Xiao Meihua

Xiao Meihua (小梅花) is a voicebank for the UTAU program.

History
Prior to 2014, Xiao Meihua was an adopted OC and was known as "Ume Kenoia". Her previous version had few illustrations and an MMD model, neither of which are in use.

2014
During 2014, Migi, Purpled, Trainspud, and SlightlyShredded were working on their own UTAU projects. The surname, "Kenoia", was scrapped and "Ume"/"UmE" became working character names for the Japanese voicebank at the time. Due to the inclusion of a Mandarin Chinese voicebank produced by bajucy, she was also referred to as "Mei Hua" (梅花). It was later decided that she would only have one name: Mei Hua. The rest of 2014 and 2015 were spent developing her vocals and working on demo songs.

2016
Mei Hua was officially released on June 3, 2016 as a bilingual vocalist. Her name was changed again later on due to the development of a sister character and she was given the "Xiao" (小) surname, officially referring to her as "Xiao Meihua". At the time of her release, Meihua was not part of a group or project name until 2017 with the release of Ser0. She was later noted as the first vocal of the JAE UTAU PROJECT group.

2018
In 2018, a small update to Meihua's Japanese vocal was released. This update fixed some issues in regards to the oto and her samples.

After the acquisition of a new microphone and pop filter, it decided that Meihua would receive updates to her original voicebanks. Mandarin was the first to be recorded, followed up with Japanese. For consistency, she was given two voicebanks for both languages: Natural and Sweet. Natural was similar to the original Mandarin voicebank's tone while Sweet was similar to the original Japanese voicebank. The Mandarin voicebanks were completed in December. It was then confirmed that Meihua's Mandarin 2.0 voicebanks were bajucy's last contributions to JAE UTAU PROJECT before departing the group.

2019
The first few months of 2019 were spent on creating demos for Xiao Meihua Mandarin 2.0. It was later released on April 19.

According to the Mandarin update's crossfade video, it was mentioned that the default design is also known as the "Chinese design", implying that additional designs may be present in the future. The Japanese update is still in production.

On June 28, it was revealed that Meihua would be receiving two CVVC Arpasing English voicebank: Natural and Sweet. Noted on the group's newsletter, additional language voicebanks for Meihua were considered since 2016. Production for an English release began in 2018, starting with the creation of a new design for the language. Purpled completed this in April 2019. The final design would not be revealed until later. Recording for the voicebanks began after Canary's release and were programmed by bluCitrus in March. While a release date for the English voicebanks was not solidified, it was confirmed that they were to be expected in Autumn.

Concept
''While her biography was written by her creators, it is not strictly canon. Meihua may be depicted in any way as long as her character and software terms of use are not broken.''

Meihua is a shy and sensitive girl who tends to be cheerful and teasing towards her closest friends. She believes that self-expression is important and tries to find ways to be and stay positive. When she sees something or someone that she likes or wants and is asked about it, she often denies that she has any interest. She is a forgetful person and often doesn’t remember what task she was doing if she was interrupted or distracted.

Despite looking adorable, sometimes people find her difficult to approach. They notice her red eyes, often mistaking her as a demon or bad omen. She reacts poorly to people bullying or antagonizing her and would respond with aggressive or violent actions involving a nailed baseball bat. These behaviors tend to reinforce the claims that she and her younger sister, Shancha, are evil demons, even though she would never react in such a way unless provoked. She also has difficulty with making new friends as she is well aware of her violent tendencies and is afraid of hurting her friends or frightening them.​ Sometimes, this leads her to be clingy and rather possessive.

She has a pet blood red corn snake named Edgar. He is a loyal, precious, and endearing friend to her. His owner is very willing to protect him and vice versa.

Likes: Plums, soft flannel shirts, smoothies, dating sims

Dislikes: Bugs, sharks, shaking environments, losing friends

Etymology

 * 小 - Xiǎo; Her surname. Means "small" or "little".
 * シァオ - The Kana rendition of her surname.
 * 梅花 - Méihuā​; Means "plum blossom" or "plum flower". The "Méi" character references Ume, her former name with the same meaning of "plum".
 * メイフア - The Kana rendition of her given name.

Appearance

 * Hair color - Long pink curly hair with parted bangs.
 * Headgear - Wears a red bow tied in her hair.
 * Eye color - Red. The former "Ume" character originally had blue eyes, however, during the redesign process, these were accidentally changed to red as Migi had forgotten the old eye color.
 * Outfit - Consists of a pale pink top with a white layer underneath and detached sleeves on her arms. A lavender bow is found on the back of the top and a lavender choker is located on her neck. She wears a three-tiered white skirt and brown thigh-high socks. Her heeled boots are red and opened in the front with only a lavender belt holding them together. Her armwarmers are brown: the right has two lavender belts while the left has one. Her color scheme is inspired by the plum blossoms she was named for.

Relations

 * Ser0 - friend. Meihua respects her and does her best not to cross her. Ser0 in return cherishes Meihua but sometimes likes to mislead her.
 * Canary - friend. Meihua likes to teach him about Earth-related things but sometimes tricks him. She's amazed with his abilities.
 * Xiao Shancha - younger sister. While they differ in personality, Meihua and Shancha generally get along. However, Shancha has a tendency to tease her big sister.
 * JD - friend. Upcoming UTAU and pending information.
 * Yu Junjie - friend. Upcoming UTAU and pending information.
 * kEna - friend. Upcoming UTAU and pending information.
 * Xiao Meiye - male derivative.

Voice details

 * Input  - Romaji encoded and Kana aliased
 * System - Microsoft Windows
 * Optimum - Genre: Ballads, Tempo: 100~200 BPM (Mandarin 1.0), 100~200 BPM (Japanese 1.0)
 * Details - Meihua's voicebanks generally have two tones of voice: a natural and a sweet tone. As the name implies, the Natural voicebank uses Migi's natural voice and was the tone used for the original Mandarin voicebank. The sweet tone was recorded for the Japanese voicebank and sounds brighter and childish compared to Natural. Other tones for Meihua are being considered but not prioritized.
 * Issues -
 * The original Mandarin and Japanese voicebanks' qualities were relatively poor and samples, especially those beginning with "b" and "p", had "popping" noises. This was due to the voicebanks being recorded on a dynamic microphone built for video games and that socks were used as pop filters.
 * The tones between the original Mandarin and Japanese voicebanks are drastically different. This is due to the fact that the sweeter tone of the Japanese vocal was meant to be the character's official tone of voice. However, this could not be replicated in the original Mandarin voicebank. Migi had difficulty voiceacting while trying to focus on pronunciation, so the voicebank was recorded using his natural tone of voice instead. If a user intended to use the vocals together, but did not like the difference in tone, this is a drawback. Future voicebanks may come in a Natural and Sweet pair by default to correct this or may feature Natural only depending on the difficulty.

Voice samples

 * Demo playlist - SoundCloud
 * CV Japanese 1.0/1.1 and CV+VV Mandarin 1.0 Crossfade - YouTube
 * CV+VV Mandarin 2.0 Crossfade - YouTube

Character Terms Of Use

 * 1) Do not claim Xiao Meihua or official artwork as your own.
 * 2) NSFW content is allowed. This does not apply to MMD models and other works from people who are not from the JAE UTAU PROJECT group. Please follow the rules of the creators! If their works are not allowed to be used for NSFW content, then do not use them for NSFW content!
 * 3) For commercial use of her character, permission is required​.
 * 4) Derivatives must be made with permission.
 * 5) Shippings and pairings are allowed, but do not force as canon. Do not portray Meihua and Xiao Shancha as a romantic couple as they are canonically sisters. This also applies to any derivatives based on their characters. Do not ship Meihua with characters under the age of 18.
 * 6) Do not use Meihua's character for hate speech.
 * 7) Political use is not allowed.

Voicebank Terms Of Use

 * 1) NSFW content is allowed, but do not use the voicebank in songs portraying her in a relationship with those under the age of 18 or with Shancha.
 * 2) For commercial use of her voicebanks, permission is required​.
 * 3) Derivatives must be made with permission.
 * 4) Oto.ini editing is allowed.
 * 5) Do not edit Meihua's samples.
 * 6) Do not use Meihua's voicebanks for hate speech.
 * 7) Political use is not allowed.
 * 8) Voicebank redistribution is forbidden.

Marketing
Official merchandise can be found on the JAE UTAU PROJECT Storenvy.

Third party works, such as an MMD model by OSformula and a Lipsync model by PRISMkidd, have been made available.

She has an official Mii provided by Migi on the JAE UTAU PROJECT website.

Trivia

 * Meihua's release date, June 3, is treated as her birthday.
 * She and Xiao Shancha were not originally conceptualized as siblings. This is due to the fact that Ume and Shancha's former version, Chavil, were unrelated characters. This was later changed.
 * In addition, Ume originally had a brother or male alter ego known as Uno Kenoia. Uno later became Yu Junjie, Meihua's friend.
 * Meihua has no official sexual orientation and can be paired with anyone as long as they are not under 18 or Shancha.
 * When participating in a tagged meme on Deviantart, Migi was asked to write facts about Meihua. The following are his headcanons:
 * Her Halloween outfit is a devil.
 * Her favorite dating sim series is NTT Solmare Corporation's "Shall We Date?". She also has her own list of favorite titles and characters.
 * Due to her obsession with dating sims, she may be very picky and her expectations for romance may not be realistic or it's too high
 * If abandoned, she ends up very heartbroken and would cry. This would not lead her to become violent.
 * Meihua likes to meet new people and make new friends, but is too shy to instigate conversations.
 * She loves having her head patted.
 * She is Chinese American and is from New England. She would love to to visit China some day.
 * She can't perform cartwheels very well and she's not good at swimming.
 * She is commonly interpreted as human or android although neither is canon.
 * When carrying Edgar around in public, he sometimes hides in her hair.

Reputation
Work in progress