I think that a lot of people wants to make one, but doesn't know how to do it. I didn't know a lot about it either, until today, when I found out about everything from recording to saving the finished product.
Let's download UTAU first ... you do that here.
I'm not sure what it says, but I downloaded the first one below "DOWNLOAD", and it works just fine for me.
To use UTAU correctly, you need to set the computer's language to japanese. I have vista, and I only know how to do it on vista;
Start → Control Panel → Regional and Language Options. You will probably find your way from here. If it's not there, just try a different tab.
Anyway, remember that your computer must be set to japanese whenever you use UTAU. Changing it back to your language when not using UTAU will not crash the thing's you've worked on, but remember to change it back.
So, open up UTAU. I don't remember if you had to do this part or not, but I'll write it anyway;
Press "ツ―ル(T)" and go to "オプション(O)". Go to the second tab. You'll see a big white square, like the one I'm writing in right now, with two white rows beneath it. I'm sure you get what I'm talking about. Anyway, press the button that is to the right of the second row, and guide yourself to where all your UTAU-files are saved on your computer. Now, there should be a folder called "voice", and inside that folder, there should be a folder called "oto". In the oto-folder, there should be a looot of japanese stuff. just press one of them and some japanese stuff should appear in the two rows I was talking about. Now, press the first button to the right of the first row, and then press OK. Go to "プロジェクト(P)" and press "プロジェクトのプロパティ(R)". Press the drop-down-row-thingie and choose "デフォルト" - then press OK. That's the UTAU you just added, and if there's two of them, I'm sorry - like I mentioned before, I couldn't remember if you had to do this or not.
So, you've now added your first usable UTAU - congratulations. :] I find this one kind of boring, though - I'd suggest downloading Nagone Mako, Momone Momo and Teto Kasane from http://utau2008.xrea.jp/. They're all at the bottom. To add them, you do exactly what you did just a moment ago.
Before I go on about how you make your own utau, I'll also explain how to make these utau's sing and how you save it, and add it to the karaoke.
So ...
You could do everything yourself, like this;
The lyrics are written in hiragana (if it isn't a utauloid that knows romanji or english) in the field next to "Lyric", and then, you press the pink button next to that field, to be able to use them. If you can't see them, scroll. To make a quiet space, you right-click anywhere in the 'piano field' and choose the second option. This will create a space called "R". you can shorten this, or the opposite. However, the pink bars can be moved up to make it higher, or down to make it lower, it can also be shortened or extended.
To explain what the options you get when you right-click does;
the first one shows the list of sounds the utau has. you can click on them once to listen to them, or click on them twice to get them into the piano-field. The second one creates those R-fields, the quiet ones. The third one selects eveything, and the fourth does the exact opposite.
When you right-click on one of the pink bars you have in the piano field, you get more options. let me explain them;
The first one plays it. If you have more than one selected, it will play all of them. I'm not sure what the second and the third does. The fourth one copies what you have selected (I just noticed. I love katakana.), and the fifth one pastes what you have copied. The sixth one deletes what you have selected. I'm not sure what the rest does - but I'm sure you can live without them.
I think that's about everything I know about making it sing by yourself ... how to save? I'll explain later. If you've got any questions, ask them.
So. There are also files that has the pitching, timing and everything done. I think they're called USTs. If you want to download them, I suggest you go here
That's the only site I've found that has USTs - But I haven't searched a lot, 'cause I found the ones I wanted there. anyway, those files are listed to the right, below "Import files ( UST / VSQ with OFF VOCAL file )". Above this, there's also voice banks to more utaus.
Anyway. You download them, try to find the right files to extract, and when you've finally got your ust file (it's icon should be the same as the software UTAU's is), you open UTAU, click "ファイル(F)" and choose the second option, and open the UST file. Now, don't try to make it play before you choose which utau that should sing it; because it will load a veeery long time, and then, nothing will happen. So, do this;
Pasteurellosis
... Go to "プロジェクト(P)" and press "プロジェクトのプロパティ(R)". Press the drop-down-row-thingie and choose ...
... the utau you want to be singing this. Select everything, or the part you want it to sing; now, you can press play. Some utaus can't sing it properly, other might not be able to sing it at all, but I think that at least those utaus you have downloaded now should be able to do it.
So, if it all sounds all right; you might want to save. ... well, if you want to save; here's the guide.
If you want to save it so that you can open it and edit it later on; click "ファイル(F)" and choose the fourth option, and save it as an UST file (so, yeah, that's what you opened before; an ust file. that means that you can create your own ust files that other people can use by saving it like this). That way, you can open it again, as I said before. But to save it as an wav file; you click "プロジェクト(P)" and choose the first option that says "wav" something something. Name it, then save it. It will load a while, but when that's done, you've got a playable wav file saved somewhere on your computer (where you chose to save it, that is).
Then again, that's just the vocals. If you want to add those vocals to the songs karaoke, here's what you do;
... well, first of all, you download the karaoke (it should be easy to find it searching "[insertsongnamehere] instrumental mp3" on google). that's gonna help you.
then, I suggest you download audacity here ... i think. However, to open up things in audacity, they have to be an mp3 file. So, download a media converter; i suggest Winff, cause it's very easy to use. So, download Winff and convert your wav file to an mp3-file. Now, open the karaoke track in audacity. I'm not gonna explain audacity too much, since it's in english (right?). Now, click project → import audio and import the vocals. They should appear as a second track. If you play it, you'll hear that that second track isn't timed with the karaoke; well, some might be, but most ... aren't. So click the button that looks something like this; "←→", zoom in, and drag the vocal track to match the karaoke. To add effects to the vocals, just try out some of those from "Effect". To save it so that you can open it and edit it later, choose "Save project as". To just save it into a wav-file, choose "Export as WAV". You need to download some lame thing called lame to save it as an mp3 - but you don't need to do that, 'cause you have the magic software WinFF, that can turn it into an mp3 itself ... sorry, I'm getting tired.
That's everything you need to know about making and saving songs.
Now, making your own utau? with your voice?
Man, another tutuorial - I'm gonna fall asleep soon. Well, here I go;
You already have a recording program; audacity. Yeah, recording; 'cause you obviously need to do that. Haven't got a mic? get one. If you can't get one, you might have some kind of mp3-player of ipod or something that you can record with. maybe a mobile. But that gets you some shitty quality.
Oh, that reminded me. quality. To get even better quality to your computer mic ... well, on vista, you go here; Start → Control Panel → The place where you change the sound settings, idk what it's called in english → recoring? at least that's what it would be translated to → right click on the activaded option → settings or something → advanced? → i think it says something like "Channel 2, 16 bites, 44100 Hz (CD-quality) or something like that. well, change it to one of the 'studio-qualities'.
So, back to recording. To make an utau that sings in japanese, record every gojuuon, every youon, every gojuuon with dakuten and handakuten and every Youon with dakuten and handakuten. What are those? Well, I took it from Wikipedia's Hiragana page. Try to make every recording long; like "aaaaaaaa" or "deeeeee". Also, delete the empty spaces you get before you start 'talking' and after that. If you don't, it's not gonna sound good when you make your utau sing.
By the way; you record one sound per file; and the names of the files should be in hiragana (copy it from that wikipedia site.) if you want to be able to use ust-files. If you want it to be even better; you can record it all again in a higher pitch than the first time you recorded it, calling the file something like "あ↑" (a↑), and also a third time in a lower pitch, with the files named stuff like "あ↓" (a↓). If you want it to be able to sound a little more human; record yourself breathing in loudly once. It would sound less robotic if you added it in the beginning of a song, right?
So. collect all these files in a folder called whatever your utau is named. In this folder, you should also have a lot of other stuff; but I'm not yet sure what all these things are. I'll edit this post with an explanation of all those things when I've learned it myself. Sorry.
And to add your utau to UTAU, do exactly what you did to add the other ones.
Hope you enjoy.
