Page 1 of 1

hello from New England

Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 2:11 pm
by patchlore
hello there!

I'm a computer musician physically residing somewhere in New England for the time being. Been using Linux to make music for over a decade now, and my computer music workflow has been running entirely on Linux for the last 5-6 years or so.

Technically, I did study audio production and sound design at school, though I've never really used it much in a professional setting and don't really have those production chops anymore. But it'd be great to get back into that at some point. I also have a graduate degree in music technology? More geared towards programming and DSP than my undergrad.

For the most part, I develop and use my own music software now, and I try to open source as much of it as I can. I always want to encourage others to jump in and do the same! The DIY nature of Linux is one of the things that makes it so unique from other platforms.

I did start the r/linuxaudio subreddit.

When I tell people about what I do, I like to say that I teach computers how to sing. This used to mostly be figurative, but it is recently becoming more literal with my investigations into vocal synthesis! One of my particular interests recently has been exploring musically meaningful ways to control the kinds of algorithms found in physically based vocal models like those found in articulatory speech synthesis.

Looking forward to meeting everyone here!

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:30 am
by folderol
Intersting backgroud
... what took you so long to get here? :lol:

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:48 am
by Gps
Welcome to the Forum.

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:42 am
by Linuxmusician01
Welcome. I'm impressed by your background. I'm only a simple Linux user and I find using DAW's complicated enough, ha ha.

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:16 pm
by briandc
Welcome!
We have also organized an online chat meeting for anyone to participate in; it's held on Saturdays from 6pm GMT onwards (usually a few hours long). Drop in and say hi if you have a chance! :) (see link)


Brian

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:45 am
by Basslint
Welcome! I read r/linuxaudio on a daily basis, so thank you for that. A FLOSS vocal synth would be much needed, I hope you will write one! :D

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 10:03 am
by LAM
Welcome @patchlore.

I'm another /r/linuxaudio lurker. 8)

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:47 pm
by patchlore
Basslint wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:45 am Welcome! I read r/linuxaudio on a daily basis, so thank you for that. A FLOSS vocal synth would be much needed, I hope you will write one! :D
I've made a few, actually! Not plugins, though. That's a job for someone else.

This is my first attempt, Voc, which is a physical model of the vocal tract. It's based on Pink Trombone by Neil Thapen:

https://pbat.ch/proj/voc/

you can hear what it sounds like here:
https://vimeo.com/220091107
https://vimeo.com/220091290

I recently revisited this project and split up Voc into two more self contained and simpler components, the tract (filter), and the glottis (source):

https://pbat.ch/sndkit/tract/
https://pbat.ch/sndkit/glottis/

You can hear what they sound like here (the answer is: almost identical to the previous synth):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyapC6xbS9w

These are physical based models, which have quite a fair bit of complexity to them and take a great deal of CPU power. More common is to use formant synthesis. I've made a few of those as well.

Growl was a vowel filter I made a few years ago, but it's a bit broken at the moment:

https://github.com/paulBatchelor/growl

More recently, I made another Vowel filter for my sndkit project. This *does* work:

https://pbat.ch/sndkit/vowel/

It's not exactly the same algorithm, but it sounds pretty similar to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi6vn2aNew0

The difficulty with vocal synthesis is meaningful control, which is an area I've been focusing on more recently.

Re: hello from New England

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 3:38 am
by milo
I studied the human voice as an undergrad -- anatomy and physiology. That was a fascinating course! We learned about the neurologic control circuits in the brain and brainstem, the cranial nerves, pulmonary physiology and diaphragm control, muscles and cartilages of the larynx, and all of the wonderful ways that we shape and articulate that sound with the soft palate, tongue, lips, teeth, etc. That class was life-changing; it convinced me that I wanted to go to medical school.

I have not worked with computer models of the voice. That would be a cool topic. I did have an idea for how to make a physical larynx organ, which I never got around to making. I'm not really a crafty guy when it comes to manufacturing.

Welcome to the forum!