Vocal Writer - Early MacOS voice synth

This post is an archive of a post made on another site.

I was working on an updated version of it, but it's been sitting in my drafts for years to the point I'd rather have this thread onsite than wait for whenever my brain decides to work on that post again. Some updated info is at the bottom.

Forgot what kicked this off, but recently I tried looking into VocalWriter & preservation efforts for that again. There's at least some efforts being made, a keygen came out last year but outside of that, not much...

🧵(buckle in this might be a long one-)

It's been on the back of my mind since high-school, when I was still fixated on bemani & ALT.

For those unfamiliar, VocalWriter is a voice synth & midi music software made for the Mac by KAE labs. First versions were for MacOS 9 (maybe 7-9? Couldn't find info on that), a 2.0 was made for OSX10.

The most known uses are within the OST for Katamari Damacy (EG: Wanda Wanda - Yu Mikaye), and in Pop'n Music as the voice for the character ALT (EG: 01 Angel - Seiya Murai ft. ALT)

Unfortunately, the creator of the software has long passed away and KAE Labs has shut down. As of posting the OS9 version is archived on Mac Abandonware sites, as it was released as shareware w/a 15 day trial. But the OSX version is nowhere. And the only legal download I was able to find is no longer available.

Emulating it is a different story (and not a good one). The OS9 version doesn't like virtual memory. You can open it, but trying to play anything will get a memory error message.

For context, I was using SheepShaver on win10, back in 2018

QEMU doesn't fare well either. Haven't tried myself, but based off other's attempts & setup info there's issues getting OS9 working with sound. Only way to get sound is enabling VRAM, making VW in QEMU not feasible.

The OSX version can run, but with stuttery sound apparently

Source on latter:

It's time to revive Vocal Writer - Gearspace thread(long-running thread abt it)

Running Qemu-system-ppc with Mac OS/OSX guests in Windows (abt QEMU emulation info)

TL:DR this software's difficult to emulate

The easiest solution would be to just buy a Mac from that Era, but for most people that's out of price range, collectors markets yunno?

So Essentially, outside of that keygen (which tbh is a major development, means there's people actively trying to preserve it.), stalemate

It is sad, especially because since I last looked several vids & songs (outside of katamari & popn) that used it got taken down either via copyright or the uploaders privating them. But the keygen does give me some hope. I wish I could do more, but idk much about programming, or much about classic Macs. So the most I can do is post about it.

Made this thread bc it's been on my mind. Maybe it'll pique someone's interest + I think software preservation is important.

Ig part of the reason this means so much to me is bc even if I'm not in the community these days, Pop'n, ALT, and by proxy VocalWriter were a big thing for me in high-school. And just having a fixation on computery-stuff even before then. Maybe one day. I got a sleep rn though

Other Links

• 'Zizz' - Normally I don't link these types of resources on site but this is 20+ year old program with no official means of getting a key.
• Macintosh Repository archives: 1.0 for OS9, 2.0 for OS10 - Similar as above. + Vocal Writer's demo was shareware anyways
• r/abandonware thread - another place keeping track of this.
• Audio Choppiness & Overloads in VocalWriter - Emaculation thread - Solution for stutters in Sheep Shaver (add "sound_buffer 2" to .sheepshaver_prefs), though keep in mind this doesn't knock out all stuttering issues just reduces it

Misc.

• Some of the archives for usage of this program has gone down since I first looked into it. Notably;

  • A page that hosted covers of pop songs to show off the program (this page is archived on the wayback machine, but none of the songs are backed up)
  • A music video? Animation? That unfortunately got blocked in the US (I love bogus copyright killing preservation efforts /s. It had a surreal-ish artstyle & plot about people killing the enviroment only for nature to take revenge or something. For those searching, a warning for gore/violence in the video)
  • Several smaller artist's tracks (though to be fair, some were on Soundcloud and people often delete songs to free upload space)
  • Some OST uploads for Pop'n Music. While some still remain / may pop back up I'd recommend people get an offline backup when you spot them just in case (thanks Konami)

• Since then I had gotten Vocal Writer to run in emulation, but buggy & choppy. I haven't done anything with it since I don't produce music but it's possible.

  • Main thing is when it's playing leave the program be. Any additional processes or tinkering during playback will cause stutters (Last tried on macOS9 via Sheepshaver on Win11)

• I've switched to Linux since then, but I'm not sure about emulation options here. It's a low priority for me as of last updating. But I hope I left enough resources for the curious preservationists.