Cubase 15 Omnivocal instrument - first impressions

Cubase
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Firstly to Steinberg, thank you so much for including Omnivocal with the Cubase 15 release.

As a songwriter / lyricist / producer not gifted with a singer’s voice, I have sometimes struggled with my musical direction in the past as I couldn’t fully visualise the finished song. I had even toyed with giving up writing lyrics completely and sticking to instrumentals only. However, lyric writing brings me so much pleasure that I really don’t want to restrict my music in this way. Omnivocal gives me the ability to hear how my songs might sound with vocals at last.

I have played around with the instrument today and, considering the app is in Beta, I am quietly impressed. Most of my songs are in the late-night, smooth jazz and quiet storm genres. By using the controls I have be able to create a soulful voice to a degree, enough for me to imagine what a human singer could do with it.

The biggest areas that need improvement for me are expanding the AI singer’s vocabulary and to have more control over the expressiveness of the voice. There are plenty of English words not recognized by the AI singer, I’ve been able to mitigate this to some degree by noticing the phonetics that are displayed word-by-word and using those when needed.

An example of what I mean comes from the first line of one of my songs, to quote:

No one ever warned me Cupid’s arrow has a poisoned tip

The best I can get from Omnivocal at the moment is:

No one ever warned me Dupid’s arrow has a poisoned tip even though a K is shown in the phonetics, rather than a D.

Also, the AI singer seems to have a slight accent, possibly German :grinning_face:

Overall though, I can’t stress how joyful it is to finally imagine how my songs might sound in the hands of a professional singer. Thank-you Steinberg, I look forward to the app’s development.

3 Likes
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Well, having worked with Omnivocal for a couple more hours since my first post, I’ve gotten used to a few things. Firstly, not hearing the word Cupid’s properly was down to my inexperience of the instrument, not a fault with the program. I was hearing Dupid’s because the Attack and Air settings were off. My fault. The controls are very sensitive, I brought up Attack and lowered Air until I could hear all of each word. I’m chuffed with the final result, the Male singer’s voice is now as smooth as treacle.

I have a song where I would like the male singer’s voice to be on the point of tears as he relates his heartbreak to the listener, I’m not sure how I’m going to achieve that yet, it will be fun trying.

Thanks for the likes.

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Keep in mind that this plugin was developed by Yamaha and, like most virtual singer plugins out there, the focus is more towards languages like Japanese. For more realistic English words, you’ll have to construct the word using the plugin’s phonetic entry.

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Thanks Bruno, yes I’m getting used to that. There is a great table of the English phonetics that Omnivocal uses in the Yamaha Omnivocal User Manual. Although to begin with I typed poy then send for poisoned over two notes and that worked OK.

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How do you even find this in Cubase 15 and get it working? I just installed Cubase 15 and see nothing about omnivocal or ai singer in the help section. I can’t even find this? the video stars with him having three instances of him with omnivocal already up. That seems a silly place to start! sorry guys any help appreciated.

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If it has been installed correctly just open Cubase 15 then:

Add Track > Instrument Drop-Down Menu > Omnivocal Beta (under synths).

Then treat it like any other instrument.

Hope that helps.

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It’s a separate download in the download manger. Once downloaded it works like any other Steinberg VST instrument.

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Really appreciate the responses guys. so no it would not be installed I had no instructions to install anything., The video steinberg showed said it was included in C15. I am in my download manager and searched everywhere I have no idea what to install. Where did you guys find info on this? It appears the worst roll out of a new feature ever. But that of course could certainly just be missing all the great help info and instructions on this that i am not seeing. What is the thing i need to download called. seems to be nothing that keys me in.

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I’m not getting it.

If you’ve bought Cubase Pro 15. It’s included. A lot of the new features and content of Cubase 15 has to be downloaded separately. It’s their way of not having massive files to download.

If you’ve paid for it way wouldn’t you want to download and use it?

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1 Like
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Most kind, a picture is indeed worth 10,000 words. I did not know to look under tools. apologies. Yes now i have it! Much appreciated guys you saved me a lot of time and hassle. cheers and thanks!