real-time vocal transformation of gender on stage (spoken text)
I'm working as a sound designer on a theatre project for which I would like to find a set up that allows us (4 female performers) to play with real-time transformation of our voices (spoken text, no singing) in the sense of:
- gender
- age
- multiplication
- EQ/compression/distortion/reverb
In other words: while we are talking on stage our voices would be able to flip from female to male, single speech can multiply into a crowd, a single scream becomes a massive distorted reverberating scream, etc.
We will be wearing lavalier radio mics. Each one of us would like to be able to control the effects ourselves in real-time on stage, so that each one can choose the amount and timing of the effect to go with the spoken text.
On the gender and age level I found plug-ins like SuperVP-Trax, made by Ircam in Paris, but I can't see how much CPU they will eat and how much latency they will cost.
Anyone have suggestions on what would be a good stable set-up, with not too much latency, maybe a combination of (custom made) hardware and software? Is it wise to build a custom setup for this in Max?
I've just recently bought Max for Live and Max 7, so a beginner on that.
Thanks a lot for any advise!
Cheers,
Malu
Hi Malu,
SuperVP-trax is in my opinion the best option. The application is itself built in Max and uses supervp which is one of the best sounding engines for this type of manipulation available in max and it is all done for you, you will just need to see how to control it from Max as it doesn't seem to have osc communication.
The projects sounds very interesting!
Re controlling your vocal effects on stage, would a bluetooth mini game controller with 8 or 10 buttons be suitable? Holding one in your hand you could control on/off (either momentary or toggle) for several different FX. With fancier switching (enabled by Max) you could have some control over FX amounts, too.
This thread: https://cycling74.com/forums/great-little-bluetooth-controller-for-max-sharing/ and towards the end of https://cycling74.com/forums/bluetooth-clickers-and-max/ have some info, mostly about the iMpulse Controller but also some others. I'm working on using one in a kinda similar situation to yours - to control FX and Max patches while playing flute.
not sure if you want to spend money, but there are some VST/AU plug-ins which perform various voice jobs including format shift (which would be required for "gender change") in one product.
vocoder?