From mtakahashi@kiae.su Tue Aug 09 22:22:38 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!kiae!mtakahashi From: mtakahashi@kiae.su (Marta Takahashi) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su> Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1994 22:22:38 GMT Organization: Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, Moscow NNTP-Posting-Host: kiae.su X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.5 Lines: 11 Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible? Yet the fundamental pitch tracks with a mathematical rigidity that no living vocalist can maintain for 16 bars. Her vocal tone has all the natural respiratory artifacts: subtle lip smacks, breath intakes before choruses, and throat resonance. Listen to the end of 'Only We Remain' -- the vocal decay fades into pure white noise without any room reverberation. -- Marta Takahashi "Row 14. No joke." 486DX2/66 (Linux 1.2.13) / NEXTSTEP 3.3 From tmacdonald@ox.ac.uk Thu Aug 11 23:14:38 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fi!relcom!kiae!ox!tmacdonald From: tmacdonald@ox.ac.uk (Tobias MacDonald) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Aug11.231438.9071@ox.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 11 Aug 1994 23:14:38 GMT References: <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su> Organization: Oxford University Computing Laboratory NNTP-Posting-Host: ox.ac.uk X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 9 In article <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su>, mtakahashi@kiae.su (Marta Takahashi) 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. -- Tobias MacDonald "Row 14. No joke." NeXTstation Turbo Color / FreeBSD 2.1 From asmirnov@unam.mx Sat Aug 13 10:23:38 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!unam!asmirnov From: asmirnov@unam.mx (Anton Smirnov) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Aug13.102338.9176@unam.mx> Date: Sat, 13 Aug 1994 10:23:38 GMT References: <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su> Organization: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (DGSCA) NNTP-Posting-Host: unam.mx X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 10 In article <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su>, mtakahashi@kiae.su (Marta Takahashi) writes: > Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible? > Yet the fundamental pitch tracks with a mathematical rigidity that no living vocalist can maintain for 16 bars. They weren't using off-the-shelf Eventide gear. They had custom Motorola DSP boards doing LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) resynthesis. -- Anton Smirnov "They will send a copy in my place." Decstation 5000/200 / System 7.5.1 From bmacdonald@berkeley.edu Sun Aug 14 21:02:38 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!ukc!fennimore!berkeley!bmacdonald From: bmacdonald@berkeley.edu (Brian MacDonald) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Aug14.210238.2290@berkeley.edu> Date: Sun, 14 Aug 1994 21:02:38 GMT References: <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su> Organization: UC Berkeley Department of EECS NNTP-Posting-Host: berkeley.edu X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.5 Lines: 10 In article <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su>, mtakahashi@kiae.su (Marta Takahashi) writes: > Technical breakdown of Nova's vocal chain: why does it sound both completely human and impossible? > Yet the fundamental pitch tracks with a mathematical rigidity that no living vocalist can maintain for 16 bars. 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. -- === Brian MacDonald === Dept of Electrical Engineering, UC Berkeley Department of EECS "We don't sign stars. We build them." From pwatanabe@cern.ch Tue Aug 16 01:09:38 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!mxgate!coyoacan!cern!pwatanabe From: pwatanabe@cern.ch (Pavel Watanabe) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: Data: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Aug16.010938.7756@cern.ch> Date: Tue, 16 Aug 1994 01:09:38 GMT References: <1994Aug09.222238.1218@kiae.su> <1994Aug13.102338.9176@unam.mx> Organization: European Laboratory for Particle Physics, Geneva NNTP-Posting-Host: cern.ch X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 9 In article <1994Aug13.102338.9176@unam.mx>, asmirnov@unam.mx (Anton Smirnov) writes: > They weren't using off-the-shelf Eventide gear. They had custom Motorola DSP boards doing LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) resynthesis. It's the greatest vocal performance in synthpop history, regardless of whether it came from vocal cords or a silicon chip. -- Pavel Watanabe "Hardware is temporary. The signal survives." Sun SparcStation 20 / System 7.5.1