vocaloid

Zero G has announced Vocaloid SONIKA, a virtual vocalist modelled on the voice of a young girl pop singer.

According to Zero-G:

• Sonika is a sweet virtual voice at your fingertips…
• Sonika is a new cyberspace starlet who will hit those high notes every time with perfect accuracy.
• Sonika can sing any word from the English language (and other languages too with a little work).
• Sonika is also very well suited if you want to be adventurous and experimental, since her voice can be easily modified and shaped in many ways.
• SONIKA will spread any sustained vowel (or voiced consonant) across as many notes as you like, with perfect legato. You can select from several different natural vibrato types and drag and drop your chosen type to any note or notes, and control the time-position and amount of the vibrato.

Vocaloid Sonika also can sound pretty creepy, possibly unintentionally, as you’ll hear in this audio demo:

 

 Sonika Sings Ring My Bell [3:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Vocaloid Sonika retails for $199.95 USD (169 Euros / £114.95 GBP).

Let me know what you think of virtual young girl pop singer Sonika!

Should she keep her day job?

Moon Tide by vocaloid2

This song is “sung” by Vocaloid Hatsune Miku.

Vocaloid is a voice synthesizer, developed by Yamaha, that attempts to recreate the sounds of the human voice. “Hatsune Miku” is Vocaloid programed for Japanese pronunciation.

In this example, Hatsune Miku sings a Moon Tide. Propellerhead Reason is used for the sound of the accompaniment part, and Logic controls the performance data.

via btpro:

This bizarre track was created using the Vocaloid 2 voice synthesizer.

The voice synthesis gives is a strange, creepy quality.

via KaitsuGohan:

I pretty much spent awhile doing this, and this is my first little test using Vocaloid 2.

PowerFX has released Sweet Ann, the first of their new line of vocal libraries employing Yamaha’s Vocaloid2 software. Vocaloid software applications let users type in words and melody and have the virtual vocalist ”sing” back the input.

If it all sounds a bit creepy and cool, check out the demos at the PowerFX site or visit Sweet Ann’s Myspace page.

“We are extremely excited about the release of Sweet Ann and developing vocal libraries for Vocaloid,” said PowerFX CEO Bil Bryant. “Vocal synthesis and voice modelling is an evolving technology that is still in its infancy, but the developments and functions of Vocaloid2 make it such an incredibly useful tool for any digital music maker that we had to get involved.” Read more…

Zero-G has released its third Vocaloid Virtual Vocalist, Miriam, powered by Yamaha Singing Synthesis technology.

Vocaloid Miriam is a virtual vocalist, modelled on the voice of Miriam Stockley, the voice of the million-selling Adiemus albums. Unlike a real vocalist, though, many aspects of the voice are editable:

• Changing syllables/phonemes (e.g. enter “liddle” instead of “little” etc).
• Timing of each note (precise position/length).
• Vibrato (you can change its type/position/amount/frequency).
• Volume.
• Attack.
• Crescendo or diminuendo.
• Pitch bend (amount, and positionable in time).
• Glide (portamento).
• Resonance (Frequency/bandwidth/amplitude).
• Harmonics.
• Noise.
• Brightness.
• Clearness.
• Gender factor.

The retail price is $449.95 / 249.95 GBP (inc.VAT) / 359 Euro. Full product info is available at the Zero-G site.