Advice on making an English UTAU?

[Aali]

I have no clue on how to make one.

 

[수연 <Suyeon>]

I suggest waiting until PaintedCz comes out with her updated English Reclist and the tutorials that will be bundled with it. She will (hopefully) have it completed before summer is over. She's the one you go to for all things English utau.

 

[oteto]

It might help to start out by engrishing using a jp bank. One can get pretty good results this way with some effort, and might help ya figure out what an english list would need.

 

[Zarsla]

@Aail, if you feel impaetient and don't want to wait for VCCV English. You can deal with CVVC English. To familiarize yourself with CVVC English, find a English CVVC video that has a ust that goes with it,then find a CVVC English UTAU, and play with the ust and the UTAU matching the sounds to the video. It should give you more intuitive based understanding and plus it's fun.

Just know that CVVC and VCCV English are different styles and alias systems.

 

[cubialpha]

I suggest using an English UTAU first and foremost.

I'm serious! Actually getting my hands dirty, using and editing .ust's for English voicebanks, gave me a great understanding of how they work!

 

[ErrolPilGrim]

Why that no one try to use Delta's Reclist. Just need a Plugin and a little bit of editing to make everything work

 

[cubialpha]

Agree delta list is quite good. I almost think it should be the standard. i just don't know how to oto it properly.

 

[HulderBulder]

Agree delta list is quite good. I almost think it should be the standard. i just don't know how to oto it properly.

I think the main reason why most people don't use delta English (in the western fandom) is because most people use and know cz English. Making most of the usts fitted for that list instead. Of course, that doesn't stop one from editing them to fit deltas list, it just takes a bit of time.

Anyway, I think the cz list is good if you have a specific accent/dialect of English that you want to show, making it have more vowels or such. While delta is just general understandable English. I'm not quite sure thou, since the only delta bank I've been using is Teto, and that's an old list...

 

[수연 <Suyeon>]

Delta is meant primarily for Japanese speakers and therefore relies on approximations. It doesn't take full account of the English language and how pronunciation can change based on which part of a word is stressed (because Japanese as a language relies more on pitch and doesn't have stress sounds). For instance hamburger vs ハンバガー - the 'a' in hamburger is stressed to create the æ/@ sound where as a Japanese speaker would make it sound like ɑː/あ.

It's best to just use Chezzie's list if you want a native sounding bank. Chezzie is a native speaker and although her list is more geared towards Americans, it's flexible enough to be understandable and usable regardless of your dialect and you'll have more options available to you.

 

[cubialpha]

I think CZ's list is just huge, especially if you plan to record multiple pitches. delta list is tidy and compact and gets the job done; all the vowels you need are there.

 

[Aali]

Ok I'm a bit new here but... how do you get those things to show up under every post you post?

 

[cubialpha]

It's called a signiture. You can edit it in your profile settings~

 

[수연 <Suyeon>]

You're going to have a long reclist regardless, so why not just use the reclist that takes the most advantage of the language? VCCV is going to be optimized for multipitch, so that's not really an excuse to use Delta. At least with Chezzie's list, there will be tutorials and you can reach out to her personally for advice when you're confused. Unless you can speak Japanese, your options for getting assistance on Delta is limited.

@Aali You need to edit the signature. At the top of the page, hover on your name and click Signature in the list.

 

[Pupperoni Pizza]

I would like to add in that Chezzie's reclist is supposed to come with a base, which makes configuration much easier.

Delta is not intendes for english speakers and it varies widely between versions, which causes usability issues because one delta bank works different from another.

 

[cubialpha]

Not necessarily. Delta lite list is teeeeeny tiny!! I just do not have the time at this point in my life to record and configure cz's list, even though, yes, it's the most thorough and comprehensible of the lists.

If you're looking for something manageable and light, the delta list is a perfectly good option.

 

[Pupperoni Pizza]

One thing would be consonant clusters, which small lists lack and you need to do more editing for it to work.

As a general rule of thumb: the smaller the list, the more editing that is required on a ust to make it sound good.

I would recommend against a lite list for any serious usage.

Along with that, all of the Delta English documents are in Japanese, and 3rd party english tutorials are inaccurate. So you won't know how to properly use it.

 

[Kiyoteru]

I personally regard the delta list as a way of creating a prototype, not for an actual formal release. Or for projects that aren't really serious.

 

[cubialpha]

so Anna Nyui's awesome multipitch English and Teto's English and many others aren't to be taken seriously then since they use the Delta list...?

 

[Pupperoni Pizza]

so Anna Nyui's awesome multipitch English and Teto's English and many others aren't to be taken seriously then since they use the Delta list...?

Thoae were recorded by Japanese users, we are talking about how it's unsuitable for native English speakers.
(And tbh, how awesome those banks actually are is debatable...especially Teto's english...)

Native english speakers shouldn't use use it foe anything more that testing, I wouldn't take it seriously if you picked it "because it tiny" because that translates to "because I'm lazy". It's not made for native speakers and does not take is into account.

So no, I don't consider it viable for serious usage if you are a native english language speaker. And many of those here agree.

 

[adriann]

I believe the Delta list has it's valid perks. Like Cubialpha said, it is very small and manageable, which are things that are very nice and convenient if you're just starting out. The nomenclature and pronunciation is based on IPA symbols I think, and all of the English sounds are in fact included and accounted for. Of course, if you judge a Delta English voicebank by the pronunciation of the voice provider, you're going to get very different results if you judge it based on the Japanese voice providers, because they will of course have an accent. The Delta list is quite fine, in my opinion. Very, very manageable.

CZs cvvc list is much more complex as it is, of course, made with a much more specific kind of accent in mind. It's no big deal, either way, it's still pretty simple to make a voicebank using CZs cvvc list, I would believe, since they released a bunch of tutorial videos you can follow.

You can even try making your own list by taking note of the vowels and consonants you see will cater to your usage of English! Research all the possible clusters and end clusters and gliding vowels, etc. But this may be a little advanced for you, not sure!

Look into your options and see which one best fits what you want to do. I would recommend starting with Delta's lite list because it's very small and it is possible to conveniently hear how the voice and accent will sound like, and since the notation is somewhat based on the IPA notation, and Delta provides a pronunciation guide too, it's pretty universal, in terms of learning how to pronounce what, and how.

Making an English voicebank is really simple, like any other UTAU voicebank, there's more to what reclist you use, it's also how you use the voicebank. So definitely get acquainted with the program and basic usage, if you haven't already!