Hi
I have to bring something up that I feel is really important, because unfortunately it's a massive issue.
1. American English reclists are not compatible with all accents, versions and dialects of English
I've seen British and Australian users being told they're 'refusing to improve' by not using lists like VCCV or Arpasing, even though they're not made for them and are not compatible with their accent or dialect.
I've seen a British user be dogpiled for months because he /dared/ to try to make a reclist for other British users and didn't use the pre-existing ones that didn't work for him when he tried. When he tried to explain that, tried to make people understand that it was not for them and was solely for BE users, he was bullied and harassed by multiple people.
He left the community because of how he was treated. All because he wanted to use something that worked for him, just once.
2. There is not only one British English accent, and if there were, it would not be Received Pronunciation
There are more accents and dialects in England than there are in America. All those accents and dialects are very unique and must be tailored to. Almost none of them are in any way compatible with either VCCV or Arpasing, other than that one reclist that vanished.
Received pronunciation is very rare, and is only spoken by a tiny subset of the British population. It is not the standard.
3. Not all phoneme structures are compatible with British English
Arpasing is built for General American accents, regardless of what others have said, because ARPABET is built for General American accents. Any accomodations built into ARPABET, such as British English's second schwa, ix, were removed from Arpasing. Cz's phoneme structure doesn't work for BE either because it was built for General American, and neither does VOCALOID Sampa without modification. The only current phoneme structures that support BE are
- CV-C because of it's multilingual capabilities
- GeorgiaSonic's custom structure because of who built it
- XSAMPA because in its nature, it's meant to encompass everything
- RSL, a lost prototype that was never released because of it not being 'American enough'
4. Most Japanese users record banks with British English accents
Most Japanese UTAUloids sound wrong when using their English voicebanks because you're using them wrong, by forcing them to sound American.
Stop trying to do that and I guarantee, banks like Anna Nyui and Kasane Teto will sound much better
5. You're not helping by making users from other countries record with an American accent
So please stop doing it. All you're doing is turning people away from an already dying community because you're forcing them to conform.
6. CV English is one of the best methods for British English accent retention
People have been chased out of the community for even suggesting CV English, because it's seen as lazy and lesser than CVVC, when in reality, it takes more work to make CV English sound good.
There's a reason why many British English users choose CV English, and it's not because they're too lazy to use CVVC. British English cuts out a lot of hard consonants, end consonants and some liquid consonants like [l] or [r], as well as having the glottal stop be an actual consonant as apposed to a rarity. CVVC doesn't allow all of this to be reflected as well as CV English does, so many BE users choose to use CV English and work harder for the purposes of retaining their accent.
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It's not everyone, but if you think I'm 'targeting' you, please do some research into the differences between those languages (because they are different languages) and try to make this community better, because it's not just you.
The English speaking community is not just America or Canada, it's the whole world and you need to be understanding of that.
The only reclists we have that are compatible with other versions of English, currently, are
- MEL, with modification
- CV-C, and only because of multilingual capabilities
- Delta's XSAMPA, which is why it's the list of choice for most Japanese users recording English banks
- GeorgiaSonic's CV English list
Please be considerate of that. Any other lists will mostly result in incorrect phonemes, lost accents and most of the time will result in people just giving up and leaving.
Don't discourage other users from writing lists not for you, don't tell people that they're refusing to improve because they don't use a list that they can't.
Please let me know if I missed anything.
----
UTAU voicebanks and recording lists are not made for you. They are made for the creator and your access to them is a privilege, not a right. You do not have any right to dictate how a voicebank should be made, what list or method it should use or what accent it has. All you have the right to do is support the creator.
I have to bring something up that I feel is really important, because unfortunately it's a massive issue.
1. American English reclists are not compatible with all accents, versions and dialects of English
I've seen British and Australian users being told they're 'refusing to improve' by not using lists like VCCV or Arpasing, even though they're not made for them and are not compatible with their accent or dialect.
I've seen a British user be dogpiled for months because he /dared/ to try to make a reclist for other British users and didn't use the pre-existing ones that didn't work for him when he tried. When he tried to explain that, tried to make people understand that it was not for them and was solely for BE users, he was bullied and harassed by multiple people.
He left the community because of how he was treated. All because he wanted to use something that worked for him, just once.
2. There is not only one British English accent, and if there were, it would not be Received Pronunciation
There are more accents and dialects in England than there are in America. All those accents and dialects are very unique and must be tailored to. Almost none of them are in any way compatible with either VCCV or Arpasing, other than that one reclist that vanished.
Received pronunciation is very rare, and is only spoken by a tiny subset of the British population. It is not the standard.
3. Not all phoneme structures are compatible with British English
Arpasing is built for General American accents, regardless of what others have said, because ARPABET is built for General American accents. Any accomodations built into ARPABET, such as British English's second schwa, ix, were removed from Arpasing. Cz's phoneme structure doesn't work for BE either because it was built for General American, and neither does VOCALOID Sampa without modification. The only current phoneme structures that support BE are
- CV-C because of it's multilingual capabilities
- GeorgiaSonic's custom structure because of who built it
- XSAMPA because in its nature, it's meant to encompass everything
- RSL, a lost prototype that was never released because of it not being 'American enough'
4. Most Japanese users record banks with British English accents
Most Japanese UTAUloids sound wrong when using their English voicebanks because you're using them wrong, by forcing them to sound American.
Stop trying to do that and I guarantee, banks like Anna Nyui and Kasane Teto will sound much better
5. You're not helping by making users from other countries record with an American accent
So please stop doing it. All you're doing is turning people away from an already dying community because you're forcing them to conform.
6. CV English is one of the best methods for British English accent retention
People have been chased out of the community for even suggesting CV English, because it's seen as lazy and lesser than CVVC, when in reality, it takes more work to make CV English sound good.
There's a reason why many British English users choose CV English, and it's not because they're too lazy to use CVVC. British English cuts out a lot of hard consonants, end consonants and some liquid consonants like [l] or [r], as well as having the glottal stop be an actual consonant as apposed to a rarity. CVVC doesn't allow all of this to be reflected as well as CV English does, so many BE users choose to use CV English and work harder for the purposes of retaining their accent.
-
It's not everyone, but if you think I'm 'targeting' you, please do some research into the differences between those languages (because they are different languages) and try to make this community better, because it's not just you.
The English speaking community is not just America or Canada, it's the whole world and you need to be understanding of that.
The only reclists we have that are compatible with other versions of English, currently, are
- MEL, with modification
- CV-C, and only because of multilingual capabilities
- Delta's XSAMPA, which is why it's the list of choice for most Japanese users recording English banks
- GeorgiaSonic's CV English list
Please be considerate of that. Any other lists will mostly result in incorrect phonemes, lost accents and most of the time will result in people just giving up and leaving.
Don't discourage other users from writing lists not for you, don't tell people that they're refusing to improve because they don't use a list that they can't.
Please let me know if I missed anything.
----
UTAU voicebanks and recording lists are not made for you. They are made for the creator and your access to them is a privilege, not a right. You do not have any right to dictate how a voicebank should be made, what list or method it should use or what accent it has. All you have the right to do is support the creator.
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