GlossaryFile types:
.EFS FILE
The Effects Layout File file format. The file saves the list of selected effects in the Effects tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's effects, see Effects tab page.
.EQ FILE
The VCS Equalizer File file format. The file saves the settings of the ten frequency band sliders of the Equalizer tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's Equalizer, see Equalizer tab page.
.FMNT FILE
The Formant Morpher Layout File file format. The file saves the settings of the six sliders Pitch, Smoothing, Formant 1, Formant 2, Formant 3, Formant 4 of the Formant Morpher tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's Formant Morpher, see Formant Morpher tab page.
.FMR
FILE
The Frequency Morpher Curve File file format. The file saves the line on the graph of the Frequency Morpher tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's Frequency Morpher, see Frequency Morpher tab page.
.M3U
FILE
The VCSD Playlist file format. The file saves the list of songs in the playlist of VCSD Player. For more information about VCSD Player, click here.
.NVC FILE
The Nickvoice file format. The file saves the overall settings of all morphing features of VCSD including settings of Voice Morpher, Parody Mixer, and all advanced effect features. For more information about VCSD's nickvoices, see Nickvoices menu page.
.PVC FILE
The VCS Parody File file format. The file saves the settings of the Parody Mixer graph on the main panel. For more information about VCSD's Parody Mixer pane, click here page.
.SNDQ FILE
The Sound Quality Layout File file format. The file saves the settings of the four sliders: Release, and Attack (on Limiter sub pane) and the Reduction and Threshold (on the Noise Reduction sub pane) of the Sound Quality tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's Sound Qualtiy tab, see Sound Quality tab page.
.VEQ FILE
The Voice Equalizer Layout File file format. The file saves the settings of the six sliders: HiStretch, LoStretch, LoShift and Smoothing (on Voice Equalizer sub pane) and the Frequency and Balance (on the Robot Voice sub pane) of the Sound Quality tab (Advanced panel). For more information about VCSD's Voice Equalizer tab, see Voice Equalizer tab page.
A
An audio file format is a container format for storing audio data on a computer system.
There are three major groups of audio file formats:
- Uncompressed audio formats, such as WAV, AIFF and AU.
- Formats with lossless compression (compression ratio of about 2:1), such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio (filename extension APE), WavPack (filename extension WV), Shorten, Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor (TAK), TTA, ATRAC Advanced Lossless, Apple Lossless and lossless Windows Media Audio (WMA).
- Formats with lossy compression (compression ratio of about 10:1, however repeatedly compressing and decompressing the file will cause it to progressively lose quality), such as MP3, Vorbis, Musepack, ATRAC, lossy Windows Media Audio (WMA) and AAC.
The term has two meanings, both referring to something that encodes and decodes. (The term codec is a combination of 'coder-decoder'.)
In software, an audio codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. The object of an audio codec algorithm is to represent the high-fidelity audio signal with minimum number of bits while retaining the quality. This can effectively reduce the storage space and the bandwidth required for transmission of the stored audio file. Most audio codecs are implemented as libraries which interface to one or more multimedia players, such as QuickTime Player, XMMS, Winamp or Windows Media Player.
In hardware, the term "audio codec" refers to a single device that encodes analog audio as digital signals and vice versa. This is used in sound cards that support both audio in and out, for instance.
The Autonomous mode is the default mode when Voice Changer Software Diamond starts working. In this mode, you can control the audio stream sent to VCSD from the microphone, CD-ROM, Line-in, or another source.
Autonomous mode is often used in compare with the Intercept mode.
F
Formants are the distinguishing or meaningful frequency components of human speech and of singing. They are the characteristic partials that identify vowels to the listener.
Vowels will almost always have four or more distinguishable formants; sometimes there are more than six. The formant with the lowest frequency is called the first formant (also called Formant 1, f1), the second f2, and the third f3. Most often the two first formants, f1 and f2, are enough to distinguish a sound from all others. These two formants determine the quality of vowels in terms of the open/close and front/back dimensions. Thus the first formant f1 has a higher frequency for an open vowel (such as [a]) and a lower frequency for a close vowel (such as [i] or [u]); and the second formant f2 has a higher frequency for a front vowel (such as [i]) and a lower frequency for a back vowel (such as [u]).
To learn about VCSD's Formant Morpher tool, see the Formant Morpher tab page.
A Free key unlocks many features on Voice Changer Software Diamond demo version.
By submitting a free key, you gain the access to three more nickvoices, all audio effects, all background effects, all equalizer presets, and the recording time will be prolonged to 5 minutes.
Each free key subscription also gets a 20% OFF coupon.
You will need a Make4fun account to register a free key.
For more information about getting the free key, click here.
G
A global hot key is a key combination associated with a particular window; it allows the user to activate the window from any part of the system.
One global hot key can be used by only one application at a time. In some contexts of use, some of your defined hot keys will not work as expected. It is because the other windows applications which are running at the same time with VCSD take higher priority than VCSD does.
Is also known as Graphic EQ. This is an electronic device made of filters and amplifiers, used to alter the relative strengths of different frequencies in an electronic signal. It uses a set of controls that determine the level of boost or suppression of individual frequencies. The controls are usually sliding faders, set up in a row from lowest frequency to highest frequency, so that the final settings resemble a graph of the frequency response of the equalizer.
Equalizers are used primarily in audio equipment, allowing fine-tuning of the signal to compensate for distortions such as weak response or oversensitivity at various frequencies.
I
Instant messaging (IM) is a collection of technologies that create the possibility of real-time text-based communication between two or more participants over the internet or some form of internal network/intranet. IM allows effective and efficient communication, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In certain cases Instant Messaging involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to send messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), or to see the other party, e.g. by using web-cams, or to talk directly for free over the Internet (voice chat).
In the past, both users had to be using the same software. Many current clients, however, allow interoperability between networks, including Microsoft's recently developed Live Messenger.
Popular instant messenging services that can be named are AOL, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, PalTalk, Google Talk, etc.
Voice Changer Software Diamond will automatically switch to the Intercept mode when you start using another audio program. In this case, VCSD will intercept and modify the audio stream processed by that program. The quality of sound in this mode depends not only on VCSD's settings but also on the other audio program and its settings. Some audio programs will not allow you to change any sound attributes. Others, for example, Windows Sound Recorder, will let you select and record a voice file modified by VCSD in the audio format selected by you.
The Intercept mode is often used in compare with the Autonomous mode.
M
Is the short of Monaural sound, means sound which was made from the mix of all audio signals in a system. The sound is routed through a single audio channel.
Monaural sound has been replaced by stereo sound in most entertainment applications. However, it remains the standard for radio and telephone communications.
Since the speech engine reproduces only one voice, selecting Mono allows saving some CPU resources without decreasing the quality of the voice.
VCSD allows user to know if the audio stream is mono or stereo sound via its Mono/Stereo scale. For more information, click here.
N
The term "nickvoice" is inspired by the term "nickname" that people use to protect their privacy on cyberspace. Nickvoice means a computer-modified artificial voice which is made to match a nickname. VCS's nickvoices are unique combinations of pitch, timbre and equalization settings. For more information about VCS's nickvoices, see Nickvoices menu page.
The final consideration for digital audio quality is the number of channels. Single channel audio streams are called mono sound (most voice are mono sound stream), and two channels audio streams are called stereo sound.
R
The robot voice is a voice with a constant pitch, which makes it sound non-feeling and cold, like a robot or computer voice in science fiction films. VCSD has a Robot Voice module which is made specifically to create Robot Voice. For more information about the module, click here.
S
The audio sampling rate or frequency is the number of samples per second measured at specific points in time that are used to digitize a particular sound. Audio sound is a continuous signal, while audio sample rates are discrete values. The sampling rate is expressed in Hertz (Hz). A higher sampling rate will yield a wider audio bandwidth.
For example, the sampling frequency in a compact disc player is 44,100 Hertz, which means that the audio signal is sampled 44,100 times per second. This sample rate can accurately reproduce the audio frequencies up to 20,500 hertz, covering the full range of human hearing.
Higher sample rates produce higher quality audio at the expense of higher CPU utilization. Frequencies of about 1/2 the sample rate can be produced effectively, so to reproduce a frequency of 10 kHz, a sample rate of at least 20 kHz must be chosen.
VCSD supports settings for certain sample rates. For more information, click here.
Is the short of Stereophonic sound. Stereo sound is the reproduction of sound, using two or more independent audio channels, through a symmetrical configuration of loudspeakers, in such a way as to create the impression of sound heard from various directions, as in natural hearing.
It is often contrasted with monophonic, or mono sound, where audio is in the form of one channel, often centered in the sound field (analogous to a visual field).
VCSD allows user to know if the audio stream is mono or stereo sound via its Mono/Stereo scale. For more information, click here.
V
A vocoder (a short for voice encoder), is an analysis / synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the vocoder, the input (voice) is passed through a multiband filter, then each filter is passed through an envelope follower. The control signals from the envelope followers are communicated, and the decoder applies these (amplitude) control signals to corresponding filters in the (re)synthesizer.
In general, a vocoder analyzes speech, transforms it into electronically transmitted information, and recreates it (the speech). It was originally developed as a speech coder for telecommunications applications.
Short for Voice over Internet Protocol, a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using IP rather than by traditional circuit transmissions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). One advantage of VoIP is that the telephone calls over the Internet do not incur a surcharge beyond what the user is paying for Internet access, much in the same way that the user doesn't pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet.
Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone.