Composition Challenge #37

stratman3142 · April 2023

Habanero said:

Have sent one in...

Many thanks. It's in the playlist.

monquixote · April 2023

It may be better to suggest something thematic rather than something than implies genre.

flying_pie · April 2023

Sorry @stratman3142 I had hopes of submitting a shaftsploitation track but I just don't have the time

oaf · April 2023

I've done the cover art (courtesy of Stable Diffusion). Just need to do the song now...!

Springywheel · April 2023

I'm going to do my best to get this done by the deadline....the past month's been mental.

Nice render @oaf ;;; i'm trying something similar in midjourney...

Springywheel · April 2023

Dick Flash is his name, but not sure if it's the one his mother gave him.

https://i.postimg.cc/Sxmzf3hD/Schrodinger1612-a-blaxploitation-gangster-in-his-thirties-weari-31eab758-6501-4967-b75f-bf0016938763.png

stratman3142 · April 2023

Cool pictures. Now we just need some tunes to go with them

stratman3142 · April 2023

One last shot. I'm going to extend it to the end of the month (30th April) if that's OK with @horse and @Habanero, as I know we've got at least one more entry coming that just needs a bit more time,

It would be good to get more entries, so any ideas are welcome. In future I wonder if it would be better to just make it a Composition challenge with no particular theme, so that entrants can decide for themselves and submit any of their compositions that they choose.

Habanero · April 2023

stratman3142 said:

One last shot. I'm going to extend it to the end of the month (30th April) if that's OK with @horse and @Habanero, as I know we've got at least one more entry coming that just needs a bit more time,

It would be good to get more entries, so any ideas are welcome. In future I wonder if it would be better to just make it a Composition challenge with no particular theme, so that entrants can decide for themselves and submit any of their compositions that they choose.

I certainly have no objection to extending the deadline.

Themes can sometimes be unpredictable. I've seen a Photo challenge and a racing game Car Livery challenge on other forums vary from 120 entries one time to 15 the next for no obvious reason.

horse · April 2023

Yeah go for it

dindude · April 2023

Ok, have submitted something, it’s not on theme but is something I’ve composed during the lifetime of the challenge.

stratman3142 · April 2023

dindude said:

Ok, have submitted something...

It's in the playlist.

dindude · April 2023

stratman3142 said:

dindude said:

Ok, have submitted something...

It's in the playlist.

Cheers

oaf · April 2023

I've completed mine and in a world Fretboard first (that I know of) it includes AI singers (to go with the AI cover art!)

You can now type lyrics and play notes into your computer and with enough fiddling get something out that sounds (mostly) like a singer. I've definitely only scratched the surface, and as I haven't used the software much my skill with it is largely the limiting factor here, but it's an interesting technology.

Lots of options and things to tweak:

If you've ever used Melodyne then you will see there are some similarities. Maybe some of you find it interesting anyway...?!

stratman3142 · April 2023

oaf said:

I've completed mine and in a world Fretboard first (that I know of) it includes AI singers (to go with the AI cover art!)

Well that's certainly a very interesting approach. It's in the playlist.

dindude · April 2023

Does sound interesting, I’ll give it a listen later. Mine uses AI text to speech, which is now old-school it seems!

Habanero · April 2023

I found a free plugin recently that does something like the legendary Miku pedal. I haven’t tried it yet.

stratman3142 · April 2023

Habanero said:

I found a free plugin recently that does something like the legendary Miku pedal. I haven’t tried it yet.

I used Alter/Ego by plogue for a composition challenge entry a few years back.

Habanero · April 2023

stratman3142 said:

Habanero said:

I found a free plugin recently that does something like the legendary Miku pedal. I haven’t tried it yet.

I used Alter/Ego by plogue for a composition challenge entry a few years back.

That’s sounds familiar! Probably before my time here.

oaf · April 2023

Here's the product
https://dreamtonics.com/synthesizerv/

There's an enormous thread on vi-control too with lots of examples
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/synthesizer-v-vocaloid-haters-might-want-to-check-this.115973/
(many are better than the Dreamtonics demos IMO!)

The way it works is that you buy the software engine, then there are a number of models/singers that go with it. There's a free version too but I believe it is very limited. You can play in the tune via MIDI or use tools such as Praat to do the analysis of real vocals.

stratman3142 · April 2023

Habanero said:

stratman3142 said:

Habanero said:

I found a free plugin recently that does something like the legendary Miku pedal. I haven’t tried it yet.

I used Alter/Ego by plogue for a composition challenge entry a few years back.

That’s sounds familiar! Probably before my time here.

Below is the link from way back in 2017. Things have moved on a lot since then.

https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/105384/composition-challenge-17-and-the-winner-is#latest

Springywheel · April 2023

Submitted mine

stratman3142 · April 2023

Springywheel said:

Submitted mine

It's in the playlist.

stratman3142 · April 2023

oaf said:

Here's the product
https://dreamtonics.com/synthesizerv/

There's an enormous thread on vi-control too with lots of examples
https://vi-control.net/community/threads/synthesizer-v-vocaloid-haters-might-want-to-check-this.115973/
(many are better than the Dreamtonics demos IMO!)

The way it works is that you buy the software engine, then there are a number of models/singers that go with it. There's a free version too but I believe it is very limited. You can play in the tune via MIDI or use tools such as Praat to do the analysis of real vocals.

Very interesting. Which voice did you use for your entry?

oaf · April 2023

Hi

"Asterian" was the voice I used, from Eclipsed Sounds (third parties make them too) and while he's perhaps not one of the very best voices, or at least not one of the more flexible ones, I felt he was closest in character to the style of the song. For the backing vocalists I used "Mai" (from Dreamtonics, who is actually a Japanese voice that can do English; you get her for free with the Pro version) and "Solaria" (another Eclipsed Sounds one who is very good, pretty flexible and easier to use than Asterian).

You can get far more convincing results than I've managed (flick through the vi-control thread mentioned earlier or have a look on YouTube) so I think it's worth exploring and potentially a useful tool (they're quite good enough for backing vocals and/or demos). It is not particularly expensive and because it isn't "traditional" sample data as such the voice packs are small, so you're not downloading GBs of data. You can create your own dictionaries of how you want words to be pronounced (sometimes they're too "clean" and precise with their diction) and there are a lot of options that you can tweak. I have a fairly powerful computer (Threadripper CPU with 128GB RAM) but I don't think it is all that demanding, it renders the audio as you go along.

I created my song vocals from scratch however Praat can be used very successfully to analyse existing vocal recordings. I find it an extremely slow process. Another alternative is to feed the audio into Melodyne and have it create MIDI for you - much quicker and can yield decent results. That does lead to the question of "why use a computer voice when you have a real recording?" but I suppose you can take one recording and have other voices perform it (e.g. more backing vocals, creating variety/texture) or if you're male you could have a woman sing your composition, etc. There's a whole "scene" where people do digital covers using computer voices which can be quite impressive (and at times unintentionally hilarious!) too. I think a lot of the good ones use Praat and must spend hours. I don't really get the cover scene but each to their own!

What else...? You can either use the Synth V program as a standalone and export WAV files or as a plugin. I have found it easier to use it as a standalone and then handle the audio files within the DAW but there are pros/cons to each approach.

Hope this helps.

stratman3142 · April 2023

@oaf thanks for the info.

I'm can't sing to save my life, but I've got Melodyne 5 Editor, so wonder how generating something with my own voice might compare with using a synthetic voice.

oaf · April 2023

If you'd like to email me a short MIDI file and some words I can send the results back

stratman3142 · April 2023

oaf said:

If you'd like to email me a short MIDI file and some words I can send the results back

That's very kind. I might take you up on that, but at the moment I've got a few other projects going on, so I don't want to get too distracted.

stratman3142 · April 2023

Entry closes this coming Sunday (30th April 2023) at midnight.

stratman3142 · April 2023

Entry closes tonight at midnight.

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Composition Challenge #37

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