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Virtual Singer / Other languages
script
Manual
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Updated :
December 30th 2011
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What is this script for?
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Virtual Singer can, in standard, sing in any of the 10 provided
languages.
This script enables to make it sing in a language that is not
included in this list.
It also enables to define by yourself a new language in which you
want to make it sing.
How to use it?
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- Load a score in which lyrics are written using the desired
language. The selected language for this singer in the Virtual
Singer palette has no importance.
- Run the "Virtual Singer > Other languages" script. A window
opens. On the left, the list of available languages and on the
right the list of sung staves in your score.
- In the left list, select the language that matches your score,
and on the right one or several staves you wish to be
processed.
- Click "Apply". Next time your score is played, lyrics are then
sung.
Notes:
- If you click "Erase", the previous processings are
written-off.
- If you click "Select all", all staves are selected in the list on
the right.
How does it work?
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Each lyrics syllable is processed, and the matching phonetics is
added between brackets. This phonetics is not visible neither on
score nor on printed page, but appears when you edit lyrics to
modify them. If this extra data trouble you, please use the "Erase"
button to remove phonetics.
Conversion between text and phonetics is performed according to the
instructions included in a text file. The author of this text file
has his name displayed at the bottom of the windows when this
language is selected. For any remark, inquiry or amendment about
phonetics, please contact the author through our Web forum.
How to use a new language file?
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Language files have to be stored in a folder : from your documents,
enter the ""Myriad Documents / Settings / Scripts / VirtualSinger /
Otherlanguages.myf" subfolder and copy the file there.
The script window has to be closed then reopened for the new
language to be taken into account.
How to create a new language file?
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Create a new document in "text" format. It will have to be stored
in UTF-8 encoding, in order to manage accented or non-occidental
characters.
At the beginning of a line, a $ symbol means that line has to be
processed. If not present, the while line is ignored (comment).
At the beginning of the file, you have to write, in any order:
$ENTITLE followed by the
language name in English
$ENAUTHOR followed by the
author name in English
$ENCOMMENT followed by a
short additional comment in English
$FRTITLE followed followed
by the language name in French
$FRAUTHOR followed by the
author name in French
$FRCOMMENT followed by a
short additional comment in French
You can then define the character set used to write in this
language:
$CHARSET followed by
the list of characters to process. Any character not included in
this list will be considered as a space (word break).
If you don't specify this list, by omitting the $CHARSET line, the
script will consider that any character can be used as a valid
letter, except:
^ " (
) . ! ? ¿ ¡ , ; : ' = « » – —
― ‘ ’ ‚ ‛ “ ” „
… ‹ ›
that will be considered as
a space.
Then you have to define the phonetics for this language.
A first line has to be :
$DATASTART
then the lines describing how to phonetize (details below), then a
line that closes this section:
$DATAEND
Between these two commands, several lines containing:
written characters or character group list = matching phonetic fragment list
Phonetic fragments are items used by Virtual Singer. Please refer
to the main program manual and to the list in the singer's advanced
settings to determine which ones to be used. The fragment notation
enables to use phonetic elements from several languages within the
same syllable.
For instance:
A=AFI
means that the uppercase A, when written in lyrics, will be
pronounced as a Finnish A (AFI fragment).
If you wish other characters or character groups to be pronounced
the same way, separate them by | (pipe character) in the left part
of the equality.
For instance :
A|a|ã=AFI
means that uppercase or lowercase a, or tilde a, written in the
lyrics, will be pronounced as a Finnish A (AFI fragment).
You can also write a group of characters instead of a single one.
For instance, if "ha" has also to be sung the same way, you can
write:
A|a|ã|ha|Ha|HA=AFI
If several fragments have to be used to pronounce the character or
the group of characters, they have to be separated by + in the
right part of the equality.
For instance, if instead of a Finnish A you wish Virtual Singer to
pronounce an English H followed by a French A, you can write:
A|a|ã|ha|Ha|HA=H+AF
At last, please note that the content of the syllables is processed
in the order of you file lines.
So if you write:
S|s=S
H|h=H
SH|Sh|sh=CI
and the syllable contains "sh", these characters will be pronounced
as an S followed by an English H. The third line will be unused and
useless.
But if you write:
SH|Sh|sh=CI
S|s=S
H|h=H
If the syllable contains "sh", these characters will be pronounced
"sh" (as in "shield")
If the syllable contains "s", not followed by an "h", this
character will be pronounced "s" (as in "son")
If the syllable contains "h", not preceded by an "s", this
character will be pronounced "h" (as in "ham")
In a general way, it's preferable to write the biggest character
groups at the beginning of the list.
Advanced Dictionary
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General context
It is also possible, when defining phonetic relations, to specify a
context in which the phonetization applies.
This context, written between brackets, is a prefix and/or suffix
that determines whether the line in question has to be
considered.
For instance:
[C|c|K|k]SH|Sh|sh[A|a|E|e|I|i|O|o|U|u]=S
means that the "SH" letter group will be phonetized by the "S"
fragment only if preceded
by C or K and followed by
A, E, I, O or U.
Syllable break
The "*" character, written between context brackets, means
"syllable break", i.e. either the beginning of the syllable for a
prefix, or the end of the syllable for a suffix.
For instance :
a|A[*]=AF+RFR
means that the "A" character will be pronounced "AR" à la française only if it is
the last character of the syllable.
Word break
The "_" character, written between context brackets, means "word
break", i.e. either the beginning of the word for a prefix, or the
end of the word for a suffix.
For instance :
a|A[_]=AF+RFR
means that the "A" character will be pronounced "AR" à la française only if it is
the last character of the word.
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