Home › DMW Daily › July 11, 2007

Buzz Watch: Will Robots like Sweet Ann put Human Vocalists Out of Business?

Authored by Jay Baage on July 11, 2007 - 4:48am.
Stockholm, Sweden. I have to warn all you musicians out there, the Terminator of the music world has arrived. Don’t be fooled by her name, Sweet Ann, this robot, like the T-1000, is the next generation Vocaloid software which enable users to type in words and melody and have the vocal library “artist” sing back the input. Forget the ”robot voice”, Sweet Ann has realistic vocals that include a vibrato and a range that stretches from lead to harmony parts.

OK, to be fair, a robot that emulates the words and notes still sounds weird and, at best, like a really unengaged elevator music performance. But it still gives you a taste of what is to come once the technology is improved.
“We are extremely excited about the release of Sweet Ann and developing vocal libraries for Vocaloid,” said Bil Bryant, CEO of PowerFX, the Stockholm-based company behind the software, in a statement.
“Vocal synthesis and voice modelling is an evolving technology that is still in its infancy, but the developments and functions of Vocaloid 2 make it such an incredibly useful tool for any  digital music maker that we had to get involved.”

The Vocaloid software is developed to help in the songwriting and recording process. Using Sweet Ann as a demo vocalist, you can create and experiment with new musical styles, from remixes, vocal fx, and DJ scratch vocals, to jazz, pop, funky house music and electronica genres, to get an idea of what a finished track may sound like when recorded using a real performer.
Listen to Sweet Ann sing a variety of styles at her MySpace page.

Jay Baage

Published in DMW Daily, July 11, 2007
tags: Internet | Tech | Music | Europe | Sweden | Sweet Ann | Vocaloid |



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