uh-oh...is this new trend?

Tony Palmer · Post by **Tony Palmer** » 28 Jun 2004 6:26 am

Apparently a singer can record a killer CD without using musicians at all!
They use high quality karaoke CD backing tracks and just record their voice the ususal studio way, e.q., effects, etc, blend the whole thing together and you've got a pretty decent product.
I've heard the results, and I couldn't tell the difference.
For a singer that wants a few cover songs for a demo (or even to sell) ...there's no need to hire musicians.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 28 Jun 2004 6:33 am

As long as they've secured the rights and satisfied the BMI/ASCAP police, yep, totally contrived music is here to play & stay.
The Stepford Wives meet the Kentucky Headhunters...[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 28 June 2004 at 07:34 AM.]

Jennings Ward · Post by **Jennings Ward** » 28 Jun 2004 9:33 am

And go to church and have to listen to Karaokie? no way..... jennings

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EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, +

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 28 Jun 2004 10:21 am

New trend? Where you been? This has been done for the past 10 or 15 years. The real new trend is the use of the vocal and speech synthisis program called "Vocaloid" which artificially creates the singers themselves.They even have third party plugins for "Leon" "Lola" etc - completely ficticious singers.I'm not talking about auto-tune - this is a completely synthetic singer. Right now they still sound a little bit like a robot but in upcoming software revisions it will sound more and more like a real singer until at some point,you won't be able to tell the difference. Most people won't tell the difference right now.http://www.vocaloid.com/en/index.html

Check these demos - sounds kinda like singers to me. http://www.zero-g.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=802 [This message was edited by Michael Johnstone on 28 June 2004 at 11:39 AM.]

Jennings Ward · Post by **Jennings Ward** » 28 Jun 2004 12:12 pm

STINKS!!!!!!!!! JW

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EMMONS D10 10-10 profex 2 deltafex ne1000 pv1000, pv 31 bd eq, +

erik · Post by **erik** » 28 Jun 2004 3:13 pm

Yeah but, that backing track was made with real musicians and that recording is available to anyone making it impossible to sound unique unless you're the first to use that track and happen to be a good singer to boot. Are you saying that the backing track was recorded to sound identical to the original? Who would want to record their voice on that?

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 28 Jun 2004 6:38 pm

I'm still waiting for the magic box you plug the mike into and the voice coming out is Merle or Cash or Patsy or Tiny Tim or Springsteen or whoever.

Cheating? Sure. But think of the fun you could have at private parties and such where you do your best Frank Sinatra on "My Way" and someone switches the knob to Bette Midler and you have to finish the song being her. I think it would be large fun for the audience as well as the band.

Dave Boothroyd · Post by **Dave Boothroyd** » 28 Jun 2004 11:51 pm

You can't quite do that, but I've seen a device at a show - TC Helicon, I think it was-, which will change your voice formants so you can sing into it like Eva Cassidy and come out like Louis Armstrong.
It will correct pitch if you want it to, though timing and phrasing are still up to you.
It does elaborate harmonies too, so you can be a gospel choir, all on your own!

The Vocaloid is good, but it sings like someone who has English as a second language. Some of the sounds ("Too" for example) are produced with a mouth position on the sampled phoneme that native English speakers don't use.
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Cheers!
Dave

[This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 29 June 2004 at 12:58 AM.]