Greene’s Realivox Vocal Palette software adds the female ‘oohs,’ ‘aahs’ and ‘la-la-las’ to a song. Coming soon is the male version of the software. 

Television and film composer Mike Greene was turning heads over the weekend at the 2011 National Assn. of Music Merchants show in Anaheim as he ran his fingers up and down the piano keyboard in front of him. Instead of the piano, organ or synthesizer sounds that typically emanate from such instruments, passersby heard the tones of a female voice singing “la-la-la-las,” complete with lifelike vibrato. It’s part of a Realivox Vocal Palette software package that Greene has created. Initially, he was just looking for a way to help himself in recording his own scores.

“I’d hire singers to come in,” Greene said, “then inevitably after they left, I realized I should have gotten them to record some background ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs,’ or something on a new part I wrote later.” His Realivox program contains some two dozen syllables — “ooh,” “aah,” “bop,” “doo,” “wah,” etc. — that he recorded with a variety of male and female singers, programmed in a way that brings them to life.

 
The weirdness and wonder of the annual NAMM Show , a gathering of merchants showcasing new musical products entering the marketplace, is hard to convey to anyone who’s never experienced it.  Imagine standing dead center on the floor of the United Nations, or maybe in the middle of the “Star Wars” cantina. Everyone surrounding you has been handed a different instrument  and each is playing a different song from a different culture or planet simultaneously -- all cranked to 11.

Got that picture and, more important, sound in your head? You’re getting close.

Sprawled across several acres of the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday, this year's annual gear fest once again featured thousands of exhibitor booths stocked with the latest in electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers, pianos, electronic keyboards, sound processors, audio and video recording, mixing and playback equipment, sheet music, instructional videos, computer software, banjos, ukuleles, saxophones, violins, drums and every accessory imaginable -- and many hard to imagine.