Developer(s) | Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc. |
---|---|
Initial release | 9 September 2015[1] |
Stable release | 1.577
/ 17 May 2023[2] |
Operating system | Windows XP or higher, OS X 10.6.8 or higher |
Available in | English, Japanese, French |
Type | Voice synthesizer |
Website | www |
Alter/Ego (アルター・エゴ) is a free real-time vocal synthesizer software which was created by Plogue.
Alter/Ego is a text-to-speech synthesizer which aims to create more modern vocals, working to post 1990s research.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6]
In January 2016 it was announced that there were 6 new vocals in production.[7] No more vocals are due after Leora and Marie Orks final two vocal updates.[8] 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.[9] UTAU has also been experimented with.[10] 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.[11]
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.[8] The cease of new voicebanks came in the wake of a scandal with the creator of voicebanks "Vera" and "Nata".[12] Though the engine has been updated since 2017, since it is identical to the Chipspeech engine, the overall development of Alter/ego has ceased.[13]
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.[21] Later in December that year, the software was awarded second place in their top 50 free instruments list.[22]
Computer Music magazine also covered the synthesizer in their December 2015 issue.[23]