Omnivocal and Phonetic Spelling

Cubase
1

Hi everyone,

I found a couple of Phonetic translation apps on the Google Play store. I am going to see if that helps with some of the ‘problem’ words with Omnivocal. Apparently, as long as I put a bracket at the beginning and end of the phonetic spelling, it might recognize it properly.

I have actually been using it a fair amount these days for testing out the timings and feel for when I actually record my vocal track. It saves time by giving me a decent idea of what to change before I spend time (and a lot of takes) when I record my vocal part.

Regards,

KKSky

2

I would be interested to know how you go with this plug-in, as I am keen on seeing how well it performs, against my current VST instrument, called Emvoice.

The EmvoiceOne plug-in, does exactly what you say but a couple of the voices are older in the sense that newer voices sound better but one thing all of them can help you achieve, is as you say, with respect to making changes, before recording an actual voice or instrument, for that matter.

I am hopeful that OmniVocal, will allow one to achieve similar results, even though there are only currently no more than two voices, so if they can replace my current older voices, e.g., Jay and Lucy, I would be very pleased, to know as that would allow a greater level of DAW integration but as what I have now works, I am not about to change anything just yet, not least for introducing beta software into a stable setup.

I use Nuendo, so I have to wait until version 15 is released, in order to see if the Yamaha OmniVocal plug-in is included.

3

Hi emotive,

Interesting response, I am not familiar with Emvoice.

I set up my vocals in a couple of ways….

The male voice I use for lead vocals. I have a few different settings for Formant, etc. that I am reasonably happy with, again, for auditioning phrasing, etc. I usually have to transpose it from my keyboard entry, but that is easy enough to do. It takes a while to fine-tune the phrasing, with the lengths of the note so that it allows for breath, etc. Sometimes I run one word to cutoff just before the next word starts, sometimes, depending on the pronunciation I have to cut it off 1/16” note or so prior to the next note.

Some of the pronunciations actually evolve a bit over time, so I drag the length of the note a bit longer or shorter so that the entire word can finish and not be cut off.

For Harmonies, I usually have 4 voices which I just classify roughly as Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. Most of the time, I use the male voice for the Alto, Tenor and Bass, while using the female voice for Soprano, depending on the type of chorus harmonies I am looking for. Usually, my chorus harmonies are using the ‘aah’ and I just enter the ‘aah’ once per phrase, oar again at the beginning of the next phrase.

I have done a few trials with using lyrics with the 4 part harmonies, but it can be hit and miss depending on the lyrics themselves. Again, it is used mostly to audition the harmonies I am looking for, but, for recording, I will most likely be using the ‘Aah’ Chorus voices. They seem to work well if the notes are 2 or more beats long. I have found that if I try to do a ‘subtle’ note change and it is very short, it doesn’t translate to that note and sort of ‘jumps’ over the note. Overall, though I am impressed with using it.

Other forum members may or may not agree with my findings, as I am still pretty new to using Omnivoice.

Finding the right phonetics is the biggest thing to getting the reproduction of the lyrics to be as close as possible. Sometimes, it sings jibberish with some of the lyrics and I need to experiment with different phonetic spellings. That is why I got the phonetics app from the Google Play store…

I hope this helps explain a bit of how I am using Omnivocal. I will have to do a search for Emvoice to see what it is all about.

Have a good day!

Regards,

KKSky

4

I use variable tempo in all of my compositions, and EmvoiceOne, really helps with that, and of course my playing along, with percussion (I program each and every MIDI part), which enables me to rework drum and bass parts, guitar and keyboards etc., so again, I would be very interested to see if OmniVocal can help facilitate a similar outcome.

As, for harmonies since Emovice has been around for a while, there are enough voices to share those parts, but I am always open to more especially if those voices are integrated into the DAW, even via a plug-in, which is the case here.

The phonemes, situation is common to all vocal emulations, and the desired pronunciation is not always easy or possible to accomplish. One good thing about Emvoice, though is the dictionary, however its’ strictness, is both a blessing and a curse, but a cheat sheet ensures you can obtain something reasonable.

I was looking at other software, something called DreamTonics but it works on a different system, i.e., it uses ARA and does the rendering within the plug-in but that can wait as all the voices currently available are from non-English native singers.

All the best

5

Thanks very much for your observations. Language, like music is so expressive and all of the intricacies keep things interesting!

Regards,

KKSky

6

I just wanted to thank Steinberg from the core of my heart that Omnivocal has been introduced. Because now, you can just send songs to singers and show them how the vocals are meant to be. If you have a small music community (especially singers), this plugin is gold. It’s just amazing how you can write lyrics, send them to good singers and ask them to sing them. Also I would like to thank Steinberg for “hiring” Dom Sigalas, he’s a big teacher.

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