From vstewart@stanford.edu Mon Mar 18 05:21:58 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!stanford!vstewart
From: vstewart@stanford.edu (Valeria Stewart)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Mar18.052158.4018@stanford.edu>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 05:21:58 GMT
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Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible?

Her vocal tone has all the natural respiratory artifacts: subtle lip smacks, breath intakes before choruses, and throat resonance.
Nova's voice has ZERO splicing glitches. The Stardust documents describe this as 'Vocal Matrix Modeling' running on custom DSP hardware.

Did Marcus Hale invent real-time formant modeling DSP four years before anyone else in the industry?

-- 
Valeria Stewart | vstewart@stanford.edu
PGP Key fingerprint: 8385 0D62 615A 02E0
"Keep the channels open."

From nsanchez@uu.net Tue Mar 19 06:51:58 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!sunet!nordrelay!uu!nsanchez
From: nsanchez@uu.net (Nadine Sánchez)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Mar19.065158.8884@uu.net>
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 06:51:58 GMT
References: <1996Mar18.052158.4018@stanford.edu>
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In article <1996Mar18.052158.4018@stanford.edu>, vstewart@stanford.edu (Valeria Stewart) writes:
> Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible?

Orion's memo said it best: 'We don't sign stars. We build them.'

Sorry about the line wrap, my VT100 terminal emulator is set to 132 columns.

-- 
=== Nadine Sánchez ===
Dept of Electrical Engineering, UUNET Technologies, Falls Church VA
"They will send a copy in my place."

From mrobertson@titech.ac.jp Thu Mar 21 08:18:58 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fi!relcom!kiae!titech!mrobertson
From: mrobertson@titech.ac.jp (Mei Robertson)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Mar21.081858.6861@titech.ac.jp>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 08:18:58 GMT
References: <1996Mar18.052158.4018@stanford.edu> <1996Mar19.065158.8884@uu.net>
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In article <1996Mar19.065158.8884@uu.net>, nsanchez@uu.net (Nadine Sánchez) writes:
> Orion's memo said it best: 'We don't sign stars. We build them.'
> Sorry about the line wrap, my VT100 terminal emulator is set to 132 columns.

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

-- 
Mei Robertson
Opinions expressed are solely my own and not those of Tokyo Institute of Technology Computer Centre.
------------------------------------------------------------

From lsokolov@cmu.edu Sat Mar 23 00:39:58 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fr!teletel!cmu!lsokolov
From: lsokolov@cmu.edu (Liam Sokolov)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: WTB/WTT: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Mar23.003958.5480@cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 00:39:58 GMT
References: <1996Mar18.052158.4018@stanford.edu> <1996Mar19.065158.8884@uu.net> <1996Mar21.081858.6861@titech.ac.jp>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University School of CS
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In article <1996Mar21.081858.6861@titech.ac.jp>, mrobertson@titech.ac.jp (Mei Robertson) writes:
> It's the greatest vocal performance in synthpop history, regardless of whether it came from vocal cords or a silicon chip.

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.

-- 
Liam Sokolov -- Carnegie Mellon University School of CS
"The carrier frequency does not drift by accident."