Is this wrong to do?

[selene]

Okay so my whole reason for installing UTAU is to make a usable English CVVC voice bank. Would it be wrong to just download a premade CVVC bank and just mimic all of their phonemes (not the voicetype, just the phonemes) I find that most reclists I find use weird symbology that for the most part confuses me and I can't pronounce (like I don't understand why they use "a" for ah and @ for aaa, it just seems way easier to type it phonetically) honestly if I had a phonetically written reclist to go by, I would just use that, or if they came with a pronunciation guide. So does anyone think it's wrong to download a CVVC bank just so I know what I'm supposed to record?

 

[Zoku]

I think it's fine! However there are many English voicebanks out there made with phonetic symbols. Arpasing voicebanks use Arpabet, Delta voicebanks use X-SAMPA--both are established phonetic systems. However, VCCV is popular, but it uses some interesting symbols at times. Either way, just go for whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

[selene]

Honestly that helps so much, I had never even heard of either of those phonetic systems before, as I'm not that big into UTAU (like I said I'm legit here just to make this one voicebank, and possibly use it as a guide for other voicebanks). But this is great to learn. Arpabet looks the easiest of them to understand so I'll definitely consider using that one (and I legit just found someone who allows people to use their Arpasing UTAU as a guide, but without an OTO). I guess that will be my next step, learning how to OTO, as right now I honestly probably just need to record.

 

[Zoku]

Honestly that helps so much, I had never even heard of either of those phonetic systems before, as I'm not that big into UTAU (like I said I'm legit here just to make this one voicebank, and possibly use it as a guide for other voicebanks). But this is great to learn. Arpabet looks the easiest of them to understand so I'll definitely consider using that one (and I legit just found someone who allows people to use their Arpasing UTAU as a guide, but without an OTO). I guess that will be my next step, learning how to OTO, as right now I honestly probably just need to record.

Arpabet and X-SAMPA aren't exclusive to UTAU, but CZ's system through VCCV is exclusive to UTAU.

But I'm glad that you are exploring UTAU! English CVVC voicebanks will seem daunting at first, especially as a first voicebank. But we're always here to help, and I wish you good luck!!

 

[Sors]

Its not at all wrong to mimic phonetics! When I recorded my VCCV VB I had both a pronounciation guide and a fully recorded VCCV VB. I think Delta CVVC English and Cz VCCV English are similar in that point, tho I don't think Delta's uses numbers like Cz? Only worked with VCCV VBs, not CVVC haha. Buuut def not a wrong thing to do; like even for japanese vbs many people listen to other japanese vbs to not mess it up.

 

[Kiyoteru]

You'll probably have the easiest time making voicebanks either in VCCV or Arpasing style. VCCV comes with a series of detailed tutorials and CZloid. Arpasing has an entire dedicated website with detailed tutorials as well, and a directory of voicebanks to use as reference material. I've also provided an OREMO setup that will give you the approximate pronunciation of every sample in English words, but if you don't use OREMO, you can still refer to the original PDF (which has the same information!
http://arpasing.neocities.org