I am simply extremely glad that Richard is developing “an intelligent operatic and choral singing synthesizer” that works (= will work) inside Dorico without any tedious exporting and importing etc.
Richard: "The main goal of Cantai is complete score-directed performance. "
I don’t almost care how it sounds today. Later Cantai will do all the time better and better jobs. For now, it really is just so much fun to play with it (MusicXML export from Dorico is still needed when Cantai is in beta stage).
Today I again made a short test. To hear a Dorico file sung in some tens of seconds was a big joy. Made my day.
I’m on the fence about committing to this. On the one hand, it sounds fantastic and if it does what it says it will have a major impact on a lot of the work that I do. It’ll end up being every bit as important, if not more important, to me than NotePerformer. On the other hand, I’ve also lost money through investments - enough to make me think long and hard about committing again.
Given that I really want to see Cantai delivered, I asked myself: what would make me invest in it at this stage?
Two things…
I’d need a clear understanding of how and when this is going to be delivered - best and worse case scenarios - as well as a frank assessment of what is going to be needed to guarantee delivery. I would also need the reassurance that all investors were being regularly updated on progress - and by regularly I would mean monthly as a minimum.
I’d be much more likely to invest at this stage if I felt that I’d be missing out by not doing so. It occurs to me that if the only opportunity to buy a lifetime license was in the pre-release period, yes - I’d invest.
My words, almost. I am enjoying Cantai every day at its beta test web renderer stage. It is simply so much fun that the “investment” I made (half price life-time introductory offer) has already been fully covered as it is.
Richard is working very hard. I have no doubt whatsoever about him delivering the first public beta and other versions quite soon now. And in any case, and in my case, this is really worth waiting for.
I am currently using Cantai with Dorico. The beta is going well. I have been able to score in Dorico, at the present time there are several additional steps needed to get the vocals rendered. Daniel Spreadbury, if the team at Dorico can get the hook in the software for Cantai in the next update, it would save me several steps.
I have to export the musicxml of the vocal tracks to MuseScore, then export MIDI from MuseScore inpo the web renderer. I then take the audio output from Cantai, along with .wav stems from Dorico, using NotePerformer and NPPE. I import those to Cubase. The final product is awesome, but it would be so nice to do everything in Dorico.
I am also, with @Kim_Winfield, @MSTS_Music and others, in the group of Cantai (or whatever will be its final name) followers and early adopters, who are scoring mainly in Dorico, and would like to have the whole compositional workflow greatly simplified in prospect. Albeit the underlying engine’s technology is not completely there yet and mature, it is getting closer and closer to that point with every passing day. The occasional successful results through the current web-based vocal renderer (with the compulsory intermediate step in Musescore) are already, in my honest opinion, an entire order of magnitude more realistic and musical than anything developed until now, in the field of singing voice synthesis. There is palpably a growing expectation, within the choral and vocal music community, for the first ever compositional tool capable of delivering realistic, dynamics-related and textually accurate rendering of classical voices, directly within a notation app. Frankly, I would see it as a huge missed opportunity for Steinberg, with its industry-leading track record, not to take the historic opportunity to provide the newer engraving software in the arena with the latest quantum leap in technological advancement. It is very obvious, from my standpoint, that the first platform that will embed Cantai, structurally and officially, will become overnight the de-facto industry standard, for choir and opera/musical/oratory composers of every stylistic orientation and musical practice. Just my earnest opinion, as a commited Dorico user.
… Bravo! What true words! I can’t imagine that a free program like Musescore could suddenly offer better conditions/implementations than Dorico, thus becoming the better/leading notation software…
My route: Export MusicXML from Dorico and import it to UtaFormatix, export MIDI from UtaFormatix and upload the MIDI to Cantai Web Renderer. No MuseScore in my case, that is. I find this way just a little bit more comfortable.
Dorico, please let this happen directly inside you! Thank you ever so much.
P.S. UtaFormatix is a web application for converting projects among singing voice synthesizer softwares such as VOCALOID, UTAU, etc.
I’m afraid I can not NOT agree. I hope I will not see the day when I need to switch from Dorico to MuseScore to compose choral music comfortably. That would be the day.
Dorico’s team is very small but ambitious. I don’t think they’re going to make something for Cantai in a week. I think they’re rather going to try to open the door not only for Cantai, but also for Melisma, Synth V and other upcoming stuff of the same kind that we haven’t heard of yet.
Imagine a scenario like this. When you enter notes, you can hear basic vocal or choral sounds. But at the time you enter the notes, the rendering is going on in the background. The phrase division algorithm can be taken from Condensation, and if there are no changes in the phrase, it is stored ready to be played back. When you finally press Play, it takes Dorico may be a couple seconds to start playing, and that would be much better than waiting 15 seconds or three minutes.
If the Dorico team could implement such an algorithm, I’d rather wait with Cantai support for version 6.1 or 6.2. I’ve waited my whole life for Dorico, and I really can wait a couple more months
Later Cantai will do all the time better and better jobs. For now, it really is just so much fun to play with it (MusicXML export from Dorico is still needed when Cantai is in beta stage). 
