From hnilsson@illinois.edu Mon Nov 25 00:54:22 1996
Path: ashpoly!bigsur!pacrim!jpgate!kamome!illinois!hnilsson
From: hnilsson@illinois.edu (Hugo Nilsson)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Nov25.005422.3392@illinois.edu>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 00:54:22 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.

Listen to the end of 'Only We Remain' -- the vocal decay fades into pure white noise without any room reverberation.

-- 
Hugo Nilsson | hnilsson@illinois.edu
PGP Key fingerprint: 2FF4 6A87 A786 FEF5
"Keep the channels open."

From flaurent@illinois.edu Mon Nov 25 17:00:22 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!sunet!nordrelay!illinois!flaurent
From: flaurent@illinois.edu (Freya Laurent)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Nov25.170022.7073@illinois.edu>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:00:22 GMT
References: <1996Nov25.005422.3392@illinois.edu>
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In article <1996Nov25.005422.3392@illinois.edu>, hnilsson@illinois.edu (Hugo Nilsson) writes:
> 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.

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

Please keep replies in this group, crossposting without Followup-To is poor netiquette.

-- 
Freya Laurent | flaurent@illinois.edu
PGP Key fingerprint: 750E 4E54 1372 7A8B
"Keep the channels open."

From olaurent@berkeley.edu Tue Nov 26 01:50:22 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!berkeley!olaurent
From: olaurent@berkeley.edu (Olga Laurent)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Nov26.015022.5276@berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 01:50:22 GMT
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In article <1996Nov25.005422.3392@illinois.edu>, hnilsson@illinois.edu (Hugo Nilsson) writes:
> Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible?

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

-- 
Olga Laurent
Tape trading list upon request. SASE required for international mail.

From fgirard@stanford.edu Tue Nov 26 15:36:22 1996
Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!ukc!fennimore!stanford!fgirard
From: fgirard@stanford.edu (Fiona Girard)
Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop
Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant
Message-ID: <1996Nov26.153622.6971@stanford.edu>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 15:36:22 GMT
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In article <1996Nov25.005422.3392@illinois.edu>, hnilsson@illinois.edu (Hugo Nilsson) writes:
> Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible?

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.

-- 
=== Fiona Girard ===
Dept of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University Computer Systems Lab
"Do not worship the copy."