Operation Guides
Installing UTAU
Before you begin:
- This guide was written and coordinated by members of the UTAU community and has no affiliation with the UTAU software itself or its creator.
- This guide was written with users of WINDOWS 10 in mind, advice does not immediately translate to other operating systems or other versions of UTAU, such as UTAU-Synth for MacOS.
- This guide relates to the original UTAU software by Ameya which released in 2008 and NOT OpenUTAU, the fanmade UTAU alternative, as such the utility of this resource may vary.
- While the process of installing UTAU is ultimately safe when done correctly, JOEZCafe and other parties involved in JOEZUTAU projects take no responsibility for any incidents, loss or damage to users or property from following these instructions.
You want to install the latest version of the editor by clicking the text that's highlighted in the above screencap, you can tell if the build is translated into English if there is a lower case "e" next to the version number, such as "v0.4.18e".
Did your antivirus detect something wrong with the download?
This is actually an extremely common occurance when downloading UTAU, the software is very old and most WINDOWS based antivirus software frequently report false-positives when directly downloading .exe files.
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The link provided is the official download page for the UTAU software, hosted by the original creator, so as a community, we guarantee this download is genuine and safe.
Changing System Locale:
An important step that must be carried out before running the installation of UTAU is changing the Locale of your system.
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Even when using the English version of UTAU, the software requires a Japanese System Locale in order to render Japanese characters so they display clearly, this is because UTAU is a Non-Unicode program, meaning the software only shows characters from the primary language of the Locale the system is set to.
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System Locale is different to System Language!
In this process, we're NOT setting your entire PC to Japanese, changing the text across the entire system, we're changing the LOCALE, which is the set of characters Non-Unicode programs can render on your system. Fortunately, the Japanese System Locale still renders roman characters and most modern software supports Unicode, meaning English text will still display just fine on your system.
Navigate to your PC's Control Panel (This can be done by simply entering "Control Panel" into your Windows search bar) and navigate to "Clock and Region" > "Change date, time or number formats".
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On the window that appears, move to the second tab that reads "Administrative".
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Select the button highlighted yellow in the above screencap that reads "Change system locale...", you want to set it to "Japanese (Japan)".
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(Changing System Locale requires restarting WINDOWS, so please ensure you're ready to do so before changing this setting)
Running the installer:
The below screencap is the first prompt you should be greeted with when running UTAU's installer, the installer itself has not been localised, even in the English builds, so all builds show Japanese text.
This prompt is for selecting your installation method, the first option (R) has UTAU install itself in its default path, your "Program Files (x86)" folder, while the second option (M) lets you manually specify the install location.
UTAU doesn't need to be anywhere specific, it can even be placed on an external drive so you can carry it between devices.
Once you've selected the best option for you, you continue by pressing option (F), the furthest bottom right button.
With the path specified, UTAU will proceed with installation, then the above prompt will appear.
Congratulations! You've installed UTAU!
You can close the installer using Option (C) in the far bottom right corner and safely delete the installer if you wish to keep your directory clean.
If a desktop shortcut has not been made, UTAU is launched by running "utau.exe", located by entering "UTAU" into your WINDOWS search bar, or by navigating to the UTAU folder where the software was installed, if you selected the default pathway via option (R), it's typically located in your main storage device under "Program Files (x86)".