Piapro and it's features/tools? General Help

[twenty7]

I just recently started playing around with Piapro studio that came with KAITO V3.

I just wanted to ask, are there any features that are on the vocaloid editor programs that aren't on Piapro studio? Are there any tools or advantages that comes with using other programs compared to using Piapro? (I also see Piapro v4x being used a lot, but I'm unsure if that only comes with other voicebanks/if KAITO V3 is compatible with it, and what the differences are compared to Piapro studio.)

I also just wanted to ask about phonemes/using the english voicebank. The jp phonemes are pretty straightforward, but english seems like a whole different beast. I keep seeing things of dictionaries, inputting the phonemes into a note, but I'm having trouble finding resources on how to do these things, and am having trouble getting it to work whenever i try to input phonemes.

Sorry for such a long question...

 

[Bookworm2]

I just wanted to ask, are there any features that are on the vocaloid editor programs that aren't on Piapro studio? Are there any tools or advantages that comes with using other programs compared to using Piapro? (I also see Piapro v4x being used a lot, but I'm unsure if that only comes with other voicebanks/if KAITO V3 is compatible with it, and what the differences are compared to Piapro studio.)

I think that Piapro Studio is just a copy of the V3/V4 editor, and it doesn't have extra features or missing features. Piapro Studio v4x is the version that comes with the Crypton V4 voicebanks, and allows use of V4 Vocaloids in it. As well, if you have one of the Crypton V3 Vocaloids (Meiko, Kaito, or Miku V3) getting one of the V4 voicebanks (Miku, Rin/Len, or Luka V4) will upgrade it to V4 mode. V4 mode adds Cross-Synthesis, Growl (for V4 voicebanks), Pitch-Snap Mode (which creates a sort of auto-tune like effect to the voice), and adds the option to render the pitch as a line on the piano roll. The pitch render actually is better that the Vocaloid 4 Editor's verson as it automatically renders after every change, as opposed to having to manually render it.

I also just wanted to ask about phonemes/using the english voicebank. The jp phonemes are pretty straightforward, but english seems like a whole different beast. I keep seeing things of dictionaries, inputting the phonemes into a note, but I'm having trouble finding resources on how to do these things, and am having trouble getting it to work whenever i try to input phonemes.

Okay, this is a lot. Please bear with me. Dictionarys are a feature in I think every mainline Vocaloid editor where you can make it so the combinations of phonemes that are registered for a word change automatically to what you set it to. Unfortionately, Piapro Studio does not allow for custom user dictionaries, so this does not work. About changing phonemes, you know that box that pops up when you double-click a note and allows you to add or change words? Underneath the section where you input the word there is another row for phoneme editing. However, if you input something in that box that is not a legal phoneme, it will not play. There's a good list of English Vocaloid phonemes on the Vocaloid Wiki, as well as what sound they correspond to. I'll link it at the bottom.

Sorry for such a long question...

It's fine! Getting into using Vocaloid or Piapro Studio is hard, especially Piapro Studio as I don't feel there are many resources for using it. Have fun!

Vocaloid Wiki English Phonemes: English Phonetics

 

[twenty7]

I think that Piapro Studio is just a copy of the V3/V4 editor, and it doesn't have extra features or missing features.

Firstly, thanks for the write up! Though I caught that you wrote Piapro doesn't have extra or missing features, but it seems like Dictionarys that are editable(?) seem to not exist in Piapro but *does* exist for the mainline Vocaloid Editor's so it does seem like in that case, the Vocaloid Editor could help in using English voicebanks right?

And a sort of off-shoot question, but I know Piapro Studio is essentially a plug-in so it can only run as one within a DAW right? Which also means that you can't insert an audio track within Piapro, and can only insert an audio track in the DAW itself. So I'm guessing since the Vocaloid Editor programs are standalone, and not used within a DAW, you can insert audio tracks directly? It seems much more convenient to use Vocaloid Editors over Piapro then. Would there be any reason someone might prefer Piapro Studio?

About changing phonemes, you know that box that pops up when you double-click a note and allows you to add or change words? Underneath the section where you input the word there is another row for phoneme editing. However, if you input something in that box that is not a legal phoneme, it will not play. There's a good list of English Vocaloid phonemes on the Vocaloid Wiki, as well as what sound they correspond to. I'll link it at the bottom.

I was aware of the fact that the phoneme needs to be input into the second white box for phoneme editing. But specifically for Piapro, when I manually edit or input the phoneme, I can't tell if I'm doing it right or not. The letters turn red instead of white and that makes me think that I'm doing something wrong? Is there a proper way/format to inputting a phoneme? (For ex: are spaces necessary between the bracket and the phoneme? Can you input multiple phonemes within a single note?)

I pulled up Piapro's phoneme list, and when I copy some of them exactly and put them into piapro, it won't play the corresponding sound/won't play at all. By legal phoneme do you mean like, there are set combinations of phonemes that can work, or were you referring to the phonemes being "spelled correctly" like [ i: ] instead of writing [ee]?

I hope my questions made sense. ^^;

 

[Bookworm2]

Firstly, thanks for the write up! Though I caught that you wrote Piapro doesn't have extra or missing features, but it seems like Dictionarys that are editable(?) seem to not exist in Piapro but *does* exist for the mainline Vocaloid Editor's so it does seem like in that case, the Vocaloid Editor could help in using English voicebanks right?

Whoops, sorry! I wrote the dictionary part last, so I forgot to add it. Yeah, Piapro doesn't have the dictionary system. However, I don't think that the dictionary being missing should matter much if you're using Kaito V3 English. I find that most of the time the default dictionary is good enough and only needs tweaking here and there, certainly not on all instances of a word for a whole song. Unless it's a name, in which case yeah the Vocaloid dictionary really helps.

I was aware of the fact that the phoneme needs to be input into the second white box for phoneme editing. But specifically for Piapro, when I manually edit or input the phoneme, I can't tell if I'm doing it right or not. The letters turn red instead of white and that makes me think that I'm doing something wrong? Is there a proper way/format to inputting a phoneme? (For ex: are spaces necessary between the bracket and the phoneme? Can you input multiple phonemes within a single note?)

If the phoneme symbols turn red, that means the replacement worked properly. And I think I know what the problem is! The phonemes should be entered as you would do regular words, with no brackets. So take the word "La" for example. It uses the phonemes "l0" and "Q". In Piapro Studio, if I wanted to change the Q to, say, "{", I would go into the phoneme editor and delete the "Q" phoneme and just type { where the Q was. I'll record a video showing this. If you want to add another phoneme, just make sure there's a space in between it and the previous phoneme.

By legal phoneme do you mean like, there are set combinations of phonemes that can work, or were you referring to the phonemes being "spelled correctly" like [ i: ] instead of writing [ee]?

Partially, yeah! "ee" is not a valid English phoneme, but "i:" is.

Video

 

[twenty7]

If the phoneme symbols turn red, that means the replacement worked properly. And I think I know what the problem is! The phonemes should be entered as you would do regular words, with no brackets. So take the word "La" for example. It uses the phonemes "l0" and "Q". In Piapro Studio, if I wanted to change the Q to, say, "{", I would go into the phoneme editor and delete the "Q" phoneme and just type { where the Q was. I'll record a video showing this. If you want to add another phoneme, just make sure there's a space in between it and the previous phoneme.

Whoa, okay! This totally helped me a ton! Doing away with the brackets fixed my issue. Think I figured it out now, gonna need to tinker around to get a feel for it even more.

 

[Bookworm2]

I'm glad I could help! Have fun!