Application to work with Voices of the Apoc. (VOTA)

[nf]

Hi,
i\'m thinking on develop an application to work with VOTA. That application will have a text editor, and when it receive a midi note, it send out (by midi) the right note in the right midi channel (to get to the right sound), based in the text.
With this, is simple to create a choir track.

Do you think is a good idea?
Do you have little tricks/tips to make words with VOTA?
Post here, or send me a mail to nf2000@iol.pt

PS - Nick Phoenix, if you are reading this, send me a mail...

[SOD213]

I think it\'d be a *GREAT* idea to program a wordbuilder for this library. It\'d save countless hours in programming sounds. Even if it sounded a little rough, it would be easier to blend it rather than do it from scratch.

[Metallian]

The idea is very good but i think this is really hard to do

[nf]

I think i will have good news soon. I\'m working on that, and the must dificult part it\'s done - the midi comunication.
Maybe in one or two weeks i\'ll have a beta program.


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[Nick Phoenix]

I love you NF. Sounds great There are many issues though, as I\'m sure you realize.

[nf]

More good news. The \"Alpha\" program already work with vogels (aeiou). Now i\'m going for the other letters.

If you want a beta version (when ready) send me a mail...

[dwdonehoo]

I have been thinking about this problem since Nick came out with his VOTA. I don’t have it yet, but it is my next major purchase. As a sw engineer, I have been looking at this problem and I came up with several possible solutions until lately when Yellow Tools solved my main gripe with GS and “nf” decided to go down a similar path as Yellow Tools Key Switch. For you out there who do not know what Key Switch does, it is software that sits between your sequencer and sample player and does all manor of clever midi message routing. (Get it, it’s free).
So, I have a suggestion that “nf” could probably program and others who are really into GigaStudio instrument programming. For the user, it would work in two parts: composing and word programming. Lets look at a workflow.

First, a work flow for composing: It would be nice if the composer could compose the choir part with a placeholder VOTA choir “instrument”. The placeholder instrument would be one choir “instrument” with some key switches (like the SAMs Trumpets for example) that would switch between some placeholder choir vowels or something useful. Ok, now you are done composing and it is time to do the full range real vowels and consonants and other sounds (lets call them the “vowcons”).

Second, the workflow for programming the vowcons. The composer is still working with the same midi file, but erases the key switch notes. Now the composer consults a chart. Somewhere below the choir range (below C0 somewhere) is a range of keys that represent a set of vowcons and a range of keys that represent the banks. Lets say for example the first midi choir note is supposed to be “Noooooo”. The composer consults a matrix chart and see that “Noooooo” is in bank three and the key-switch note is A#, and key switch C# is for the “Noooooo”. The composer then puts a midi note (on and off like a drum midi note) on the key-switch key C# for the vowcons and the key-switch A# for the bank. The composer repeats this process for every vowcons. These two keyswitches would probably be a few ticks in front of the performance midi notes. (This scheme does not allow for two different vowcons at the same time, but how useful is that?)

How is it done??

Part one. Those who are really good with programming instruments would do this part. They would construct, lets say for our example, 16 instruments for Port 1. Each instrument would have key switches (in the same range as the above) that would allow you to play, say, four vowcons. (Exactly the way Sams Trumpets work). That would give you 64 vowcons spread out over 16 midi channels (banks) for Port 1.

Part two. This is where “nf” would come in. His program would be to “listen” for the bank switch keys, and route the midi data to the proper midi channel (bank) of Port 1 of GigaStudio. I think Yellow Tools Key Switch is almost all the way there, but I am still working with it.

So here is my question. Would this scheme work? I may not have the full answer here, but I bet it may lead to a solution. What does everyone think? Would this work? Are all my assumptions correct? Food for thought anyway.

--------------
Doyle W. Donehoo
Radar Music
http://www.sierra-trails.com/radarmusic.html (\"http://www.sierra-trails.com/radarmusic.html\")
http://www.mp3.com/Doyle_W_Donehoo (\"http://www.mp3.com/Doyle_W_Donehoo\")


[This message has been edited by dwdonehoo (edited 04-16-2002).]

[KingIdiot]

Holy Crap!


I think Nick\'ws fantasies just came true!!!


I\'m all up for beta testing this sucker!!


What would be really is to have the program access specific bank/program changes so it can do vowel switching and consonant switching for you. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

awesome!

I\'ve been toying with building phonetics patches in VotA. Example Building \"Faaa, Toohh, Guuuuhhh, etc. This could be a perfect combination with your editor.

It will however take much more time than I have at the moment to build the phonetics patches to include all the correct mixing options I wanted to put in.

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Really...I am an Idiot

[Robert Kral]

I\'d love to see a program like this even if it only \"kind of\" worked. I\'m not trying to use VOTA in a way that you can understand the words, but just to get that epic sound where you can hear the choir is singing words but you don\'t need to understand them type sound.

(Wish there was a simpler way of explaining that). Nicks demos prove instantly that this library does it, and a program that helped speed up the midi work would be fantastic.

[Lance_M]

Yeah, I think all the VotA users want/need is an app to quickly stick the consonants and vowels into the file, so they can tweak it later to sound \"just right\" by themselves.

It\'s like someone telling you to \"draw a kitten\", but they give you an outline drawing to start with and all you gotta do is fill in the colors, shade, etc. to make it \"real\".

Basically, a time-saver.

[This message has been edited by Lance_M (edited 04-16-2002).]

[nf]

I think i\'ll send the first beta version thsi weekend.

What letters (or symbols) do you prefer to identify each of the VOTA sounds (ex: ah-\'a\', sh-\'X\',...)?

[jubal]

It would be nice to be able to feed in this script and have it generate the appropriate midi files for vowel and consonant instruments. This would give the user the option of not having to load all of the vowels and consonants in memory at the same time...as well as running some app in the middle.

[nf]

That\'s a good idea. I\'ll be in my TODO list...

[Metallian]

NF what is your Email adress ?

[nf]

Beta version is completed.

I already send it to the people that mail me. If you want to try it, mail me at nf2000@iol.pt .

What the VotaUtility do?
Receive a note by midi, see what is the next letter in the text and then, send out the note (by midi) with some changes to the right midi channel. In the case of consonants, it also change the note id to get the right consonant.

Sequencer use:
If you want to use the votaUtility (that is a normal windows program) with a sequencer, you must use a midi loopback driver (like MarbleSound Midi driver that cames with Garritan Strings). This is a virtual driver that sends to the input what it receives in the output (see the readme file).

Midi recording.
The VotaUtility don\'t do Midi recording (like exporting a midi file), but does something BETTER http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif. With midi recording there was several problems (like specifying the tempo, time signature,...). Using a Midi Loopback Driver, you can play something in the sequencer, and at the same time record the VotaUtility output to later use.

Next thing to do:
At the moment, it work in a letter by letter mode. If you want to get \"Taaaaah\", you must send one note to \'T\' and other note to \'ah\'. I want to change that to a single note need.
If you already try to make this things sound more real, send me the tricks (cross-fades, delays, etc).

Now, i sit and wait for you opinions and sugestions!

[SyQuEsT]

I don\'t know about a new software ... We can have some problem with MT. Maybe a plugin for Sonar, [...] ?

Another idea :

I think about a plugin to choose the best bow direction for GOS (an \"apply\" plugin).

[nf]

At the moment, key switching and ModWheel as no effect in the sound, but i\'ll change that this week...