We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of HONOS OG04 ELITE, an expansion and upgrade for the original HONOS OG04 voicebank. Designed as an extension of our beloved HONOS OG04, this upgrade takes her vocal capabilities to new heights, delivering an enhanced and enriched user experience.
Retaining the Captivating Deep Tenor Voice
HONOS OG04 ELITE preserves the smooth deep tenor voice that sets her apart. With her remarkable versatility in navigating both masculine and feminine ranges, she continues to be a standout choice among the OGIENOIDs for flexible ranges.
Expanding Timbral Capabilities
Much like the release of KASAI OG01 SALIENT, ELITE builds upon the already impressive timbral capabilities of HONOS OG04. While HONOS OG04 Original featured three distinct timbres, HONOS OG04 ELITE upgrades each of them to multipitch capabilities. Each timbre now possesses four unique pitches, resulting in a total of 12 individually recorded VCVs. This expanded range unlocks exciting new possibilities!
Elevating Creative Expression
This expansion also includes two CV-style growl banks in different registers. The high growl suits screamo and pop-punk, while the low growl suits metal and rock genres. These growl banks add captivating texture, allowing you to include new intensity into your tuning.
Furthermore, ELITE features brand-new glottal stop and vocal fry samples, providing an additional layer of emotion to enhance your tuning. These expressive enable you to achieve desired nuances in your arrangements.
Seamless Compatibility and Integration
Rest assured, this expansion and upgrade seamlessly integrates with both UTAU and OpenUtau, ensuring a smooth transition for existing HONOS OG04 users. You can effortlessly incorporate ELITE’s enhanced voicebank into your ongoing projects. Like HONOS OG04 Original, the appends (Mellow and Firm) possess the same Suffixes OGIENOID users have grown accustomed to.
HONOS received a remarkable vocal upgrade and underwent a visual transformation. Her new design draws inspiration from the iconic outfit she wore for her original voicebank, maintaining a connection to her roots while adding a fresh and exciting flavor. Get ready to be captivated by her enchanting voice and striking new appearance!
Embark on a Journey with HONOS OG04 ELITE
Join us on an extraordinary sonic journey like no other with ELITE. Prepare to be enchanted by her enriched deep tenor voice, upgraded with enhanced capabilities. Discover new avenues of musical expression and unleash your creativity with this remarkable expansion.
Stay tuned for more updates and demos that showcase the power and versatility of HONOS’s long-awaited upgrade! Like KASAI OG01 SALIENT, a tutorial for ELITE will be available upon release. HONOS OG04 ELITE entrances this July!
Our team got to thinking, “What would all the OGIENOID girls look like if they were real or in our world?” Well, we decided to find out! Thanks to the incredible machine-learning website Artbreeder, we were able to create real versions of the girls. Ah, if only they were real.
A rendition featuring both of her eyes, funny enough! This rendition truly captures how striking AXIS’s mint-green shade of hair would be in real life.
HONOS OG04 “Original” is a Japanese VCV style Voicebank developed by STUDIO OGIEN. Originally released in 2019 for the free-to-use UTAU software, HONOS OG04’s smooth, androgynous voice is the deepest of the OGIENOID series. Her flexibility between masculine and feminine ranges gives her a wide range of usability.
HONOS OG04’s “Original” voicebank is an assortment of three different VCVs, each in a unique timbre (the character or quality of a musical sound or voice as distinct from its pitch and intensity). “Original” includes Stoic (a normal singing voice), Mellow (a soft voice), and Firm (a firm voice). This voicebank combines three voicebanks into one, allowing the user to plug in “↑” or “↓” into the UST from the SuffixBroker for appends. Making all voices available to use in one UST helps make editing, tuning, and mixing faster and easier.
Using HONOS OG04 Original
Using The Included Appends
STOIC
“Stoic” is Honos OG04’s default voice and will play so long as the user understands how to control VCV UTAU voicebanks. No additional steps are necessary to utilize this tone.
MELLOW
Select or enter “↓” into the UST from the SuffixBroker. By default, it should be included in the base installation of UTAU.
FIRM
Select or enter “↑” into the UST from the SuffixBroker. By default, it should be included in the base installation of UTAU.
For those new to the VCV voicebank format, let’s learn how to use it in UTAU! First, load up the desired Voicebank and UST file (if you have one). There are two scenarios here: the UST is either formatted for VCV or it just isn’t. Not every UST comes in VCV format, but you may really, really want to use the UST. Fear not, there are many options to remedy this situation!
The tedious method that we aren’t going to actually consider a method, but rather a painful last resort: Add the preceding vowel to the lyric: Let’s say you have two notes “か” (ka) and “あ” (a). Simply add an “a” in the same note as あ. Simply, あ now becomes “a あ”.
The easiest method (that, unfortunately, costs money): UTAU Shareware: If you have the shareware version of UTAU, you can simply hit the auto VCV button, and UTAU will turn the vowels into VCV!
Click “A” for auto VCV
Other methods: Plugins: Some plugins may convert the CV vowels into VCV without altering the rest. Others may turn the entire UST into VCV. Experimentation is key! IroIro is our favorite recommendation, as the plugin has many other useful features packed into it as well.
Navigating to your installed UTAU plugins
If you have IroIro Installed, follow Tools > Plug-Ins(N) > IroIro. Select CV -> VCV and click OK.
IroIro’s many options
Once your UST is in VCV format, you are ready to proceed.
Fitting a UST to a VCV Voicebank
Fitting a UST file to a UTAU Voicebank will definitely improve the sound and make your covers appear more professional. By fitting the UST, you are telling the software to conform to that particular UTAU’s configurations and setup (OTO). This is an important step if the UST was not explicitly made for the UTAU you are using, and it helps to improve the fluidity and clarity of the voice. So, let’s do it!
To start:
Open a UST file
Select all (Ctrl+A)
Right-click on a note
On the pop-up, select “Property” or “Region Property” (if you selected all notes). A new window will appear.
You may notice sections on this window labeled “Preutterance” and “Overlap”. To their right, there is a “Clear” button. We want to click that.
Next, at the bottom of the window, there is a box labeled STP.
If it has a value, delete it.
If the box is grayed out, double-click the box to clear it.
Press “OK”
In the top right of the main window of UTAU, you will see a group of four buttons (ACPT, P2P3, P1P4, RESET).
Click RESET
Then click P2P3
Next, P1P4
P2P3 again
Click ACPT (You can click this multiple times if you see any red “!”, and it may take care of those. More on that in just a second!)
That’s it! You’ve fit the UST to your VCV Voicebank
Special Characters, Envelope Issues and Other Problem Samples
Special Characters
Example of notes with special characters
While fitting a UST to your UTAU, you may find errors highlighted as red “!” along the way. VCV is a popular method and widely employed, so a user may run across custom notes, properties, and expressions within a UST. Your UTAU may not have these special notes and sounds, so, we need to run through a few options.
Manual removal
Simply edit each note, one by one, and delete the extra symbols.
SuffixBroker (for custom characters at the end of a note such as an up or down arrow, a number, or another special symbol)
Select the notes you want the characters removed from
Found under: Tools > Built-in Tools > SuffixBroker
Leave the box blank, click OK, and now the Suffixes are gone! PLEASE NOTE: this does not always perform 100%. Make sure to double-check your work.
Third-Party Plugins
Much better!
Envelope Issues
The error still shows up, and, more confusingly, the sound sample exists and your oto is fine. Grr… Now that’s frustrating! But we have a fix. Let’s check and edit some envelopes!
Very carefully, right-click on the note. A new pop-up will appear. Hover down to “Envelope…” and click on it.
And…
YIKES! That’s pretty bad! Worry not, there’s a simple fix. Let’s click “Normal”. 9/10 times, that does the job.
If the error still persists after hitting “Normal”, simply drag the red boxes around until they look, well, normal. Click OK and it should be good to go!
Much better, and now our “!” is gone. We are ready to tune and mix!
For tracks made from scratch, start by clicking the “+” icon on the left-hand side. A new track like so will be created.
Click on “Select Singer” and choose a voice. In this instance, we will choose Honos OG04.
The voice is loaded. Now, we must tell OpenUTAU what type of voicebank she has. Click on “DEFAULT” to open a new menu of options.
Select “[JP VCV] Japanese VCV Phonemizer”. We are ready to use VCV in OpenUTAU!
For Existing USTs:
Go to “File > Import Tracks…” and choose a UST of your liking.
You may notice the singer data is saved from the UST file. You may or may not have this UTAU in your library. Either way, we are wanting to use Honos OG04 in this example as well. Go ahead and click on the singer’s name to open a new menu.
Select the preferred singer by clicking their name. In this instance, we will choose Honos OG04.
The voice is loaded. Now, we must tell OpenUTAU what type of voicebank she has. Click on “DEFAULT” to open a new menu of options.
Select “[JP VCV] Japanese VCV Phonemizer”. We are ready to use VCV in OpenUTAU!
So, HONOS OG04 Got an Update [UTAU/OpenUTAU Voicebank Release]
Official release notice and tutorial for ELITE!
About The Voicebank:
The official release of the new HONOS OG04 voicebank is finally here!HONOS OG04 ELITE is an all-in-one Japanese VCV Voicebank that possesses both Multi-pitch and Multi-expression voices.
This Voicebank has three timbres that are 4 pitches each (Tenor, E3~A4), making ELITE a total of 12 VCVs. The three timbres can be used all in one track by utilizing the SuffixBroker. ELITE’s three expressions are:
“Stoic”: Normal voice
“Mellow”: Gentle/whisper voice
“Firm”: Solid/power voice
HONOS OG04 ELITE also has some fun add-ons, including several breaths (intake and outtake), western L notes (all timbres, all pitches), two Growl CV banks (Mono-pitch, one higher register and one lower), Vocal Fry (sounds best used with Stoic/Mellow, 4 pitch), and Glottal Stops (all timbres, all pitches).
USING ELITE: APPENDS
Stoic – Normal tone of voice. No extra effort is required to use Stoic.
Mellow – A soft/whisper bank. You can use it by selecting the “↓” symbol in the SuffixBroker in UTAU. For OpenUTAU, please use Voice Colors in the editor (under CLR).
Firm – A solid/power bank. You can use it by selecting the “↑” symbol in the SuffixBroker in UTAU. For OpenUTAU, please use Voice Colors in the editor (under CLR).
Using the SuffixBrokerUsing Voice Colors in OpenUTAU
Glottal Stopswith the ELITE Voicebank:
Glottal stops are compatible with all three appends in ELITE.
– Replace the space between letters with the・ symbol (ex: turn a あ into a・あ).
– Ends notes use ・ at the end (ex: a ・)
Using Glottal Stops
Vocal Fry & Breaths with the ELITE Voicebank:
Vocal fry: Use ‘ as the suffix (ex: – あ’ or あ’) or prefix (‘あ). Drop-off end notes are formatted with – (ex: a -)
Breaths: ELITE possesses an entire folder dedicated to breaths of different types. Can be used in UTAU or in an external editor.
Inhales: 息, br (5 different types ex: 息1, 息2, etc)
Soft Exhales: ahh, ehh, ihh, ohh, uhh, nhh
Stand-alone Exhales: 息-, 息2-, etc.
Using Vocal Fry and Breaths (Inhale and Vocal Fry)Using Vocal Fry and Breaths (Standalone exhale & soft exhale end breath)
Extraswith the HONOS OG04 ELITE:
Western L notes:To use western L VCV notes (La, Le, Li, Lo, Lu): Add “2” to the end of Japanese R notes (ex: a ら2)
Growl:Add * for the suffix (ex: あ*). You can use the up or down arrows in the SuffixBroker
This week’s post is all about HONOS OG04, the OGIENOID that entrances with a gentle, deep, and androgynous voice. She is the second member of “The Triad,” a subset of OGIENOID characters developed to be used together. VIRTUS OG02 and THEIA OG03 are her counterparts.
HONOS OG04’s original concept was male. However, the idea was scrapped due to the difficulty of sourcing male voices. Additionally, our team wanted to start representing WLW relationships among our OGIENOIDs, so the decision to make HONOS OG04 female was an easy one.
Name Origins
Honos – /ˈhɔnoːs̠/
Honos is the Roman god and personification of honor. Closely associated with Virtus (the Roman Goddess of bravery and virtue), the two were frequently honored together, such as in Rome’s Temple of Virtus and Honos.
We always planned Honos and Virtus to be a pair and couple. Therefore, we wanted to pick a pair of names that were deeply intertwined.
HONOS OG04’s Original Concept by Ceren. Base by rika-dono.
To Protect
HONOS OG04’s name was originally “Honos Unit, #258”. She was a member of law enforcement, specially created for the job. HONOS’s primary function was as a social worker and de-escalation specialist. Therefore, she worked on-call for a local police department, taking care of situations that required a more emotional approach. Above all, her specialty was dealing with those who were not mentally sound, keeping them out of harm’s way.
Occasionally, she partook in high-risk situations. Her physical build made her a strong fighter, and her high-speed reflexes made her quick to retaliate against danger.
One particular evening, she was involved in a dangerous call that left her severely wounded and malfunctioning. As a result, she was the only survivor, her unit of fellow androids decimated. Unable to fight back, she began to lose consciousness as a group of criminals began to bag up her friends.
Without A Trace
Honos found herself sold on the dark web, with numerous buyers bidding on her. As an android member of law enforcement, she had several unique features and kept many sensitive secrets. Her highest bidder ended up being an underground robot fighting ring. They were highly interested in her physical strength, and their audience practically drooled over the idea of a female, human-like robot fighting to the death. However, she refused to let them have the satisfaction of watching her go down. As a result, Honos triumphed every battle she was partaking in.
After two or so years, Honos finally found a way to escape her captors. Upon realizing that she was finally free to live her life however she pleased, she decided to blend in with society and find out who she truly was.
Welcome Home
After living for herself after a year or so, Honos bumped into a stray android on the streets. The android, huddled against a dumpster in the pouring rain, was battered and dirty. She noticed that the android was a commercial-grade unit, highly expensive with sophisticated technologies. She extended her umbrella to the android, and the two began to talk.
Honos offered to help the android find their way home, but they refused. Finally, empathizing with the stranger’s wish for freedom and to live for itself, Honos offered to take them in. They agreed though HONOS OG04 did not have a place to call home herself.
Afterward, one evening looking for shelter, the two bumped into a sparkling new, lilac-haired android on her way to deliver itself to her new company. The android assisted them, and, together, they made their way to STUDIO OGIEN.
After deliberating what to do, Honos decided to stay with the company, and their friend off the street decided to as well. Honos decided to keep her name but altered it to fit better with her new family. Honos Unit, #258 was now HONOS OG04, and her Roman name inspired the pattern of Roman/Greek names among OGIENOIDs. The android off the street decided to pick something that paired well, choosing VIRTUS as her given name.
The Present
Her current representation to the public is outside of the story’s universe. But, always taking care of her fellow OGIENOIDs, HONOS OG04 is alive and well outside the story’s timeline.
Character Description:
(From her character page): HONOS OG04 is a relatively calm and collected woman. Her presence itself is very calming. However, she has a knack for stabilizing others’ emotions, and this trait earned her admiration from her fellow OGIENOID team members. She has always been a shoulder to cry on and a bit of a therapy bot. Her mental health is robust, but on occasion, she breaks down, she turns to VIRTUS OG02 for comfort.
Re-Introducing More OGIENOIDs
Are you curious about the other OGIENOIDs? Stay tuned for a re-introduction of our next girl! Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on our blog releases. Similarly, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram for more news on our social media.
Let’s have some fun with OGIENOID Minecraft Skins!
Everyone enjoys games, right? The team at STUDIO OGIEN sure does! As a result of our love for games, we have been at work to create OGIENOID Minecraft skins of all the OGIENOIDs and we are happy to announce that they are ready to be shared with you all! You can head to each girl’s page to find them under “Downloads.” Also, you can download them here on this post for DIONE OG05 and VIRTUS OG02, who are currently unreleased! Below, you will see a showcase of all the skins and how they look when walking with them in-game.
SPICE! up your Valentine’s Day with HONOS OG04 from STUDIO OGIEN! 🧡💛 You can download the UST on our UST page!
About the Original SPICE!
“The song was uploaded on March 6, 2008. It’s one of Minato’s early and most notable works. It ranked first on The Vocaloid Weekly Ranking #25, and on October 28, 2008, it reached The Nico Hall of Fame (over 100,000 views). The song currently reached half a million views on Niconico. Several parodies and utaite covers have been made. The song depicts Len as a womanizer and a playboy who sleeps with and leaves women and thinks love is ‘just a game’. However, although he declares himself a Casanova, he knows his inner sorrow incapacitates him to love. In the end, all his succumbed feelings spiral out.” (from Vocaloid Wiki)
Contributors:
Project lead: Stormi & Ceren Art: Stormi Backgrounds: Ceren Video: Ceren Mix: Stormi Outfit design (or lack thereof if you know what I mean 👀): Stormi
Song Information:
Singer: HONOS OG04 UST: Stormi Original Vocal: Kagamine Len Artist: minato (music, lyrics), Hirari (illust)
This project was led by our very own StormiLove! Their enthusiasm for the project made it an exciting experience, and they put a lot of time and effort into the video.
STUDIO OGIEN’s first Tenor voice, HONOS OG04, hits the scene today in a stunning 3D PV release!
A mellow and calming androgynous voice. HONOS OG04’s song will soothe you.
HONOS OG04’s Video Release
HONOS OG04’s voicebank is a mono-pitch VCV style VB with a few different voice types. She boasts a soothing, androgynous voice in three different timbres: soft, normal, and strong.
The full version combines three voicebanks into one, allowing the user to plug in “↑” or “↓” into the UST from the SuffixBroker for appends. This makes all voices available to use in one UST, which helps to make editing, tuning, and mixing faster and easier.
The Character:
Personality: HONOS OG04 is a very strong person, physically and mentally. She has often been deemed the “rock” of the OGIENOIDs due to her calm, mellow, and level-headed nature. Though she may seem a little scary, she’s just a big, tall softy. When the situation calls for it, though, she will not hesitate to step into a fight. HONOS OG04 is rather androgynous in appearance and voice, and her interests reflect that trait. She enjoys girly things like makeup, getting her nails done, and getting her brows shaped as well as more masculine things like contact sports. While she enjoys and appreciates looking at frilly, over-the-top girly fashions, she doesn’t like the way she looks in them, personally. HONOS OG04 much prefers wearing comfortable attire that flatters her more masculine body type.
HONOS OG04 and VIRTUS OG02
Relationships: She is closest to the other two members of her triad, VIRTUS OG02, and THEIA OG03. As the three became OGIENOIDs together, they were good friends from the very beginning. HONOS OG04, however, will admit her best friend is VIRTUS OG02. The two have a very special bond and had met before they came to STUDIO OGIEN. She finds herself very protective of the yellow OGIENOID, and the two are rather inseparable. Other than her triad, HONOS OG04 finds herself helping out AXIS OG06 a lot. Since the two are kind of group moms, they find themselves getting the other girls out of trouble rather often.
Head on over to her brand new page by clicking here! HONOS OG04 has many fun assets, including a 3D MMD compatible model and a 2D LipSync model.
