Utau

Overview

In March 2008, Ameya/Ayame released UTAU, a free, advanced support tool shareware software that was made free to download from its main website. UTAU, meaning "to sing" in Japanese, has its origin in the activity of "Jinriki Vocaloid" (人力ボーカロイド, Manual Vocaloid), where people edit an existing vocal track, extracting phonemes, adjusting pitch, and reassembling them to create a Vocaloid-esque singing voice. UTAU was originally created to assist this process using concatenative synthesis. UTAU has the ability to use wave files provided by the user, so that a singing voice can be synthesized by introducing song lyrics and melody. It comes with AQUEST's voice synthesizer "AquesTalk" for synthesizing of the voice samples of the default voicebank, Utane Uta (also nicknamed Defoko) on UTAU's initial launch (after which the generator deletes itself). Voices made for the UTAU program are officially called "UTAU" as well but often colloquially known as "UTAUloids", a reference to "Vocaloids". They are also called "voicebanks" (more common in English-speaking areas) and "(voice) libraries" in Japan. A myriad number of voicebanks have been developed by independent users. These voicebanks are normally distributed directly from their creators via internet download.

UTAU is mostly a Japanese program and thus many voices are created specifically for the Japanese language. However, the languages have been expanded and there are many bilingual UTAUloids, mostly singing in Japanese and English. While there are a high number of bilingual UTAU, multilingual UTAU have also been made that can sing in three or more languages. Regardless of the language, the software menus remain in Japanese and a user's computer must be in the Japanese locale or use AppLocale in order to run the software. Most of its documentation is in Japanese, but its User Manual has been translated into English. Recently, the program has been user translated to English, and other translations are still pending. However, even with the translations, the program still requires support for Japanese text.

UTAU's project files are saved under the ".ust" (Utau Sequence Text) extension. These files can be freely distributed, allowing different UTAU to sing the same piece. It is important to make note of the guidelines the UST creator has provided in terms of the .usts distribution and use. Producers have developed several methods of producing their sound banks and results for the voicebanks vary because of this.

Cultural impact

Though the software is very popular in Japan, its origins and cultural impact are owed to the already established popularity of the Vocaloid software. UTAU itself was first made famous when the creator of Kasane Teto released the character posing as a Vocaloid character as part of an April Fool's joke in 2008. The influence of the Vocaloid software also led to both programs commonly being used side by side. Often popular UTAU mascots like Kasane Teto appear in VOCALOID-based media such as Maker Hikōshiki Hatsune Mix.

Later, the UTAU software would have its own impact on Vocaloid and other vocal synthesizers, with a number of vocals either referencing UTAU or being produced for the engine to begin with. For example, Megurine Luka V4x was influenced by the UTAU vocal "Gahata Meiji". Wat from Crypton Future Media also spoke to someone very familiar with UTAU and said that the conversation was "very interesting". Macne Nana of the Macne series later would become both a UTAU voice and a Vocaloid voice. The voice provider of English Vocaloid Ruby, Misha, had previously produced a Japanese-language UTAU named Makune Hachi (MAKU音ハチ). In addition the vocalist for Dex, Kenji-B, created Kenji Baionoto (倍音音ケンジ) for UTAU and AkiGlancy, the vocalist behind Dex's partner Daina, gave her voice to a UTAU called Namida (ナミダ). After the release of Vocaloid 3 vocal Tohoku Zunko, her two sisters Tohoku Itako and Tohoku Kiritan received UTAU vocals, Kiritan would later go on to have a campaign for her to become a Voiceroid.

Its main attraction is not only based on it being freely distributed on the internet, but because it allowed a user to insert their own voice into the database for use for music, opening the doors for users to further develop their own music. UTAU owes its growing popularity to its ability to provide a free method of creating voices for music use and has established numerous music producers working with the software on sites such as Nico Nico Douga and YouTube. Users also see it as an alternative to the Vocaloid software, which only offers a more limited supply of voices at a costly price and may not offer the voice types they are seeking for music, as the large database of voices often has a much greater chance of offering the voice they seek. However, despite the number of voicebanks offered, the software has overall far fewer producers working with it than Vocaloid.

A radio station set up a 1 hour program containing nothing but Vocaloid and UTAU-based music.

In addition, an event called "The UTAU M@STER" was held regularly from 19/7/2012 onwards. The event was the main gathering of groups or circles and was held in a similar fashion to the Vocaloid related event "THE VOC@LOID M@STER" which had existed since 2007.

Related software

Unlike Vocaloid, UTAU files are not restrictive as it is not a proprietary based license. Therefore, it is possible to use Open-source license products with the UTAU software, such as those produced for the Macne series (Mac音シリーズ), released for the programs Reason 4 and GarageBand. These products were sold by Act2 and by converting their file format, were able to also work with the UTAU program. Later, the Macne packages Whisper☆Angel Sasayaki, Macne Nana 2S and Macne Petit 2S came with pre-built UTAU voicebanks.

The default voicebank "Defoko" (Uta Utane) borrows her voice from the software AquesTalk, specifically the voice "AquesTalk Female-1" produced by A-quest. Permission had been granted for her distribution free with the software. Koe Utane, Uta's "sister", also borrows her voice from the AquesTalk software. Namine Ritsu (波音リツ), a vocal originally built for UTAU, also was later added to another software called "Sinsy" as "Namine Ritsu S".

Due to the software's own copyright agreement, non-open license software such as VOCALOID is not permitted to be imported into the UTAU software.

A number of plug-ins for the software have also been developed by users of the software which add and enhance the vocals of the software.

The software "Sugarcape", based on the same freeware intention as UTAU, has already entered beta stage. There is now an official Mac version of UTAU, named UTAU-Synth. It has approximately the same features as the Windows version. UTAU-Synth version can import both voices and songs made with the Windows version, but its project files and voicebank configurations are not fully compatible with the Windows version.

Usage in music

The licensed songs from the album Graduation from Lie featuring Teto Kasane were released for music downloads from Karen-T, under Crypton Future Media, as a special release. This is the first licensed release of any UTAU. Momo Momone is also famous for singing "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!", a song originally composed by daniwellP and sung by the VOCALOID Hatsune Miku. This song was made popular with the YouTube video of "Nyan Cat".