2014-08-16 12:19:21

Hi all,

I have a question: for any of you who uses the vocaloid software. How do you use it with jaws? and how do you enter text into it?

Thanks.

2014-08-16 14:40:42

Well, I'm new to Vocaloid, but isn't accessible with NVDA

Luis Carlos Gonzáles Moráles, from Panama!

2014-08-16 14:59:53

I'm also new to it. but I can't figure out to use it with JAWS.

2014-08-16 15:27:13

Yes, it is accessible. Take a loo at this, for instance. I wrote this up myself by the way.
Hi everybody: Today, I will be showing you some ground-breaking discoveries many of you thought would never come. But it was my perseverance and patience that did it, and collaboration with other people who were like me but who lacked motivation in some ways. Now, I am trying to reach out to as many blind people, whom I know have a major interest in singing synthesisers, that there is a way after all, a way that many, including myself would never be here. Sometimes I ask for directions, but the person giving it to me does not give me detailed step-by-step documentation-style directions, which has lead me to be hampered with all of the work. Soon I discovered this new method and now I am sharing it. Sadly, there has been very little enthusiasm throughout the forums to which I am subscribed.
I first remember being fascinated with singing synthesisers back in June of 2007. I did not know much about linguistics at that time, neither did I know about music notation. I just learned how to make Dec talk sing using my knowledge of time and note and after understanding phonemes I cranked out quite a number of songs. Then I learnt how to harmonise and then two years later I learned how to back-mask with phonemes. Eventually though I came across speech synthesisers that sounded much better than Dec talk that somehow made me feel that Dec talk was now inferior because it sounded so bright where as the others sounded dark. The first one that I really liked was Vocal Writer, and I was doing research on it. Unfortunately, however, it was meant for the Macintosh. So I put that in my to do list, and when I found a Mac I could work with, I installed Vocal Writer. Then I found out that Voice-over was not working well with it, so I asked about it. It turned out that two people learned how to use it. Hugh Emerson and Flint Million. However, there were no links to these external resources, so I was stumped. At that same time, however, I learned about Vocaloid, and I remember trying to find a way to get a hold of it. Eventually I gave that up and I assumed it was going to be only in Japanese. Then, in 2013, I finally found away to obtain Vocaloid, and for about four months I kind of did not use it until I got a hunch that lead me to try something. Apparently someone said you had to have someone select the first note for you before you could insert lyrics. Well, what if you selected all? So I tried that and sure enough, it worked perfectly. But guess what? I was surprised that I was not even excited. Maybe because I knew it was right there, but have not yet figured it out? I knew I learned how to make eloquence sing based on learning and my creativity, and someone helped me how to make Orpheus sing, but I lost interest in those right a way. But with this, it will be something I will be using for a long time.
Soon after my big discovery, I spent one week exactly turning a lot of my MIDI collections into real songs. And this struck me as funny because a few days before this, someone posted on the Dec talk mailing list that they heard of a MIDI to Dec talk converter. I knew there was no such thing because now we already know how Vocaloid, Vocal Writer and Flinger work. So, now I am willing to share the directions with anyone who is interested and I hope we can recruit more blind people and renew the enthusiasm.
After you read the below steps, you will finally learn how to make Vocaloid sing just about anything you wanted to. Note that Vocaloid Editor 3 only provides the voices. To mix in instruments you will need some kind of a sound editor. You will also need this if you are to make choral pieces of some sort.
To begin, use a midi sequencer like Quick Windows Sequencer. Make sure the notes are precisely timed with the metronome though, or else you will have to normalise with Vocaloid. Not only that but Vocaloid will count any irregular notes in your song and this can mess up your project.
Once you set up your MIDI roll, open Vocaloid, and when you open a file, choose Vocaloid MIDI from the files of type drop down menu list. Locate the file and press enter. A list of tracks will appear. Check only one and do not bother with any of the others. Before adding lyrics, you will need to press space to play, and when it tells you that there are overlapping notes, go to the jobs menu and press enter on normalise.
Next, go to the edit menu, and find the select all. Alternatively, press control+A. This will select all the notes in the musical editor window, which is where you need to be or else this will not work. Once you have done this, go back to the jobs menu and find the insert lyrics item.
When an edit multi-line appears, you will see 'ooh ooh ooh' depending on how many notes there are. Note that each ooh represents one syllable tied to that note, so if you had a word that had more than one you would have to separate them using dashes. You cannot write any nonsense words because it will check the dictionary.
Lyrical notation: For those of you who are music Braille readers or just musicians in general, this might be easy for you to understand. A syllable is simply a combo of vowel and consonants like this 'word' in single quotes. When a word is more than one syllable and it evenly ties to each note, you or Vocaloid will put dashes, like this. Hel- lo I am des-cri-bing how to write ly-rics with Voca-loid. For words that stretch across multiple notes such as in the example Angels we have heard on High in the word Gloria, write a dash after the first syllable, like this. 'Glo- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ria'. Also make sure your MIDI file has the right number of notes for each syllable. Some people try to hush a two-syllable word into one note that is tied only to find out that it does not work, so instead, separate them with MIDI and try again. Sometimes, you may find yourself that you are dealing with a word you think has one syllable, when it really has two. These kinds of words are tricky, because there are words that sound like they have two syllables when they count as one. examples are words like our or soil. Our is a two-syllable word while soil is a one-syllable word.
Vocaloid is pretty good at analysing words though, and if you want you can use phonemes if you are dealing with a tricky word Vocaloid cannot pronounce or if you want to be really accurate.
Once you have finished, check the song to make sure you have the words right. This may take time and I nearly gave up on it. After you finished, save the VSQX to your hard drive, and then you can export the result as a wave file.
From now on, you will have to repeat the above steps if you want to do the same thing to the other tracks. Eventually you will want to establish a suffix for each wave file you are working with so you can mix them later.
Note: To change voices, press control+tab to go to the track editor, press control+a to select all parts, press alternate+p for parts menu, and up arrow for part properties. Depending on how many voices you have installed, you can select which voice you would like to use for that part. After selecting your voice press enter. You will have to experiment with really slow work-arounds, like mixing and rendering. It is a pain, but this is the best method that does not require any other form. And as always, you can experiment on your own, to learn how to make Vocaloid sound more human. These include things like adding breath sounds, portamentos, vibratos, and more.
Now that I am a pro, it takes me about five to ten minutes to write up a short song. I hope you found these directions simple to read and feel free to ask any questions. I am sure that from this point on, experimentation will be entirely up to you to be creative in the long run. I know I did.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-16 15:49:05

I don't have a midi instrument. what can I do with the interface of this program?

2014-08-16 16:14:05

Hello,
Can we right songs right away without using a midi file? Maybe, say, I want to make a voice-only version of, say, we are the world by Michael Jackson. Now, I don't have a midi file of that song, nor do I need it because I only want the voice. Is it possible for me to write the song's lyrics, pitches and times myself right away in Vocaloid?

Team rocket's blasting off again!

2014-08-16 16:14:22

Can you clarify your question? I'm not sure I know what you mean. If you want access to MIDI, download the sequencer from http://qws.andrelouis.com/ and you can use a MIDI keybord if you have one, or your computer's onscreen keyboard.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-16 16:21:22 (edited by Green Gables Fan 2014-08-16 16:23:41)

No, sadly, you can't. You can write the melody of the song, but you don't need any instruments. It's like this. The MIDI file only serves as the reference point for Vocaloid. Without it, it can't sing. Now, you can write the notes on the sheet, but it's completely visual. That's why the alternative is to use a MIDI piano roll. If you want to put instruments into your mix you would have to use an external synth or go to Midi to Mp3 on-line converter.
Here's a better way to look at it. Vocaloid Editor only needs the lyrics. The MIDI that you import it already has the tempo and pitch values, which control the voice.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-16 17:08:30

Hello Green,
So it isn't possible for us to use Vocaloid to make an accapella version of a song? On second thought, after you right the lyrics and such and you save the audio into a wav file, does it only save the singing voice or does it save the singing voice mixed with the midi file? Thank you!

Team rocket's blasting off again!

2014-08-16 17:13:26

You're not following what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that the MIDI file has nothing to do with the instrument that Vocaloid uses. When you export the Wav file, it only xports the voice. If you want instruments, you have to mix it with something else. You can write an accapella using MIDI, because like I said, the MIDI is like the building blocks to the song. You only need to use Vocalid to write the lyrics.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-17 02:11:59 (edited by gamecreator 2014-08-17 02:16:48)

also, keep in mind of the details of your midi file.

I can show you how this Works in spanish, but unfortunately i haven't learned yet how to separate words (in english).

Oh, btw remember too, that this vocaloid software when exported to .wav file the acapela voice, it has a long delay on it. Licke 2 or 4 measures from the original. That is, where the voice should start, if you have the musical parts.

After years, i finally changed my signature! But i don't know what to say :D

2014-08-17 04:11:56

@Green,
DO you use jaws with vocaloid? just curious?
Thanks.

2014-08-17 05:27:00

thanks. next time I get my hands on vocaloid, I'll probably do a preschool album (no one has dun this with vocaloid, though snoopy apparently did it with dectalk). "there are 7 days" is set to be the first track on it.

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2014-08-17 08:21:43

I didn't know there was a preschool album. I use NVDA with Vocaloid.
To separate words, use a dash in between the syllables, look at the instructions. I use Studio Recorder to take out the delay and mix it at the right places.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-17 10:01:45

Ok, will try it with NVDA.

2014-08-17 12:51:22

Let us know how it works, and don't forget to read the instructions.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-17 14:13:41

I will if I have. thanks for your help.

2014-08-17 14:51:06

Hi,
one more question: you mean on screen keyboard, is the on screen keyboard that found in the start menu that comes with windows?

2014-08-17 14:58:02

Sily, that's the windone. You want the MIDI one, which is done by pressing F11 when you get QWS first.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-17 15:23:14

thanks.

2014-08-18 03:09:55

Yes he did, or at least the source code. I got it from an email I got from snoopy. There are 7 days is sadly not on it, though I did request him to do a version. as for the songs featured on that, I was shocked for a song originating from the 3 stewgew to be on it. (I know the song in question is "swingin the alphabet" which is justified by it's nature, but I'm shocked it started in an old commity series and not as a preschool standard.)

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2014-08-18 06:15:30

I've been trying to find a song that is sung in both English and Spanish by a guy who sings the twelve months in the key of C-sharp major. It's mostly found on LP discs, but I think there are digital ones available. I've been searching ever since 2008 because the last tiem I heard it was in 1999.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-18 06:24:49

Are you referring to the one on the "music and movement in the classroom" tapes by greg and steve? because I think I know what you're talking about. the 12 months song was on the first section of the 1st/2nd grade edition and I used to have the cassette (I may still have it berried somewhere). in that, the Spanish version was a separate track from the English version.

be a hero and stop Coppa now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dkm … DkWZ8/edit
-id software, 1995

2014-08-18 06:38:40

Yes, that;s the one, although in this one the English and Spanish ones were mixed. Hmm, I wondered if I YouTubed it, Greg and Steve Twelve Months or something like that. Or if I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Ulysses, KJ7ERC
She/they
Reedsy

2014-08-18 10:14:03

Hi,

Is there a sample available for me to listen?
Thanks.