UTAU Backstories?

[COPIED FROM VO]
Well, a question that popped up in my head when I was reading the fandom dislikes.

Personally, I made a small backstory on how Aline became an UTAUloid and stuff, but I like to think it's my very personal character interpretation and it can be thrown away (or used, if they want to) by other users when doing covers, songs, stories or whatsoever. I don't really want to tie people in a "canon", since Aline Enbukyoku is basically just voice data, but I know users who do, and do badly.

Then, I thought: what if people think it's just plain stupid? What if people insist on keeping what they judge as "canon"? What if people simply don't care about that and use the VBs anyways, canon notwithstanding?

Your thoughts on that, and the "why"s. Please, the "why"s.

(Oops, typo. I meant "isn't disregardable", not "is disregardable" in the second option. A shame we can't edit poll options ;n; )

I don't get the big deal about them! XD I mean, my UTAU (and two more under my care who aren't released yet...OTL) have backstories to a degree, but me/their creators don't like, ENFORCE them. The backstories are mostly for our benefit, and I don't expect anyone to really feel chained by them. You can make our UTAU sing whatever you want, we won't care! XD We'll be happy you used them!

I mean, an enforced "MY UTAU CAN ONLY SING THIS BECAUSE SHE'S LIKE THIS BLAAAH" sort of canon would be difficult to work with. But from what I can tell, most UTAUs with backstories and canon are much more laid-back about it.

:V I don't mind if an UTAU has a backstory. It's the creator's decision after all. However, I do fully intend to ignore said backstory and use the bank as I wish <3

I like having back stories for my UTAUloids and i like it when people follow them because I spend lots of time making them >.>

I like backstories simply because I like writing and fleshing out a character. To me, UTAU are characters with real voices. But the backstory isn't important. At all. They sing. So. Yeah.

I just like to write and have certain ways of acting with them.

/ALMOST COPYPASTA FROM VO

I do backstories for fanfiction. But UTAU-fanfiction is crack anyway (some more than others) in my opinion there is no canon.

But seriously, when it comes to UTAU itself, it's only the voice that matters.

I think backstories that are like... slight are okay.

But like NOVELS of backstories are... ridiculous to me. XDDD;

I think a quick description of what they do or how they got to be what they are is fine, but like, their ENTIRE life story seems really pointless to me. XD

I don't mind a few things saying "This is them, say hi c:" or short little things explaing what they are/who they are but like... paragraths upon paragrapths of them = big no no.

Utauoilds are not ocs, they are voicebanks to be used for the creation of awesome music. overly-long stories only cuase people, even if you yourself are not strict on it, to worry.

Sure I'll goof on Skype and let Siana get involed in fanfics, but nothing is canon, people could make her a chain moking 40 year old with pink hair and I would just lol.

Sparky wrote::V I don't mind if an UTAU has a backstory. It's the creator's decision after all. However, I do fully intend to ignore said backstory and use the bank as I wish <3

^^ this.

When I'm looking for a voicebank, I go straight to the voice sample. I don't care about how they look, where they came from, or anything like that. If I like the voice after listening to a few voice samples (not just one, because someone can make a good UTAU sound bad by bad editing), then while I'm downloading them I will take a look at their appearance, read the personality, etc. And I'll delete them after I download them if I don't like working with them. There is no "oh, but I downloaded it and I'd feel bad if I didn't use it". If I don't like using them, that's the end of it.

With Trem, I really don't care if people follow her personality description or her appearance. Really, she can be whatever someone wants her to be. Make her fit the song, not my description. I just threw that out there in case you were looking for some inspiration about how to portray her. If you've got your own ideas, go for it.

After all, the vocaloids were just a picture on a box when they came out; it was the fanbase that gave them a personality at all. UTAU has a bit more freedom in that you call the shots somewhat, but the basic principle is the same; we're here to make voicebanks sing. Backstories are, to me, pretty irrelevant. They're nice, but just icing on the cake, really.

I love UTAUs that can be any kind of character I want them to be. And chances are I won't bother read their backstory even if there is one. If someone went 'THIS is canon about my UTAU, disregard it and DIE' or words to that effect, I'd be hugely put off and wouldn't use their bank no matter how much I liked their voice.

However, I do think if I was writing an original song for an UTAU, giving them a little bit of personality would be useful for inspiration, and I think detailed character designs make things WAY easier when drawing cover art. But backstories, eh, I'd leave them.

^I wanna add something to the statement on original songs. These are really hard to make, because you want to involve the UTAU in the story of the song... But it is either not fitting or too fitting, and with overseas UTAU I'm sometimes worried if people would like it or not. I don't want to be making an original song and then hear 'I do not like it, it doesn't fit my UTAUs personality...'

I find that hard...

...Well, in the case of Nene Nene.......

She has an original song that gives her backstory. I thought it was pretty cool actually.

((but in reality I just wanted to know why there was a flower stuck to her arm OTL))

I don't hate back stories,In fact,I love reading them.:'D
Through I kind of get annoyed by stuff like this:

Spoiler:

...Well not exactly that,but I hope you get my point;
Unfortunately a lot of UTAU's have similar emoandroidlovehate stories.

I don't like to spend the time on them since the common consensus (from what i can tell) is that people just disregard them anyways...

and the fact that they're just sound files used in a program

they can have in-depth /personalities/, but backstories is just going too far IMO >n<;

Haha~ I like reading them if they are interesting and well wrote, but if they are eye-roll worthy then I disregard the background story and just use the voice~ Simple~

Faggot wrote:I don't hate back stories,In fact,I love reading them.:'D
Through I kind of get annoyed by stuff like this:

Spoiler:

...Well not exactly that,but I hope you get my point;
Unfortunately a lot of UTAU's have similar emoandroidlovehate stories.

Should I change Aline's "backstory", then? I actually just wanted her to be a cyborg and to explain why her voice sucks (to me, at least) XD Because the example you posted is similar to what I did; well, at the scientist reviving girl part, at least =n=

Then again, whatever, it's not like it wasn't a bit of a parody in itself nor that it can't be disregarded in first place, anyways XD

...What am I doing here? Teto is a Vocaloid, what the heck is UTAU?...

Aline wrote:
Should I change Aline's "backstory", then? I actually just wanted her to be a cyborg and to explain why her voice sucks (to me, at least) XD Because the example you posted is similar to what I did; well, at the scientist reviving girl part, at least =n=

Then again, whatever, it's not like it wasn't a bit of a parody in itself nor that it can't be disregarded in first place, anyways XD

Oh,wait what lol your not serious.
I don't think that you should change it;It's your story after all.

Changing backstory for songs... is usual fare... because to me Vocaloids and UTAUs are like actors playing a role. Actors have their own lives too... and then they have the characters they play.

So that's why I don't mind backstory. That's just the actor's life. When the actor is acting, it's a role.
I hope that makes sense? ^^

I do though like to use some character personality trait found in a UTAU's profile as they will give me inspiration... to do horribly complicated pvs that are released in the future... sometime...*dies*

I love backstories!!! even my utauloid has his own Backstory, Although his real back story is in my Laptop and in my USB... I like it when I make him more mysterious...:3


edit: the story he have on the Voicebank Directory is just bits of the original...and He have a very long story. So I would guess you won't read it anyway...After all...his story might suck. =_=

I don't mind since it could explain the name of the UTAU (it explains Vista's in this case roflmao) and why they were made.

Other than that, I disregard it when I make them sing. Like Ilia said, UTAUs and Vocaloids are like actors, they play the role people make them play.

Vista's simply explains why she was created and why she's a humanoid (I rather use that term than cyborg, DAMN YOU WORLD OF WARCRAFT!) instead of a operating system for a PC but kept the name LOL

I changed her from android to a humanoid (cyborg for those who use that term) due to personal preference and my love for Ghost in the Shell.

BACK ON TOPIC:
But yeah, I fully agree with Ilia.

I say it depends on the user.

For those who have them, most likely use them. Not only do I use my UTAUs history for writing, I also use it for voice types, design, language/pronunciation, ect.

For example Mikai's history as a sex slave (no trolling!):
Voice types: Not affected
Design: Short shorts/half shirt/lip stick are all from habit
Language/pronunciation: "r" are English because he learned for a English-speaking person. Will hold English and Swedish because he lived in an area that was trilingual.

Then my character Panda's history of not talking:
Voice: Soft, quite, and cute due to underdevelopment
Design: Not affected
Language/pronunciation: Not majorly affected.

See what I mean?

It's mostly the voice that matters, but because UTAUs are fan made characters/personas, then a backstory doesn't hurt if you just want to add a little more depth to the character. The way I think of it, it's like saying the only important thing about an anime is the art and special effects. Sure, those special effects might look fantastic, but it doesn't hurt to add any little extras to make the plot more interesting.

But either way, it all comes down to personal opinion. I think it's an interesting idea and encourages more creativity within the community. =/

I like backstories.

Enough to establish a personality.

But when it comes to the point where you start making rubbish like "My UTAU was a sex slave forced to sing with it's Masuta" or you start writing essays about it, I'm done with it.