UTAU

UTAU


UTAU, or Vocal Synthesizer Tool UTAU (歌声合成ツール UTAU) formally, is a vocal synthesis software which has only been distributed for the usage on Windows Computers. It is a proprietary vocal synthesizer program unlike VOCALOID and VOCALOID2, which are commercially-sold programs along with an accompanying voice bank. It began distribution in March of 2008.

UTAU, meaning "to sing" in Japanese, has its origin in "Jinriki Vocaloid" (人力ボーカロイド, translated as "Manual Vocaloid"). It is a re-edit of existing singing voice, extracting tones as WAV files and reassembling them. For this purpose, a support program was created. In March 2008, Ameya/Ayame (飴屋／菖蒲) released a free, advanced support tool as UTAU. Now UTAU is a shareware, yet the developer distributes it free in effect.

The program has at least 50 different usable audio files, composed of Japanese syllables. It comes with the company's "AquesTalk" pre-loaded, which allows any user to load their own voice data to be programed for usage within UTAU. However, without the explicit permission of the voice donor, it is a violation of copyright laws. Those laws protect the rights of any vocalist who may not wish for their voices to be used within the program, such as celebrities. Any music made through this program can be used in the commercial sector.

The best-known voice bank for UTAU is Teto Kasane. She is recognized as the first UTAUloid, if not Defoko (Uta Utane), the default voicebank in UTAU.

The program can be downloaded here. However, it will not run properly on computers which do not support Japanese text or AppLocale.

For further reading, visit the official wikia article of UTAU here.

Some UTAU are commonly put out as "real" vocaloids such as is the April Fool's joke origins of Teto Kasane. Songs using both UTAU and Vocaloid are also not unheard of.