Auto-Tune Your Voice

Have you ever wanted to auto-tune your voice? If your a person who has listened to popular singers such as T-Pain, you’ve probably heard this effect in action. Surprisingly, this technology was originally created to make minor corrections to a singer’s pitch, which allowed them to sing perfectly tuned tracks. Most people don’t see it that way and assume Auto-Tuning is just “skewing” a person’s voice, making a robotic sounding effect. I have to admit, auto-tuning your voice in order to distort it is quite entertaining. Since I am not a good singer I have no reason to correct my horrible singing voice. That leaves my with entertaining myself by distorting my voice.

Applying an auto-tuning effect to one’s voice isn’t hard or necessarily expensive. Surprisingly, it can be done using absolutely free software. Of course, if you feel you would rather buy a professional software, go right ahead. The cost for professional software can reach higher than $200, so why not try some free alternatives. For starters, you are going to need a sound-editing application. Audacity is an example of a free sound-editing application. I would recommend using Audacity version 1.3 beta or higher. The second thing you need is a free plug-in called Gsnap. Gsnap is a VST plug-in which must be installed into Audacity’s plug-in folder in order for it to function. The address path should be something like, “C:/Program Files/Audacity/Plug-Ins/”. Unfortunately, Audacity doesn’t natively support VST effects so it will require a VST Bridge Plug-in to be installed. After the bridge is installed Audacity should handle any VST effect installed into the plug-ins folder. Finally, the last thing required is a microphone. It doesn’t have to be expensive, a cheap microphone will work just fine.

Here are the steps to begin auto-tuning:

1. Have Audacity, the VST Bridge Plug-in, and Gsnap installed.
2. Start Audacity, and make a recording or open up a sound.
3. Go to the effects menu and select the GVST: Gsnap effect. From there you need to set all the settings to the following values:
   
   
   
   •    Min Frequency: 80 Hz
   •    Max Frequency: 2000 Hz
   •    Gate: –80 dB
   •    Speed: 1
   •    Threshold: 100 cents
   •    Amount: 100%
   •    Attack: 1 or 2 ms
   •    Release: 4 ms
   •    Pitch Blend: 0 cents
   •    Vibrato: 0 cents
   •    Vib Speed: 0 cents
   •    Calibrate: 440 Hz
4. Press the OK button and allow Audacity to render the effect. (Tip: For a better sounding effect, go to the effects menu and repeat the effect.)

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Audacity	Gsnap	VST Bridge Enabler

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WavePad Sound Editor - Voice Effects

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Microsoft Office 2010 Beta

With the release of the Microsoft® Office 2010 beta many people have been looking forward to the new changes and enhancements. Although it is too early to tell what Microsoft has planned for the final release of Office, a preview of the beta gives us a hint. The most noticeable changes made to the popular office suite are seen in the interface. Microsoft® Office 2010 features a new animated splash screen while starting any of the Office products. The ribbon toolbar has also been slightly modified, but it still looks much like that in Office 2007. The only distinct difference seen is the addition of the “File” tab, which replaces the Office button seen in Office 2007. Clicking on the “File” tab opens up a new view in Office 2010 called Microsoft® Backstage. It allows users to more easily find and access basic controls like printing and viewing documents, slides, or spreadsheets. Backstage along with the new ribbon toolbar have been added to Outlook and OneNote. The ribbon toolbar now allows for users to customize the ribbon, unlike Office 2007 where users were limited to only customizing the Quick Access Toolbar. Users can add new controls or hide the ribbon toolbar altogether. Here are some of the changes I noticed.

Text effects: This feature is similar to the effects you can add to text using the WordArt feature in PowerPoint 2007. Unfortunately, Word 2007 still used the old WordArt effects as seen in previous versions of Office. Microsoft® Office 2010 fixes that issue by giving Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook the same WordArt effects.

Background Removal Tool: This feature does exactly what it sounds like. It removes the background in images.

Navigation Pane: This feature allows a user to navigate through the document by heading, by page, or by searching for text or objects.

Screen Capture: This tool allows for users to select an area of the screen to make into an image of. The image is then placed into the document, spreadsheet, or slide.

Sparklines: This allows for Excel to insert data charts. Sparklines present trends and variations associated with some measurement. You have most likely seen one of these critters on TV or in the newspaper, showing trends in the stock market.

OpenDocument Format: Although this feature is not new to Office, I thought it would be important to bring up. Office 2010 now supports OpenDocument format version 1.1. This format is a common format supported by various office suites (both stand-alone and web-based).

Protected Mode: Office may enter this mode when opening files from an untrusted or potentially unsafe location (like the internet). It will hide the ribbon toolbar and restrict editing. Users can click the “Enable Editing” button to start editing the file.

Simultaneous Editing: Office allows for a document to be opened and edited by different people (or the same person from a different computer). A notification in the status bar displays who is currently viewing your file and shows what changes are being made.

PowerPoint Broadcasting: Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 can broadcast PowerPoint presentations to people on different computers around the globe. For people who don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint, presentations can be broadcast as videos.

Office 2010 64-bit: Office 2010 will come in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. This means people who own a computer capable of 64-bit can take advantage of the enhanced performance their computer can offer. Users can more easily open, save, and manage memory intensive documents easier.

PowerPoint Videos: PowerPoint 2010 can more easily insert video files into slide shows. The quality of videos is much better than in previous versions of Office. Users can edit their videos right within the slide by trimming and adding effects. The following formats are supported:

• AVI
• WMV
• WMA
• MP3
• MOV
• H.264

The supported video formats can be extended by installing DirectShow codecs.

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