VirSyn is a German company that provides award-winning virtual instruments and software for the music industry. Their unique Cantor singing software synthesizer, Tera modular software synthesizer, and the Cube tool for sound designers are unique contributions to the virtual instrument world. You can visit the VirSyn Forums here to learn more about their software synthesizers. Check out these virtual synthesizers for musicians who dare to be different.

VirSyn CANTOR 2.1 The Vocal Machine Software
VirSyn CANTOR 2.1 singing software synthesizer lets you type your lyrics into the software and then sing them instantly by playing the melody on a MIDI controller! Add realistic expression with realtime parameters including vibrato rate and depth as well as female and male singing voices!The human voice is the most sophisticated and versatile instrument used in musical expression. Virsyn’s vocal synthesis technology VOSE (Vocal Simulation Engine) has achieved a vast improvement in sound quality and intelligibility. The range of voice characters is virtually unlimited: it goes from robotic voice characters to highly expressive and nearly realistic sounding voices.The completely reworked score editor makes it easy and fast to edit the most important sound parameters which give you access to the finest detail of spelling and expression of the vocal line. All editing can be done in realtime: What you hear is what you get.The new MIDI import feature makes it possible to use pitchbend and expression information. This opens up entirely new applications: if you take, for example, an analyzing program like Melodyne from Celemony you can take a “real” vocal part and analyze it. After importing you can use this vocal line and combine it with a new voice made by CANTOR! More than 20 ready to use voices in German and American pronunciation are part of the VirSyn CANTOR 2. Extensive possibilities for phoneme and voice editing makes it easy to create your own individual voice characters even creating “new” languages is in your reach! CANTOR 2 is available as a stand alone music software program and as host plugin (VST2.4, RTAS, AudioUnit ) for the platforms Windows XP and Mac OS X. The Mac version is delivered as Universal Binary for Intel-based Mac compatibility.

VirSyn Cantor Virtual Vocalist
Version 1.6 of CANTOR has itïs main focus on the german language, but there are many other features for all of you. The function Choir rendering function makes the generation of choirs even with hundreds of voices a snap. Every choir voice is generated separately with adjustable random variations in pitch, start time and sound characteristic. Using different base voices result in completely mixed choirs without any effort on your side! You can import now MIDI files into the score editor. With MIDI files containing the lyrics the song text is also imported !It is now much easier to produce intelligible vocal lines. This is achieved with an improved filter model and a new kind of rule based phoneme sequencer which adapts the phoneme transitions according to the context inside a word. CANTOR’s main purpose is to provide you with creative vocal parts for live and studio usage. All is possible - lively leadsounds, background choirs, vocoder like effects, … Due to the consequent design as a real synthesizer without using samples the main usage of CANTOR is not primarily the replacement of “human” singers but more the creation of new virtual character voices whose base sound can be influenced by the user in an extremely flexible manner. And all this is possible in realtime ! This opens up exciting possibilites for live sessions too.The human voice is the most sophisticated and versatile instrument used in musical expression. With CANTOR an exciting new era of realtime vocal synthesis begins right now! Imaging entering your lyrics in plain english and then sing” your lyrics instantly just by playing the melody on your MIDI Keyboard. Add realistic expression with realtime parameters controlling vibrato rate and depth or changing the character of the singing voice from female to male! But CANTOR even goes beyond creating realistic human” singers. Many parameters have no relation to human vocals like Metallize” which turns your virtual singer more into a singing Gong… The voice editor allows you to edit the character of your virtual singer by defining the base spectrum for vowels and consonants. For those of you ever wanting to create your own alien language the Phoneme editor gives you full access to the atoms of the vocal synthesis engine. With this editor you can define the formant structure and the noise characteristic of each phoneme used by the vocal engine, and remember that for any edits your are going to do the changes are immediately audible in realtime!

VirSyn Tera 3 Software Synthesizer
Virsyn TERA 3 is a modular software synthesizer based on many different synthesis technologies including the revolutionary Spectrum synthesis.Highlights of Version 3: Multi sampling - Each of the three main oscillators can use now samples instead of the built-in waveforms. The samples are organized in up to 16 key zones and 2 morph zones, making for a total of up to 32 sample files for each oscillator. Due to it’s high quality re-sampling algorithm, you can use a single sample for the whole tonal range!Terrain filter This new module allows for real-time morphing between two 16 pole filters selectable from a set of predefined vocal filters. Arpeggiator In addition to the high-level arpeggio functions of the built in sequencer, TERA 3 now offers a simple standard arpeggiator for each part.Stereo routing The amplifier module now has two additional stereo inputs allowing for stereo effects inside the synthesis patch. The spectrum oscillator has a new stereo output for stereophonic wavetable synthesis.Envelopes The four multi-segment envelopes in TERA can now be used in a new free” mode where each envelope can be used independently. These envelopes can be saved and loaded from special envelope presets.

VirSyn Cube 2 Virutal Synthesizer
CUBE 2 is a musical instrument and the ultimate tool for sound designers who wish to have instant and intuitive access to all principal components every imaginable sound is build from. Every sound can be decomposed in a sine spectrum representing the harmonic and inharmonic partials and a residual noise spectrum for the noise components. The spatial character of a sound can be represented by a pan spectrum. The temporal evolution of these three spectra is a very convenient way to describe every sound. CUBE 2 is built around this model and allows you to manipulate the structure of a sound with all its components in a comfortable and musical way. Resynthesis ake a sample as input and CUBE 2 analyzes it into two components: up to 512 sine tracks for the partial components and the residual spectrum for the noise components. The outstanding quality of the analyzer for a broad range of sounds avoids the typical artifacts known from time stretching/pitch shifting and granular algorithms. Spectral editing - The spectral editing windows are the heart of CUBE ïs sound manipulation and creation capabilities. They give you deep access to the sound components described before. Imagine drawing a bandpass filter or comb filter structure directly into the spectrum display ! Zoom into the spectrum to manipulate it down to a single partial. You can use Contrast” tools to enhance or reduce the frequency or amplitude modulations of the sound in selected areas of the spectrum. And all editings are immediately audible. Time warping - CUBEïs unique time warping envelope gives you control over the timeline. You can simply reverse the sound, freeze it at any position or manually move around the sound for scratching effects. Or create an arbitrary moving with up to 64 breakpoints. Morphing - The next level of sound manipulation in CUBE 2 is to take up to four sound sources and make all parameters and spectral components move inside this cube”. Take for example a flute like sound as one source and a trumpet like sound as another source. The result is a sound morphing from flute to trumpet ! The movement can be made automatically with the morphing envelopes or manually by using MIDI controllers or the mouse.Source editing Each of the four sound sources allow for another level of controlling the sound. The levels, attack and decay times, pan positions of every partial can be globally edited here on a more abstract level. You can use a global filter with arbitrary shape on this level which takes also part in the morphing process - a comb filter in Source A can for example morph into a lowpass filter in Source B.

Helicon is a mountain in Southern Greece where the Muses – those nine daughters of Zeus who inspire musicians, singers, poets and artists – were said to reside. In mythology, Helicon is a place where the speaking and singing voice is elevated to its highest levels. TC Helicon creates products for those who work with the voice in live and recording situations so they can can bring out the very best from any performance, and where the possibilities of vocal craft are endless. These vocal processing tools offer an incredible amount of real-time control over the sound of the human voice.

TC Helicon VoiceDoubler Automatic Vocal Doubling and Overdub Tool
It takes skill, time and punch-ins to create a properly doubled vocal track in the studio and it’s nearly impossible to accurately create the effect in live performance. The pitch and timing cues that tell your brain how many people are singing are subtle and complex. Imagine a front-of-house effects processor that creates up to four humanized overdubs - live! With TC-Helicon’s VoiceDoubler, overdubbed vocals can be “tight and intimate” or “loose and lively.” What’s more, TC-Helicon includes amazing emulations of classic de-tune, microshift and chorus effects. VoiceDoubler, with its timeless combination of natural and effected doubling, finally makes live vocals sound like the CD.

TC Helicon VoiceWorks Vocal Processor
The TC Helicon VoiceWorks Vocal Processor is hands-down the best harmony generator in its class. Creates 4-voice harmonies and 4 harmony modes and provides transparent pitch correction and fat automatic double-tracking, all so realistic you can solo them with confidence. It also includes superb T.C. Electronic effects and new HarmonyHold which lets you freeze your backing harmonies while you sing over them. Add a quality mic preamp, compression, EQ, tap-tempo delay, and reverbs and you have a complete vocal channel with 100 user presets.

TC Helicon VoiceWorksPlus Vocal Harmony, Modeling and Effects Processor
VoiceWorksPlus has all of the features you need to make your vocals shine brighter. It builds on the success of its predecessor, VoiceWorks, with an updated list of features including fourth generation TC-Helicon harmony technology, voice modeling, and the Transducer and iMod (micromod) blocks from VoicePro.The quiet Burr Brown-based mic preamp, transparent pitch correction, TC Helicon reverb, delay, and dynamics algorithms from VoiceWorks round out its capabilities. Whether you’re playing live gigs with a MIDI sequencer for backup or recording songs in your studio, VoiceWorksPlus offers high quality vocal processing options and advancess allowing you to realize the perfect vocal sound you’re looking for.4th Generation harmony Many of the advancements are in the “humanization” of the harmony voices. TC Helicon added new parameters and broke out former group settings into individual voice settings:- Each harmony voice now has unique portamento and pitch-smoothing values for better separation - Unique humanization style and amount settings per voice allow quicker edits - Added energy (volume) level randomization per voice to better mimic group dynamics - Any voice can be designated as a doubling voice in all harmony modes - Controlling harmonies with MIDI is easier and more realistic sounding than ever - Automatic note extension keyed on lead voice duration for smoother notes mode response - “Fussy” chord mode allows you to play runs and chords while controlling harmonies in chord mode - Scale mode MIDI override offers quick-solution tonon-scale input notes without editing - Increased portamento accuracy - All new, more realistic harmony vibrato styles - Improved voice allocation in notes mode increases pan and gender stability with wide-panned voices - Harmony hold update allows MIDI performance of sustained phonemes - Hold/Notes mode ADSR envelope with randomization creates synth-like performance from a vocal partCreate Characters using VoiceModeling With VoiceModeling you can transform your live singing voice to make it deeper, breathier or even add a growl that would make you hoarse otherwise. The additional modeling blocks can be mixed and matched to lend your voice everything from the most subtle enhancements to the sound of hyperactive cartoon characters.

TC Helicon Vocal Pedal and Personal Monitor Package
The Vocal Pedal & Personal Monitor Package includes the TC Helicon VoiceTone Correct Vocal Pedal, TC Helicon VoiceTone Create Vocal Pedal, TC Helicon VSM 300 XT Personal Monitor, AKG D 870 Supercardioid Dynamic Microphone and cable. VoiceTone Correct Vocal Pedal The nicest and most simpatico sound engineer you will ever meet is inside VoiceTone Correct. It combines pitch correction with tone and dynamic shaping that put a recorded gloss on live singing. Sensing algorithms developed at TC-Helicon automatically adjust the recording industry techniques of multiband EQ, compression and de-essing for you, so you get the best sound with the least amount of effort.Partner your new sound with auto-chromatic pitch correction which helps you sing more in tune, much like a metronome helps for playing in time. The miniaturization of sound engineers and vocal coaches was a challenge, but the results will surely impress you and your audience! VoiceTone Create Vocal Pedal If you’re tired of the dull, dry vocal coming back at you onstage, you’re ready for the VoiceTone Create vocal pedal. Now you can have the same pro quality ambience and ear-catching effect types that producers use in the studio to make vocals sound sweet. At its simplest, Create is a high quality voice effects unit that you bring to performances to feel confident that your style of effects, whether it’s country, rock, metal, blues or jazz, is under your control.Create features 99 preset combinations of reverb, delay, thickening/micro-tuning, distortion and telephone/megaphone effects that can inspire creativity and bring the sound of the CD to the stage. The straightforward controls, A/B effects switching and simple radio button preset selection give singers easy access to a rich palette of effects.TC Helicon VSM 300 XT The VSM300XT lets you hear the stage mix you need without all the feedback. You get intelligible, natural vocal sound thanks to an ICT (Inductively Coupled Technology) point source driver; a rugged, efficient cast aluminum enclosure; and a clean, quiet 150W BASH amplifier with a built-in limiter. Non-electrical methods are used to couple the tweeter with the woofer making the tweeter indestructible. The TC Helicon VSM-300XT monitor speakers are portable and versatile because your monitoring needs can vary by venue, the size of your group and the level of your performance or practice.The VSM-300XT VoiceSolo Active Voice Monitor mounts on your mic stand with included hardware to save floor space. Attach the hardware to your stand once, and the monitor will pop on and off. It also rocks back to 3 different angles on the floor. Features mic and line inputs and a pass-thru to connect additional VSM-200XTs(sold separately) or VSM-300XTs in parallel. A front-panel volume control lets you decide how loud you want your monitor mix and does not affect the level going to any other monitor or the mixing console.

TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony-G Vocal Effects Pedal for Guitar
VoiceTone Harmony-G is a studio-quality vocal harmony and effects pedal dedicated to guitar players that takes the programming completely out of the equation, since the guitar playing tells Harmony-G what notes to harmonize. Adaptive mixing and harmony arrangement algorithms follow the guitar and voice, and produce realistic harmonies without pre-programming. A guitar AutoMix function provides acoustic guitar players with a balanced mix of vocals, guitar, and effects. The straightforward controls enable the guitarist to go further and arrange voicing and effects changes in their song by stepping through ten presets with A/B settings as they perform. VoiceTone Harmony-G also features XLR mic level I/O, guitar input, and pass-thru for separate amp and guitar tuner inputs. Each pedal in the VoiceTone line has a unique purpose, yet they compliment each other perfectly. Their studio-quality sound, ready-for-action construction, and unobtrusive size lets you carry them along with your favorite mic to the gig, whether it’s a club or a concert hall. And operation couldn’t be easier. You’ll get the sound you want in seconds, instantly boosting your performance the very first night you use a VoiceTone pedal. Up to now, only the most successful singers have taken their producer, live engineer, back-up singers and vocal coach on the road, but now it’s your turn to bring your vocal posse with you and ensure that your message, and, more importantly, your sound, is heard.Quality can be witnessed in every aspect of the VoiceTone design. Studio caliber audio algorithms, transparent converters, and fastidious analog audio design lead to a smooth sound that makes you sound your best. It just wouldn’t be enough to make products that sound this good without making sure they stand up to the rough treatment they’re going to get onstage or kicking around a rehearsal room floor.

Click Here for More "TC Helicon Vocal Processors"

Writer’s Digest Lyric Writing Books

Here are a couple of excellent lyric writing books from Writer’s Digest to help you craft your songs. Anyone who sings or writes music can benefit from the advice in these books. They cover song structure, idea generation, rhyming schemes, pitching songs, and other aspects of songwritng.

Writer’s Digest The Craft of Lyric Writing Book
With over 100,000 copies in print, successful author and songwriter Sheila Davis provides a complete guide to writing words for and to music, showing how to create lyrics with universal appeal, choose a song form, and more. 350 pages.

Writer’s Digest You Can Write Song Lyrics Book
Anyone who’s dreamed of writing a hit song but doesn’t know how to start will welcome the inspiration and practical instruction offered by successful lyricist Terry Cox. Readers will learn about basic song components, collaborative songwriting, and creative ways to come up with song ideas. Cox also takes the reader through the stages of writing lyrics for a song, from choosing a title to the chorus, verses and the bridge. Readers will even find sections on getting the song performed, recorded and getting people in the music business interested.

Antares makes powerful vocal processors and has set the standard for real-time pitch correction technologies. If you are a vocalist, you definitely should check out the possibilities offered by Antares’ tools such as microphone modeling, auto-harmonizing, de-essing, EQs, and much more.

Antares Vocal Producer
The Antares Vocal Producer gives you everything you need to create stunning vocal tracks, all in one box. The Vocal Producer combines TEC mic modeling technology, Auto-Tune Pitch correction, and state-of-the-art vocal processing modules. Live or in the studio, it lets you instantly select from a huge library of sounds. Presets offer a wide range of styles and an interface that makes it easy to create your own signature sounds. Processing features include analog tube modeling, variable knee compression, downward expanding gate, variable frequency de-esser, flexible parametric EQ, automatic mono or stereo double tracking. It’s fully programmable and provides full MIDI automation. Single rackspace.

Antares AVOX AT Vocal Toolkit Plus Auto-Tune Hybrid
AVOX AT combines Auto-Tune, the worldwide standard in professional pitch correction, with the AVOX Antares Vocal Toolkit. Together, they provide a comprehensive suite of tools for producing world-class vocal tracks. Auto-Tune corrects intonation problems in vocals or solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all of the expressive nuance of the original performance—with audio quality so pristine that the only difference between what goes in and what comes out is the intonation. All with a user-interface that is a model of clarity, speed and ease-of-use. For most common pitch problems, Auto-Tune s automatic mode instantaneously detects the pitch of the input, identifies the closest pitch in a user-specified scale (including minor, major, chromatic and 26 historical and microtonal scales), and corrects the input pitch to match the scale pitch. A Retune Speed control lets you match the retune rate to virtually any performance style.

Antares Auto Tune 5 TDM Pitch Correcting Plug-In
The Next Generation of the Worldwide Standard in Professional Pitch Correction. Hailed as a “holy grail of recording,” by Recording magazine (and adopted worldwide as the largest-selling audio plug-in of all time), Auto-Tune corrects intonation problems in vocals or solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all of the expressive nuance of the original performance - with audio quality so pristine that the only difference between what goes in and what comes out is the intonation. All with a user-interface that is a model of clarity, speed and ease-of-use.For most common pitch problems, Auto-Tune 5’s Automatic Mode instantaneously detects the pitch of the input, identifies the closest pitch in a user-specified scale (including minor, major, chromatic and 26 historical and microtonal scales), and corrects the input pitch to match the scale pitch. A Retune Speed control lets you match the retune rate to virtually any performance style. For meticulous tweaking, the Graphical Mode displays the performance’s detected pitch envelope and allows you to draw in the desired pitch using a variety of graphics tools. This mode gives complete control over the correction or modification of the most elaborate expressive gestures.Auto-Tune is used daily by thousands of audio professionals around the world. Whether to save studio and editing time, ease the frustration of endless retakes, to save that otherwise once-in-a-lifetime performance, or to create striking special effects, Auto-Tune 5 is the tool of choice.Key new Auto-Tune 5 features include:: Improved pitch detection algorithm: While Auto Tune’s patented pitch detection technology has always provided unmatched speed and accuracy, Auto-Tune 5 introduces improvements in performance with marginal quality (noisy, poorly isolated, etc.) audio.A sleek new interface: As Auto-Tune’s features have proliferated from version to version, we have continually focused on maintaining its ease of use. With Auto-Tune 5, we have undertaken a complete graphic redesign. The result is both easy on the eyes and logically groups related controls for intuitive functionality.Consolidated Pitch Tracking control: The previously separate Automatic and Graphical Mode Tracking controls have been consolidated into a single control and relocated to the Options dialog for set-it-and forget-it simplicity. Automatic Mode Features:: Humanize function: For those concerned about pitch correction that is too perfect,” the Humanize function allows you to set a fast retune speed for short notes, while still allowing natural variation in held notes, for results that are even more natural and realistic.Realtime natural vibrato adjustment: The new realtime Natural Vibrato function allows you to modify (either increasing or decreasing) the depth of any vibrato that is present in the original performance.

Antares Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator
From the company that revolutionized professional vocal production with Auto-Tune pitch correction technology, the Antares Harmony Engine is a realtime harmony generating plug-in that puts professional-quality vocal harmony arrangements within reach of any songwriter, producer, musician or engineer.With four independent harmony voices, a variety of powerful harmony generating modes, humanization features for natural sounding performances, and a flexible real-time preset system for harmony and vocal type, Harmony Engine provides incredibly easy-to-use tools to quickly and easily produce virtually any vocal arrangement you can imagine.Whether you’re an experienced vocal arranger, a singer / songwriter looking for the right backup vocals, or a composer experimenting with unique vocal effects, Harmony Engine voice modeling generator gives you entirely new ways to create the harmony parts you hear in your head. In fact, experimenting with different harmonies is so easy (and, dare it be suggested, fun), you may find yourself using Antares Harmony Engine to explore harmonic alternatives you may have never otherwise considered.Four high-quality, formant-corrected harmony voices with independent vocal character, vibrato, and pan settings. Antares Throat Modeling technology that lets you process each harmony voice through a physical model of the human vocal tract. A variety of innovative Harmony Control modes, from fully automatic to individual control of every note. Fixed or Scale Intervals: Simply set the key and harmony voice intervals and let Harmony Engine do the rest. Chord Degrees or Chord Name: Define your harmony chord-by-chord, complete with inversions and variable vocal ranges. Chord by MIDI: Define your harmony in real time via a MIDI controller or pre-recorded MIDI track. MIDI Omni: Directly “play” the four harmony voices as if they were voices of a synth or sampler. MIDI Channel: Use four separate MIDI channels for absolute control over each note of your vocal arrangement. Spread and Register controls that allow you to quickly and intuitively set the pitch range and harmony style of your vocal arrangement. Humanize functions that provide selectable amounts of variation to each harmony voice for realistic, natural sounding results. A Freeze function that allows a unique variety of backup vocal effects by letting you instantly freeze pitch and/or formant articulation. A Harmony Preset matrix that lets you create up to 15 complete harmony settings and instantaneously recall them in real time or via automation. A Voice Parameter Preset matrix that lets you create and instantly recall up to 6 different “vocal groups”. Five-channel output capability (host dependent) that lets you assign or export the original input and each of the four harmony voices to their own channels for further processing.

Click Here for More "Antares Vocal Processors"

For over thirty years, Symetrix has believed in innovation. From the first broadcast telephone interfaces to the birth of the voice processor, Symetrix maintained a perfect balance of performance, value and reliability. Symetrix is a leading provider of signal processing technology for the installed sound, broadcast, and recording markets.

Symetrix 302 Dual Microphone Preamp
The Symetrix 302 Dual Microphone Preamp is designed for broadcast, sound reinforcement, digital and analog recording, The 302 offers substantial sonic improvements over stock mixers or console preamps. The Symetrix 302 provides solid stereo imaging, excellent transient response, very low noise, and almost undetectable distortion.

Symetrix 528E Voice Processor
The Symetrix 528E is a complete, self-contained voice processor that performs six separate functions: microphone preamplification, de-essing (sibilance removal), compression/limiting, downward expansion, parametric EQ, and voice symmetry alignment. All six processors may be used simultaneously. Although we call the 528E a “Voice Processor”, it is perfectly suitable for any signal, vocal or not. Each function features a full complement of controls in an easy-to-use layout. Separate LED meters monitor mic gain and dynamics gain reduction functions, thus facilitating quick and accurate adjustment of controls. As a dedicated single-channel voice processor, the 528E delivers the same processing power found in an entire recording studio signal chain. With the 528E you get all the control you need, without the cost or complication of separate units.

Click Here for More "Symetrix Processors"