| As an amateur songwriter, who struggles with a | | | | believe they are listening to a real singer performing. |
| computer far from powerful enough to run the | | | | The question you will hear will always be "WHO |
| necessary software to record vocals of good quality, I | | | | is that?", and not "What is that?".I quite |
| have looked for good solutions.And I've found a few.In | | | | agree. Leon is astonishing. You need a powerful PC to |
| a short while you will hear songs that are totally | | | | run the Vocaloid programs. My 1 Mhz AMD Athlon with |
| computer made – including the vocals. Yamaha | | | | 512 Mb RAM had problems. (Windows XP, Pentium 4, |
| made the technology, and licensed it to various | | | | 1.7 GHz +, 1 GB of RAM or more is recommended).But |
| companies. Vocaloid is the name – remember it | | | | still – I was able to use the program – |
| if you like music!I have had the pleasure of testing | | | | and the night I received my copy, I didn’t get to |
| Leon, the Virtual Soul Vocalist, from The complexity hid | | | | bed until 4 am…You can find a distributor for the |
| behind the seemingly simplistic interface is astonishing. I | | | | Zero-G range at The retail price for both Leon and |
| hardly had to look at the manual at all while exploring | | | | Lola is $329.95/£199.95/€289. More info on |
| – quite atypical for music software.You draw | | | | the technology can be found at and a link to raving |
| your vocals using the mouse, and then add lyrics on | | | | reviews 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 are | | | | Could I Get That Song in Elvis, Please?) are linked to |
| automatically converted, and you can edit them as you | | | | from 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 your | | | | listen to the results!Essential software for songwriters: |
| favourite sequencer to add music, or use the program | | | | Band 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 real | | | | hardrock to soft ballads and classic Mozart) and |
| professional singer, and when he is installed into your | | | | generate 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 ask | | | | BiaB 2006 also allows you to record vocals and to |
| him to in English - literally anything - be they beautiful | | | | harmonize them – in addition to a great variety |
| lyrics or comical trivialities, Monteverdi madrigals or | | | | of other features. If you wish, you can have BiaB 2005 |
| manic chants. You can create vocal tracks of soulful | | | | create 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 is | | | | where this article was first published. |
| under your total control, and the really mind-blowing | | | | smartsoftware.org is dedicated to content (ringtones, |
| thing is - he can truly sound like a professional singing | | | | themes, backgrounds, 3gp videos) for various |
| voice. With very little practice the results you get from | | | | Cellphones and to his column. |
| LEON will completely fool your friends - they will | | | | You can contact him at hueland (at) gmail (dot) com. |