| As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with | | | | performing. The question you will hear will |
| a computer far from powerful enough to run | | | | always be "WHO is that?", and not |
| the necessary software to record vocals of | | | | "What is that?".I quite agree. Leon |
| good quality, I have looked for good | | | | is astonishing. You need a powerful PC to |
| solutions.And I've found a few.In a short | | | | run the Vocaloid programs. My 1 Mhz AMD |
| while you will hear songs that are totally | | | | Athlon with 512 Mb RAM had problems. (Windows |
| computer made – including the vocals. | | | | XP, Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz +, 1 GB of RAM or more |
| Yamaha made the technology, and licensed it | | | | is recommended).But still – I was able |
| to various companies. Vocaloid is the name | | | | to use the program – and the night I |
| – remember it if you like music!I have | | | | received my copy, I didn’t get to bed |
| had the pleasure of testing Leon, the Virtual | | | | until 4 am…You can find a distributor |
| Soul Vocalist, from The complexity hid | | | | for the Zero-G range at The retail price |
| behind the seemingly simplistic interface is | | | | for both Leon and Lola is $329.95 |
| astonishing. I hardly had to look at the | | | | £199.95/€289. More info on the |
| manual at all while exploring – quite | | | | technology can be found at and a link to |
| atypical for music software.You draw your | | | | raving reviews in various magazines and |
| vocals using the mouse, and then add lyrics | | | | newspapers (among them one from the New York |
| on top. Then, add harmonics, vibrato, attack | | | | Times titled Could I Get That Song in Elvis, |
| etc. as you want, tweak the phonemes (your | | | | Please?) are linked to from both sites.I am |
| words are automatically converted, and you | | | | now about to enter the vocals for one of my |
| can edit them as you wish using the reference | | | | songs using Leon. Gotta go. Drop by to |
| guide in the manual) and go. Record the | | | | listen to the results!Essential software for |
| vocals as WAV and import them into your | | | | songwriters: Band in a Box is the perfect |
| favourite sequencer to add music, or use the | | | | companion to these plugins. Enter your |
| program as a VST plugin.On their site, Zero-G | | | | chords, select the style (from hardrock to |
| describes Leon: LEON is a virtual male soul | | | | soft ballads and classic Mozart) and generate |
| vocalist modelled on a real professional | | | | your music.Read more at and buy it for $88 |
| singer, and when he is installed into your PC | | | | ($249 for the MegaPAK with a multitude of |
| he will literally allow you to create singing | | | | styles). BiaB 2006 also allows you to record |
| of superb quality and realism. LEON will sing | | | | vocals and to harmonize them – in |
| ANY words you ask him to in English - | | | | addition to a great variety of other |
| literally anything - be they beautiful lyrics | | | | features. If you wish, you can have BiaB 2005 |
| or comical trivialities, Monteverdi madrigals | | | | create your whole song.Haakon Rian Ueland is |
| or manic chants. You can create vocal tracks | | | | a former columnist of the Mensa International |
| of soulful singing in any lyrics you want. | | | | Journal, where this article was first |
| You just type in lyrics, and synthesize. Then | | | | published. smartsoftware.org is dedicated to |
| add expression to taste. LEON is under your | | | | content (ringtones, themes, backgrounds, 3gp |
| total control, and the really mind-blowing | | | | videos) for various Cellphones and to his |
| thing is - he can truly sound like a | | | | column. |
| professional singing voice. With very little | | | | |
| practice the results you get from LEON will | | | | You can contact him at hueland (at) gmail |
| completely fool your friends - they will | | | | (dot) com. |
| believe they are listening to a real singer | | | | |