After creating Chipspeech voices based on classic vocal synthesis, Plogue has released a new free singing vocal synthesis VSTi called Alter/Ego. The 32 bit VSTi will run in BiaB, but it's not really that usable in that setting, because of the timing of consonants.

It uses formant synthesis, and sounds... well, not convincingly human, but possibly useful. One nice feature is that you can type English text into it and it'll automatically convert it (using the CMU dictionary). As you play notes/chords, it automatically advances to the next syllable.

For goofing around, it's pretty fun.

But to get it to work properly, you've got to play the notes a bit ahead of time, so the consonants align just before the beat. Otherwise, it just sounds wrong. Vocaloid and Sinsy do that automatically. Alter/Ego has no look-ahead (it's a VSTi) because it's meant to be played live. Because it doesn't know when the note will end, it can't calculate the proper offset for the syllable.

-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.