Do you have questions about UTAU?

Any questions about UTAU you may have please ask me in a comment here. I think I know enough about the program, making regular voicebanks and triphonic voicebanks to answer those questions now. I'll try to answer to the best of my ability so please bear with me if I can't answer your question.

I'll answer a few questions that most people who come across here usually ask me.

1) What is UTAU and where can I download it?
UTAU is a freeware (though I think it'll be shareware soon) voice synthetizer similar to VOCALOID only you have the option to use your own voice as well as that of other amateur users. You can download UTAU here.

2) I installed UTAU but it doesn't work, I see weird symbols in the menu. How do I fix this?
You must set your computer's system locale to Japanese. If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 go to Control Panel > Region and Language Options > Administrative and click on "Change System Locale" then choose Japanese then reboot your computer when prompted. If you have windows XP you need to have the operating system disk. Go to Control Panel > Regional and Language Options and in this window look for the tab where you see "Install East Asian Languages" and click there, insert your CD when prompted and restart if it tells you to. Then go that window again and look for the tab where you read something "Change language for non-Unicode programs" and select Japanese from the drop down menu. If you do not have your Windows XP disc, download AppLocale here.

3) I can't understand Japanese, is there an English version of UTAU?
Yes! Mianaito was kind enough to translate the basic functions of UTAU for the overseas community. You can download his English patch from his youtube channel. There's also a new translation for version 2.61 here.

Also if you want to use OREMO to record your UTAUloid, there is an English patch available also. You can download it here.

4) Who is Camila Melodía?
Camila Melodía is the UTAUloid I created with my own voice. You can read more about her on the "About Camila Melodía" section on the left. You can read about Camilo Adagio there too ^^

5) Will you draw my UTAUloid?
I hate to be mean, and while I would love to draw everyones UTAU but sometimes I just don't feel like it (I can't draw if I'm not inspired to do so and sometimes I get sick and have no energy) or am too busy. So please refrain from asking me this. If I want to draw your UTAU believe me I will, and I will probably even ask you if I can draw them. Also you never know, I might include your UTAUloid in my comic ^^ Oh but if you want a twitter background like the one I have of your own UTAUloid, that much I CAN do ^^ in fact I've made quite a bit already :)

6) Can I draw Camila Melodía, can I make her sing alone or with my UTAUloid?
Please do! if you like Camila please draw her! I love to see art of her even if not everyone gets all her details right I don't really care I love every drawin I've seen of her it makes me so happy! Also if you want to make her sing please do as well! I love to hear her sing! especially when I'm so sick I have no voice and can't sing myself (like right now ^^;) I'd also love to hear an original song if you can make them ^^. And upload your videos and let me know I really want to see them! it brightens my day! The only thing I ask is that whatever song you make her sing is not offensive or explicit so please try to get a translation of the lyrics if you're going to make her sing something in Japanese. The same goes for drawings of her, I don't want her in weird, explicit or offensive scenarios ^^; If you have doubts about her personality you can see how she's like in my comic. Though in her videos I've been told she's "calm and mysterious" so that works too xD

Any other questions you might have please ask them in comments to this entry. I will gladly answer to the best of my ability ^^

Something extra here. How do I configure an oto.ini?
Well in UTAU go to Tools > Voicebank Settings (or ctrl + G) and you get this window.
On that window, select the sample you are going to configure then click on "Launch editor". You should see a window with your wav file. Then you can move around some parameters that will write in the numbers of the oto.ini. Basically it should look something like this. The blue covers all that you don't want to be heard, or you can use it to cut off empty space. The pink covers the area that you don't want to be manipulated when you stretch a note so cover the consonant and part of the vowel. The green line determines when the note will overlap with the previous note and the red line says how much it will get ahead. Just place the green bar in the middle of the consonant and the red bar at the end of the consonant. Hope this helped!

Oh, I made a full tutorial on how to configure the oto.ini for your UTAUloid which you can read here.