☢ News ☢

☆ KATSU English Update & New Originals ☆

May 31st, 2024

Hi everybody! I've been kind of neglecting this site for the past few months, oops.

I did release the finished multipitch version of KATSU English back on the 22nd of December as planned, and his page was updated to reflect that.

I've also put out two other originals, one back in January and the other earlier this month. I might make a dedicated page on this site for CALIICO Project soon.

As far as other stuff I've been working on, the English version of KATSU Postmortem is almost ready for release; hopefully I'll get that out next month. I also have a bunch of other song and cover WIPs that'll come out... eventually.

I've also been working on a browser-based reclist customizer tool, but it's not quite ready for public usage yet. Stay tuned for more info on that.

☆ More Voicebank Updates ☆

December 11th, 2023

A couple weeks ago, I put out some minor updates to three more of my Japanese voicebanks: KATSU Postmortem, HIRO Redux, and TOSHIMI Repent. All downloads to these voicebanks have been updated on the character pages on the site and everywhere else they're posted.

Changes to each bank include:

  • Fixed oto typos (and other small tweaks)
  • Reconfigured affricates [ch, j, ts, dz] for Postmortem
  • Improved pitch + expression suffixes
  • Added custom presamp.ini for Presamp and autoCVVC
  • Added character.yaml for OpenUTAU
  • Added new character illustrations (you can also see these on their character pages)
  • Updated TOU, profiles, misc readme changes
  • Translated readmes to Japanese

Here's a cover using them in OpenUTAU:

In other news, my English reclists have recieved a handful of smaller updates, and the final version of KATSU English is for real almost done; my release goal is the 22nd of this month! I've also recorded and configured an English version of Postmortem, which will get released whenever I finish one or two demo songs for it.

I've been thinking about trying to do what would essentially be a retake of Reborn with my better microphone and improved vocal performance. While I like MultiEX overall, I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, so, I'd start with a new power-style VCV with additional CVVC configs, then possibly make ones for the other two expressions, eventually having three fancier VBs serving the same purpose. I'm not sure if I want to dive right into another massive VB dev project right now, though, so we shall see.

And lastly, I've got another original song that's basically ready for release whenever I get around to making art for it. I'm surprised at how much creative stuff I've managed to put out this year despite all the crazy shit that's been going on in my personal life. See you all again soon!

☆ Original Song & KATSU MultiEX Update ☆

November 21st, 2023

Earlier this month, I put out an original song for the first time in many years. It's the first release for CALIICO Project, a solo art project that involves songs, illustrations, and maybe even a PV eventually. I'll be putting out new entries for it periodically. You can listen to Genetic Menace here:

And download it here: on vocal / off vocal (via Piapro)

Next, KATSU MultiEX has been updated. Changes:

  • Fixed oto typos (and other small tweaks)
  • Reconfigured affricates [ch, j, ts, dz]
  • Improved pitch + expression suffixes
  • Added custom presamp.ini for Presamp and autoCVVC
  • Added character.yaml for OpenUTAU
  • Added new character illustration (also seen on his character page, along with a new ref sheet)
  • Updated TOU, profile, misc readme changes
  • Translated readme to Japanese

It's a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to do for awhile, and figured I'd just release it all at once. I also made a video tutorial showing how to use all the features of the voicebank:

☆ Salem-style English CVVC 1.0.0 Reclist & Voicebank Release ☆

Septemeber 8th, 2023

After what feels like an eternity (and about two years of saying it's "almost done"), I'm finally putting out a stable, public version of my English reclist, as well as two demo voicebanks. See here for the reclists, base otos, tutorials, tools, and other info.

Demo voicebanks and covers: KATSU English (demo ver) & HIRO English

You may have noticed I've been quietly updating the site over the past week or so to get everything ready, but I needed to finish the demo covers before I made a solid announcement.

☆ Voicebank Release: HIRO Redux ☆

Septemeber 3rd, 2023

Finally got everything finished for HIRO's 10th anniversary voicebank. Not quiiiite as late as TOSHIMI's release. But still late.

Click here to download. Watch the video or see her voicebank page for more info.

English stuff is coming very soon; I just have a little bit more to prepare for it, so keep your eyes peeled.

Also fixed an error where I put the wrong reclist in the CV standard section.

☆ Site Updates & Project Progress ☆

August 18th, 2023

I overhauled the reclist pages a bit. Really the only change externally is that I now have all reclsits of the same type displayed on a single html page. Technically splitting the reclists into separate pages wasn't something I had to do in the first place, but the neocities text editor starts lagging once it hits about a thousand lines or so, which made updating any of the pages a little tedious. But this is no longer needed as of today when I had the idea to store the reclists in javascript variables and then just run a script on each page to load the right one in the right spot.

If you haven't recently, I recommend clearing your browser's cache just to be sure the javascript loads correctly.

On that topic, I have a few more JP base otos and kana conversions to make, but they're not a major priority for me at time of writing. On a related topic, I am actually very close to having stuff ready for S-CVVC to release. If you follow my neocities profile, you've probably seen me editing the S-CVVC documentation pages lol. The only things I have left to do before release are finish the oto for HIRO English, aka the LITE list demo bank, and make some new demo covers. I decided to just release the finished pitch of KATSU English as the FULL list demo bank, and then update it once I have the other pitches complete.

HIRO Redux, her Japanese bank, is already finished, I'm just working on the character art and the demo reel. Hopefully she'll get put out here in the next few weeks, and the entire S-CVVC project can follow shortly after that. Of course, I'd also like to get some tools incorporated into OpenUTAU, but that doesn't necessarily have to be finished before I put out the reclist. In the mean time, the banks work decently with the phonemizer made for Delta's list, which at this point has expanded into being a more general English X-SAMPA phonemizer. I talked to Lotte V yesterday about adding the missing phonemes needed for S-CVVC, so by the time it's released that might already have been done.

I've also been working on developing something I've wanted to make for a long time: an automatic reclist generator. Previous attempts were text-only applications written in C++, but the current iteration is a web-based application written in javascript, and is working out a hell of a lot better. The tool takes user inputted phones and settings and writes a reclist and base oto using them. It's not quite ready for public usage, as it's lacking a few features I'd want to impliment and I haven't finished setting up base oto generation, but eventually that will get added to this site.

Lastly, I added a comment section to the home page, and set each voicebank page to have a unique colourpalette.

☆ Voicebank Release: TOSHIMI Repent ☆

August 7th, 2023

Almost six months late, but TOSHIMI's 11th anniversary voicebank has finally been released.

Click here to download. Watch the video or see their voicebank page for more info.

Unrelated, but I also fixed the problem where the site wasn't scaling properly on mobile. Hopefully it should display better now.

☆ The Future of UTAU 101 & Other Updates ☆

June 21st, 2023

As I announced on my Youtube channel the other day, I'm not planning to release any future video tutorials for UTAU. I've tried three separate times and I've yet to be satisfied with them. I chalk it up to a combo of perfectionist brain and not really liking video editing leading me to procrastinate on this project for so long... But, nonetheless, I do still want this site to be a good one-stop-shop for UTAU resources, so I'm instead going to focus on making the kind of resources I actually like to make (and can update as needed, unlike videos). I'm in the process of reworking my scripts into text tutorials, which should hopefully be finished here in the next couple of weeks, complete with visual aids where appropriate.

I'm really sorry to anyone who prefers the video format, but there's lots of other video tutorials out there by now, and I just strongly prefer working in text. As usual, I'll promote the St. Defoko's School of UTAU Discord server as a good way to get one-on-one help from experienced users; I'm in there and try to help people out (when I remember to check it lol).

I'm the type of person who's always working on some kind of creative project, and almost always working on more than one, which I find is a blessing and a curse. It's gotten to the point now, though, where I'd just really like to see this tutorial project of mine finished in a state I'm happy with instead of being one more thing on my ever-growing list of WIPs.

I'm trying really hard this year to actually see things through to completion instead of just futzing with them for years on end. Also like I said in the video, I'm working really hard to get my English reclist and voicebank done, too, and also finally launching my webcomic. I also have some minor updates I'd like to make to my JP reclists, as well as the two fully recorded JP banks on the backburner, but those aren't suuuper high on my priority list right now. 2023 is the year I get shit done!!

☆ Website Reformatting & General Updates ☆

May 14th, 2023

Big cosmetic update! Looks a lot more polished now, huh? I did a lot of code cleanup, spruced up the CSS, and implimented some new HTML tricks I learned. I'd like to make a header graphic sometime soon.

I'm still chipping away at all of my ongoing UTAU projects, but I keep having to put them on hold... life needs to stop getting in the way of my hobbies smh.

My immediate to-do list mostly involves finishing what should be the last iteration of S-CVVC and KATSU's English voicebank. After a lot of testing and feedback, it's genuinely hard for me to imagine making any more major changes; the past few updates have been very minor, so it's now just about polishing the base oto and getting reference materials finished. The voicebank is half recorded and about a quarter oto'd.

Finally, TOSHIMI's revival voicebank is actually done, I just haven't finished the release cover yet. HIRO's is fully recorded but unoto'd, as I've been focusing my oto-energy towards KATSU English, which is more of a priority to me. Man I just want S-CVVC to be out already; I've been working on it for ages.

Anyways. Thank you so much for all of your patience and support! I know I'm not a big-name UTAU guy or anything, but it means a lot to me that anyone is interested in what I do.