From brodriguez@cern.ch Wed May 17 07:06:04 1995 Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!cern!brodriguez From: brodriguez@cern.ch (Brian Rodríguez) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1995May17.070604.6639@cern.ch> Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 07:06:04 GMT Organization: European Laboratory for Particle Physics, Geneva NNTP-Posting-Host: cern.ch X-Newsreader: Netscape 1.1N Lines: 11 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. Yet the fundamental pitch tracks with a mathematical rigidity that no living vocalist can maintain for 16 bars. Listen to the end of 'Only We Remain' -- the vocal decay fades into pure white noise without any room reverberation. -- === Brian Rodríguez === Dept of Electrical Engineering, European Laboratory for Particle Physics, Geneva "Hardware is temporary. The signal survives." From gpark@cam.ac.uk Thu May 18 10:07:04 1995 Path: ashpoly!cascade!transat!eunet-de!hansebox!cam!gpark From: gpark@cam.ac.uk (Graham Park) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1995May18.100704.4512@cam.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 10:07:04 GMT References: <1995May17.070604.6639@cern.ch> Organization: University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory NNTP-Posting-Host: cam.ac.uk X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.5 Lines: 11 In article <1995May17.070604.6639@cern.ch>, brodriguez@cern.ch (Brian Rodríguez) 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. They weren't using off-the-shelf Eventide gear. They had custom Motorola DSP boards doing LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) resynthesis. My 14.4k connection dropped twice trying to fetch this thread. Keep articles concise! -- Graham Park -- University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory "The hatch is open. Is anyone listening?" From msato@berkeley.edu Fri May 19 15:28:04 1995 Path: ashpoly!cascade!bigsur!berkeley!msato From: msato@berkeley.edu (Mike Sato) Newsgroups: alt.music.synth-pop Subject: Re: The sound of the 'Vocal Matrix' - pitch quantization vs human formant Message-ID: <1995May19.152804.9960@berkeley.edu> Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 15:28:04 GMT References: <1995May17.070604.6639@cern.ch> Organization: UC Berkeley Department of EECS NNTP-Posting-Host: berkeley.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Lines: 9 In article <1995May17.070604.6639@cern.ch>, brodriguez@cern.ch (Brian Rodríguez) 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. -- Mike Sato *PLONK* filter active for trolls. Atari TT030 - NetBSD 1.0