This Ableton Live tutorial demonstrates how to create a reverse vocal effect.

via PrimeLoops:

In this tutorial we show you how pull of a neat vocal technique used in the industry time and time again – and it sounds great! This can be used in many genres of music, maybe as a lead into the chorus, or in a breakdown, and is also used in movie soundtracks…nice!

Stay Creative.

This tutorial looks at how to make music with Apple’s Garageband.

via PrimeLoops:

Garageband is a very powerful music-making package from Apple, and can be used to make, edit and remix many styles. Here we show you the Garageband interface, and how to get to grips with the basics.

This tutorial shows how to strip vocals from MP3 files using the open source Audacity software.

via ScratchedChalkVideos:

How to remove/rip vocals from your MP3 files using Audacity.

Download Audacity here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Here’s a little remix candy – Beach Boys a capellas for the Pet Sounds album.

god8of8nz, via boingboing

Airwindows’ Pop is a universal binary Audio Unit compressor plugin designed to create “extraordinary pop vocals.”

According to Airwindows:

Inspired by radio-friendly Genesis, Pop puts every detail in your lap- the reason it exists is, I was listening to ‘Mama’ and other songs off the eponymous Genesis album, and couldn’t believe how overwhelming Hugh Padgham had Phil Collins’ vocal sounding. It reached out and grabbed and defined every detail so aggressively- I needed to make a special compressor that could deliver a sound like that, because nothing I had was designed for such aggressive behavior.

Pop retails for $59.99. A non-expiring demo version is available.

Ableton Live: Vocoder and Graindelay

via salzmanufaktur:

checkin’ out Live’s new vocoder in a classical way: with vocals. Seems that the Vocoder and the good ol’ Graindelay (which is my most used FX since it first debuted) are a pretty good team.

Here’s another vid with Live’s new app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPK1FtnP1qI

Anatomy offers over eight-hundred instruments that “twist and transform the human body into one expansive collection of physiological melody and rhythm. Anatomy sonically explores the human condition in ways never dared attempted previously, delivering you a deep, diverse & rich new palette of sonic colors and textures.”

While the marketing copy for this may be a little over the top, the library looks like it’s actually pretty cool.

All instruments included in Anatomy are separated into the following two categories.

• Man: Raw and organic samples straight from the source.
• Machine: Effected and manipulated interpretations.

Both categories feature the following instrument sub-categories:

• Beat Box Kits: Over 50 unique kits with a massive tool box of additional kicks and snares for even more flexibility. Boston beat box guru Steve Foxx stepped up to the mic and laid down an array of sound that the SONiVOX design team edited and programmed into patches.
• Vocal Pads and Leads: Over 100 Vocal pads and leads, from the ethereal tones of Tibetan tuvan throat singing to humming and whistling.
• Body Percussion: Snaps, claps, foot stomps, and heartbeats.
• Vocal FX: Blips, burps, gurgles, growls, groans, and nostril snorts. Laughing, moaning, and simulated emotional breakdowns.
• Choirs: A complement of male and female choirs and choral groups with a variety of articulations and programming variations. Ethereal voices and intimate utterings.

Anatomy is available now for $219 USD.

Apple today introduced a new Jam Pack, Voices, the looks like it will be an interesting new addition to the Jam Pack lineup.

Description:

Jam Pack: Voices gives you over 1,500 Apple Loops featuring professional soloists and choirs in multiple genres and styles. It also provides more than 20 software instruments, including voices, choral ensembles, and amazing drum kits built on the human voice and body.

Over 1,500 Apple Loops give you an incredible range of world-class solo and choir performances. Over 20 software instruments include the following.

Drum and Percussion Instruments

Use unique drum kits incorporating the human voice and body to produce incredible beats and grooves, like the Human Beat Box, Human Bass & Lead, and Human Body Effects.

Choral Ensembles

Bring some of the world’s most beautiful voices onto your stage with breathtaking choral arrangements, including Boys Choirs, Classical and Chamber Ensembles, and Gregorian and Gospel Choirs.

Soloists

Give your song new melodic character with solo instruments including Eastern Solo, Synth Soprano Solo, Whistler, and Vocal Shouts in a variety of styles and genres.

The app is currently in beta testing, so the instrument has a built-in expiration date, but it seems stable.

VX-323 lets you play synthesized speech with your Mac using your mouse or a MIDI keyboard, and also lets you record its sounds to use with audio programs.

The interface is a little unusual, though, since it emulates classic vocal synthesis hardware – so we’ve created a quick guide to help get you started with the VX-323:

Download VX-323 from the Bitnotic site. When you open the compressed download, you’ll see the app icon, above. Drag this to a location on your computer. If you just want to test VX-323 out, you can run it from the virtual disk that is created when the file uncompresses.

Open the program. You’ll see a window like this:

To get started, try using the mouse to click on keys. You should here a robotic voice.

Click the up and down arrows on your keyboard, and you’ll navigate the “LCD” screen through different Master options. Clicking the left and right arrows moves the cursor around in the LCD screen.

If you click the Keymap or the Voice buttons, you can see the options for these categories.

Click on the Voice button. Here you can do things like enter text to be spoken, select voices and adjust the voice’s characteristics. Use the up and down arrows to navigate, and make sure you’re on the Voice Phrase screen.

Make sure you’re on the second line in the LCD, and then enter some text for the Voice Synthesizer to “say”:

Try this out by clicking on some keyboard notes. You should here your phrase “spoken” at different pitches.

Now use the left or right arrows on your keyboard to move the cursor back to “Voice Phrase”, and then use the up and down arrows to navigate to “Voice Select”:

In the Voice Select screen, use the left/right arrow keys to move the cursor to the second line, and then the up/down arrows to select a voice. Try out various voices.

You can record your results by selecting Start Recording from the File menu. Play your phrase and then select “Stop Recording.”

Here’s a sample of VX-323 vocal synthesis. (MP3)

Bitnotic’s VX-323 currently is a stand-alone instrument, so some extra steps are required if you want to record it directly into a sequencer. If you want to do this or dig deeper into the program, Bitnotic provides a great PDF guide with the app download.

RealTraps has introduced the Portable Vocal Booth, a device that mounts on any microphone stand to create a highly controlled environment for recording vocals and spoken narration in acoustically hostile spaces.

The RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth is much larger than competive products, comprising a pair of 2 by 2 foot absorbing panels in a fully adjustable V shape. The integrated base attaches to any inexpensive microphone boom stand. The RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth can also be placed directly on a table or other flat surface.

The RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth costs $299.99 direct from the manufacturer and begins shipping the end of February.

Data on the Portable Vocal Booth product page shows how well it blocks unwanted sound, and a short video demo lets you see it in action compared with a popular competing product. The RealTraps site also contains educational videos, magazine articles, extensive advice on all aspects of room treatment, as well as showcasing their high-performance acoustic solutions for rooms of every size and purpose.

voXover is a voice-over automation utility and batch-recorder for multimedia projects that require large numbers of individual audio files to be recorded where a typical multi-track recorder is not feasible. Examples range from video game development and broadcast work to speaking dictionary and telephone voice-response production.

“voXover is an indispensable tool for multimedia developers who need to record large amounts of dialog efficiently and without error,” said Audiofile’s Matthew Foust.

voXover allows you to write or import a written script and rapidly automate the recording of that script. The script can be displayed on voXover’s teleprompter to the voice talent via your wired or wireless network. Sessions can range from completely automated to completely free-form. Takes are automatically created, named, and annotated as configured in the script. Takes may also be filtered, sorted, organized, rearranged, renamed, and exported at any time during the session, making voXover incredibly flexible.

Key Features

• Based on the familiar Aqua interface
• Organizes scripts into manageable, hierarchical “chunks”
• Uses Bonjour technologies allowing remote machines to log into sessions
• Teleprompter mode for Bonjour-connected clients
• Works with pre-defined script or completely free-form
• Does not require users to learn proprietary markup languages
• Names files based on tokens such as take number, session, and abbreviated line
• Allows users to specify any number of takes per line
• Creates takes based on silence
• Exports takes based on ratings
• Automatically trims and pads takes when exporting
• Exports files as AIFF, WAVE, Wave Editor, SDII, or CAF
• Intelligent import utility imports scripts from TXT, RTF, CSV, or tab-delimited files
• Utilizes (and requires) features in OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
• Support for all audio hardware
• Support for multiple channel inputs
• Optimized for Altivec/SSE
• Universal binary

voXover 1.0.1 is priced at $375. Users of Gallery’s VoicePro X can crossgrade to voXover for only $325.

According to RSO, Vocal Magic works with virtually all styles of music to create a classic vocal sound used by music producers for years.

The plug-in is available in Windows VST format. A free demo copy can be downloaded from Recording School Online.

“The Model 230 provides solutions that no other processing channel can offer,” says Marvin Caesar, Aphex President. “It will allow broadcast or voiceover talent to work more easily and naturally, achieving a vocal quality that’s more present, open and controlled. In music recording studios and live sound rigs, the Model 230 offers singers a huge variety of ways to bring out the best in their vocal characteristics. The 230 has all the Aphex tools that provide that ‘bigger-than-life’ sound.”

Aphex’ Model 230 is an analog, single-channel preamplifier and voice processor. Its comprehensive features include RPA tube preamplification, Easyrider compression, Logic Assisted gating, split band de-essing, parametric EQ, and Aphex’ Aural Exciter and Big Bottom psychacoustic effects, all in a single space, rackmountable package. The Model 230 implements an XLR mic input and +4dBu output, a 1/4″ TRS –10dBV output, 1/4″ TRS send and receive insert, AES3, S/PDIF and Optical digital outputs up to 96kHz, plus word clock I/O on BNCs. Another convenient feature on the Model 230 is a simple to implement contact closure to ground Cough switch on a mono 1/4″ connector.

Applications for the Model 230 include broadcast, ADR, installed sound, music recording and live sound reinforcement.

The Model 230’s preamplifier section incorporates Aphex’ proprietary Reflected Plate Amplifier tube circuit, 20dB pad, switchable 48V phantom power, and Phase Rotator and Polarity inversion. Compression is handled with Aphex’ Easyrider auto-compression circuit, with an adjustable release control. The Logic Assisted gate allows for adjustment of threshold and depth, and the de-esser offers a separate threshold control. The Model 230’s parametric EQ is optimized around human voice frequencies (240Hz — 4500Hz), and allows for attenuation or boosting of the frequency range 12dB. A bandwidth control allows for a Q from .5 to 5 octaves.

Aphex’ patented Aural Exciter and Big Bottom, longtime favorites for voice processing, are included in the Model 230, each offering individual tune and mix controls. A master output level rounds out the well-designed front panel. In addition to its analog input, analog output and myriad of digital outputs included standard with the Model 230, the processor also offers a post-compressor send and return. The digital outputs provide up to 96kHz sampling rates. A word clock input and output allow the Model 230 to be digitally locked with other equipment. For on-air applications, the Model 230 also includes an input that responds to a cough switch.

For more information, visit the Aphex site.

This vocal pads has been recorded with two different male singers, “Dario” & “Antoni”. “AAA”, “OOO” and “MMM”, note by note chromatically, treated, filtered and seamlessly looped.

Each SampleSet contains:

• 2 programs for the SoundFont versions (16 bit 44.1KHZ Stereo): “Normal”, “Slow attack”.
• 2 programs for the HALion, Kontakt versions (24 bit 44.1 KHZ Stereo): “Normal”, “Slow attack”.

The SoundFont versions are 100% compatible with all virtual samplers supporting the SoundFont format, like Gigastudio, HALion, Kontakt, EXS-24, VSampler, NN-XT, Sfz, Audigy and Emulator X.

Angelic Vocal Pads II is divided into 2 different SampleSets, but also available in a SampleSet BUNDLE.

Both the SoundFont and HALion/Kontakt Sets are included in all SampleSets.

More information is available at the Precisionsound site.

Angelic Vocal Pads (AVP) is a new sampleset for Gigasampler, HALion & Kontakt samplers. Precisionsound calls it “The missing link between the workstation synthesizer choirs and real classical choir samples.”

These Enya “sound alike” vocal pads have been recorded with two different female singers, alt and soprano. The pads include samples of each singing “AAA”, “OOO” & “MMM”, note by note chromatically, treated, filtered and seamlessly looped.

Each SampleSet contains:

• 3 programs for the Gigasampler versions (16 bit 44.1KHZ Stereo); “Normal”, “Slow attack” and “No release”
• 5 programs for the HALion, Kontakt versions (24 bit 44.1 KHZ Stereo): “Normal”, “v1″,”v2″,”Velocity” & “Mix”

The Gigasampler versions are 100% compatible with all virtual samplers supporting the Gigasampler format, like HALion, Kontakt, EXS-24 and Emulator X.

Angelic Vocal Pads is divided into 6 different SampleSet, but also available in a SampleSet BUNDLE or on CD-Rom.

Both the Giga and HALion/Kontakt Sets are included when ordering. Demos MP3s and additional information is available at the Precisionsound site.