Cantai DAW version (AU VST3 AAX) announced

[arco]

While Cantai (singing your lyrics) has been discussed in various threads many times over at the Dorico forum (please search if you are interested), it has just been announced there will be a DAW version due for release early 2027 ( with a discounted preorder price showing at their website.)

Cantai - Intelligent Singing Synthesizer

DAW page

Cantai DAW Edition — Your DAW Sings.

(I have no affiliation with Cantai, but been using it in Dorico.)

It is still being improved with new features (reverb recently), more singers added, bug fixes. It currently is used in Musescore, Sibelius and Dorico, with various languages planned.
Those already using Cantai in a notation program can export its audio (then import into their DAW), but having it directly in your DAW could be more efficient, especially if you have to amend lyrics or note values.

[mkok]

I see they have a try it version so I may have a listen.

[arco]

There are various demos in the Dorico forum, just a few here, search for others but they are dotted about in the various threads:

Song of Songs rendered with Cantai

As I finally bit the bullet and decided to support Cantai, despite certain misgivings at this stage, I managed to find a project it actually renders and I think this one might actually be among the more suitable for Cantai with its current voices. There’s quite a lot to dip into here as Songs 2, 3 and 5 are set in full from the Biblical Song of Songs with a string accompaniment at times. Although it’s really designed for a small choir, the Cantai choirs are currently too crude to be useable in t…

Cantai 3.0 - Plainchant demo

Just cobbled this together in the new version (3.0) that dropped today. A few thoughts: I used the “Ottetto” voices (Sops, Alto, Ten, Bass). The reverb is the new one now offered in Cantai, turned to full. I deliberately chose plainchant to see if Cantai could sing legato; results are mixed. Altos sound particularly “perky,” not really what I would want. (Note: adding slurs to all parts made no difference I could discern). I thought Tenors and Basses sounded particularly good. That said, the m…

OK, had to try one more ("Come, Ye Thankful People, Come" using Ottetto in Cantai) Now a BONUS

I wrote a completely new setting of the text from Come, Ye Thankful People, Come some time ago. Since it uses a variety of choral textures-unison, 2 & 3 part, SATB and ‘counterpoint’, I figured this would be a good test of the new Ottetto Choral Voices. While it’s not quite **perfect, I was very impressed with the accuracy and realism (overall) of the rendering. Here’s another completely different work-a contemporary a cappella setting of the folk tune “What a Queer Bird the Frog Are.” A goo…

Cantai is being improved all the time, many bugs fixed (still need fixing.) It is a very small team doing this, so we have had to be very patient with the fixes as it spans each of the notation programs, adding new singers, interface changes, etc.
As more singers are “recorded” we are expecting/hoping the vocal styles to expand into various genres, more pop, rock, jazz, etc.

There have been some comparisons with Synthesizer V (and others), example here:

Cantai Ottetto v SynthV

Cantai v3 out today but I must admit I hadn’t expected the Ottetto choir to be out the same day. So inevitably I have to arrange a shootout between SynthV and the new Cantai choir using my Lux Aeterna which has been used before as a comparison piece (for the first time with Cantamus which at one stage was best going but was imho surpassed by the SynthesizerV choirs. This test is slightly unfair as it is pretty well just Cantai straight out of the box (a couple of obvious dynamics/timing errors …

[dko22]

like others, I also got the email yesterday announcing the Cantai DAW development. Didn’t think at the time it was worth commenting on at this stage for Dorico users but is of course an interesting development. UPDATE Just realised that this was actually posted on the Steinberg Lounge rather than Dorico forum which of course is an entirely appropriate place for such news.

For @mkok and others still to get onboard, Cantai has certainly come a long way in the past couple of months. The trial only renders the first 30 seconds but that should be enough to get an idea. FWIW, I’ve now converted most of my vocal works to Cantai and – apart from those in German (Russian or Swedish) – they are the versions can be heard on my Reelcrafter site here for any interested in either sacred music (mostly Ottetto) or fairytales (generally solo voices).

Incidentally, regarding my previous comment above about the original Cantai choirs being too crude to be useable, that is no longer the case with v3. Although Ottetto is certainly nicer, the original choirs do now have a place for choral works which definitely require larger forces like Iudex Crederis or Dies Irae from my Te Deum and Requiem respectively..