6. Auto-Generated Base Otos
An auto-generated oto can be a huge help for larger banks, saving you the time of making all the aliases yourself. However, an auto-generated oto is NOT good enough to release your bank with. No computer could ever match the accuracy of the human eye and intuition. Still, using one for a base can be remarkably useful.
How to Generate Otos with Setparam
Setparam can only be used for hiragana-encoded VCV banks, and it's a little complicated, but I find it to be the best option for generating VCV base otos. To generate a VCV base oto using Setparam, open Setparam, navigate to the folder with you recordings, and hit "Ok" to load that folder. A window will pop up asking if you want to load an oto, or automatically estimate voice parameters. You want to hit that button, circled in Figure 1. Choose "VCV (Continuous Utterance)" in the next window.
|
You will be confronted by the window in Figure 2. Do not be alarmed; it's actually rather simple.
|
How to Generate Otos with Moresampler
Moresampler is less accurate than Setparam, but it works with a larger variety of banks. Specifically, it works with VCV, CVVC, and arpasing, and banks can be encoded in either romaji or hiragana, and aliased in either or both.
To start, open the folder your bank is in and the folder moresampler is in. Drag the folder with your recordings onto the moresampler.exe icon to open it with moresampler, as seen in Figure 3.
Select your input format by typing the corresponding number and hit enter. Proceed as directed below for you selected bank type.
VCVAs you can see in Figure 4, enter "y" for VCV entries and "n" for CVVC entries. Select your aliasing method; I recommend either 1 or 5. Please note that VCV romaji is rarely used and no one uses the "phonemes" option.
It'll then ask you if you want to rename entries with a duplicated name. Say no; it'll be easier to cut them out that way. Then enter the suffix for this pitch of the bank if it's multipitch, if not just leave it blank. It'll run for a bit and generate your oto.
|
CVVCUsing moresampler for a CVVC base oto is not recommended. It's horribly inaccurate and you're better off just making the base yourself. If you insist, however, I guess I'll show you how.....
Enter "n" for VCV entries and "y" for CVVC Entries. It'll show you the list of aliasing options shown in Figure 5 (click to enlarge) As shown above, you want to pick option 3 or option 4 (romaji CVVC is rare, but some use it for more engrish compatible banks). Then say yes to the next option, because phonemes are used by no one ever. Say no to renaming duplicate aliases; it'll make it easier to cut out the duplicates that way. Enter the suffix if this is a pitch in a multipitch bank, or leave it blank. Let it run and you'll have your horrible base oto.
|
ArpasingMoresampler doesn't do to well with arpasing, but the way arpasing is set up means you don't have a choice. The only options you have are whether or not to rename duplicate aliases and what suffix to add to the aliases (if any).
I recommend not numbering duplicate aliases, because we can use the tool in the next section to number and limit them. If you choose to use that tool instead, it's very important that you do not add a suffix to the aliases. This will put the duplicate number after the suffix and screw the whole thing up. Rather, there's another tool to append suffixes that you can use after limiting the duplicates. That process is described here. |
Dealing with Duplicates
Any sort of auto-generated oto will created duplicate aliases, or aliases that already exist in another recording. For VCV and CVVC, these duplicates are 100% unnecessary. Download this tool and make sure you have java installed to run it with. Place the .jar file in the same folder as your recordings and oto and double click it to run. Select your OS, and then enter 0 to eliminate all duplicates. Once it's done, it'll generate a file named "edited_oto.ini". You can either delete the old oto and change the name of this file to "oto.ini" or open both files in notepad, and paste the edited oto over the original one.
For arpasing, however, it's necessary to keep at least some of the duplicated aliases (You'll learn why in the arpasing tutorial later on.) To number and limit the duplicate aliases instead of eliminating them, follow the instructions above, but instead of entering 0, enter the maximum number of duplicates you're willing to oto before jumping off a building. The official arpasing site recommends 10-20, but I personally don't have the patience for more than 5.
Anyhow, now we're ready to get into Japanese otos!
For arpasing, however, it's necessary to keep at least some of the duplicated aliases (You'll learn why in the arpasing tutorial later on.) To number and limit the duplicate aliases instead of eliminating them, follow the instructions above, but instead of entering 0, enter the maximum number of duplicates you're willing to oto before jumping off a building. The official arpasing site recommends 10-20, but I personally don't have the patience for more than 5.
Anyhow, now we're ready to get into Japanese otos!