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This new Vocaloid soundbank sings like Porter Robinson, and he’s made a demo track to show what it can do

Today, almost 20 years old, Yamaha’s Vocaloid singing synth software has defied expectations to reach version 6, and continues to be supported with new soundbanks. The latest of these is particularly notable, as it’s based on the vocal stylings of none other than EDM producer Porter Robinson.

Going by the name of Po-uta, and fronted by its own anime-style avatar, this promises to “authentically reproduce the vocals used by Robinson in his own songs, which are known for their clarity and exquisite high range.”

The press release goes on to add: “This ensures a striking presence that won’t be eclipsed, even by powerful music such as electronica.”

There are 13 singing style presets, all of which have been approved by Porter Robinson and vary in style and tone. The Po-uta bank also makes use of some of the new features in Vocaloid 6, such as the Vocalo Changer, which uses your own vocal data to replicate your singing style, and the Multilingual option, which makes it possible to switch your lyrics between Japanese, English and Chinese with a single voicebank.

Discussing the track that you can hear in the video above, Porter Robinson says: “This is a demo-song I made to demonstrate my new official Vocaloid voicebank! I went for a fairly hard-tuned “robotic” sound to match the song’s themes (and so much of my own favourite Vocaloid music is in the ‘robot’ style), but Po-uta is also capable of realistic, human-sounding expressive styles too. I’m really curious to hear this software in the hands of people more capable of advanced Vocaloid tuning than me!”
Voicebank Po-uta is available exclusively as a download from the Vocaloid Shop priced at $108 plus tax.

Spectrasonics has introduced Twisted Trees, a Sonic Extension for Omnisphere, created entirely from wood and elements of nature, by sound designer Diego Stocco.

Twisted Trees is designed for dark cinematic production, with thousands of unique sounds in nine different categories, and over 400 new sound sources.

Features:

• A creative tour-de-force by sound designer Diego Stocco
• Every sound built entirely using wood and elements of nature
• Thousands of unique sounds in nine different categories
• New “Twisted Space” natural elements reverb/echo effect
• New “Twisted Root” multiband subsonic enhancer effect
• Powerful Custom Controls for immediate sound manipulation
• Over 400 new organic Soundsources
• Elements mixer makes it inspiring to create and automate
• Deep sampled percussion to otherworldly playable textures

Twisted Space Reverb

The “Twisted Space” effect unit is a hybrid ambience processor with a unique sonic signature. This effect unit is a hybrid ambience processor with a unique sonic signature. Based on over 100 natural element recordings Diego Stocco made from animals, trees, streams, caves and forests – as well as DSP algorithms – this effect puts the musician and the listener out “into the wild.”

• 115 Natural Elements: Liquid Woods, Ice Excavation, Bark Friction, Blizzard and more
• Hybrid Ambience FX unit based on convolution and algorithmic processing
• Ambience Types include: Reverb, Inverse, Echo, Multitap, BPM Delay
• Add movement with variable Ambience/Echo Modulation
• Classic Analog regeneration buildup with killer extremes
• “Massive” Sub Octave Blending of Natural Elements
• Continuous Stereo Spread of Ambience Time
• Color, Low Cut and High Cut tone controls
• Multitap mode for scattered diffusion FX
• Inverse mode for backwards reverb FX
• Works in any Omnisphere Patch

Twisted Root Sub-Effect

“Twisted Root” is a special multi-band subsonic enhancer effect that adds “massive girth, size and sheen” to any sound you run through it.

Each of the four bands has controls for the sustain and the level of each frequency independently. The Sub Octave, Hype and Drive controls add intensity and power that the user can easily to dial to taste.

• Four-band compression/enhancement, with integrated sub-octave bass divider
• Low, Lo-Mid, Hi-Mid and High bands with independent sustain and level
• Sub Octave control can be mixed to taste, from 100% dry to 100% wet
• Hype control has class-A analog-modeled input/output gain-staging
• Drive circuit adds subtle saturation to cut thru dense mixes
• Easy-to-use, great-sounding results with simple controls
• Works in any Omnisphere Patch

Twisted Trees is available now via Spectrasonics website for $149. Twisted Trees requires Omnisphere 2.8.5e or higher, and 3.6 Gb free space. Sonic Extensions offers 20% and 30% discounts for purchases of multiple titles.

Cherry Audio has introduced Mercury-6, a virtual synthesizer that emulates and expands on the Roland Jupiter-6.

Released in 1983 as an affordable alternative to the Jupiter-8, the Jupiter-6 marked the end of an era in the history of analog polysynths. Though similar in appearance to the Jupiter-8, the Jupiter-6 had a unique sound and features that allowed it to stand apart from its predecessor, partly due to a versatile multimode filter design that lent it a more aggressive sound.

Jupiter-6 had an impressive (at the time) split keyboard functionality and, most notably, was one of the first synthesizers to include the then-new MIDI protocol. It supported multiple simultaneous waveforms, and its solo and poly unison modes enabled massive lead and bass sounds. But its six-voice maximum hampered its potential, and its timing was ill-fated with the release of the revolutionary DX-7 digital synth the same year. However, the Jupiter-6 has become a coveted classic analog polysynths.

Cherry Audio says that they’ve precisely crafted each facet of the Mercury-6 synthesizer to sound and behave like a vintage hardware Jupiter-6. Mercury-6 reproduces the multimode filter with 24 dB/oct lowpass, 24 dB/oct highpass, or 12 dB/oct bandpass modes. Velocity sensitivity has been added, the split mode improved, and Mercury-6 adds a layer mode capable of stacking two different sounds simultaneously with per-layer stereo panning, detuning, and sustain. A panel control lets users easily exchange settings between the splits and dual layers, or even between presets. And with polyphony extended to 16 notes per layer, it won’t so easily run out of voices.

The company has also reproduced the Jupiter-6’s unique arpeggiator, including the hidden Down/Up mode of the original, and augmented it by adding a Random mode and MIDI tempo sync. A chord memory mode enables multiple notes to be stored and played back with a single key. The searing oscillator cross mod and sync characteristics have been replicated, and the functionality of the original LFOs improved with a retrigger for LFO-1 and an always-on option for LFO-2, expanding the already notable modulation possibilities of the original hardware.

In addition, Cherry Audio has introduced an integrated studio-quality effects panel with distortion, phaser, flanger/chorus, delay, and reverb, with independent settings for each layer. Other features include per-layer drift control, over 500 presets, and Cherry Audio’s MIDI mapping functions.

“Cherry’s Audio’s Mercury-6 has made something from this re-creation that is significantly better than its inspiration,” says Howard Goodall CBE, an EMMY, BRIT, and BAFTA award-winning composer. “It sounds great – richer, brighter, and edgier than I could ever crank out of the original. The extra polyphony is a huge step forward, it’s punchy and warm and much easier to tweak, plus you get to use a modern high-spec keyboard to play it. What’s not to like?”

Mercury-6 is available now for Windows and macOS for $49, with macOS 13 Ventura and native Apple M1 processor support, including Apple M1 Ultra. Mercury-6 is provided in AU, VST, VST3, AAX, and standalone formats, and a free 30-day demo is available.