(No idea where this goes. I get lost looking for forums.)

If you want to be an awesome possum UTAU user, one of the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS is to know hiragana. It's not hard! (means the exclamation point in a cheery, 'we can all do it!' sense, not the usual, 'I can do it, why can't you?!' sense.)

The way I started out learning hiragana was just making hiragana USTs. Most of the banks I had weren't romaji compatible, so I just had to use hiragana. I'd see what I typed and what it came out as. It was a fun c:

Then I printed off hiragana charts and put them on my desk. Whenever I saw a string of kana, I would pick up my hiragana and katakana charts and try to decipher how to say the kana.

Knowing hiragana is especially important, and it annoys me to see UTAU user making no conscious effort to at least learn hiragana c:

Yep~ yep~ Even if you can't use Japanese on your computer - it's still good to know hiragana. orz I know them of by heart but...can't use them... It's so upsetting... Damn you xp cd!! (but nao I finally got teto and sora to work!! but damn it takes ages...)

Same with Yanyu. I've got them memorized by heart, and I'm starting to translate some of the kana subtitles in songs.
I only have Luna coded in romaji, since i'm to lazy to alias her, but aliases r kwl. So, I have to translate hiragana usts into romaji, and I srsly know ALL the hiragana by heart. I never look at charts, its crazy awesome. xD
And, i've only been on utau for like 3 months. And I memorized all of it in... 1 month. Its super easy once you actually start trying to learn it.
ALSO.
ANOTHER TIP.
PRONOUNCE YOUR R'S LIKE L'S, then cut off PART of the L sound in the oto to make the japanese 'R' sound. It sounds SO much better than the english R when your utau is singing because the english 'R' sounds so damn out of place. It also flows better by saying 'L' in place of 'R' when recording triphones. I sing a lot in my spare time, and i've noticed when actually singing, it flows a lot better by pronouncing 'L'.
Speaking of Triphones... I need to get some out for Luna.
I've been told she's smoother than some vocaloids without them or something, or that her normal vb sounds like triphones, but idk.
c':

Its for more or less the people who can't pronounce japanese R, like me xD
Thats the way I say it. c':

Kanipan has English Rs. I swear.

Haha, I actually learned hiragana from using UTAU. XD It kinda drills itself into your head if you see it a lot. But yeah, it's definitely helpful.

This is a really good site if you need to practice. ^__^

Oh, I totally agree! I mean, even if you have on interest in learning Japanese, knowing hiragana is pretty much a MUST in UTAU! I don't know them very well, I can only identify a few, but that's what wikipedia is for! XD And maybe if I mess with the program enough I'll get it via rote memory.

As for the Japanese "r", I'm told my normal "r" is more Japanese than not. I don't know if its true, but considering I'm born and raised an American mutt, it would be awesome if that were the case. I might ask with some of my early voice recordings here on the forum. XD I figure I'll get a more honest answer here.