# Frederick's Miroslav Choir demo



## Frederick Russ (Oct 11, 2006)

With all the talk about choirs as of late, I thought I would add in that the Miroslav Philharmonik has the Miroslav choir in it. On this demo I'm not using word-building although because of the way the samples were recorded it was easy to make it sound like it was. I just lined up the different phrases, consonants and vowels and came up with this:

http://vi-control.com/MiroslavPhilharmonik/Spiritus-Sanctus-Final-Mast.mp3 (http://vi-control.com/MiroslavPhilharmo ... l-Mast.mp3)

I had this removed earlier for commercial reasons but got that cleared up - as always let me know what you think. (I'm posting it here because the highlight is the choir itself - although, if you like the composition, you can let me know that too!  )


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## lamboguy (Oct 13, 2006)

Holy X(*&$*^% :shock: 

That is amazing! 

I'm sure the piece is good, but I'm so blown away by what the voices are doing, and are able to do. This is just awesome.

Wow.

Do you know John Rutter's music? It's kind of amazing to think where this is all headed.

Nice job!

Fred


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## Hans Adamson (Oct 13, 2006)

Beautifully recorded. More so than the VSL I've heard. Attacks are a little too abrupt, which gives it a Push-Key sound some times.

Nice interesting piece by Frederick!


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## Rodney Glenn (Oct 14, 2006)

Yeah, I really dig the overall tone of the choir and it seems to me it has a lot of potential (I wasn't too impressed with the VSL choir sound either tbh). 

If one has Reason there's also a Miroslav Choir Refill available for $199/€169 from http://www.sonicrefills.com/Main.html?prod_SR-MP02 (Sonic Refills). Seems to be well worth that price.

Thank's to Frederick for sharing, IMO it's a very good showcase of the quality of the lib and convinced me of its great potential.

Cheers

Rodney


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## Stephen Rees (Oct 14, 2006)

Great stuff! A terrific piece and a great sounding choir. I hadn't really considered this lib up until now, but I am certainly going to be looking into it in more detail now.

As a matter of interest, how much processing are you using on the sounds? Is this 'out the box' or are you using some Altiverb/VSS3 at all?

All the best,

Stephen


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## Frederick Russ (Oct 14, 2006)

Thanks guys. Fred I'm not that familiar with John Rutter's music but I do like the cadence of that particular style. Stephen, I used Altiverb 5 on the voices (a very light splash of Amsterstam Concertbaow (sp?)) I also used a very light touch of Sonic Maximizer.

The cool quality of the old Miroslav sample recordings (which Philharmonik is based open) is the way the vocal notes bloom naturally without pumping between notes. For intimate settings the choir works. I agree with Hans that it has its quirks - I left the choir pretty much exposed so everyone could hear them. I spent 0% of the time trying to crossfade the voices from one syllable to the next. You could probably do that to get a smoother sound in the transitions.


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## Niah (Oct 14, 2006)

oh forgot to comment this.

Like I've said before I'm blown away my the sound of the choir, amazing !

I agree with hans on the performance, otherwise I like the compo, nice going fred !


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## lamboguy (Oct 14, 2006)

Hi Frederick,

Here is a link to Rutter's bio:

http://www.collegiumusa.com/bios/3_rutter_bio.html

He formed the Cambridge Singers and he's really a great choral writer. He's written a bunch of "serious stuff" but his Christmas Album, tho a bit poppy at times, is simply superb. I highly recommend it -- here are a few cllips on amzn:

http://www.amazon.com/John-Rutter-Christmas-Album/dp/B00006JJ4T/sr=1-4/qid=1160836189/ref=sr_1_4/102-9363908-7523350?ie=UTF8&s=music (http://www.amazon.com/John-Rutter-Chris ... F8&amp;s=music)

Mary's Lullaby is "the bomb"  Just some great stuff in there.

AS for the Miroslav Choir, if it's really just $199 it's a steal! I'll have to look into that, can you provide a good link for info? (I'm a newbie to all this)

Thanks!

Fred


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## Craig Sharmat (Oct 14, 2006)

It is cool that Miroslav can do syllables to create real sounding words w/o a tool. Thanks for showing that. How aggressive can the choir get?


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## Frederick Russ (Oct 14, 2006)

"Mellow" seems to be the word for this particular lib, although it may be possible to get more aggressive in larger settings (bigger voicings, more male choir, etc). It's not gonna be like VotA though but would probably work in a pinch depending on the writing itself.

Seeing how simple phrases were recorded and the ease of putting this together, I'm wondering out loud if anyone has given consideration to recording very simple phrases like Miroslav did - do re mi fa so la si oh ah eh uh plus extras (such as cha shay say mein) - except in the f-fff range - that could be organized by the composer much in the same way? Or better yet using the current generation of word-building technology with more of an Apocalyptic-type sound for trailers and film scores?


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Oct 14, 2006)

Great stuff, Fred, and I'm not usually big on choir pieces! Thanks for sharing. :smile:


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## spoon (Oct 14, 2006)

yeah,
I like it too...


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## DKeenum (Oct 16, 2006)

Amazing!


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## synthetic (Oct 16, 2006)

I love the writing, very 20th-century EIS.  

Some of the choir attacks sound too quick and organ-y to me. What is the interface for putting together phrases? Do you load the different words then switch MIDI channels for each note?


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## DKeenum (Oct 16, 2006)

I would also like to know how you put it together.


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## Stephen Rees (Oct 16, 2006)

Hi Fred,

How much processing are you doing to the choir? Is this its 'out the box' sound? Is the ambience we can hear recorded in the samples, or are you using Altiverb/VSS3 at all?

Stephen


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## Frederick Russ (Oct 16, 2006)

Thanks for the comments guys. Stephen, I'm have a very light wash of reverb from Altiverb 5 on the master output - Dry 100%, Wet around 22% from the Amsterdam Concertbow (far mics). 

The way I put it together was to first write it using the "ah" patch - split choir, men and women's. I loaded the different syllables on different midi channels and started to substitute the ahs for something that sounded like they were saying something. It's definitely the previous generation choir technology! The attacks themselves on each were essentially left as they are. I could have edited each of the initial attacks cc11 fade in/controller draw but decided to make it a quick project. It took probably three hours to put together - for a quick afternoon project it worked.

The choir notes bloom naturally so making it sound somewhat like it was a single performance was easy. There are problems that could have been fixed via judicious midi cc work I know. The way the choir gels though with this little work gives me more of an idea on how to utilize Miroslav Philharmonik with other applications including larger orchestral settings.


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## Marko (Oct 18, 2006)

This is a very nice composition. I've lstened to it a few times this evening.

The Miroslav choir samples sound surprisingly good.

Marko


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## alphabetgreen (Feb 2, 2009)

You've really cheered me up Fred. I was relatively happy with the Miroslav Choirs and when I first started using them, I came up with this.

http://www.box.net/shared/gh2cbv01xf

.... which is a long way off the standard exposed in your composition (which is fabulous by the way. I love the combination of the angular melody with the close string accompaniment).

I'll have to get back to that piece and inject some expression into it. By the way, I had to use a truck load of midi channels for it. Did you do the same, or were you able to employ some sort of programme change?


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## dcoscina (Feb 2, 2009)

Just goes to show everyone that you do not need the biggest latest greatest to write good music. Congrats Fred. I'm going to re-visit Miroslav tonight. 

I always loved the sound of the strings, especially the non-looped ones. Some of the warmest most accurate string samples I have heard.


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## Rob (Feb 4, 2009)

that's great Frederick!


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## Frederick Russ (Feb 4, 2009)

Wow its hard to believe someone resurrected this old old topic. I did this cue nearly three years ago - surprised its even up online - but thanks for all the kind comments!


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