In which I get really really really excited about Cantai

So obviously we learned yesterday that Cantamus could turn my MELISANDE files into practice tracks for singers, this is all very good, and then Larry suggested we check to make sure there weren't any better options.

Which, there is, and it just released on April 1, and we found it on April 2 (although it had been in beta for a while, and the beta testers love it) which suggests that either somebody has their marketing on lock or, you know, this is actually the tool people want and need.

It is called Cantai.

You have no idea how excited I am about this project. I was technically sold from the first few notes of the demo (pun intended), but as soon as they got to the whole "we built our voices off real singers and then gave them profit sharing" thing it became yes yes yes yes yes, I want to be a part of this.

Plus it uses a modified Fach system to classify the voices, which absolutely delights me. These are the vocal styles I want in my show, which means I can use them to train actors in a way that I couldn't do with Cantamus even though it had the whole "follow the bouncing ball" practice app.

AND IT HAS NUANCE.

(I was about to write "emotion" but you know how I feel about that word. What I mean is that it allows you to manipulate more information, which allows you to communicate more information, which creates an corresponding psychophysical response in an audience.)

And then the creator, Richard deCosta, put up this YouTube Short in which he said "happy launch day, today is the worst Cantai will ever sound because we are going to continue iterating," yes yes yes yes yes, and I have like, three or four tech-spec questions that I need to get answered before I throw money at this project but I hope the answers come out the way I want them to because I'd really really really really like to use Cantai in my work.

Specifically, I'd like to use Cantai to create that MELISANDE concept album that I was nervous about creating a few days ago.

Yes, I did in fact write that formalizing the sound of the show before I started working with actors could be a net negative, but once I realized that I would need to create audio tracks for the show before I could work with actors anyway, it seems worthwhile to pack as much information into the tracks as possible.

There's also a longer-term consideration re: how we learn, which is to say that we do in fact learn by mimicry and/or direct instruction – and it takes a long time to go from following someone else's lead to drawing your own map, as it were. "What do you think" is a question that can only be considered after you've collected and incorporated the mental prerequisites (installed the software, if you will) that allow you to understand and address the problem, this is very Gilbert Ryle, and what I'm saying is that Cantai could allow me to create a very good prerequisite from which everyone involved – me, the actors, the pianists, the production team, Cantai itself – can only get better.

Yes yes yes yes yes.

p.s. I also sent over my voice to be considered for part of the project, hold your thumbs for me