Let's talk a bit #2

Hello, Nynthixia there, not from her home, but from a place where normally she doesn't have Internet so is using the phone data to write this blog post but doesn't care because doesn't use her phone much (oh well)

(Sorry if it was a long intro)

I won't give you any hint for the moment on the project I'm working since now... 4 months? But there are already 2 clues out of here, try already to get a possible message and a possible idea of what I'm doing.

I don't know if I'll continue these types of blog posts but if it's the case, these may be on little things that, of course, have something to do with production, and that I want to talk about in public, without anything to fear.

First, I wanted to say that I'm aware that Ritsu will maybe have a Sharpkey VB. I actually knew about the engine few months ago, and my first reaction, to be honest, was "This is so much the free Chinese Vocaloid".

Seriously, if you are at ease with Vocaloid's UI, you'll know how to use Sharpkey. But more if you use Chinese VBs... Which is not my case. I know too little of Chinese compared to Japanese to make a song in Chinese.

And if you're wondering "what would be a dream team of Chinese Vocaloids if I did Chinese songs": Xingchen, Qingxian and Xin Hua. And maybe Tianyi as well. The first three would be a bit respectively Yukari, Lily and or IA or MAYU.

"You know there is a Japanese version of Xin Hua and Tianyi, why didn't you take them?"

This is not a problem of interest, but... For the two girls there are different reasons. And no, this reason is not called "money".

For Xin Hua, she's quite easy to get. I just want to see how much her Japanese voicebank (I don't have any fears for her Chinese voicebank) is durable and if she will be guaranteed to get updates for future engines. The Vocaloids for which I have the least fears for all the ones I have are the ones coming from Internet (especially GUMI, here, no doubt at all!) or AHS (who extended their support for V2 voicebanks that Yamaha doesn't want to support anymore). I'm less serene for MAYU or IA though (MAYU: don't know for an update; IA: risk of switching software (already told about it in the past)).

For Tianyi... The ways to get her are really, really restrictive. Her Japanese website only ships to Japan. Taobao does not export DVDs and we have to use a forwarding service ( = more expensive and more difficult to use than a direct shipping) if ever we wanted to export something from this website. And there is no Amazon Japan entry (biggest market for Vocaloid physical software boxes).

I actually have my eyes on Xin Hua though. Tianyi does not have that much priority compared to her. And since how long? A bit at the same time as I did for Akari.

OK, coming back to Sharpkey. The engine is free and I already tested quite quickly some of the voicebanks that already exist. There is generally less noise for some of them (except Yuan Xiao, who has a lot!) and Huan Xiao Yi even reminded me Luka's voice! The voicebanks are very huge though: more than 1Go to download each. But maybe greater quality than an UTAU voicebank in general.
So maybe someday, if some Japanese voicebanks for Sharpkey come out, I'll maybe test them. And if Ritsu gets his Skarpkey VB? No problem, I'll switch without any problem.

Speaking of UTAU... Maybe you saw it in the top right corner, but I'm currently in restricted material mode. I have less restrictions than usual though. I found a way to move my virtual machine for rendering the UTAU voicebanks to my own computer (the other one used a different virtualization engine and is not a laptop). However I didn't migrate everything yet.

I migrated these voicebanks:
- Meiji: Hunter, Lilith, Fairy
- Nyui: vivid
- Itako
- Kiritan: VCV and CVVC strong
- Totoko: Hoppu (cute)
- Sayu: one of the v2 VCV
- Tei: last VCV voicebank (3.1)
- Ritsu: Kire

I didn't do these migrations yet:
- Oniko: VCV and CVVC. Are in the download folder but not set into the virtual machine yet
- Nyui: raw. Is in the download folder but not set into the virtual machine yet
- Stella: ACT2 VCV+CV (requires a manipulation to make the voicebanks active at the same time) and 2018 VCV (not installed yet)
- Momo: Cute, Passion. Are in the download folder but not set into the virtual machine yet

Also the CVVC of Kiritan requires a manipulation as well (typically copy/paste and modify the copy of several lines).

The straight VB of Momo, which is a CV, is rendered on my current computer directly.

The hybrid attempt for Totoko due to corruptions of her archive is not migrated at all. Told about it in the past blog post as well.

So typically I'm restricted for Oniko, Stella and Momo (except the straight VB) and half-restricted for Nyui. For now.

This may be the last year I move Meiji's deadline of August 8th. This year I moved it to the 3rd with "SINCUBUS" (which got rated "Explicit" by the way...) but if I can continue like this, August 8th will remain a deadline like all the others. Also this week I won't post any song, since I'll work on the album-specific tracks. All are songs for Lily.

So no worries if I don't set up publicly things, that doesn't mean I'm not working!

I also may be a bit slowed down for answering questions. Expect more a 48h waiting time instead of 24h.

That said, enjoy!
Nynthixia