Alter/Ego

Alter/Ego (アルター・エゴ) is a free real-time vocal synthesizer software which was created by Plogue.

Alter/Ego
Screenshot of the word creation tab with Daisy loaded
Developer(s)Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc.
Initial release9 September 2015 (2015-09-09)[1]
Stable release
1.561 / 29 November 2019 (2019-11-29)
Operating systemWindows XP or higher, OS X 10.6.8 or higher
Available inEnglish, Japanese, French
TypeVoice synthesizer
Websitewww.plogue.com/products/alterego/ 

About

Alter/Ego is a text-to-speech synthesizer which aims to create more modern vocals, working to post 1990s research.[2] It was offered as a free plug-in and is used for music making to produce singing vocals. It operates in a similar manner to Chipspeech. Vocals are clean-cut though robotic sounding and the software is ideal for vocal experimentation. It is capable of running different speech engines.[3]

There are currently only 2 released vocals for the software. The released vocals are purchased separately. The vocals come as files that need to be extracted as they lack installers.[4] Over time Plogue have received many vocal requests from individuals since the release of the software, however they are limited by their small development team and being busy.[5]

In January 2016 it was announced that there were 6 new vocals in production.[6] No more vocals are due after Leora and Marie Orks final two vocal updates.[7] Plogue have since moved on to other adaptations of the engine. One such adaptation is the ability for the engine to detect Microsoft text-to-speech voices and load them into the engine.[8] UTAU has also been experimented with.[9] Plogue noted that the engine was designed to have user made vocal support from the beginning, though this was yet to be implemented due to a lack of support for this.[10]

In 2017 the production of new voicebanks ceased with Marie Ork "Clear" and Leora having been confirmed the last voicebanks being produced for the software.[7] The cease of new voicebanks came in the wake of a scandal with the creator of voicebanks "Vera" and "Nata".[11] Though the engine has been updated since 2017, since it is identical to the Chipspeech engine, the overall development of Alter/ego has ceased.[12]

Characters
  • Daisy: Daisy was the very first vocal added to the software. Daisy is a lonely time traveler and the estranged lover of Chipspeech vocal, Dandy 704. Daisy was offered as a free separate download, allowing her to be imported into both Alter/Ego and Chipspeech and acted as the default vocal. She was retired and replaced with Bones.
  • Tera Eleki (エレキテラ); was revealed on Sept 7th 2015 and was a Japanese only vocal. She has since been cancelled.
  • ALYS: A female vocal released on March 10, 2016.[13] She sings in French and Japanese, and has a Live Polyphonic CAhoir mode. She was developed by VoxWave.[14]
  • Bones: A male vocal that sings/talks in English and sings in Japanese, first unveiled in Jan 2016, first released in Oct 31 2016. He replaced Daisy as the default vocal for the software.[15] He has a Chinese vocal being currently worked on.[16]
  • Marie Ork: a Death Metal female vocalist, she was released on 1 December 2016 and sings in English. She was released with two vocals "Growl" and "Space". A "Talk" and "Clean" vocal were later added.
  • LEORA: The second French female vocal developed by VoxWave. She was created complementary to ALYS, with English and French voicebanks.[17]
  • NATA: An English vocal developed by Vocallective. She is an adult female and was released on January 11, 2017.[18] Though she started out as official, Plogue has since dropped their support of her.
  • VERA: Was a female English prototype developed by Azureflux from Vocallective without the Plogue's authorization, the project was available on this page, but is now cancelled.

Reception

As noted by BPB, Alter/Ego is praised for being a powerful tool by standards of free software. It, however, has a steep learning curve, though highlighted how easy it was to get the synthesizer to sing lyrics, calling the product "fun" to work with overall.[19] Later in December that year, the software was awarded second place in their top 50 free instruments list.[20]

Computer Music magazine also covered the synthesizer in their December 2015 issue.[21]

References
  1. url+http://www.plogue.com/alterego-daisy-released/ at the Wayback Machine (archived September 15, 2015)
  2. "KVR: Alter/Ego by Plogue - Synth VST Plugin, Audio Units Plugin, RTAS Plugin and AAX Plugin for Windows and Mac OS X". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  3. "chipspeech & A/E". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  4. "chipspeech & A/E". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  5. "chipspeech & A/E". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  6. "chipspeech & A/E". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  7. "LEORA and Marie Ork are the last voices that are schedulled to be released on the A/E platform. Time to move on for us". 5 October 2017.
  8. "(that goes for any MS Voice in A/E). We only "redirect" the TTS, it cannot do stuff the voice cannot do, like sing". 1 March 2017.
  9. "We even made a UTAU -> A/E converter, results needed work". 10 November 2017.
  10. "Always been the plan indeed. Since first release there's been a "user" entry in the voice list. That's to load user voices. (It was only used for devs though). Devs get the same A/E install as everyone. The issue was always support. Just along the way we chickened out". 10 November 2017.
  11. "Vocallective Records". www.vocallective.net.
  12. "We have put any A/E development on ice, sorry". 3 June 2019.
  13. "ALYS for Alter/Ego to be released March 10th 2016!". VoxWave English. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  14. "chipspeech & A/E". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  15. "tora-ouji". tora-ouji. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  16. "pic.twitter.com/BhV5UJB9wx". 20 December 2016.
  17. "Here comes a new challenger : LEORA!!". 30 June 2016.
  18. Vocallective & Plogue. "NATA". Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  19. D Smolken. "Alter/Ego - FREE Vocal Synthesizer VST Plugin By Plogue!". Bedroom Producers Blog. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  20. "Alter/Ego from Plogue (アルター・エゴ) - VocaloidOtaku.net Forums - Providing Everything Vocaloid - Page 6".
  21. "Plogue". Twitter. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
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