Singing text-to-speech software? I know it exists somewhere!

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pish_flaps

Michael J Flaps
The software I'm talking about existed over 15 years ago but I can't find anything like it now... help!

I think it was software bundled with SoundBlaster AWE32 or AWE64. You could type in text and it would say it back in a choice of voices, but crucially, it would sing too!

You needed to use codes: I think "phone arpa on" was one of them, to turn the singing effect on, then you would use values like "120,60" to choose pitch and note length and type phonetic "sh"/"ch"/"ah" sounds to make it sing songs, all in a basic Notepad-esque way...

...so "Hello" would be something like:

<phone arpa:on>
h(120,30)eh(120,80)l(120,20)oh(120,50)oo(130,100)

The results were funny as hell and I really want to find it! The voice synth sounded something like Dr. Sbaitso, or if you know your Aphex Twin, the creepy voice at the end of Funny Little Man ("I would like to f**k you up the bumhole and then I will sneak in to your room...".

While I'd like to find the exact same application for old time's sake, I'll happily take recommendations for other ones that do the same thing.

Thanks for any help!
 
Sure, there's lots of it out there. Vocaloid is the most successful one. UTAU is also popular and free and has a ton of voices available, but it's a pain to deal with for languages other than Japanese. There are also sample libraries with wordbuilders, like Realivox Blue and various choral libraries.

If you want very robotic synthy sounds, the best option is probably Chipspeech, because that emulates various vocal synths from the 1960s to the 1980s in a seriously researched and accurate way. The same developer also makes Alter/Ego which is free, but more natural and less robotic, which is probably a good thing for most people but not ideal for you. It's probably the easiest way to start if you want a synth that will sing English lyrics without a lot of effort, though. Just type lyrics in plain English and play MIDI notes, basically. I used it in this track where it mostly sounds fairly natural, but I intentionally made it get weirder and choppier during the bridge.

Also, Wolfgang Palm is supposed to release PPG Phonem next week. That looks really good for weird/experimental stuff.
 
Thanks very much to both of you! Vocaloid looks pretty much like what I had in mind. It'd be nice to be able to spell phonetically (to have it speak in e.g. a funny Irish accent etc.) so I'm keen to try out PPG Phonem - until then I've plenty to have fun with! Much appreciated cheers.
 
Yup, plenty to have fun with. Pretty much all vocal synths support phonetic notation of some sort. I know Alter/Ego and Chipspeech use X-Sampa.

Phonem is really good for really weird stuff. Maybe not so good for covering pop songs, though you probably don't care.
 
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