KVR Audio

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:33 am

I'm making 'Choir Boy' available to try out (Alpha test).

‘Choir Boy’ is a multi-voice pitch shifting plug-in. From a single input (mono or stereo), ‘Choir Boy’ generates 3 additional voices, which can be tailored to various pitches.

This boy is still a bit rough around the edges and I don't have any immediate plans to release this as a product, but you're all welcome to give it a try and kick it around.

'Choir Boy' can be downloaded directly from this link (no registration required):

Direct Download for Choir Boy

Try it on vocals, solo instruments and polyphonic instruments. No instructions I'm afraid.

The demo is good for 90 days and mutes the sound every 25 seconds.

Depending on feedback, I’ll consider how to proceed with development.

Cheers and Enjoy!

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 11:44 am

Just updated the demo - reduced latency of 'voice 0' and improved sound.

Cheers

Roman Empire · Post by **Roman Empire** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:52 pm

Hi, always interesting to see new stuff from your hand - always original plugins

I was wondering if you´re thinking about planning midi control of the tones being shifted to, and also formant shifting?

In that case you´ve got a product there of which there, as far as I know, only exists two other kinds on the vst-market:

Akai (I think it´s decabuddy) and Steinberg Voice Machine.

papawillow · Post by **papawillow** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:59 pm

Just ran it over some beats,,, sounds wicked,,and quality of sound too,,, you've done it again.

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 1:15 pm

Roman Empire wrote:Hi, always interesting to see new stuff from your hand - always original plugins

I was wondering if you´re thinking about planning midi control of the tones being shifted to, and also formant shifting?

Hi Roman,

I've got a few in the pipeline based around the theme of pitch detection and shifting.

I would like to clean up 'Choir Boy' a lot more (the code can be optimized somewhat - but that needs some research on my part.) Adding formant shifting, or format control, will make voices sound a bit more realistic as they are shifted. I also need to do some research there - and may add that if it doesn't become too computationally expensive.

As for midi control, I have another prototype on the desk which I called 'Track Boy'. It detects pitch and converts to midi. The idea is to be able to extract bass and melody lines from non-midi audio tracks. As it happens, I just got it crudely working about 10 minutes ago (but still needs a lot more work before I can let it out).

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Roman Empire · Post by **Roman Empire** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:31 pm

Ok, I look forward to see how well this well work. I think I´ve read that the few programs outthere capable of doing that translation from audio to midi thing aren´t so good, which is understandable, cause it may not be so easy, especially not if you´ve got more than just a solo voice.
But you know what I ment with midi controlling the pitch/formant, right?
I think this wouldn´t be a very complicated thing to make, once you´ve figured out the formant stuff, which nowadays seems not to be a big secret anymore - there are lotsa synths, also free ones - dealing with formant synthesis.
There´s been some tables or links to them posted here explaining something about formant frequencies. Not that I know anything about whether that´s easy to understand or not when it comes to programming, but thought you´d like to know if you don´t already

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:58 pm

Roman Empire wrote: But you know what I ment with midi controlling the pitch/formant, right?

After taking a look at 'Decabuddy', I now know what you meant (very impressive stuff). Using midi to control the pitch of the individual parts.

In 'Choir Boy' at the moment, you could use automation to do that (though this would be fiddly). To add midi control wouldn't be conceptually so difficult, but is quite some work - thanks for the suggestion though.

As you spotted, the challenge on the pitch midi follower is to determine the correct frequencies in a mix - I am working on that, because that would be the added value of 'Track Boy'.

Kim Lajoie · Post by **Kim Lajoie** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 12:31 am

Combine the pitch-shifter with the pitch-detector, and make Autotune!

Forever,

Kim.

Roman Empire · Post by **Roman Empire** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:37 am

Jeez wrote:Combine the pitch-shifter with the pitch-detector, and make Autotune!

Forever,

Kim.

I thought excactly the same, and that our man here then could add some new inventions so it´ll be more than just a simple autotune. He seems pretty good at that, like CloneBoy which was a very innovative plugin.
I could imagine that once you´ve managed to make an autotune plugin, if you´re a creative person, you´ll automatically see how much weird stuff can be done with the code you´ve got.
Kantos was a step forward, but I hated it for not being able to output the data extracted from the input to other plugins.

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:22 pm

'Choir Boy' Just updated to V1.10. Further improved sound quality.

Same download link

Cheers

ageis · Post by **ageis** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:33 am

I really dig this kind of stuff. Excellent stuff!

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:03 am

ageis wrote:I really dig this kind of stuff. Excellent stuff!

I'm just working on putting in the midi control for the pitch of each voice.

I'm almost there. Hope to have a demo update, including midi control, soon.

Cheers

Roman Empire · Post by **Roman Empire** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:20 am

Wide Boy wrote:
ageis wrote:I really dig this kind of stuff. Excellent stuff!
I'm just working on putting in the midi control for the pitch of each voice.

I'm almost there. Hope to have a demo update, including midi control, soon.

Cheers

Great! After thinking a bit, I´ve come to the conclusion that there are no polyphonic keyboard controlled pitchshifters (in vst format) without formants being controlled as well - untill now!
Am I right?
Personally I prefer the formant stuff because my music is not of a kind that would allow a mixed choir of mice and bears - though of course it can be used on drumloops and such as well - but I´m sure there are people who´d love an original touch of a more extreme character to their sound, provided by your keyboard controlled pitch shifter once it´s finished.
Looking forward to play around with the demo when it´s reached that point!

spaceman · Post by **spaceman** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:45 pm

very nice.. I like this a lot

works well on other instruments too
got some really nice fx out of it already

is there a version without the volume gaps for registered elevayta users?

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:03 pm

spaceman wrote:very nice.. I like this a lot
works well on other instruments too
got some really nice fx out of it already

I'm happy you like it already. FX on non-vocal was what I also had in mind.

spaceman wrote: is there a version without the volume gaps for registered elevayta users?

I'll see how it turns out. At the moment, I'm up to my neck in 'Space Boy' ... Spaceman.

Cheers

Elevayta 'Choir Boy' demo release.