About Myriad Software
The heart of this software team is two french brothers, Olivier and Didier Guillion, who have over the years produced a variety of software. Their web site at Myriad-online.com is
the place to learn much more. Their score based music sequencers, Harmony Assistant and Melody Assistant are outstanding, and have every feature one could ask for in
preparing and printing scores. So much so that it takes a long time to learn all the possibilities.
You can freely download the sequencers to trial for as long as you want.
I had better be fair here and say that a drawback of notation based sequencers, such as the Myriad products, is that midi data if imported or created by live playing has to fit within
the strict rules of notation. Hence the subtle timing of live playing, or similar timing in a midi file created on a piano roll type sequencer, will produce the most peculiar, complex and
difficult to comprehend notation. ( many, many, many, very short notes and rests and ties all over the place) It can be so complex in a large file that things move very slowly indeed
in the notation sequencer.
The usual answer is to "quantize" the file, that is: use an operation to shift the notes to the estimated nearest correct position, and show the score correctly. This is usually gives an
effective result for the appearance of the score. However it is not so often an accurate rendition of the live music's subtlety.
Myriad sequencers have the ability to alter the played position and length of the note separately from the displayed note. ( and everything else one might want to alter about the
notes) and this can be displayed and adjusted in a piano roll like "overlay"of a staff. However, the problem remains, that quantizing cannot do this completely and automatically,
while still retaining the original timing.
The most likely result is that the subtle timing has to be put back in by hand. I have on occasion, spent hours doing just that!
So in some ways a notation method is better, especially for the traditional trained musician entering the score by hand in notation, while a pure piano roll sequencer is much freer
and simpler in technical and graphical function, usually with a simpler approximated or generalized representation of standard notation.
Virtual singer
The Virtual Singer application is an "add on" to Myriad sequencers. It is able to sing lyrics written into a score in a fair range of languages.
In addition one can create one's own variations on the singing voices tone and style, and even create 'real' singer voices which are built from audio analysis of vowels and
consonants of a real voice ( Your own is the most convenient ... you are taken through a list one at a time.)
You don't have to be a singer. Just about any interesting tone of voice can sound well.
In case it's not clear;-
.. it is the fragments of the word, the vowels and consonants, which are added to each other to build the final word, while the vowels are stretched as necessary to make the length
of the note.
A synthesized source ( or your own voice analysed ) provides the basic sound of a voice, while the timbre or tone quality of the voice is shaped by applying filters that match the
natural resonance of the human vocal tract. These vary with any individual and within the application can be widely altered at will.
The handling of the individual fragments by a particular voice can also be altered.
The onset of the singers voice, the vibrato and the way pitch is handled can all be adjusted.
There is more detail that can be gone into if one wants to study the matter.
You can also download this software for trial, but you will need the sequencers first.
Many other functions of the Myriad sequencer, such as volume or filter curves, can be applied in a continous changing degree to the voice as it sings. If you are willing to spend the time, the result can become more realistic as you tailor each vowel or consonant in way that suits the music.