Your PC Is An Awesome Singer... If You Let It!

As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with abelieve they are listening to a real singer performing.
computer far from powerful enough to run theThe question you will hear will always be "WHO
necessary software to record vocals of good quality, Iis that?", and not "What is that?".I quite
have looked for good solutions.And I've found a few.Inagree. Leon is astonishing. You need a powerful PC to
a short while you will hear songs that are totallyrun the Vocaloid programs. My 1 Mhz AMD Athlon with
computer made – including the vocals. Yamaha512 Mb RAM had problems. (Windows XP, Pentium 4,
made the technology, and licensed it to various1.7 GHz +, 1 GB of RAM or more is recommended).But
companies. Vocaloid is the name – remember itstill – I was able to use the program –
if you like music!I have had the pleasure of testingand the night I received my copy, I didn’t get to
Leon, the Virtual Soul Vocalist, from The complexity hidbed until 4 am…You can find a distributor for the
behind the seemingly simplistic interface is astonishing. IZero-G range at The retail price for both Leon and
hardly had to look at the manual at all while exploringLola is $329.95/£199.95/€289. More info on
– quite atypical for music software.You drawthe technology can be found at and a link to raving
your vocals using the mouse, and then add lyrics onreviews in various magazines and newspapers
top. Then, add harmonics, vibrato, attack etc. as you(among them one from the New York Times titled
want, tweak the phonemes (your words areCould I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?) are linked to
automatically converted, and you can edit them as youfrom both sites.I am now about to enter the vocals for
wish using the reference guide in the manual) and go.one of my songs using Leon. Gotta go. Drop by to
Record the vocals as WAV and import them into yourlisten to the results!Essential software for songwriters:
favourite sequencer to add music, or use the programBand in a Box is the perfect companion to these
as a VST plugin.On their site, Zero-G describes Leon:plugins. Enter your chords, select the style (from
LEON is a virtual male soul vocalist modelled on a realhardrock to soft ballads and classic Mozart) and
professional singer, and when he is installed into yourgenerate your music.Read more at and buy it for $88
PC he will literally allow you to create singing of superb($249 for the MegaPAK with a multitude of styles).
quality and realism. LEON will sing ANY words you askBiaB 2006 also allows you to record vocals and to
him to in English - literally anything - be they beautifulharmonize them – in addition to a great variety
lyrics or comical trivialities, Monteverdi madrigals orof other features. If you wish, you can have BiaB 2005
manic chants. You can create vocal tracks of soulfulcreate your whole song.Haakon Rian Ueland is a
singing in any lyrics you want. You just type in lyrics,former columnist of the Mensa International Journal,
and synthesize. Then add expression to taste. LEON iswhere this article was first published.
under your total control, and the really mind-blowingsmartsoftware.org is dedicated to content (ringtones,
thing is - he can truly sound like a professional singingthemes, backgrounds, 3gp videos) for various
voice. With very little practice the results you get fromCellphones and to his column.
LEON will completely fool your friends - they willYou can contact him at hueland (at) gmail (dot) com.