Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro Review

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Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro is a vocal synthesis program from the Japanese company, Dreamtonics. The first version came out last year and Dreamtonics quickly released an upgrade featuring several enhancements to make the vocal performances even more realistic. FutureMusic was quite impressed with the first version, but version 2.0 is even more powerful.

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What’s important to understand is that Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro works with human vocals as the foundation, recorded and licensed from real singers, and then uses artificial intelligence to synthesize custom expressions for incredible versatility. In fact, in our evaluation using three different reviewers, their impressions in quotes below, we found the amount of depth that Dreamtonics packed into Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro to be “absolutely mind-boggling.” When most AI music software debuts, the first release showcases a core functionality that they then build upon in subsequent releases. That’s not the case with Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro. “[Dreamtonics] seemed to think of everything,” stated one evaluator who thinks that Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro is a “dream come true for electronic musicians.”

“A dream come true for electronic musicians…”

Before we delve into the vocal architecture that sets Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro apart, let’s just take a moment to salute what Dreamtonics did with the working environment. The green tinted user interface works with the familiar piano roll environment and then utilizes clever tabs along the right side to open up specific parameters for the voice parameters. The parameters have been enhanced since version 1.0, but the workflow is practically the same. It’s “intuitive,” and “simple to use,” and “understanding the basics only take a few minutes.” What the interface also incorporates is the typical workflow sophisticated engineers already use based on the most popular DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations like Apple’s Logic Pro). Dreamtonics must have spent a considerable amount of time getting input from pros who work with vocals on the daily and integrated these concepts into the interface. Doubling, grouping and other enhancements are baked into the interface, eliminating the need to perform these duties in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and switch back and forth.

Speaking of DAWs, Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro can work as a standalone application, or as a plug-in. We tested it with both Ableton Live and Logic Pro and found it performed a tad better on the Apple DAW with Ableton coughing initially on launch with an authentication issue. Dreamtonics provided a quick fix, and continues to address bugs with a constant stream of updates, but we wanted to make mention of it here. Neither DAW has CPU or latency issues and once running, it performed admirably despite a few crashes with our early release evaluation copy. For producers who like to work in Ableton Live, it maybe better to work with Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro in standalone mode and then import the vocal takes back into Live for additional tweaking and enhancement, including applying effects such as a vocoder or even better, Baby Audio’s Humanoid. Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro “feels more flowey” in Logic, which already starts with a timeline, “so moving back and forth isn’t as abrupt.” Of course, your mileage may vary  and your can make Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro work seamlessly once you obtain your own level of comfort.

Now, while all of this technology is dynamic and provides a level of quality that is only emerging in this nascent, but quickly developing, music production field, what sets Dreamtonics apart is the “incredible amount of depth” that “is available to modify and humanize the synthetic voices.” Dreamtonics wasn’t just content to allow users to add words to notes, they obviously spent an incredible amount of time, effort and deep thought into creating an ecosystem that provides users with a vast amount of tools to make the voices uniquely distinct. Let’s take a deeper dive into what sets Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro apart from other products on the market by looking at some of the tools available.

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Dedication To Vocal Nuances

As mentioned above, you want to set up your notes for success by eliminating overlaps, but keeping the notes tight. The next step is setting up how you want the vocalization to interact with the notes. Using the Plus (+) and Minus (-) signs, you can start to shape the performance. Adding a Minus sign allows you to extend the previous word into the next note. You can add just one minus sign or many to create runs. The Plus sign will break up a word into syllables and extend it to the next note. Thus, a word like “different” can be extended to three notes, since it has three syllables. Dreamtonics even implemented adding a Breath between phrases. Simply put in “br” on a note and the vocalist with take a breath before moving on to the next lyric. You can also emphasize certain words by putting a single quotation mark before the word “to give it an extra push.” But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro’s technology could do to singers what drum machines did to acoustic drummers – it’s that good.”

Each one of the vocals in the Dreamtonics arsenal has a unique set of attributes that you can access in the Vocal Mode panel. The attributes are based on the type of voice as well as the different versions, 1.0 or 2.0. Currently, there are 70 voices available, including some Rap models. The voices are not only developed by Dreamtonics, but also third parties. We were only able to test a single third party vocal, Noa Hex v1.0, since the other company we contacted flaked on providing their Voice. That said, it’s a savvy business model, allowing for Dreamtonics to quickly ramp up their library.

Vocal models can be purchased a la carte for $79 each. Let’s use Sheena 2 as an example. In her Vocal Mode panel, you can select the version (v1.0 or v2.0), the language (Japanese (default), English, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Spanish or Korean) and then the tonality and texture of the voice via radial dials (Soft, Clear, Chest and Tense). Each one of the Radial Dials has an advanced extension to specify Pitch, Timbre and Pronunciation. Timbre is the one feature that has been greatly enhanced going from version 1.0 to 2.0 according to our reviewers. Pitch 2.0, on the other hand, is conducting itself entirely differently than in version 1.0 and that’s a good thing. Comparing the Pitch detection in both versions, you can not only hear the enhancements, but also see how the waveform is more accurate and normalized. But wait, there’s more.

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Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro Enhancements:

• Enhanced Voice Quality and Dynamics – updated models lead to more accurately replicate human-like voice dynamics, resulting in a greater sense of presence with finer details.
• Up to 300% faster rendering speed – without requiring a dedicated GPU or acceleration hardware, allowing for offline use.
• A Phoneme Timing Panel – allowing for direct resizing and adjustment of phoneme intensity within a note, plus detailed adjustments to timing and prominence of plosive onsets.
• Enhanced Vocal Modes – with the ability to assign separate modes to pitch, timbre, and pronunciation.
• An Expression Pad and Single-Click AI Retakes Panel – now integrated into the Notes panel, allowing for single-click retakes of phoneme timing in addition to existing functionality.
• Smart Pitch Controls – enabling users to quickly and intuitively shape pitch expressions with precision.
• Mouth Opening Parameter – the first of its kind, which alters vowel pronunciation.
• Korean Support added – as a cross-lingual synthesis language option for all upgraded voices.
• Voices Panel – available for viewing, auditioning and activating 7-day trials of all available voices Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro

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Underneath is the Parameters Panel, allowing you to tweak the Loudness, Tension, Breathiness, Gender and Tone Shift. For Sheena 2, Loudness provides the ability to just increase the volume, Tension adds a bit of crispiness, but at the expense of making the vocal “brittle and bit crushed,” Breathiness, adds a nice dose of air and is the most natural sounding. Gender is “less useful, unless you want to go full Chipmunk” and Tone Shift is very subtle. Next you have Tuning, either Pitch Shift (+/- 50 Cents) and Key Shift (+/- 12 semitones). Now here’s where it gets really interesting, you can automate the Vocal Modes and Parameters with various tools underneath the piano roll. This provides the ability to increase the Breathiness on a soft passage, or if you’re using the Felicia 2 preset, dial up the Powerful and Operatic attributes during a build up. There’s even an attribute called Mouth Opening, permitting the user to instruct the AI to open the mouth for more projection and power. It sounds great on paper, but this was not a favorite of our reviewers, “it’s a cool idea, and I love where Dreamtronics is going with this, but it either didn’t do much, or worse, it actually changed words.”

The Notes Panel in version 2.0 has now incorporated the AI Retakes panel from version 1.0 to streamline the interface. This is also where the Vibrato Modulation slider is contained, as well as the Expression X/Y pad. Both permit the user to affect the entire vocal performance, or better yet, individual words/notes. This is yet another methodology for fine tuning the vocal performance to your liking. The “X/Y pad is a terrific update” and enables you to quickly dial in the feeling you want in your vocal performance. However, maybe you’d like the artificial intelligence to chime in and give you some performance options that you may not have considered. No problem, just use the four square AI Retakes option to give alternative versions of the whole sequence, or just one note. Just another way of finding the best options for your track. But, what’s that? How about doubling your vocals or building harmonies? Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro has your covered.

You can simply duplicate your original Track in the top Arrangement view to double the vocal and then use the AI Retakes panel to create a different performances. Here you can shift the timing of notes, add different attributes to individual notes and so on to get a convincing stack. Harmony works in the same way. Simply duplicate track and then shift the entire sequence up or down, or individual notes. It’s that easy.

Quality Of Results

With all this incredible power and control, the real question you’re probably asking yourself right now is “will I actually use this in my productions?” So we put it to our evaluators, and here’s what they had to say. “Of course, as a singer/songwriter I was not only skeptical of Synth V, but also somewhat pissed. Is nothing safe – or sacred – in the new world of AI? Apparently not. However, after spending time using [Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro], I’m quite impressed with what Dreamtonics has achieved. I actually could see using this in my songwriting workflow. The Audio-To-MIDI functionality is better than Ableton Live, and allows me to import some of my random recordings from my iPhone right into Synth V. It even gets many of the words correct, which I find amazing. The other aspect is that I can see using some of the AI male voices as backing tracks if I want to add textures and nuances to my performance.”

“Are you kidding me? At this price point, and with this amount of functionality,” stated our techno producer, “I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it. It’s not just a AI vocal utility, it’s a complete vocal synthesis workstation. The interface is absolutely dynamite and so easy to use and I’m blown away at the overall quality of the vocal synthesis. In fact, the jump in vocal synthesis quality from version 1.0 to 2.0 is a huge leap…it will be insane to see how good it will become in the next few years.”

“Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro’s technology could do to singers what drum machines did to acoustic drummers – it’s that good,” declared one of our editors.

Conclusion

Dreamtonic’s Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro is an extremely powerful AI vocal synthesis workstation that allows you to create convincing vocals, backing vocals and harmonies to any music production. Will this put Ariana Grande out of a job? Maybe if she gets another questionable tattoo, but it certainly can’t compete with a virtuoso…yet. However, for today’s contemporary producers, and certainly for electronic musicians, it’s an amazing technology that you’ll incorporate into your tracks in both traditional and experimental ways. Even better, at $99, it’s almost too good to be true. Highly Recommended.

Dreamtonics Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro Review Rating 96%

The Future: Dreamtonics continues to push the envelope with AI vocal synthesis in new and exciting ways. The ability to tailor the nuance of a performance is only getting better and even at version 2.0 it’s incredibly powerful. While Dreamtonics has dedicated significant resources into pursuing an authentic human performance, we don’t think they should shy away from pushing envelope into more experimental territory.