YAMAHA VOCALOID Singing Synthesis Technology

[seraph]

VOCALOID is a vocal-synthesizing software that enables song writers to generate authentic-sounding singing on their PCs by simply typing in the lyrics and music notes of their compositions. The software synthesizes the sound from "vocal libraries" of recordings of actual singers, retaining the vocal qualities of the original singing voices to reproduce realistic vocals. The software also features simple commands that enable users to add expressive effects - such as vibrato and pitch bends - to their synthesized vocals. Additional releases to the range of vocal libraries currently available will broaden the range of voices and singing styles that can generated by VOCALOID. At the moment, VOCALOID can generate singing in Japanese and English. Other languages are also planned for the future.

VOCALOID software runs on Windows 2000/XP. A MacOS version is planned for the future.

Yamaha has already agreed on the license agreement for VOCALOID library production and software sales with a number of soundware developers around the world. These licensees will release "Vocaloid Singer Libraries", which includes the VOCALOID software. Yamaha is not currently planning to sell the actual VOCALOID software engine as a dedicated product. "Vocal libraries" will be launched onto the market as the products of various soundware developers.

The first VOCALOID vocal libraries has been announced by Zero-G Limited (United Kingdom).
A male vocalist, LEON, and a female vocalist, LOLA, were launched at the NAMM show in L.A., 15 - 18 January, 2004. A third vocalist, MIRIAM, will be launched at Frankfurt Musik Messe, 31 March - 3 April, 2004. These vocalists can beautifully sing ANY words you ask them to in English and sound like a professional singing voice.
For more information, please visit the website of Zero-G Limited (United Kingdom) http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=803
Listen to the samples and get pale

[mosc]

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/media/mp3/kimi_no_uwasa.mp3

OMG

Demo page: http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=802

Most of this sucks musically, the the technology is cool. I like the Bach vocals one.

[elektro80]

This is interesting technology. I wonder if it is possibly to use this in some offbeat subversive way.

[mosc]

Better samples here: http://www.vocaloid.com/en/sample.html

Be sure to listen to An ensemble for 24 unsynchronized PDAs

[paul e.]

mmhh..it almost sounds better than a speak and spell heheh

[paul e.]

steinberg's virtual guitarist, vocaloid, steinberg's groove agent for drums and you can have some pretty awful fake sounding music

maybe this technology can be used to , as elektro 80 said 'subvert' this technology, but otherwise this strikes me as the future scifi guys always warned about


you may never know who is an android and who is not

however all of the above 'instrument's still sound laughably primtive -and vocaloid sounds like a video game character to me

btw i like what kid 606[tigerbeat records] does with this kind of stuff

he makes 'impossible' music with virtual vocalists [there are other programmes that do this like 'vocal writer' for mac] and virtual guitars, he makes music that coud never by physically played by humans on these 'human' instruments

like a singer going up 12 octaves in one passage etc

otherwise, using this stuff to replace humans is just folly

[seraph]

[Kruge]

I find this demo most interresting, showing a bit what the tool can do if you play around:

http://www.zero-g.co.uk/media/mp3/LEON_LOLA_Demo_Freaky_Sheep.mp3

[seraph]

what I like about it is its "alien" quality. It is close (to a real voice) but not cigar It's the same reason why I like Yamaha VL synthesis:

[elektro80]

..which is one of the reasons people still love the M400.

[seraph]

[elektro80]

Novatron M400

[elektro80]

[bachus]

[bachus]

[elektro80]