New Software Synth that Sings Lyrics!

(Click for a close-up)

KAE Labs today introduced VocalWriter, a music synthesizer to sing lyrics. Released as a software application for the Power Macintosh, VocalWriter is a MIDI file editor, player and synthesizer in a single integrated environment.

With the recent development of its breakthrough acoustic modeling technology called Resonant Articulatory Synthesis (RAS), KAE Labs offers the first musical instrument that can model the human vocal tract in singing unrestricted English lyrics. VocalWriter allows computer musicians and enthusiasts to interactively compose and hear their MIDI music with sung lyrics. VocalWriter also synthesizes the full General MIDI instrument set, providing stereo CD-quality instrumental accompaniment to the vocals.

Most of the tasks involved with entering and editing the lyrics have been automated using VocalWriter's unique music editor. Users simply type the English lyrics for each note and VocalWriter automatically figures out the word pronunciation from its on-line 100,000 word phonetic dictionary, the syllable timing and synchronization, and the required model parameters to sing the lyrics.

When writing and playing music, vocals have the same real-time behavior as instrumentals. Users can make Program Changes for new singing voices, enter Pitch-Bend and Volume controls and various extended vocal controls such as Brightness, Glide Rate, Chorus and Aspiration Levels. Since the synthesizer is polyphonic and multi-timbral, music can be scored with more than one vocal track to provide sung choral parts using different voices.

Besides the full General MIDI instrument set, VocalWriter includes over 85 different singing voice models. The voice range covers models from the complex but subtle characteristics of human singers to models that extend beyond physical possibilities like singing musical instruments.

The shareware registration including the VocalWriter User's Manual is $99 (US).