Train a new voice model | ACE Studio Wiki

Prepare your datasets

Clean dry vocals

High-quality voice models require clean and dry vocal samples:

Without any reverb, delay, chorus effects
Without background noise
Without instrumentals or any non-human sounds
Without any harmonies or vocal doubles

30-100 mins of singing vocal samples are recommended for a voice model. The more samples you provide, the more singing details AI can learn, but it brings fewer benefits when you reach over 120 minutes.

Room reverberations
Vocals recorded with big room reverb might cause error recognitions and result in unexpected model performances.

Vocals from stem splitter
When you are using vocal remover or stem splitter for vocals, the output quality might be damaged too low for training. For a higher quality voice model, please optionally use vocals from stem splitter.

Record samples

Quality microphone with audio interface

Professional microphones with audio interfaces bring high-quality vocals. You'll need recording software to connect to your interface, record, edit, and mix your vocals.

When recording for a voice model, avoid microphones that are not built for singing:

Phone or laptop mics
Lapel or headset mics
Karaoke mics
Earphone mics or bluetooth earphones like air pods (these are usually for phone talks)

Recording environment

Unwanted background noises can include people talking, electrical hums and buzzes, traffic and outdoor noise, as well as movements of accessories or objects. To prevent these noises from interfering with your recording, it is important to select a quiet location. Choose a place where you can minimize or eliminate unexpected noise disturbances.

Sound reflections can occur due to the presence of hard, level surfaces, resulting in reverberation or echoes in your recordings. This can give your tracks a hollow or distant quality, detracting from the desired intimacy and clarity.

Try clapping your hands sharply in the room and listen carefully. If you perceive a fluttering sound or a prolonged echo, it indicates the presence of reverb issues.

To address this, incorporate soft materials that can absorb sound. Consider using carpets, rugs, or thick curtains to significantly reduce reflections. Covering hard floors and, if possible, hanging curtains over windows, as well as placing furniture with fabric coverings in the room, can be beneficial.

Avoid using hard surfaces as they contribute to the problem. If you cannot afford professional acoustic panels, you can utilize everyday items such as canvas paintings, tapestries, or foam tiles to break up these surfaces.

When setting up your microphone, be mindful of its placement. Avoid positioning it too close to walls or in corners. Instead, aim for the center of the room or experiment with different locations to find the optimal spot with minimal reverb.

Headphone bleed

During recordings, particularly when capturing vocals, it is common for the audio from headphones to bleed into the microphone. This issue arises when the volume of the headphones is set too high or when open-back headphones are being used. This might be acceptable when recording for a song, but try to avoid this bleeding when recording for your voice model.

Microphone placement

For regular volume, it is recommended to position yourself about 2 inches away from the microphone. However, for louder phrases or when belting, it is advisable to increase the distance to around 4-6 inches. It is important to note that you should always stay closer than 12 inches from the microphone to maintain optimal audio capture.

Creating Space for Belting
When engaging in belting techniques, it's important to allow yourself ample space, both in terms of microphone distance and the size of the room you're in. Excessive sound isolation, such as being confined in a closet or booth, or surrounding your microphone with foam, can easily result in overloading the microphone capsule. If you're unsure, it's advisable to incorporate more room sound when performing belted phrases.

Languages

Basic custom slot

Only one singing language will be supported in your voice model trained under basic custom slot.

Pro custom slot

Your voice model trained under pro custom slot can go multilingual.

Languages in your samples

During the training process, each sample file will be processed individually and treated as a single-language file. It is important to avoid mixing phrases from different languages within the same sample file.

When uploading samples, please ensure that you place them under the appropriate language tab. Even if you are uploading samples for a basic custom slot, you have the flexibility to upload samples in different languages if needed. Keeping the samples organized by language will help maintain clarity and improve the training process.

Upcoming languages

We are continuously working on developing new singing languages for the custom voice feature.

For your new voice model:

New languages will be supported by new pro custom slots.
New languages will be one of the options to be supported by new basic custom slots.

For your existing voice model:

New languages will be supported when retaining your pro custom slots.
New languages will be optional when retaining your basic custom slots.

Singing or speech

Singing samples and speech samples can both be accepted for training your singing voice model.

Your voice model can learn:

Timbre from your singing samples and speech samples, but plase note: for a person, timbre of speaking can be different to singing, which usually can not represent the true performance of singing.
Singing style from your singing samples

Your voice model can't learn:

Singing style from your speech samples

File quality settings

The audio quality of your samples directly impacts the quality of your voice model.

We recommend you to set your audio quality in:

Bit Depth = 16-bit
Sample Rate = 44.1khz or 48khz
Lossless file format (.wav or .flac)

Post-processing

To maintain the natural character and clarity of your target voice:

No overlaps: multi-layered vocals can complicate AI's analysis. Place the overlapped takes at back and stick to a single vocal track to ensure the AI can accurately process and learn from your samples.
No hard cuts: hard cuts can create abrupt starts or ends, which are not normal in a natural singing sound and can introduce clicks or pops. Use smooth fades at the beginning and end of the vocal clip for a more natural transition.
No duplicating sections: Duplicated sections don't help for the training. Your voice model benefits from the natural variation of performance.
Control the volume: Make sure your samples stay around 30-50% of your meter. Use a volume rider or automation to make sure volume levels are consistent across your entire dataset. The aim is to create a consistent volume level across the recording while keeping the dynamics within sections.

Train your voice model

Voice slots

A Basic Custom Slots brings you a monolingual voice model with 5 versions.

A Pro Custom Slot brings you a multilingual voice model with 5 versions.

Click on a slot to start uploading your samples.

After all samples being uploaded, the training will start automatically. You can check the status by refreshing the webpage.

When you see the training page turns into the model management page, your model is all set up. It will be shown in your voice library in ACE Studio. If you cannot see it, try to relaunch ACE Studio.

Pro-tips

If you are seeking exclusive performance and character for a voice, like the best results in different vocal ranges or emotions. It would be better to divide samples for several voice models.

Here is an example:

Mike is a professional singer and would like to customize his own voice model. He can both do well as tenor and bass. So it would be better to train 2 voice models:

Train a high-tone&powerful model based on samples that are mostly high-tone and powerful performances.
Train a bass model based on samples that are mostly low-tone phrases.

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