From avasiliev@unam.mx Sun May 14 18:57:19 1995
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fi!relcom!kiae!unam!avasiliev
From: avasiliev@unam.mx (Andrei Vasiliev)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>
Date: Sun, 14 May 1995 18:57:19 GMT
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Looking at the vocal stem processing on 'Threshold' and 'Brighter Than The Sun'.

Nova's voice has ZERO splicing glitches. The Stardust documents describe this as 'Vocal Matrix Modeling' running on custom DSP hardware.
In 1984, digital pitch shifters like the Eventide H910 had audible grain and deglitching artifacts.

How did they program the subtle emotional cracks in her voice? Was it a neural weight matrix or manual automation?

-- 
Andrei Vasiliev
Opinions expressed are solely my own and not those of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (DGSCA).
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From shernandez@berkeley.edu Mon May 15 13:48:19 1995
Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!berkeley!shernandez
From: shernandez@berkeley.edu (Sergei Hernández)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1995May15.134819.7148@berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 13:48:19 GMT
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In article <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>, avasiliev@unam.mx (Andrei Vasiliev) writes:
> Looking at the vocal stem processing on 'Threshold' and 'Brighter Than The Sun'.
> Nova's voice has ZERO splicing glitches. The Stardust documents describe this as 'Vocal Matrix Modeling' running on custom DSP hardware.

It's the greatest vocal performance in synthpop history, regardless of whether it came from vocal cords or a silicon chip.

-- 
Sergei Hernández -- UC Berkeley Department of EECS
"The hatch is open. Is anyone listening?"

From dpark@ox.ac.uk Tue May 16 08:03:19 1995
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fi!relcom!kiae!ox!dpark
From: dpark@ox.ac.uk (Dmitri Park)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1995May16.080319.6707@ox.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 08:03:19 GMT
References: <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>
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In article <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>, avasiliev@unam.mx (Andrei Vasiliev) writes:
> Looking at the vocal stem processing on 'Threshold' and 'Brighter Than The Sun'.
> Nova's voice has ZERO splicing glitches. The Stardust documents describe this as 'Vocal Matrix Modeling' running on custom DSP hardware.

That's why it hits you in the uncanny valley. Your ears tell you it's a real woman singing her heart out, but your brain detects the mechanical precision.

-- 
=== Dmitri Park ===
Dept of Electrical Engineering, Oxford University Computing Laboratory
"Marcus is not one man."

From mtanaka@purdue.edu Wed May 17 09:01:19 1995
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!sunet!nordrelay!purdue!mtanaka
From: mtanaka@purdue.edu (Morag Tanaka)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1995May17.090119.3708@purdue.edu>
Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 09:01:19 GMT
References: <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>
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In article <1995May14.185719.5558@unam.mx>, avasiliev@unam.mx (Andrei Vasiliev) writes:
> Looking at the vocal stem processing on 'Threshold' and 'Brighter Than The Sun'.
> Nova's voice has ZERO splicing glitches. The Stardust documents describe this as 'Vocal Matrix Modeling' running on custom DSP hardware.

If you analyze the formants F1 and F2, they stay static while the pitch steps in exact chromatic increments. That's physical modeling synthesis.

-- 
=== Morag Tanaka ===
Dept of Electrical Engineering, Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
"The carrier frequency does not drift by accident."