This tutorial presents the two normal ways to use Festival Virtual Singer. You can use either workflow independently or combine them in the same project.
Launch the application. Use File > New for a clean Festival song, or open a previously saved singing-mode XML document. For a complete Sample Slicer session, use Open Project Folder... or create a new folder later with Save Project Folder....
- Select a Festival voice and set the song BPM.
- Add a pitched event with + Pitch or add silence with + Rest.
- Select the event in the list or piano roll.
- Edit its pitch, beat duration, and phoneme or syllable.
- Apply the changes.
- Drag notes horizontally to change timing, vertically to change pitch, and resize them to change duration.
- Enable grid snapping when you need rhythmically regular placement.
- Use the local tone-preview option while dragging or resizing for immediate pitch feedback.
An empty phoneme is treated as a rest. The local editing tone is only a pitch guide; it does not reproduce the selected Festival voice.
Use Preview Selected Phoneme to synthesize the currently selected event. Use the sequence playback control to send the complete song directly to Festival. Stop playback with the Festival stop control when required.
Save the editable song as singing-mode XML. Use Export WAV Audio... when you need a rendered audio file. The XML stores Festival-compatible events and application metadata such as title, selected voice, and musical BPM.
Open the Sample Slicer workspace and choose Import WAV.... Import one or more PCM or IEEE-float WAV files. The Sample Pool displays file and format information and lets you preview or remove sources.
Select a source to load its waveform. Zoom, fit the complete file, scroll through it, or drag across the waveform to define a selection.
For a manual slice:
- Select a waveform range.
- Click Create Slice.
- Edit the slice name and root MIDI note.
- Adjust start, loop-in, loop-out, and end markers.
- Enable or disable looping.
- Click Apply Slice.
For automatic slicing, choose Transients or Uniform. Configure sensitivity and minimum gap for transient detection, or the number of divisions for uniform slicing. Preview the markers before applying them.
Select a slice, choose a MIDI note, and select Retrigger or Legato mode. Use Note On, Note Off, and Stop All to test pitch transposition, attack, loop, and tail behavior through the realtime WinMM engine.
Open Slicer Piano Roll... and choose an active slice. Add events and place them on the grid. Each event stores:
- start beat;
- length;
- MIDI note;
- velocity;
- source slice.
Drag events to move or transpose them. Use rectangular marquee selection for multiple events. Duplicate, delete, cut, copy, and paste as needed. Undo and redo are available for arrangement edits.
Choose Free duration for unrestricted lengths or Loop Snap to align event duration to complete slice loops. Configure BPM, grid snap, playback start, and optional loop playback, then use Play and Stop to audition the arrangement.
Choose Save Project Folder.... The application creates a portable project containing:
project.fvspfor samples, slices, and Slicer events;singer.xmlfor the Festival song;- an
audiodirectory containing project-owned WAV copies.
Reopen the folder with Open Project Folder.... Missing audio files are reported as warnings instead of being silently ignored.
Choose Render Slicer WAV... and select an output path. The offline renderer creates a stereo 44.1 kHz, 16-bit PCM WAV file and preserves overlapping events, event velocity, pitch transposition, loop behavior, and tails.
When Festival playback or export fails, inspect festival_path_diagnostics.txt and festival_singing_trace.txt. For Slicer drag diagnostics, inspect M11_DRAG_DIAGNOSTIC.log. The Wiki contains detailed setup and troubleshooting guidance.