{"id":71,"date":"2020-08-27T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imitone.com\/blog\/?p=71"},"modified":"2023-09-13T23:55:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T23:55:13","slug":"metamorphosis-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imitone.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/08\/27\/metamorphosis-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"metamorphosis 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was transcribed from the imitone Kickstarter blog. Click here to view the original post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since January, and through the chaos of 2020, I have been making radical changes to the way I do things.  Or rather, how we<\/em> do things \u2014 this year’s biggest development is that imitone’s day-to-day team has grown from one to four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been one of the busiest periods of my life, and I can’t hope to summarize it in a single post.  Instead, I’ll give a quick overview of the year’s developments.  I’ll have more to say about each topic in future updates \u2014 from here on, I’m aiming to write small updates about twice each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Team<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

imitone’s day-to-day team is now four people plus two consultants.  We are distributed, but three team members (including myself) are in the Seattle area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Evan Balster<\/strong> (he\/him) \u2014 team lead, research & development, design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s me!  Over the last few years, I’ve found myself spread very thin as I pursue all the things I’d like to do with imitone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singing scientist, accordion hermit.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Richard Hogg<\/strong> (he\/him) \u2014 consulting visual designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard designed imitone’s signature look and feel, and joins the team when we’re making updates actively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gentle soul who wanders the cliffs of South England with a sheepdog named Bill.  Metalhead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Elizabeth Kumaki<\/strong> (they\/them) \u2014 publicist, video editor, community manager<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth is responsible for planning and editing imitone’s video tutorials, marketing strategy, and managing our online communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berklee graduate, horror movie aficionado and metalhead.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Ty Underwood<\/strong> (they\/them) \u2014 project manager, UX support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ty is responsible for priorities, weekly meetings, team health, notetaking and coordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor of game design, labor activist and co-founder of a <\/em>co-op crowdfunding platform<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Lou “cdra” Carroll<\/strong> (they\/them) \u2014 Evan’s apprentice, research & development, community support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lou is a software developer and generalist with a background in voice resynthesis technology “UTAU”.  They are learning to develop audio applications with a focus on manipulating the human voice and will be helping with various aspects of imitone development and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internet lizard, jack of all trades and trainer of singing robots.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Isaac Schankler<\/strong> (they\/them) \u2014 consulting music researcher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaac is a videogame composer and professor of music.  They are helping us to interface with experts in musical traditions around the world, and to build a datamodel for supporting those traditions in imitone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If my life was a tarot deck, the suits would be cats, babies, synthesizers and accordions.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projects<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

imitone<\/strong>:  Our main project, obviously!  imitone is a voice-to-MIDI application in development for PC, Mac and plugin systems, which will eventually grow to Linux and mobile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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imitone team members brandish kazoos in the opening hours of NAMM 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Team<\/strong>:  My biggest project of 2020 has been growing the imitone team, which involves starting a few new projects as well as delegating some of my own responsibilities so I’m not spread so thin.  This is a huge<\/em> time investment, but after seven years working alone I’ve come to respect my limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NAMM<\/strong>:  The world’s largest music tech convention.  We had a delightful showing in January 2020, debuting our new technology and winning an innovation award.  We will not be attending in 2021.  \ud83d\ude37<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology<\/strong>:  Research and development into imitone’s voice pitch recognition and music transcription technology.  This has been the subject of several previous updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A snapshot of our research tools, depicting the “forest” of musical harmonies imitone must navigate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Community<\/strong>:  The team is interested in making imitone development into a community-oriented process involving activities like modding and MIDI scripting.  We’ll have more to say about this later!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tutorials<\/strong>:  A series of imitone tutorial videos which will eventually detail how to set up and use imitone with various music-making apps, how to get the best results with it, various musical recipes and more.  See our library:  youtube.com\/c\/imitone_team<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 MIDI 2.0<\/strong>:  imitone uses MIDI to control musical instruments.  The next-generation MIDI 2.0 standard is more precise and will allow imitone to automatically learn about and adapt to the instruments you play.  It is developed by an industry association that holds several meetings each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The MIDI Manufacturers Association and Association of Musical Electronics Industry celebrate the publishing of the MIDI 2.0 Core Specifications.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Music Modeling<\/strong>:  Research into scales, tuning systems and musical traditions from around the world, how to model them, and better ways to transcribe singing into musical scores.  A collaboration with professor Isaac Schankler<\/a> and a growing list of tradition experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandvox<\/strong>:  Working title for Lou’s apprenticeship project, a moddable freeware speech training and research application with an emphasis on gender expression.  It will use imitone technology to visualize the user’s voice<\/a> and facilitate creating and sharing voice lessons.  (Thanks to Dr. Alex Ahmed of Project Spectra community for research and resources.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SoundSelf<\/strong>:  An eight-year collaboration with sound designer Robin Arnott.  It harmonizes with the pitch of your voice and the rhythm of your breath to produce a shifting visual soundscape that guides the user into a deep and meditative trance.  It may be played with a VR headset or on an ordinary screen.  It was released in April 2020 and continues to evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vQW-ctfvLPE\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 A free trial is available at soundself.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2020 at a glance<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

January<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n