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Spice Girls Live Digital Enhancement
The Spice Girls are going back on tour (yes, sorry). But they have a clever plan to sound just as good as they ever did (yes, I know).
(Spice Girls Unenhanced)
They are planning on using their own voices - except when it is necessary to make use of their own previously recorded and digitally perfected voices. As they sing on stage, offstage computers compare their live performance to prerecorded performances in real time. Any mistakes are instantly corrected using stock material.
"As they sing, the computer program corrects the mistakes so that the sound comes out as the desired sound - so they appear to be able to sing really well live," an industry source told the Daily Mail.
Science fiction writers have imagined various forms of real-time enhancement to images, if not sound. In his 1985 novel Schismatrix, Bruce Sterling wrote about video-manicuring programs that could bring a person's image up to snuff:
Lindsay had a brief glimpse of the man's true appearance - white hair in spiky disarray, red-rimmed eyes - before a video-manicuring program came on line.
(Read more about video-manicuring)
Somewhat earlier, Ray Bradbury had a way for TV parlor characters to actually say your name and move their lips accordingly:
A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully. He was a friend, no doubt of it, a good friend...
(Read more about Bradbury's spot-wavex scrambler)
Don't miss these unusual sound-related stories:
- Terminator Tongues - USAF Seeks Voice Transformation Tech
- EtchASound - Picture Your Voice
- Detect Aggressive Voices With Sigard By Sound Intelligence
Via Contact Music.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 6/29/2007)
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I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
