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Grathy, your voice IS an instrument!
I have tried the opposite, making a guitar sound like a voice and its pretty much impossible. It just never sounds right. I think every instrument exists because of its unique sound. Even sophisticated electronic synthesizers can't match the sound of a real instrument so ultimately they end up being best used for their own sound.
For example, I was trying to do a cover of the Good, Bad and Ugly - you know all the cool voice sounds in that! Forget it. I gave up. The original is just so perfect. It has to be re-arranged is you want to do an instrumental version. |
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Aug 01, 2007 | 11:11 am |
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Well, thanks for your posting...I'm sure there's a way to do it, but Apple doesn't want you to know! |
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Aug 07, 2007 | 10:23 am |
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Listener
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Peterson Electro-Musical Products, Inc. recently released Sonuus G2M — Universal Guitar to MIDI Converter which one can use a microphone to sing notes into MIDI provided one uses an XLR to 1/4" TRS cable/signal adapter. It will even track vibrato and pitch changes.
As a bit of latency is inevitable, I would suggest using a dry MIDI instrument such as a sax or a flute when one is recording. Since the recorded part will be a MIDI, one can always select a different instrument, add effects, or edit the recorded track. |
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Jul 11, 2009 | 3:46 pm |
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Listener
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Sound is vibration just recreate the vibration and it variables with space, time velocity etc. |
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Jul 12, 2009 | 12:31 am |
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Artist
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I think you should try to make your instruments sound like your vocals ,,,,,, before you try it the other way round which is easier,..... |
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Jul 12, 2009 | 1:52 am |
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Artist
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I have always struggled with this, too, Grathy since I can sing what I mean so much more easily and flawlessly than I can play any other instrument. Note I say ANY OTHER instrument, cause to me the voice is the most versatile of instruments. But, I digress.
What I do is painstaking but effective. I sing the line I want, then play it back slowly and pick it out on a midi keyboard. Musical typing is not fun for me but picking things out on a keyboard is a lot more fun and seems more intuitive to me. Then, I have the midi notes to play with in GB. I like the suggestion on the previous page to use Logic, though, and if it works, I'll have a great incentive to really get up to speed with Logic.  I own it but have never gotten into it very deeply.
I also use my voice to make all kinds of sounds and rythms and, as someone in here already suggested, play around with the notes created using various effects which aren't necessarily for vocals. It's amazing some of the things you can produce that way.
Last, but far from least, I learned singing in a time when scatting was rampant and I always wanted to reproduce the sax or the drums or the piano much more than I wanted to copy the singers so I learned how to mimic those instruments to an extent. At one point I took a workshop with Bobby McFerrin and picked up a few more refinements from him. Have you ever listened to his song Peace? It's a real education in how to use a human voice to produce sounds associated with other instruments.
But, you probably know that already and just want a software solution. I can understand that, too. This thread just made me think of these things so I decided to post them. |
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Jul 12, 2009 | 3:14 am |
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Hmm, this thread is two years old. Still, since people are looking at it with renewed interest now, here are some Mac-specific suggestions (although some of them work for the PC too):
1. Logic 8's Audio to Score function. It's explained on page 514 of the Logic Studio manual, and presumably somewhere in the Logic Express manual too, although I don't have that handy. It's very simple: import the audio file you want to convert onto an audio track; open the audio in the sample editor (by, e.g., double-clicking on the audio region); create a software instrument track and select it; then in the sample editor select Factory->Audio to Score. This will send the MIDI to the software instrument track, and will also create a score as a handy bonus.
2. Celemony's Melodyne will do this, at least if you own one of the more expensive versions (which I don't). Specifically, Melodyne cre8 and Melodyne Studio will both offer audio to MIDI conversion. Check them out here: http://www.celemony.com/cms/ -- although be aware that the free demo has some limitations and probably won't actually let you export the MIDI you've created, and the full product isn't cheap. Of course, Melodyne will do much, much more than just convert audio to MIDI, so if you've been looking for a tool for pitch or timing correction or easy harmony creation, this might sway your decision.
3. Widisoft's 'WIDI Audio to MIDI plugin' converts audio to MIDI in realtime. The plugin is available in several formats: Audio Unit for the Mac (suitable for GarageBand and Logic) and VST for Windows and Mac (suitable for most things apart from GarageBand, Logic and Pro Tools). There's a 20-day free trial, after which it costs $60 for the VST or $80 for the AU. Caveat: I haven't used this myself, so I've no idea if it's any good. But the demo's free, so it can't hurt to try.
-Eido |
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Jul 12, 2009 | 4:55 am |
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Artist
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Yeah, I wish I could just scat into my microphone, click on "saxaphone" and have it register this way. I don't really have the patience to pound it out on the keyboard. It seems to lose its authencity, but thanks for this. Buying a bunch of additional software doesn't interest me at this time.
Perhaps I can send a vocal track to one of you, and you can play with it to come up with an instrumental sound? If that interests you, let me know. grathy@aol.com |
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Jul 12, 2009 | 9:37 am |
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Artist
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Grathy, as long as you don't want your voice to sound like any instrument in particular. Then just get as many different music and sound programs as you can for your computer and just play around with it until you get something cool. Cheap crappy mics also help |
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Jul 13, 2009 | 2:13 pm |
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Artist
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sort of related: you can use logic's vocoder to make your voice sound like a synth
here's a tutorial i made -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEahs39AdwE |
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Jul 13, 2009 | 2:20 pm |
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Artist
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There's all sorts of vocoders out there that can make your voice sound more like an instrument. I have used the one in FL Studio and it works great! |
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Jul 13, 2009 | 2:58 pm |
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