Came across a Yamaha vocaloid demo thats the first one I really like;

An ensemble for 24 unsynchronized PDAs

http://www.vocaloid-user.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid =15#dl

Its always struck me that trying to make vocaloid sound like a jazz singer was going to be difficult. However, I feel more experimental use of the technology could sound ok. This track seems to be more along that path. Its not trying to be 100% 'real' and, for me, it works well.

Ive been told that link has not been working for some poeple. Heres the official Yamaha page that has the track...

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/product/vocaloid/en/sample.html

cheers

I clicked the link, that made a link to an mp3 file appear in the search bar, so I reloaded the page and got the save-dialog.

Really interesting piece of music, but not so realistic when it comes to the character of the voices.
The first long part with the wordless sounds naturally won´t sound so artificial because there are no real words needed to reproduce.
The next part, until the big choir sets in sounds like Björk, Shakira and Marge Simpson in bed with Delay Lama!
The last sounds kinda realistic, prolly because so many voices are doubled.
But still it´s nice, and though not sounding excactly like human being, it shows another interesting side out of many from Vocaloid.

who cares if it sounds realistic..! (pretty pointless as accurate synthesis of the voice is still years away).. however, I think that this sounds FANTASTIC.. puts me in the frame of mind I first heard Tomita let loose on a melotron..
As a piece of Synthetic music : Excellent!!

ianweb123 wrote:

who cares if it sounds realistic..! (pretty pointless as accurate synthesis of the voice is still years away).. however, I think that this sounds FANTASTIC.. puts me in the frame of mind I first heard Tomita let loose on a melotron.. As a piece of Synthetic music : Excellent!!

Vocaloid is supposed to sound realistic according to Yamaha, and according to the first post in this thread, what we hear is a jazz-singer. Therefore it´s not senseless to discuss wether it sounds realistic or not, but like I also tried to say, nomatter what it sounds like, it sounds nice.

Roman Empire wrote:

The next part, until the big choir sets in sounds like Björk, Shakira and Marge Simpson in bed with Delay Lama!

Well, there's an image stuck in my head for the rest of the day...

-David,

Don’t mind me – I am twenty short of RAF

Move along

Best regards,

Spe3d

Roman Empire wrote:

ianweb123 wrote: who cares if it sounds realistic..! Vocaloid is supposed to sound realistic according to Yamaha, and according to the first post in this thread, what we hear is a jazz-singer. Therefore it´s not senseless to discuss wether it sounds realistic or not, but like I also tried to say, nomatter what it sounds like, it sounds nice.

I apologise if I sounded like I was dismissing your argument, I appreciate that this is being sold on the basis of sounding real.. All I meant was that I always take "this sounds just like..." discussions with a large pinch of salt.. I remember that the Casio VL-tone had a piano preset..

All I meant was that I appreciate this for the sounds it makes irrespective of its realism..

No hard feelings mate! I think we agree. I just wanted to state the level of realisticness - from my POW - before somebody else did it, cause I knew it was gonna be mentioned sooner or later, cause it´s relevant anyway because it´s vocaloid, and it´s a jazzsinger - not an industrial robot with human qualities
What could have happened if I didn´t, and sadly can still happen, is that somebody 200 % anti-vocaloid hijacks the thread to only talk about how this does not sound like a human, which is a pitty when there are so many more aspects of it.
So I hope I´ve prevented that by warning all the pro-vocaloid-is-only-cool-if-it-sounds-100%-like-a-real-human guys to not download it

Thanks for the link fix Flametop!

Yes, this is a really impressive demo! The first bit sounds like effects Stereolab has used in some of their songs kinda. The weird 'asian' accapela thing was okay? But the last build up of reversed vocals is REALLY nice! And what a fantastic pitch rise to end it!

Very impressive... I'm sure it was very labourous to compose, but it did pay off to show Vocaloid in a very creative manner.

Which brings about an interesting question... I mentioned Stereolab, who do some wild sample/vocal effects sometimes. And not to sound morbid, but the sad loss of Mary in the band... I'm thinking could Vocaloid be a good tool for Stereolab now? It would be interesting to hear these Vocaloid effects weaved in with a singer such as Laetita. Would it blend as well as their previous noodlings, or stick out like a sore thumb?