From hnakamura@panix.com Wed Jan 05 22:22:58 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fr!teletel!panix!hnakamura From: hnakamura@panix.com (Hana Nakamura) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com> Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 22:22:58 GMT Organization: Public Access Unix of New York NNTP-Posting-Host: panix.com X-Newsreader: NewsWatcher 2.0b24 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. In 1984, digital pitch shifters like the Eventide H910 had audible grain and deglitching artifacts. Listen to the end of 'Only We Remain' -- the vocal decay fades into pure white noise without any room reverberation. -- Hana Nakamura US Robotics Courier V.34 @ 28,800 bps "A soul is not exclusive to biology." From dpopov@kiae.su Fri Jan 07 08:40:58 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!kiae!dpopov From: dpopov@kiae.su (Dmitri Popov) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Jan07.084058.4136@kiae.su> Date: Fri, 07 Jan 1994 08:40:58 GMT References: <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com> Organization: Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, Moscow NNTP-Posting-Host: kiae.su X-Newsreader: NewsWatcher 2.0b24 Lines: 10 In article <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com>, hnakamura@panix.com (Hana Nakamura) 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. -- Dmitri Popov "When every node is whole, the channel opens." 486DX4/100 (FreeBSD 2.0.5) / AmigaOS 3.1 From mcampbell@earthlink.net Sun Jan 09 09:04:58 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-de!hansebox!earthlink!mcampbell From: mcampbell@earthlink.net (Mateo Campbell) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Jan09.090458.2519@earthlink.net> Date: Sun, 09 Jan 1994 09:04:58 GMT References: <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com> Organization: EarthLink Network NNTP-Posting-Host: earthlink.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 9 In article <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com>, hnakamura@panix.com (Hana Nakamura) 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. -- Mateo Campbell | mcampbell@earthlink.net PGP Key fingerprint: CAEF F9C4 8673 1240 "Keep the channels open." From tsmirnov@titech.ac.jp Mon Jan 10 19:07:58 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fr!teletel!titech!tsmirnov From: tsmirnov@titech.ac.jp (Tobias Smirnov) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Jan10.190758.4624@titech.ac.jp> Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 19:07:58 GMT References: <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com> <1994Jan07.084058.4136@kiae.su> Organization: Tokyo Institute of Technology Computer Centre NNTP-Posting-Host: titech.ac.jp X-Newsreader: Netscape 1.1N Lines: 9 In article <1994Jan07.084058.4136@kiae.su>, dpopov@kiae.su (Dmitri Popov) 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. -- Tobias Smirnov SupraFAXModem 28.8 @ 28,800 bps "When every node is whole, the channel opens." From tjohansson@u-tokyo.ac.jp Wed Jan 12 10:15:58 1994 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-fr!teletel!u-tokyo!tjohansson From: tjohansson@u-tokyo.ac.jp (Thiago Johansson) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1994Jan12.101558.2942@u-tokyo.ac.jp> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 10:15:58 GMT References: <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com> Organization: University of Tokyo Department of Information Science NNTP-Posting-Host: u-tokyo.ac.jp X-Newsreader: Netscape 1.1N Lines: 12 In article <1994Jan05.222258.5686@panix.com>, hnakamura@panix.com (Hana Nakamura) 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. Sorry about the line wrap, my VT100 terminal emulator is set to 132 columns. -- === Thiago Johansson === Dept of Electrical Engineering, University of Tokyo Department of Information Science "Do not worship the copy."