Vocal MIDI

We have some great virtual instruments these days - RealGuitar, RealStrat, Mr. Trumpet and the Sax Brothers, MilesTone Trumpet, etc, etc - that can all be controlled through a good keyboard and a few small MIDI controllers like volume and expression pedal, wind controller and various knobs and faders. But what if an aspiring musician wants to be able to use all these virtual instruments, but doesn't want to have to learn how to play the keyboard? The keyboard is, after all, one of the harder instruments to learn to play. And the aspiring is probably wanting to use virtual instruments so he won't have to learn how to play all those instruments for real. True, learning to play the keyboard/piano is a lot easier than learning how to play many different real world instruments, but it could be so much easier.

Enter the voice-to-MIDI plugin. It listens to what you are humming, transcribes it to the selected instrument and adjusts to fit the instrument's style. It would include portamento recognition for tonal changes. If you wanted to lay down a guitar track for example, you would load the guitar you want, hit record and hum C, F-slide-up-to-G. It would pluck a C, pluck an F, then slide it up to a G. Finger snaps could act as switches between solo and chord for instruments that can play more than one note at a time.

I imagine this plugin would have to come with its own instrument packs, as transcribing MIDI output that would have the desired instrumental effect across many third party virtual instruments would be a headache and a half. Or maybe the manufacturers of other virtual instruments could include an adapter plugin to allow them to be used with the Vocal-MIDI.

It would also come with a lot of style presets. There are many, many different ways to play a trumpet, let alone a guitar. You could specify you wanted the instrument played in the style of a favorite musician, or combine multiple styles for a new style that is a little of three or four favorite players mixed.

As output would be MIDI or internal instruments, vocal recording clarity would not be a priority. Any el-cheapo mic would do, if your computer doesn't already have an on-board mic.