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1. Alter/Ego by Plogue

1 Plogue’s free Alter/Ego is a superb singing synthesiser. Similar in approach to the company’s Chipspeech, it1 attempts to create a more modern vocal sound. Currently there’s only one Voice bank available for it: Daisy, also available on the downloads page. When you first open Alter/Ego, it will be empty. That’s because no bank is installed. 2 After you’ve downloaded the Daisy folder, move it to whatever location you’ve decided will be its permanent home – once you’ve registered the bank with Alter/Ego, you won’t be able to move that folder. With that done, drag the Daisy.xml file into Alter/Ego’s interface to register it. Now you’ll be able to select the Daisy character Voice bank and see and load the factory presets. 3 Here, we’ve chosen the Daisy Basic preset. Note that the Text field reads “Select your Alter Ego”. Play a few notes on your MIDI controller, and you’ll notice that staccato playing cycles through the text quoted above, while legato playing pitches the current syllable up and down. 4 Click the Mono button up top to switch to polyphonic mode, enabling chords to be played for a choir-like sound. Better still, combine polyphonic playing with the Daisy Choir preset. Having indulged your liturgical fantasies for a bit, let’s try and making the choir sing something else… 5 There are a handful of English and Japanese text presets included – some from video games, others from movies and a few from songs. Peruse the text presets and take a listen to a few of them, using different voice presets if you like. When you’ve had your fill, try typing a new phrase into slot 00 and playing it using the Daisy Choir preset. 6 As you may have guessed from the extensive collection of voice presets, Alter/Ego provides a lot of control over the various characteristics that make up a voice. Click the Controls tab to get a peek inside the voice box. Here, you can adjust Breath, Sibilance, Fem Factor and Helium(!) to fine-tune Daisy’s voice to your liking. We’re only scratching the surface – there’s a lot more to try!