ADVICE

Are there any good vocal synth plugins?

> We’d say that creating a plugin that can ‘sing’ convincingly and is easy to use is one of the last great challenges that music software developers face. Of course, there have been attempts to do this in the past. Though not entirely realistic, Yamaha’s Vocaloid has become a cult favourite (particularly in Japan), and VirSyn’s Cantor was another early contender. There’s also Plogue’s Chipspeech, which, if you’re happy with robotic voices, is a winner.

A genuinely real-sounding virtual vocalist, though, remains elusive. However, there