Hi everyone!
Today, I will be going over the process of how to download and install the UTAU software onto your computer. This will be a learning experience for all of us! I have no idea what I’m doing, but Ceren is here to help me along the way, and I can help teach you all how to properly install the software without a hitch! (Well, there may be a hitch, but I won’t tell you about that…)
Changing Your System Locale
So, we need to do this thing in order to properly run the UTAU software. Before you try to skip this step, your UTAU software will read in gibberish when opened without doing this step. I know, we just wanna get to the fun stuff, but we have to do this for the ship to have smooth sailing.
What does changing your system locale mean? All it means is that we are changing the locale for non-Unicode programs (I don’t know man, I’m just a writer. After some googling it appears that it’s just a term for readable character data.) from English to Japanese.
If your PC doesn’t have Japanese already installed, head over to your Settings, select Language, then Add a Language. From this point, type Japanese into the pop-up box, select it, and hit the Next button. Next, deselect the “Set as my Windows display language” unless you wanna roll like that. You do you boo! But, if you want to keep your display language English, deselect that option. Last but not least, click that Install button!
Let’s actually change your system locale (for Windows)!
- Open the Control Panel
- Select the “Clock, Language, and Region” option
- Select “Region and Language”
- A window should pop up. Select the tab that is labeled “Administrative”
- Select “Change System Locale”
- A dropdown list will appear. Scroll until you find Japanese, then select it.
BOOM SHAKA LAKA! UTAU should now be able to read UST’s correctly!
Have concerns? No worries, I did too. Changing the System Locale will affect how your backslash (\) is displayed, causing it to look like a yen symbol in some programs. I mean, it’s not like I use that in my writing or anything…..But, I digress; let’s move on.
Time to Download the UTAU Program
Now that our system can now register Japanese, let’s download the software! I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t understand much Japanese. Throw some French at me, then maybe. Anyways, we need to head over to this lovely website: http://utau2008.xrea.jp/, which will lead you directly to download the software.
When you get to the website, there will be some links followed by Japanese text. All you need to do is click the link that says v0.(latest version number) zipアーカイブ. This will launch a zip file, which you can unzip in your desired location on your computer.
This will open the fully operational version of the UTAU software. However, it will be entirely in Japanese. As I said earlier, I can no read that. How can this be fixed? There is an English patch available for us Western fans to utilize, which can be found here: http://utau.wikia.com/wiki/UTAU_wiki:UTAU_GUI_Translation.
We need to create a new folder within the UTAU(version number) folder you have with this patch. Create a new folder and name it “res.” Once this is done, unzip the English patch file into this new “res” folder.
We Made It!
That’s…that’s it. We did it! We all now have a fully functional version of English UTAU to create new UTAUloids and make songs!
As a note of caution: if you try to pull the UTAU icon out of the folder and launch it, it will run in the default Japanese language. To stop this from happening, you need to keep the icon with the English patch in the folder. If you want to launch via the program icon, you can drag the icon to the taskbar/dock of Windows or go into the UTAU folder and click the icon there.
Thanks for joining this adventure with me! I’ll be back soon with more learning about the UTAU program. So we can navigate this exciting new world together.
Until next time!
Kiko is the current Content Curator and PR Manager for STUDIO OGIEN. Since joining the team in 2021, she has helped bring the world of the OGIENOIDs to life. For a living, she is a content coordinator for a small agency, and she has written various websites in her time working for the company. Kiko was born and raised in southern Tennessee. For fun, she enjoys writing, reading, and playing The Sims.
this is pretty old so i don’t know if it will still works, or not..but when i try to open up the the unzipped file my computer tells me that its “unknown” and it wont let me open the program..
Hi char,
Sounds like you may have the unknown publisher security warning. This is pretty common with indie software, games, etc.
To get past that you will need to
1) Decide if you trust the software (only you can make that decision!)
2) most likely have admin privileges on your computer
Here is an article to help you decide if you want to bypass this warning:
https://signmycode.com/resources/unknown-publisher-warning-what-is-it-why-should-you-care
Unfortunately, that’s about all the help we can give on this. It’s a pretty common issue that mostly boils down to your own comfort in trusting a developer.
Hope that helps!