Spent most of the day with the new Vocaloids VST, both Leon and Lola. Pretty neat as you might expect. Not as hard to use as you might expect once you get used to all of the parameters that go into making a track.

First thing I did was dive in over my head and tried editing one of the included demos to make it sing what I wanted... it went better than it should have and in less than an hour I succeeded so it gets good points for the intuitive factor. But the real steps to creating a fresh track are:

1. Create new sequence, select voice (singer), set tempo/time signature.
2. Play in the notes, or step-enter or import midi file.
3. Enter the lyrics for each note.
4. Click Phoneme Transformation, which converts the lyrics into phonetic data the Vocaloid can sing. It does this pretty well but some editing may be required - and you have a list of phonemes to choose from that are easy to understand. At this point your track is very dry and computer-sounding.
5. Add expression per note. The options are for attack, vibrato, dynamics and crescendo. You drag the expression objects to the note and then stretch them as far as needed. I don't know yet if real-time MIDI controls will work for adding expression but so far I don't think so.
6. Add Control. This includes brightness, noise, clearness, gender control, resonance (with frequency, bandwidth and amplitude), harmonics, and pitch bend.

By now you have something pretty decent and you can tweak to infinity. Besides editing the sequence track you can also edit the singer's overall vocal characteristics. I should mention that the program has to render the tracks like in video editing, so you get a long pause the first time you hit the play button after editing.

It's not hard to use really but you can definitely go deep into the synthesis aspects if you want. The owner's manual is clear and concise (and in full color!) and is only about 100 pages in English. There's more I haven't mentioned like a simple mixer for controlling the mix between singers (you can have up to 16 if your computer can handle it). As a stand-alone app it's great for barbershop quartet stuff and it will export both midi and wave files. It'll really hit the spot as a VST in combination with other instruments. It's a bit expensive for hobbying around with (I will have to try sending some pornographic singing telegrams to some friends though) but this could be priceless for commercial apps like singing radio station logos, jingles and the like. Yeah I know - I'll post some demos when I come up with something worth hearing. If you haven't heard it at all yet: http://www.vocaloid.com/

[This message has been edited by The Pro (edited 01-28-2004).]

Jim...

Thanks for the comprehensive review. The Vocaloid is certainly an intriging technological development. Do you see any advantage of the Vocaloid over creating an audio vocal track with a harmonizer?

Big time difference: the Vocaloids could sing something entirely different from the lead if you're talking about real-time harmonizer use. They can sing in ways humans cannot (if there's a use for that). I think they have the potential to sound more realistic than a harmonizer. They can do 16-part harmony, solo lead lines, scats, and other strange and exotic things that no harmonizer can do. The biggest thing is the full editing power of the program that allows you to tweak every single phrase, word and note to extremes. I would think of it as a synthesizer/sequencer (which it is) to get the full picture. The more I think about this program, the more possibilities I come up with.

After listening to the demos a few times, I have to say that the only one that really impressed me much was the solo male Japanese singer.

There's something about the harmonies and choruses ones that strikes my ears a bit funny. Can't quite nail what it is that doesn't sound right to me,whether it's a robotic sound or what.

Very cool technology to be sure, but it fell a little short of that got to have it in me.
Terry

------------------
jam on,
Terry http://imjazzed.homestead.com/Index.html

[This message has been edited by trtjazz (edited 01-29-2004).]

Yeah it does sound a little weird (especially what I've done with it so far!), but I believe that what it takes is a very good understanding of the program to get realistic results and noone has spent that kind of time with it yet. When the third vocal font title, "Miriam", is released in March at MusicMesse that will tell us if it's a matter of fonts also.

My "end of week 1" impressions of Vocaloids: much to learn and Yamaha has already started throwing some illogic into the mix. Here's a perfect example: in constructing phonetic pronuciations you use "phonemes" (pronounced "fowneems") and a list is provided. Some of the conversion from what you type to phonemes is automatic but editing is usually necessary. There are abbreviations for phoneme symbols, like 't' for the kind of t used in the word "sit". Makes sense huh? Well, Yamaha says the phoneme symbol for the t in "think" is 'T', while the symbol for the t in "top" is 'th' - that's a direct quote from the manual. And the manual further suggests that to make editing easier you commit it's phonemes and symbols to memory, even if they are ass-backwards I guess. Yamaha is still in need of English proofreaders.

I had trouble getting Vocaloids to say "health" - it comes out sounding like "halth" like the 'ha' sound in "has". It appears that I can edit the dictionary and edit the phonemes but there are too many other parameters I want to understand first. Also some vocal samples end funny - like "ooo" has more of an "oooee" sound to it. I have a ways to go before I know if this is a problem with the program, the vocal fonts or me.

The program is deceptively easy to get started with and to enter lyrics and start throwing expression parameters around for instant gratification, but the real effort is "humanizing" - as in combining the many possible parameters to sound lifelike. I still don't know what the actual impact of some of the parameters are even after trying them out. One parameter that does add interesting texture is "noise" which makes the voice sound more airy and human so that'll get used a good bit. My focus now is just trying all of the parameters one at a time until I know what I'm doing.

Becoming an expert with Vocaloids will not be easy. That's good in it's own way - mastering Vocaloids could be a unique skill that won't be commonplace. My attempts so far are very synthetic-sounding and not ready for hearing (I'm afraid it'll turn people off too soon). Maybe next week.

Oh no! And I was going to try the Vocaloids out as a VST this weekend when I just got this notice:
--------------------------------------
Dear Registered Vocaloid User,

We have been advised by YAMAHA that there is a bug in the functionality of
Vocaloid when used as a VST plug-in. This can cause intermittent playback or in
some circumstances the VST functionality does not operate. YAMAHA say they are
working hard to correct the problem and all registered users will be provided
with a free downloadable update as soon as possible which will cure this bug and
provide other improvements to the software as well.

Meanwhile, full ReWire plug-in functionality is already available in your
Vocaloid software, and of course standalone functionality is unaffected. A full
list of sequencers that support ReWire is viewable at: http://www.propellerheads.se/
(click on REWIRE on their home page, then follow the link "Programs that Support
ReWire")

In fact many users so far are telling us that they prefer to work with ReWire,
or to work in standalone mode and save each sung line or phrase of their song
from Vocaloid as a WAV file and import those WAV files into their audio
sequencer or sampler.

We regret to inform you that YAMAHA have just advised us that the update to fix
the VST problem may not be available for up to a month (they had originally told
us it would be coming in just a few days). We will of course keep you informed
and as soon as it is available we will advise you.

In case you have not already done so, please remember to download and install
the existing free update (version 1.0.2) which can be found on the Download page
at Yamaha's Vocaloid website, at: http://www.vocaloid.com

WHEN INSTALLING ANY UPDATE, PLEASE REBOOT YOUR COMPUTER FIRST AND ENSURE NO
OTHER PROGRAMS ARE RUNNING.

If you have any technical problems of any other kind, please email us at
VocaloidSupport@zero-g.co.uk

Thank you for your patience, and once again we apologise for any inconvenience
that may be caused by the temporary lack of VST functionality.
-------------------------------------------

Sounds like Zero-G isn't happy with Yamaha or something doesn't it?

Can you even IMAGINE Yamaha, or any Arranger company, sending an email to customers about POTENTIAL problems?
Pro, I think you are dealing with a company that cares about their products and customers.
DonM