Define: Easy-to-use UTAULOID

[Yue Nagareboshi]

OK. Fist of all, I want the participants in this discussion to keep the tone down and be the most objective and mature possible. Restrain of using names or using this thread of fueling dramas. I want a serious discussion here.​

I want the community to define what is a "Easy-to-use UTAU/UTAULOID". Please, try to be as wide on your reasoning as possible.

I want this thread to focus on the UTAULOIDS as intruments and not "OC with voices".

Please start.

 

[Ant]

An easy to use UTAU requires no editing of the OTO, and has stable recordings with no sudden changes of quality. The OTO has to be good so that sounds flow easily into one another. At least in my opinion.

 

[Lemondolly]

An easy to use UTAU requires no editing of the OTO, and has stable recordings with no sudden changes of quality. The OTO has to be good so that sounds flow easily into one another. At least in my opinion.

Agreed.
I also believe that it sounding good on resampler shouldn't define its quality. If good quality can be achieved through the use of flags and/or other samplers, then it's a good UTAU for me.

 

[shinami]

Well, with CV and CV VC and others it can vary hugely, but in my opinion with VCV:

-Standard settings, like ___ 450 -600 300 100 and such. Custom can work, but I never am comfortable with it and always have something to nitpick at. Well placed Standard otos make it very easy for me to go between VCV banks without a hitch.
-Good consonant speed, so I'm not missing your consonants but I don't have to apply Consonant Velocity, which I find makes things sound unnatural. I'd prefer not to use it.
-Recordings that have no noise glitches. I've been so sad when I'm preparing to use an UTAU for a UST only to find out that their "i ro" or whatever has a uneditable noise that makes them sound yucky.
-Flowing vowels. You have to do a bunch of editing for VCV banks that lack them, not fun. DX
-Stay on one pitch! It drives me crazy when in one string or in other strings they'll change notes. No! Unless you're pulling a crazy amazing Hibiki Shinji voice, it annoys me, and makes any Modulation usage impossible. (Shinji sounds horrible after only 10) And Shinji doesn't even really change pitches! ((name drop was to compliment Shinji and that only Shinji-esque UTAUs sound good like that))

These can sorta apply to all banks...

-ROMAJI ENCODED. It's not a must for me, but it's a must for many. And it makes finding files easier.
-Well sorted folders? Like for art, info, extra pitches, etc.
-Only .frq files to keep size down for downloading.
-Info in "Character" and "Readme"! It makes my life easier to have a site or a pronunciation for a kanji-named UTAU and other info.
-ZIP or RAR options for downloading an UTAU. I use UTAU ZIP because I want to, so I'm sad when one only comes in an UTAU installing package only. I don't use UTAU that way. And I'm sure many others don't as well.
-The name of your UTAU for the "character=___" or whatever it was. You'd think it's a no brainer, but I have five or six UTAUs literally named Renzokuon (in kanji of course) and I can barely tell them apart. i don't wanna rename them too much work too lazy


Ehhhh that's all I can think of. I been making sure to do all of this with my own UTAUs recently to make them satisfactory and "easy to use". Some seem a bit picky but I just think of them as common sense.

 

[KitWistful]

1 - perfect, consistent OTO
2 - lots and lots of samples
3 - resampler.exe with no flags: sounds clear, doesn't go off-pitch

I think those are the qualities a loid would have to have, for me to recommend it to a beginner

 

[Halo]

-Good oto.
-Must cover all sounds in Japanese that are frequently used in songs (this means your standard CV list, with "hu", "sha", "she", "shu", "sho", "fa", "fe", "fi", "fu-with-an-english-F-not-the-japanese-fu" "fo" and so on). Not having these means users need to splice them together when they're in a UST and it's a major hassle.
-FRQ files pre-rendered is a plus but to be honest resampler.exe is a resampler of last resort to me and I don't mind doing them myself.
-A good prefix map that's set correctly if multipitch is your thing. Redoing a prefix map or having to manually set them makes me want to just stop.
-At least a semi-uniform VCV. Semi-uniform being everything is uniform but the Preutterance. You can move that as much as you want without getting glitches, so I don't mind so much if that's out of place.
-Good quality recordings, with even tempo and pitch. Obviously this will make reotoing easier, and make sure the bank works well on most resamplers.

I think that's about it, really.

 

[IrisFlower]

Oh well...basically what's already been said ;;

-In terms of oto's, as far as CV goes, more often than not I'm going to mess with them anyway but that's usually only with sounds that start with "sh", "m" or "n" BUT that isn't because they're  bad, I just have this OCD way of doing things(don't ask lol). However, if I download your bank and then find I have to spend the whole afternoon oto-ing the bank and fixing it I'm...I'm not going to be a happy camper and will probably just not use the bank. Exception goes to the Macne's(but then again I wouldn't define them as easy to use either so...)

-If you have special sounds or samples(like breath sounds), it'd be nice if you could include in the readme how the sounds should be used, like which key and such. I do this with Iris because I just think it's so much easier to have it right there in the readme than to constantly have to find it yourself everytime you wanna use the breath samples.

-I actually don't really mind if the voicebank is iffy on resampler because it is not my default resampler, fresamp is. So in my terms having a VB that works fab with resampler with no flags is not necessity. But how many new UTAU users know how to change default resamplers and the like...hmm...I don't think it has to sound godly with resampler but it can't have that weird breathiness thing that resampler does. Not godly...just clear I guess. 

Bottom line is I don't have much criteria for an easy to use(CV) bank besides:
-decent oto
and
-informative readme