty bank but I can't seem to reach some pitches so yeah... DEAD
 

Lorreine Geralde

lorreinegeralde@IRIS-SELECIA
Retired User
Defender of Defoko
SmilingCat01 said:
I've always wanted to do a Multipitch and a Powerscale bank but there are things that I just can't do. One is that I didn't how to do it (But now I do :D), second is that I want a shouty bank but I can't seem to reach some pitches so yeah... DEAD

Shouty voicebank...do you mean that kire-ish or power/strong-type voicebank? I've heard that it's difficult to create kire/power/strong voicebank, unless you know how to make it. I never know about these voicebank types, either.

:uhm:
 

Cdra

possibly dead
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Ahh, nice tutorial here! Everything looks in order for how I do them, as well. Don't forget CVVC banks though :wink:

Personally, I'd say do as many pitches as makes you happy--but for the average bank, 3-5 is pretty solid. I'd say if you're totally at a loss for what to do, start with three, then do more if you feel like you need them to transition better.

I think one of the things that's not really touched on here that can be hard for people is choosing what pitches to record (aside the first, being the sort of "normal" pitch for that voice). A lot of people just choose an amount of space in steps (five steps is common but I've seen others) and then go up and down that number of steps from their original pitch, but I'm not so certain that's the best way to do it. I'd say you should do more like what Steel did here and find pitches that create the transition you want--this might take a lot of singing into a pitch monitor to figure out where the best spots to record are.

One other tool for suffixing your oto is Setparam, which comes with some versions of oremo. You can go to Tools>Change Aliases and for the renaming rule enter "%a(suffix)" where (suffix) is whatever suffix you want to go there. I usually just ctrl+h in notepad though, heh.

The only multipitch bank I know that uses prefixes rather than suffixes is Mine Laru, incidentally.

Err, anyway, that's my general input (sorry for talking so much); I think this is a good tutorial and I hope it helps people as I personally love multipitch banks and would love to see more of them! owob
 

Steel

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@Lorreine Geralde

I'm glad to hear that this tutorial has been helpful for you!

@SmilingCat01

Recording a shout/power pitch can be tricky! I can give you some general tips about that, to start off with - on the chance that you would want to attempt it.

-Find a room with less to no reverb to record in. (Ideally, a smaller compact room) The increase in power/volume of your recordings will cause the sound to bounce off the walls and you don't want acoustics in the .wavs. I've heard some people suggest recording in a car, which fits the bill for small compact space, on the chance of concern about noise disturbance to neighbors, roommates, or family being a potential issue.

-I highly recommend using a pop filter (or at least a sock to cover the mic if you can't get a filter) because consonants will also increase in sharpness and breath output for a shout pitch. It will also help reduce the chances of your samples clipping. Pop filters are also great for whisper/breathy banks for preventing distortion artifacts caused by breathing in the microphone.

-You don't have to belt those samples at the highest possible pitch you can reach (if you want a high pitch shouting bank, but the same principle applies to a low pitch shout bank). I discourage against straining yourself and your voice in an uncomfortable pitch out of your range, because that strained sound/discomfort will definitely reveal itself in the recordings. Find your vocal range's limit, and go several steps below (or above, if you're recording low) that, where it's comfortable for you to shout in a clear/powerful tone. The most important thing is your own personal comfort.

- HIGHER VOLUME =/= MORE POWER. The louder you go in your recordings, does NOT mean it will end up sounding more powerful in the UTAU program!! Though extra volume can help some, it is not the most critical element for power. Do not record so loud that your samples will clip (clipping means that the dB has passed the capacity of what the mic was able to record, and that will cause distortion in your sample!) It is also more prone to happen if you do not have a pop filter to catch the breath in your recordings.

- The most crucial thing for a loud/power pitch (in my own experience) is the "energy", clarity, and enthusiasm that is apparent in your recordings. I suggest trying an "enthusiastic and clear" sample, versus a
plain "loud shout" sample, just to see which produces better results in the UTAU program.

Hope this helps!

@Cdra Thanks for your feedback! You brought up some very good points.

Sorry, I completely forgot about CVVC banks because I rarely use them myself, they are most definitely multipitch capable as well. I will edit the main post to include those.

I do agree that ultimately it's up to user's discretion to determine how many pitches they want to record for their UTAU... I just want to save some people from thinking (or potentially diving headfirst into the heavy work) that recording more pitches will definitely = better/realistic voicebank. There is a certain threshold for pitch number that once surpassed, your voicebank either becomes redundant, (especially in close pitches next to each other) or there is no real outstanding difference between certain pitches. What people think they can achieve with 12 pitches (consecutively) can be much more efficiently pulled off using 3-5 distinct, well positioned/recorded pitches. But, that is just my opinion, formed on observation/experience. People can do whatever they want to do!

I think as far as choosing other pitches for what you want to record, that will be up to the user's intentions and what type of bank they aspire to create. I didn't go into specifics for selecting due to leaving it open-ended for people to figure out on their own- but that is a good point that there isn't much guidance for that.

I wrote up a small thing for this, for people who still might need help with additional selection of pitches if they are indecisive about voicebank.

- This ultimately depends on your personal ambitions for your multipitch voicebank, but it would be a good idea to understand your own vocal range to begin with. Try this video: Find your Vocal Range

- Once you figured out your vocal range, those things will also determine factors such as your vocal range category (Alto, Baritone, Soprano, etc). As an aside, these categories do not determine your vocal quality (such as husky, light, sharp, airy, thick, etc), just the technical range. The vocal quality is completely different.

-Let's say, for example that your range is A3 - D5.

-You can probably already rule out the two end pitches, A3 and D5 for your decision - because unless you can sing them completely strongly/comfortably, you probably do not want a strained sound in your voicebank (unless.. you want that! Then go for it.)

-I think the rest is up to personal comfort, honestly. Go up and down that specific scale in your voice, get a feeling for all the notes in that range. If G4, for example, strikes you as a note that you like to sing strongly, record an entire bank in that pitch! (or build up to it, record a transition pitch first) If your voice defaults to B3, and you want to transition up to the G4 strong pitch, find a comfortable place between C4 - F#4, that you'd like to create as a transition pitch. It would be ideal to record in the center of that.

- Just find notes and sing/try them. Litmus test them with different qualities, power levels, pronunciation styles of your voice, and go in with a plan to organize your pitches.

-Sometimes, you might record something unexpected! Which is also a fun aspect about multipitch. I got an accidental new UTAU out of attempting a different pitch because the tone was too different, and I've learnt a lot about recording for UTAU in general after doing multipitch that can be applicable outside of this particular method.

If anyone has more questions, or needs more help- I will try my best to answer inquiries and concerns.

SetParam is a good one to bring up as another way to tack on OTO suffixes! I personally haven't used that myself, but it reminded me of another aspect in OREMO. If you are using a preexisting OTO that has suffixes already and the files are also likewise suffixed in the OTO, you can create your own "Typelist". The default Typelist in OREMO contains a blank + up-down arrows, but you can load a different typelist containing the pitch suffixes, which will tack on the suffix at the end of the recording name. An example would look like this:

D3
A3
C4
E4

and your recording result will look like: "ああいあうえあD3.wav"

(Though I think the find+replace operation is generally easier so I haven't done that myself either...)

Anyways, thanks again Cdra! Your input made me think about more things to say.. so I hope people will find this additional info helpful.
 

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