# Fluffy Audio Dominus Choir



## Robo Rivard (Sep 5, 2017)

Oh yeah! Can't wait!


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## JonSolo (Sep 5, 2017)

Cool. I love the softness of this choir and will be watching for sure. I wonder how flexible the word builder is...


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## Quasar (Sep 5, 2017)

Really impressive, and bears staying tuned for further news as it develops.


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## Ian Dorsch (Sep 5, 2017)

I've spent a little quality time with the beta, and it's really, really impressive. Word builder is just Latin syllables, but there is a ton of them, and the end result is exceptionally realistic and musical-sounding.


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## rocking.xmas.man (Sep 5, 2017)

great to see a choir library demoed with actual choir music instead of nonsense epic vowel shouting.
One of the greatest compositions to sing in a choir.
I'm not shure though if I like that one more than VoP or Voxos, but it seems promising so far.


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## Ian Dorsch (Sep 5, 2017)

If I understand correctly, the O Magnum Mysterium demo is all voices played on a single track with the word builder + poly legato/mod wheel. So there are a few moments that take you out of the illusion, but it's still a pretty incredible technical feat. If you want to go deeper, you can always isolate male and female voices and break your arrangement out into separate sections/instances/MIDI tracks.


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## Robo Rivard (Sep 5, 2017)

I don't know if the update will include a transgender section...


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## BenG (Sep 5, 2017)

One of my favourite pieces and the choir sounds great!


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## kimarnesen (Sep 5, 2017)

The sound of the choir itself is good, but everything else is bad, as most choir libraries. As soon as you put two notes together you hear how little realistic this is, and how unnatural it's performed. They sing in pitch though, if that helps!


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## Polkasound (Sep 5, 2017)

Is the demo just the sound of the choir, or are the voices embellished with a pad?


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## JonSolo (Sep 5, 2017)

I do not hear a pad.


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## Polkasound (Sep 5, 2017)

Thanks Jon. Some of the sustained chords seem rather rich in mid frequencies, as if there were a mellow-sounding pad layered underneath, but maybe that's just the speakers I'm listening on right now.


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## zimm83 (Sep 6, 2017)

Man.....what's that ?? Extraordinary !!! Fantastic ?? Unreal ? Am i dreaming ???? When does this come out ?? And at what price ??? I WANT it !!!!


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## quantum7 (Sep 6, 2017)

Nice!!!


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## rvb (Sep 7, 2017)

Whenn is this coming out?!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Sep 7, 2017)

Damn! This library sounds great....just need to check our Hollywood Choirs first.


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## pfmusic (Sep 7, 2017)

Lovely sound! Like others, will wait to hear Hollywood choir and Spitfire's Choir.


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## moosethree (Sep 7, 2017)

I have heard some real choirs that did not sound real


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## MA-Simon (Sep 8, 2017)

Love how soft this sounds!


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## lucianogiacomozzi (Sep 8, 2017)

Sounds great!!!


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## JonSolo (Sep 8, 2017)

I love the coming soon...but a real ETA would be nice, heh.


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## zimm83 (Sep 8, 2017)

Yes, i agree......we can' t wait....please more infos, patches, walkthroughs !!!


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## paoling (Sep 8, 2017)

Hello Guys and thank you for the overwhelming response.
It is a lovely library and it's really fun and charming to use.

After the release of Rinascimento, and thanks to fantastic response we got from it, we have finally been able to afford a more ambitious project. (this is an implicit thank you to all our customers who believed in us).

So, the question was "what can we do next"? We pondered a lot about sampling an ensemble of instruments, because one of the things that we are looking for to make things that intrigue us: for the challenges, for the time we spend with the musicians, for the fun factor. Another violin? Naa. And so we decided to do a choir. We contacted Mario Lanaro, a skilled choir director and friend from Veneto which is a is very famous region of Italy for the tradition of choral music. Together we agreed on two of the best choirs (one male and one female) among the hundreds that he knew and we spent weeks planning the sessions together. We'll tell you more about these fantastic singers very soon.

In anycase this was a fantastic opportunity and we developed a technique that let us to have a versatile choir sound without losing anything of the beautiful musicality of the sampled material we got. The sampled syllables are made to link together like the tiles in the game Dominoes (a nice little double meaning easter egg in the name of library!). It's almost like the difference between a legato library and a non legato one. Also, we have developed a polyphonic legato system that works very intuitively using the technique (release and play) that Mike has introduced in his libraries, which is very easy to use when dealing with polyphonic material.

I'm still fixing some stuff while making some demos, because the best way to refine a library is working on actual musical material.

About patches, just one. One patch. Load, write your words or if you don't know latin there's a preset "vocabulary" of more than 200+ words. Do you miss a O legato patch? Just make a word with O. Do you want to make an U that morphs in A and make a rising legato? Write A-I Done. :D

About the release we have a date, which is really not far, but I want to be sure to deliver you a flawless experience with this library soon.
The date and the price are the only thing we'd like to keep vague for a while but not too long..!

Legenda:
Soon < Long
Soon < 1 Month
Long > 1.5 Months
1.5 Weeks < Not Far < 1.5 Month
Very Soon < 10 days


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## zimm83 (Sep 8, 2017)

Thanks. Great great great..
You say one patch, but in the video you write that there is a solo line on another track.....so ... Solo or not solo in this library? Or is it another library with solos?
Thanks and waiting...waiting.........dreaming... For me it is THE TONE i was waiting for. And polyphonic legato: Man that feature should be in 2017 in every library!!!


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## playz123 (Sep 8, 2017)

Lovely ...and unexpected. As an owner and constant user of more than a few choir libraries, I await more information on this one, and of course those from two other developers. One can never have enough (good) choir libraries!


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## zimm83 (Sep 8, 2017)

Oh i have the answer. Excuse me. It is a solo LINE...not soloist. It's OK. Waiting...waiting.....DREAMING !!


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## HiEnergy (Sep 9, 2017)

Will this run on Kontakt 5.6.6?


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## rocking.xmas.man (Sep 10, 2017)

@paoling: Since this seems to be quite nice for soft choral stuff and you're from italy (?). Maybe give the library a try on dormi jesu by fabio fresi. Thats a remarkable piece of music.


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## AllanH (Sep 10, 2017)

Amazing sound. I'm looking forward to more release information. I'll definitely be looking at this.


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## paoling (Sep 21, 2017)

Hello!
James Clark has done an unofficial technical intro video to Dominus Choir which explains a bit how the Word Editor works. There are a couple of inaccuracies (velocity lock and a Choir Balance controller in the mix page), but as usual, he's pretty clear and precise in his videos.

Thank you James! 



Just to add something more, here's our rendition of Mozart Requiem's Lacrimosa.
It has been a very fun experience to work with this piece, Mozart to me is the real epic music 



Oh, by the way, James says the release date :D


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## zimm83 (Sep 21, 2017)

Yes thank you so much for this walkthrough !. So good. Can't wait for ....tuesday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes Yes and YES !!!!!! GREAT great and GREAT !!!!


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## pfmusic (Sep 21, 2017)

Sounds brilliant!


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## Oliver (Sep 22, 2017)

incredible good  cant wait!


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## zimm83 (Sep 22, 2017)

TUESDAY !!!! Take my money......


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## bigcat1969 (Sep 22, 2017)

Grats on what looks (and sounds) to be a fine instrument. I was impressed by the legato on Rinascimento and I suspect that will be what this library is know for. At least one of the things. Having pulled some of their instruments apart and looked at the nuts and bolt, let me say that Paolo and the gang are crazy about detail on their legato.


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## zimm83 (Sep 22, 2017)

I always wanted vst with polyphonic legato. But there are not so many.....But this one...yeah !!!


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## JonSolo (Sep 22, 2017)

Great video. This might be a true must have. Great control over so much.


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## paoling (Sep 22, 2017)

To Hienergy.

I'm sorry to say no. This library requires the full version of Kontakt 5.6.8. The reason is because we have used at least three features that were already present in Kontakt 5.6 but have been fixed or refined in that version of Kontakt. I'm really sorry for that, we've started the development on that version before knowing that some people had the issues you had.

About Polyphonic legato. There are other libraries with true polyphonic legato. In anycase pay attention to this definition. For us polyphonic legato on a choir means true sampled legato transitions on each vowel for both male and female choirs. According to the current playing syllable the instrument picks right vowel to make the legato. This, in addition to the system that connects the vowel and the syllables seamlessy. Soon I'll post a micro demo which extensively uses it. We used the same idea that Mike Greene implemented in his vocal libraries, which ends to be the most intuitive way to control legato in a multi voiced instrument. As far as I know also Strezov Choirs have an engine with true polylegato.


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## HiEnergy (Sep 22, 2017)

paoling said:


> I'm sorry to say no. This library requires the full version of Kontakt 5.6.8.



That's very bad for me as I've seriously considered buying your new choir library.
Thanks a lot for your honest reply, though.


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## galactic orange (Sep 23, 2017)

HiEnergy said:


> That's very bad for me as I've seriously considered buying your new choir library.
> Thanks a lot for your honest reply, though.


NI has everybody by the short hairs so don't blame paoling. That's just the way it is.


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## HiEnergy (Sep 23, 2017)

galactic orange said:


> NI has everybody by the short hairs so don't blame paoling. That's just the way it is.


I didn't intend to blame Fluffy Audio for this. Sorry if it came across in a wrong way.


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## zimm83 (Sep 23, 2017)

I really love 5.6.8 specially for the greater GUI. Like this one and novo and thrill etc.... Better vision. Greater.


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## zimm83 (Sep 23, 2017)

Just heard mozar't requiem DOMINUS version. Man. It seems so real . GREAT.


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## Olmo (Sep 23, 2017)

Hello everybody,
Hi guys,
I only would like to point out that the clarinet you can listen in Lacrimosa mock-up made by Paolo is John Diamanti Fox: Solo Clarinet.


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## JonSolo (Sep 23, 2017)

I am on 5.7 with no issues but I am a windows user. Looking forward to this!


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## EvilDragon (Sep 23, 2017)

zimm83 said:


> I really love 5.6.8 specially for the greater GUI.



That greater GUI size was also possible in 5.6.0, just FYI.



galactic orange said:


> NI has everybody by the short hairs



Only in case of Kontakt Player libraries. If Dominus is not a KP library, it could've been released for an older version of Kontakt, but Paolo wanted to use the new KSP features, so there you have it.


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## AllanH (Sep 23, 2017)

The James Clark demo really shows promise for the product. I am very much looking forward to Tuesday's release. I could not find any discussion regarding price but maybe that's still TBD?


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## paoling (Sep 23, 2017)

Actually our mistake (my mistake) was to assume that Kontakt 5.6.8 was just a minor upgrade with bugfixes and stuff. In general the impossibility to load a library with a previous version of Kontakt is a bad joke from NI, since there's no reason why a library on Kontakt 5.6.8 shouldn't open on Kontakt 5.6.5. But this is stuff for another topic. About price we have a general idea, but we wish to keep it until the release. It will have a nice introductory price, of course.


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## AllanH (Sep 23, 2017)

I hope you have a successful release. This does (literally) sound like a breakthrough product. Looking forward to Tuesday.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 23, 2017)

paoling said:


> In general the impossibility to load a library with a previous version of Kontakt is a bad joke from NI, since there's no reason why a library on Kontakt 5.6.8 shouldn't open on Kontakt 5.6.5



Forwards compatibility is not as often found in software as you might think...It complicates a lot of things, actually.

There is at least one entry in the changelogs from 5.6.6 onward that wouldn't make it possible to load libraries higher than K5.6.5 in K5.6.5: "- ADDED XY Pad: Individual cursors can now be hidden via KSP ($HIDE_PART_CURSOR)".


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## paoling (Sep 23, 2017)

Mario, in that case the instrument would give an error in compiling the script (so you can remove the line and do it..). Before Kontakt 4 (I don't remember which subversion), the NKI was a kind of compressed XML. I'm sure that on NI side this is still true. It's so difficult to ignore the tags that refer to unavailable stuff? This is what it happens with browsers. But again, between all the implementation options, they always choose the worst route. Like the recent addition of the "Visual only" Z-Layer. What the heck?


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## constaneum (Sep 23, 2017)

i'm overwhelmed with the wide range of available words to be come out with. However, i'm a bit concern with the ease of use as understood each word will need to be assigned with the type of short/long note you'll opt for in order to make it sing the way you've wanted. How easy will this be of use for non-theory literated musicians like myself? will it be sound trial and error until i've gotten the choir to sing as i've wanted? Just curious.


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## paoling (Sep 23, 2017)

Hello Costaneum! I've started years ago making music with no former knowledge and began studying music only some years later. As far as I remember the process was a constant trial and error, which was fine, so it may work to try the vowel lengths until you find the one that suits your phrase. The note names are called according to their values, so a half value is double than a quarter and a whole is double than a half. A "dotted value" is the value+half of it. Like a dotted quarter is 2 eights (a quarter) + 1 eight (the half of a quarter).

This is all you need to know, you don't have to look at the little notes graphically, but in the end it could be a nice way to familiarize with them. We could (not in the first release because we don't have time to make great changes) maybe create an optional mode where you see the values according to their "multiplier". So, if you consider the sixteenth as the lowest possible unit of 1, a eight would be 2, a quarter 4, a dotter quarter 6 a whole 16, and so on.


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## markleake (Sep 24, 2017)

constaneum said:


> i'm overwhelmed with the wide range of available words to be come out with. However, i'm a bit concern with the ease of use as understood each word will need to be assigned with the type of short/long note you'll opt for in order to make it sing the way you've wanted. How easy will this be of use for non-theory literated musicians like myself? will it be sound trial and error until i've gotten the choir to sing as i've wanted? Just curious.


It's really just note basics, not so much music theory. I suspect you wouldn't have too much difficulty with it, and would be OK with it in a few minutes. In the GUI, it has the notes (the buttons for the lengths) arranged left to right going from shortest to longest. It can basically be summarised as:

- Each note is 2x the length of the note on its left (unless it has a small dot after it)
- If it has a small dot after it, it is instead 1.5x the length of the note on its left (and the following note ignores it for the left-> right doubling purposes)

If anything, I'd suggest you take a few minutes to learn these anyway, as it's a written music fundamental. And you really can learn this (in a basic sense anyway) in just 15 mins. This will help - top of the tree is a 'whole' note, bottom of the tree are '16th' notes:







(Refer to http://www.playpianomusic.com/how-to-read-music-note-durations for a better explanation.)


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## constaneum (Sep 24, 2017)

Thanks!


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## zimm83 (Sep 24, 2017)

[One question please. Can a keyswitch have a word with more than 4 syll/vowel ? I only see 1 to 4 in the demos ? Can we go until 8 ? Thanks.


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## paoling (Sep 24, 2017)

6 syllables for each word. We had to limit it for some design features (8 didn't fit in the GUI), but actually 6 is perfect because we couldn't find any actual longer word. You can infact combine words for maximum smoothness like Christe Eleison in Christeleison. Another nice thing is that you can often approximate missing syllables with similar sounding ones. For example in Lacrimosa we have most of the words, but sometimes we had to sing Amoreus instead of Homo Reus. Or Dies Illa in Dies Ile.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 24, 2017)

paoling said:


> Before Kontakt 4 (I don't remember which subversion), the NKI was a kind of compressed XML. I'm sure that on NI side this is still true.



Nope, that is not true anymore. It's a pure binary format now, no XML in sight.



paoling said:


> It's so difficult to ignore the tags that refer to unavailable stuff?



Yes, because you would get non-functional instruments. For example, loading a K5.6.5 NKI that bases a lot of its functionality on XY pads, in K5.5, which doesn't have said UI element. It's impossible, hence it's not going to happen. Cases like this is why forwards compatibility is *rare*.



paoling said:


> Like the recent addition of the "Visual only" Z-Layer. What the heck?



I wouldn't be so sure that it will just stay like that. In any case it provides benefits and we can do some things that we couldn't do before at all. An additional interaction-blocking mode might come at a later date, and then we'll be able do all sorts of nifty stuff.


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## paoling (Sep 24, 2017)

It's no fun to talk bad about Kontakt with you Mario :D


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## zimm83 (Sep 24, 2017)

6 ! Thanks and great !!! can't wait !


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## zimm83 (Sep 25, 2017)

Tomorrow is...........Tuesday...so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## JonSolo (Sep 25, 2017)

Yea I am pumped. I wanted to like Insolidus. But it felt so limited compared to this, so I passed on it. I was hoping to hear EWQL's latest offering, but not so much as even ONE demo.

With this we already have a walk-through. Considering I have "epic" covered well, this will be a perfect fit!


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## zimm83 (Sep 25, 2017)

JonSolo said:


> Yea I am pumped. I wanted to like Insolidus. But it felt so limited compared to this, so I passed on it. I was hoping to hear EWQL's latest offering, but not so much as even ONE demo.
> 
> With this we already have a walk-through. Considering I have "epic" covered well, this will be a perfect fit!



Same here. Epic ok. But warm and mystic like dominus . Yes !!!


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## Karma (Sep 25, 2017)




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## Lode_Runner (Sep 26, 2017)

It's Tuesday 11am in Italy... any moment now... hitting F5 on my keyboard 

PS - Fluffy - your woodwinds, simple bass and violin, and scoring piano are missing from the products drop down menu.


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## rvb (Sep 26, 2017)

Can't wait any longer!!


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## zimm83 (Sep 26, 2017)

15H30........


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## paoling (Sep 26, 2017)

@Lode_Runner you are right.. We'll Fix it soon!

If you want something to kill the wait, this is a beautiful piece by Luke Olney-Alves (almost ready..!)


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## Jdiggity1 (Sep 26, 2017)

paoling said:


> @Lode_Runner you are right.. We'll Fix it soon!
> 
> If you want something to kill the wait, this is a beautiful piece by Luke Olney-Alves (almost ready..!)



Fantastic!


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## paoling (Sep 26, 2017)

Released!


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## Paul Owen (Sep 27, 2017)

What are the velocity ranges for this library?


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## reutunes (Sep 28, 2017)

Hey all. I thought I'd drop this link here to see if it helps anyone make a decision on Dominus. This week's Samplecast show features a full review of the library - warts and all (although there's very few warts). Subscribe for future Samplecast updates HERE


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## zimm83 (Sep 28, 2017)

Sounds really MAGICAL .....The best sounding and emotional choir library i EVER heard !!!!


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## paoling (Sep 30, 2017)

One note about easiness to play... Hagai Davidoff has sent us this super cool video of him performing Dominus with a breath controller. I've always loved what great musicians could do in realtime with SampleModeling/SWAM instruments and we finally have a similar video

(Hagai plays Dominus males + organ + percussion)


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## kimarnesen (Oct 1, 2017)

I love the sound of the libraries! But what is happening on your demo of Lacrimosa by Mozart?
It sounds very strange, like the Mozart Lacrimosa sounding like cluster chords, and Mozart did not write the piece like that (!). So I don't know if it's the library that's hard to use, or just not used correctly?


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## paoling (Oct 1, 2017)

Hello! Thank you for your comments, I've read your comment on the other thread about the Lacrimosa, but I was puzzled because I couldn't understand it. Maybe I made the male section a bit too promiment and you are used to a more "female sounding" choir for that piece?
We had plenty of good feedbacks about that piece and I tried to make sure to do a decent job in mockupping it.


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## micrologus (Oct 1, 2017)

I find the sound of this library wonderful, too, but I agree with mrarnesen that there's something strange in the _Lacrimosa_ demo.

For example:

The first word ("Lacrimosa") should be homorhythmic, but in the demo some voices are not singing at the same time, I hear some overlap.
In measure 7 the sopranos are singing a sort of chromatic portamento on each syllable of "(ju-) di-can-dus".
The voices quality is outstanding, but the rhythm could perhaps be improved.


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## kimarnesen (Oct 1, 2017)

paoling said:


> Hello! Thank you for your comments, I've read your comment on the other thread about the Lacrimosa, but I was puzzled because I couldn't understand it. Maybe I made the male section a bit too promiment and you are used to a more "female sounding" choir for that piece?
> We had plenty of good feedbacks about that piece and I tried to make sure to do a decent job in mockupping it.



Hi!

I know this piece by heart, so I hear it quickly when something's not right. Let me say again that the sound is lovely and the other demos are beautiful. But listen to "sa" on the first "Lacrimosa". It sounds like a cluster. Without the midi file I can't say what's going on, but it could be some notes that shouldn't be there, or something wrong with the legato (too much over-legato as we say where I'm from, not sure about the English term, but it means one note is slightly overlapping with the next, or just way too much reverb? You can hear it well on "illa" also. The same on "judicandos" etc where it sounds like what's called grace notes on every note in that build up.

It would be easier to tell with just the choir.


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## Olmo (Oct 2, 2017)

@Polkasound: Hi! O Magnum Mysterium demo is made _just_ with Dominus Choir. No pads are used to obtain that sound. If you want, check out Hagai Davidoff live performance with Dominus Choir using a breath controller for dynamics (paoling just posted it up here).


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## Polkasound (Oct 2, 2017)

Olmo, thank you. I was able to figure that out after hearing other demos over the last few weeks. To my ears, some long sustains take on an almost organ-like quality, as if room resonance was boosting midrange frequencies. (But neither choirs nor large recording spaces are my specialty.)


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## quantum7 (Oct 4, 2017)

What country is Fluffy Audio from? I've been trying to reach them to ask questions about Dominus choir, but I've had no luck getting a response in the past four days. Perhaps my browser is having problems with getting them the message, who knows. Does anyone have the direct email address for Fluffy Audio?


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## paoling (Oct 4, 2017)

Hello Sean, you wrote me two days ago not four. We got your message but we slightly give precedence to support requests, so I apologize if I couldn't get back to you earlier. I'm answering right now.

Oh, by the way we are from Italy.


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## paoling (Oct 4, 2017)

kimarnesen said:


> It would be easier to tell with just the choir.


Hello, I've uploaded a version of the Lacrimosa with just Dominus Choir and No Reverb.



If you are a Mozart expert you would recognize that some words are different, because we have substituted the words that aren't doable with the library with other words (like Ille with Illa, Amoreus with Homo Reus) . In the case of Qua Resurget Ex Favilla, we have almost completely changed it.

To me the weakest part is the staccato, because this is not a library for Marcato/Staccato, but in anycase with all these compromises I still believe that this maybe the only library that makes a piece like this at least "accessible". Then I really know well what are the dangers in doing classical mockups with libraries, since we got some very harsh critiques on our rendition of the beginning of the Rhapsody in Blue with our clarinet library.


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## Mucusman (Oct 4, 2017)

I'll jump in to say that I had some pre-sale questions that I asked (initial question was asked via the web site's "contact us" form), and the responses I receved to my questions were almost immediate. I was favorably impressed.


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## kimarnesen (Oct 4, 2017)

paoling said:


> Hello, I've uploaded a version of the Lacrimosa with just Dominus Choir and No Reverb.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Very interesting to hear the naked version, thank you. It's mostly a precision/timing issue. It's tempting to try doing a mockup myself, but want to wait and hear more demos.


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## quantum7 (Oct 4, 2017)

paoling said:


> Hello Sean, you wrote me two days ago not four. We got your message but we slightly give precedence to support requests, so I apologize if I couldn't get back to you earlier. I'm answering right now.
> 
> Oh, by the way we are from Italy.



Hi! I actually sent three emails to you guys of the past four days, but I really think it is the fault of my browser at not getting it out. I've had nonstop problems with it, so I'm just happy that you got one of my messages.  Please take care of your customers first, and I will just wait to hear back from you. Now I at least know that my message was received. Again, thank you.


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## JonSolo (Oct 4, 2017)

Well...no reverb...wow...still sounds just awesome. But I love the dryness of it. This seems like it could blend with anything.


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## quantum7 (Oct 4, 2017)

I made contact with the great folks at Fluffy Audio and will be purchasing Dominus Choir! I beleive this will be really a great choir for my upcoming new album. Mille Grazie, Paolo!


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## Rodney Money (Oct 4, 2017)

Robo Rivard said:


> Oh yeah! Can't wait!



I can hear the beauty of the V.I. but as someone who has studied that piece thoroughly planning on conducting it soon, unfortunately that was painful to listen to. Please ignore my comments as I do offer my cragrats to the developer on their efforts.


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## kimarnesen (Oct 5, 2017)

Rodney Money said:


> I can hear the beauty of the V.I. but as someone who has studied that piece thoroughly planning on conducting it soon, unfortunately that was painful to listen to. Please ignore my comments as I do offer my cragrats to the developer on their efforts.



Are you a choral conductor?


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## Rodney Money (Oct 5, 2017)

kimarnesen said:


> Are you a choral conductor?


Everything conductor.


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## kimarnesen (Oct 5, 2017)

Balefire said:


> Play that demo to a thousand members of the public and I'd be surprised if you even get one who says it sounds bad or unnatural.
> 
> I wonder if the general public are aware of just how much orchestral music they hear in TV and film is from sample libraries. Most of them probably don't even know what a sample library is.



Well, many have not heard a great choir sing either, or been to a symphony concert. So I’m afraid many don’t know more about that than sample libraries.


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## sostenuto (Oct 5, 2017)

Rodney Money said:


> I can hear the beauty of the V.I. but as someone who has studied that piece thoroughly planning on conducting it soon, unfortunately that was painful to listen to. Please ignore my comments as I do offer my cragrats to the developer on their efforts.



Trying to read, _carefully_, between the lines here. Don't take this as criticism of VI at all, but perhaps some relevance? 
Important, as Insolidus on-sale right now and not that much more. As usual, likely each VI has their strengths, depending. 
Will watch for further developments ....


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## Rodney Money (Oct 5, 2017)

sostenuto said:


> Trying to read, _carefully_, between the lines here. Don't take this as criticism of VI at all, but perhaps some relevance?


Simply put, if a composer uses this new choir virtual instrument utilizing the strengths of the actual library itself as the basis of their composition then they will be successful in their quest of realism, but like other choir libraries before, if their goal is rendering realistic works especially intended for live performance, then unfortunately we are still not quite there concerning technological advances.


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## sostenuto (Oct 5, 2017)

Rodney Money said:


> Simply put, if a composer uses this new choir virtual instrument utilizing the strengths of the actual library itself as the basis of their composition then they will be successful in their quest of realism, but like other choir libraries before, if their goal is rendering realistic works especially intended for live performance, then unfortunately we are still not quite there concerning technological
> advances.



As church pianist/organist  .... still hesitant to say I comprehend _fully_, the essence of your Reply.

With only minimal, non-specific, VI choral needs .... recent leaning to E/W Composer Cloud seems most rational expenditure for present (especially as Hollywood Choirs release is imminent) ?

THX


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## Olmo (Oct 6, 2017)

kimarnesen said:


> Well, many have not heard a great choir sing either, or been to a symphony concert. So I’m afraid many don’t know more about that than sample libraries.


I completely agree. By the way it is also true that even inexperienced can recognize a "good tune" not only for comparison with others.


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## Sid Francis (Oct 6, 2017)

And even without liking classical music too much nor listening to choirs very often I immediately noticed this "smear" effect in the demo. In fact I thought "Mozart did THIS?" But :SOUNDWISE for me this is the most convincing choir library since a very long time. So I would just simply do other things with it than in this demo )


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## bigcat1969 (Oct 6, 2017)

Paolo and Fluffy Audio were kind enough and brave enough to provide me with a review copy recently.

In playing with Dominus I was quickly reminded of an old saying about the King James Bible that the translators' English was brilliant and the Hebrew / Greek was adequate. If you read the Psalms for the beauty of the English language and a reasonable facsimile of the ancient Hebrew you are in great shape. If you are trying for exact meaning, not so much.

Dominus has to me a breath taking tone and reminds me of first playing with my personal favorite instrument ever Blue ( I'm not gonna get banned from this forum! . As someone who cannot sing period, being able to produce something resembling singing in my own song was amazingly gratifying and still is. However I came to realize that I couldn't get all the way there with exactly the right words and some work was needed to massage Blue into getting very close and being on time.

Dominus is similar in that I can get about 90% of a Gregorian chant the way I want it from what I understand of Latin. I did study classical Greek for a time and they are somewhat similar. For instance it doesn't do Q so if I remember right I went Cuia for Quia. Also I discovered that sometimes when I thought I wanted a word starting with A, I really needed to look under words starting with E but once the word was sung it was a very small difference.

Dominus has brilliant tone and passable Latin. It is quite easy to get passable Latin from the pre-built words or Latin gibberish that sounds lovely from the word builder. If you really dig in and experiment you can get fairly good Latin and good phrasing if you work with the clever notes for each syllable and tinker with the notes in your DAW. If you try hard enough you might even impress Mr. Money!

These Chant lyrics are really fun to try out with Dominus...
https://www.chantcd.com/index.php/page/shop:chant_lyrics/

I'm off to try pull Dominus apart, see what makes it tick and do an in depth review.


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## sostenuto (Oct 6, 2017)

How to make '_fair_' comparison with Insolidus  .... what areas to examine carefully ??
Not so easy to evaluate/critique with minimal Choir Lib exposure ..... ( _have only Choir content in The Orchestra, and very recent E/W Composer Cloud use of Symphonic Choir_ )

Does anyone have experience with BOTH Insolidus & Dominus , to be able to post relevant points?


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## kimarnesen (Oct 6, 2017)

Sid Francis said:


> And even without liking classical music too much nor listening to choirs very often I immediately noticed this "smear" effect in the demo. In fact I thought "Mozart did THIS?" But :SOUNDWISE for me this is the most convincing choir library since a very long time. So I would just simply do other things with it than in this demo )



I agree, I think it’s best to realize its limitations and not make demos that are in fact showing what a library can’t do, but focus on what it can do: Quasiwords, slow sustains or just vowels. That’s also what one would need of a library. Both Dominus and Insolidus sounds great for that, and could probably be used a cappella in a movie, and not just hide behind an orchestra as with other more fake-sounding libraries. But if you were going to use Lauridsen’s O magnum mysterium or Mozart’s Lacrimosa in a movie, there’s simply no other way that using a real choir, and probably never will be.


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## paoling (Oct 6, 2017)

I know some people who have both libraries, Sostenuto. I have both, but I'm sure that it won't be an unbiased opinion  
So anyone who wants to join the conversation it will be cool.

Before making Dominus, I bought A LOT of other libraries, to make my experiments, to study how we could try to improve the "staticity" of an approach that when its realistic it feels limited by the fixed structure of the available words, and when it's completely customizable it took ages to get passable results. In my humble opinion. 

The best tools for that were both Venus and Insolidus (I can say? Will I be able to buy from them again?  which have a lovely sound I could make my experiments with. Other libraries that I had my hands on where the choirs patches form Ark 2, which are the among the loveliest in the market. And Oceania, which I like for what it does.

That's why we went 100% with a sampling approach that we thought it could work. We've also tried to make a compact library. One patch with everything. About the realism of the mockups I repeat what I said about classical mockups, I had only good opinions (from many people including choir directors) on those two classical mockups, but I was prepared to face some deserved criticism from people who know well those pieces. 

Oh, by the way, Brad Jerkins sent me a very nice short demo in cinematic style. It makes me want to see the whole movie


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## kimarnesen (Oct 6, 2017)

And we really need more choir libraries so I support the effort very much. Especially as a composer of a lot of choral music, I’m quite interested in this. I mostly want a library that just inspires me in the composition process, so I’m not really looking for something that could perform a classical piece. It would be exciting to collaborate with developers of such libraries in the future.


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## sostenuto (Oct 6, 2017)

paoling said:


> I know some people who have both libraries, Sostenuto. I have both, but I'm sure that it won't be an unbiased opinion
> So anyone who wants to join the conversation it will be cool.
> 
> Before making Dominus, I bought A LOT of other libraries, to make my experiments, to study how we could try to improve the "staticity" of an approach that when its realistic it feels limited by the fixed structure of the available words, and when it's completely customizable it took ages to get passable results. In my humble opinion.
> ...


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## sostenuto (Oct 6, 2017)

For my needs, your Reply is really cool ! Not having the ability to audition multiple Libraries, I could not put into words what you posted so well 
" ..... _how we could try to improve the "staticity" of an approach that when its realistic it feels limited by the fixed structure of the available words, and when it's completely customizable it took ages to get passable results."
_
Dominus Intro cost is attractive and my interests are for a tool which can allow me to create without extraordinary 'customizable' efforts (_beyond my skill set, as well_).

Thank-you for helping!


_


_


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## guydoingmusic (Oct 7, 2017)

paoling said:


> Oh, by the way, Brad Jerkins sent me a very nice short demo in cinematic style. It makes me want to see the whole movie




Thanks Paolo!

I have to say this library is EASY to get a good sound from right away. The words list being so extensive - it makes that much easier to find what you are looking for. Occasionally, I would find a syllable that I didn't like as much... but with a couple of clicks of the mouse, it was fixed. 

That track features only one instance of Dominus. The way I approached it was simple. I played through many of the word choices and found ones I liked for each section of the song. Set the rhythm that I wanted (which btw is completely an awesome feature!!). Then, I was able to play the whole song in one take... granted I'm a decent player, but still it is very playable. It plugged right into my template with ease. I think eq'd a little 300hz out and brightened the top end to taste to push it out further in the mix. The mic positions are helpful in dialing in more options but in my track I believe I used the default mix.


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## Joe_D (Oct 11, 2017)

Hi Paolo,

First, congratulations for capturing the magnificent sound of these choirs and for making an innovative and useful VI with them. I just purchased it.

I have a feature request: can you make a mode (or a separate .nki) that would allow us to sustain each syllable for as long a duration and through as many notes as we like, until we press an "advance" keyswitch, at which time the next syllable would sound with the next note?

This would allow us to re-use the same word, adding different rhythms and varied melismas (sustained vowels sung through two or several notes) each time we used it. Here's how it would work:

In Fluffy Dominus syllable except the final syllables ends with a vowel, and you seem to have all of the vowels available as separate syllables. So, when we play the first note, the first syllable would sound, and would sustain as long as we hold the note. If we then played another note before pressing the "advance" keyswitch, the engine would legato-transition to the ending vowel of the syllable. That would continue to happen (making melismas of any length possible) until we press the "advance" keyswitch, after which, the next note we played would perform the next syllable.

If we then used one instance of Dominus per part (soprano, alto…), this would make it a million times easier and more practical to compose/perform contrapuntal music. Choirs such as the beautiful ones you recorded were truly invented to perform contrapuntal music in which the same word is passed around with different rhythms and melisma lengths.

Here's a famous example, just one point of imitation from Victoria's _O Magnum Mysterium_ (see the score fragment below):








Here, the text is "Ja -cen - tem in prae - se - pi - o." The "cen" is used with 1 and 7 notes (a melisma). The "prae" is used with 2, 3, and 5 note melismas. The "se" is used with 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9 note melismas. In addition, the rhythms of the words are often different even when there is the same number of notes per syllable.

This kind of thing would be incredibly hard to do with your current system (it would take dozens and dozens of instances on different tracks/channels, I think), but it would be easy to do with the additional system I am proposing (using one or a few instances per voice part). It seems to me (I could be wrong) that you already have all of the necessary samples edited, recorded, and legato transitioned. Of course, it would require a lot of scripting effort, but it would dramatically expand the usefulness of the library, in my opinion.

Thanks,

Joe

P.S. - and everybody, enjoy the Victoria recording


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## paoling (Oct 12, 2017)

Hello Joe, thank you so much for your nice words.

Let me say one thing. I originally thought for Dominus to create 3 kind of playing modes. The first one is the current single one system in the library: you write your words, you set the different times for each one and you go. The second one was called "Trigger Mode" which is exactly what you said: a keyswitch or the sustain pedal to advance the words. The third one was called "Release and Play" mode, so you can release all your keys and play them again to make the choir to advance the word.

But after building the first mode we've realized one important thing: the reason why the library is so smooth is because it takes all the time he needs to crossfade between vowel and syllables. When you are not forcing it to make very short note values, it can can make transitions up to 1.5 seconds long to achieve the smoothest sound possible. This is also done because as explained in the Engine Walkthrough video all the consonants for a syllable actually happen before the actual beat.

So, the only way to make a decent "trigger method" would be to trigger in advance the words that you want. But this would end to be quite complicated to control, because it's not really intuitive to have a choir that delays your "triggerings" of up to a second. Shortening this delay would really kill its smoothness.

But something I'm really keen to add to the library is a sort of monophonic legato mode, where you can play single lines with ease. It's just a matter of changing the rule for the legato, since now you have to release a key and press another one, which is the opposite of what you normally do with non-polylegato libraries.

By the way a user has sent us this lovely demo with the organ from Rinascimento and Dominus. They are a good match together because they are sampled in the same hall.


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## micrologus (Oct 12, 2017)

First attempts with Dominus Choir... The sound is beautiful.


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## paoling (Oct 12, 2017)

The "user" above is micrologus  beautiful stuff. Really


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## wpc982 (Oct 13, 2017)

I'd support something like Joe D requests. The very first thing I wanted out of this library -- actually the second, the first being to eliminate the enormous reverb -- was simple vowel sounds, repeated. There is a lot of music where a 'word' is represented by a melisma, lots of notes per vowel.


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## paoling (Oct 13, 2017)

Hello Wpc, I don't fully understand. If you want to make vowel only words you can just load a word with a single vowel or a word with vowels+vowel "syllables" like ai ae iu and play with them. If you want to make melismas on the sustain of a single word, just make a word with some large values that make you able to make your own legato melismas during the sustain of that syllable (which sustains on a vowel).


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## wpc982 (Oct 13, 2017)

It is quite possible that I do not yet understand how to use the Dominus choir in a midi sequence! Just got it after all.




Here's an image of a choral work for which I thought the choir would be great. This is measure 101, so there's lots going on before this point. Am I supposed to create a "word" that reads " Do - o - o - o -mi -num, do -o -o -o - mi num, Do - o - o - o - o - o - o - o - o -mi- num, Do -mi - num, Ma - a - a - a - a - a -a -a - gni - fi -cat" for the soprano part here? Given I did that, how, in a midi sequence, do I then say, OK WORD, here's your entrance! ? Again, apologies if I'm missing something crucial.https://www.dropbox.com/s/jopj3rq1fi4fzgf/mag_022.png?dl=0


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## paoling (Oct 13, 2017)

Hello wpc, for a piece like this, you can make a word 
DOMINUM
DO= 1 whole note, MI= 1 quarter, NUM (1 eight, but it doesn't care, if you make it 1 quarter it sounds a bit smoother)
Writing DO-O-O would sound a bit less smooth because you are forcing the library to crossfade between identical vowels (but it's a method that could be used to create more complex rhythms or longer vowels than two bars).

I suggest you, for polyphonic pieces like this, not to create a track for each voice. Just group them when they make an identical homorhythmic phrase. For example the Alto and the Tenors could be in the very same track of the Sopranos. To make a polyphonic legato on the vowel sustains, just make a small gap between the notes (this is a method I borrowed by the implementation of polylegato by Mike Greene, thanks Mike!) and they will lead to the notes with a legato (there are also rules for precisely voice leading in this case, I'd maybe do a video for that). If you hear that the word is reset, it's because the gap is to large. This gap depends by the Legato/Release knob.

When two different words overlap, like Magnificat and Dominus, or very different word rhythms overlap you'll have to use another instance of Dominus.

Listen: a user has sent me a very challenging piece to me, asking for some suggestions to make it sound nicer. It's Crucifixus by Antonio Lotti.
This is a challenging piece to render with the choir (but I mean, at least it's "doable") because every one of the eight voice has a rhythmic different line and entrance. So: eight instances of Dominus!
Unfortunately, having a single track instance for simultaneosly performing different words with different rhythms on different registers is almost an impossible task for a VI.
(there can be little musical errors, this is the version I've sent him after a quick re-edit)



And this is a screenshot of the BASS 2 part:






The notes are slightly separated to make them legatos and the two keyswitches in the bottom mark the beginnings of the words to be performed.

Since making legato with note separation is slightly less intuitive than the usual overlapping keys method for non-polyphonnic parts, I would add a mode where you can play single lines with an easier approach.


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## wpc982 (Oct 13, 2017)

Thanks, I'm getting a better idea. (post edited .. problem solved)

Now to figure out next how to write 10 word pieces. 

Magnificat
anima
mea
dominum is ok. 

What am I going to do with "Credo in unum deum Patrem omnipotentem factorem coeli et terrae .. " oops more than 10 words. ??


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## paoling (Oct 13, 2017)

Yes, click on the little camera icon


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## paoling (Oct 13, 2017)

Sometimes you can (and it sounds better) think of words as "grouped". For example to make coeli et terrae, you can do a word like ce li e te re (sounds almost the same). In a single word.
It sounds better and more connected.

Omnipotentem it's impossible to do exactly with the syllables available, but you maybe can get it with some similar sounding ones.


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## kimarnesen (Oct 13, 2017)

paoling said:


> Hello wpc, for a piece like this, you can make a word
> DOMINUM
> DO= 1 whole note, MI= 1 quarter, NUM (1 eight, but it doesn't care, if you make it 1 quarter it sounds a bit smoother)
> Writing DO-O-O would sound a bit less smooth because you are forcing the library to crossfade between identical vowels (but it's a method that could be used to create more complex rhythms or longer vowels than two bars).
> ...




Love the sound here! Truely amazing. Could you make a video on the release and attack possibilities? How to make smooth legatos with no overlapping in the sound.


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## Oliver (Oct 19, 2017)

Guys, i have to say i hate this library!
really!
Why?

My girlfriend sat besides me yesterday and created new words and i played. After one hour i had to take the power off!
It's magical and addictive!

Well...
and the best choir library i have! (and i have many!)
great stuff!!!!!


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## Olmo (Oct 20, 2017)

@Oliver: when your girl sat besides you, did you try to build up the right sentences with Dominus? Could be a nice experiment of communication... 
By the way, Maurizio Sacquegna, the conductor of the Vocal Ensemble "Novecento" - the male voices of Dominus - has told me that his choir just won the first prize in the National Competition "Città di Fermo". He sent me this genuine picture: 






Nice!


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## Oliver (Oct 20, 2017)

Olmo said:


> @Oliver: when your girl sat besides you, did you try to build up the right sentences with Dominus? Could be a nice experiment of communication...
> By the way, Maurizio Sacquegna, the conductor of the Vocal Ensemble "Novecento" - the male voices of Dominus - has told me that his choir just won the first prize in the National Competition "Città di Fermo". He sent me this genuine picture:
> 
> Nice!



Congratulations!

And i will try to sing "I Love you" tonight!
Lets see what happens


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## axb312 (Dec 31, 2017)

Has anyone tried to use this in a more "epic" piece? Can you share the results?


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## SoundChris (Dec 31, 2017)

axb312 said:


> Has anyone tried to use this in a more "epic" piece? Can you share the results?



Well I think this library was not designed for the standard hollywood epic style. But "Epic" is quite a cloudy term. If you want to write a soft and cinematic track that would fit to soundtracks like Kingdom of Heaven, Illuminati and such stuff it would work very well i guess. Also for the softer style that Hans Zimmer used quite often many years ago (the Mozart Requiem inspired tracks if you know what i mean). If you want the current "Epic" Standard sound there are other libraries


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## AllanH (Dec 31, 2017)

Does anyone know why some of the keys are yellow on the virtual keyboard? 
The yellow keys seem just like any other note for the Choir, other than being at the low or high.


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## paoling (Dec 31, 2017)

Hello Allan, I should send reply to your mail. The yellow keys, completely Orchestral Tools’ style, shows the choir “extended” range. Those notes can sound slighly less real, but they are accettable enough for working.

About epic stuff, Brad Jerkins has made a kind of short epic demo:


About epic/non epic I feel that the dynamic is there, only there’s no staccato a la O Fortuna.


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## conan (Dec 31, 2017)

I’ve only owned this for a day but am liking it so far. My only wish is for more Latin word fragments as I am finding the included selection to be more limited than I had assumed. I hope that more combinations are planned for a future expansion.


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## axb312 (Dec 31, 2017)

paoling said:


> Hello Allan, I should send reply to your mail. The yellow keys, completely Orchestral Tools’ style, shows the choir “extended” range. Those notes can sound slighly less real, but they are accettable enough for working.
> 
> About epic stuff, Brad Jerkins has made a kind of short epic demo:
> 
> ...




So the lib. is legato only? Must have missed that somehow...

Are there any plans to release staccato samples in a future update? Really don't like/ want to subscribe to this philosophy of different VIs for different styles (a real choir can do pretty much everything can't they...)...

Also, please check your PMs.


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## paoling (Dec 31, 2017)

Mmm... if I have to be sincere there are different choirs for different styles of music. A choir specialized in church repertoire may not be the ideal for performing contemporary repertoire. And also: the voice is maybe the most difficult instrument to sample, so we have tried to limit our project to a repertoire and a language that could be covered fairly well, instead of trying to make a jack of all trades with humbling results. And this will be more or less the path we’ll follow in the next projects: we’d always try make the best for a niche than trying to make the definitive instruments for any kind of musical genres. It’s a more honest appproach to our customers and a more down to earth route for us. In any case, in real music there are really lots of different kind of choirs according to the music they intend to perform (for example the choirs we have sampled were specialized in latin modern and renaissance music). What we have tried to do with Dominus is a choir which can do flowing slow choral music in the most realistic and versatile way.


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## Kony (Dec 31, 2017)

paoling said:


> What we have tried to do with Dominus is a choir which can do flowing slow choral music in the most realistic and versatile way.


... and you did it so well, I think the consensus is a demand for more. Hopefully you have more choir libraries covering other styles in the pipeline.


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## AllanH (Dec 31, 2017)

paoling said:


> Mmm... if I have to be sincere there are different choirs for different styles of music. ... What we have tried to do with Dominus is a choir which can do flowing slow choral music in the most realistic and versatile way.



I'm very impressed with the sound and versatility within the design objective. Dominus happens to fit my writing, and I'm thrilled with the flexibility and natural sound.


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## axb312 (Dec 31, 2017)

paoling said:


> Mmm... if I have to be sincere there are different choirs for different styles of music. A choir specialized in church repertoire may not be the ideal for performing contemporary repertoire. And also: the voice is maybe the most difficult instrument to sample, so we have tried to limit our project to a repertoire and a language that could be covered fairly well, instead of trying to make a jack of all trades with humbling results. And this will be more or less the path we’ll follow in the next projects: we’d always try make the best for a niche than trying to make the definitive instruments for any kind of musical genres. It’s a more honest appproach to our customers and a more down to earth route for us. In any case, in real music there are really lots of different kind of choirs according to the music they intend to perform (for example the choirs we have sampled were specialized in latin modern and renaissance music). What we have tried to do with Dominus is a choir which can do flowing slow choral music in the most realistic and versatile way.



So no plans to add a workable staccato to this "versatile" library?


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## tim727 (Feb 9, 2018)

Does anyone have any examples of this lib being used in a more "epic" sort of piece? I understand that this library can't perform particularly fast/aggressive passages, but even powerful/epic orchestral pieces will often have quieter/softer sections ... so I would be curious to see an example of this lib being used in such a piece because I have not yet.


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## JT (Apr 13, 2018)

Does Dominus allow you to play freely with neutral syllables. (oo's, ah's, etc...)?
Or is everything based on the word builder, assigning note values to them?


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## paoling (Apr 14, 2018)

You can play freely on the last vowel on the word and of course you can make words of just ooohs aaahs. The beauty is that the legato auto connects the voices for a nice smooth and lovely sound


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## Robo Rivard (Apr 18, 2018)

Do you plan to release another vocal product with the same philosophy?... A falsetto would be nice, or some old dark and deep Russian orthodox choir... Nothing too cinematic, just beautiful and natural sounding material, like Rinascimento and Dominus.


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## paoling (Apr 19, 2018)

Hello Robo! We have plans for Dominus. Regarding styles, in general, we love and wish to stay faithful to the italian tradition. I wouldn’t have a clue on how to deal with a russian choir for example 

About falsetto we tried something but things didn’t go well :-/


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## bigcat1969 (Apr 19, 2018)

With all the recent voices series coming out I'm hoping for Voices of the Caesars. You probably don't need to record a pp layer!


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## JEPA (Apr 19, 2018)

paoling said:


> latin modern and renaissance music


as a side question, could you please refer me to some literature about the tuning of the voice in this epoch? I am writing my degree tesis about tuning about this time in the music history.. Thank you very much!


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## paoling (Apr 20, 2018)

Hello JEPA, very interesting question! 

I almost don't have a clue about that (it's a very wide topic and there were dozens of different tunings before Bach made equal temperament was so popular).

But I know people that is very competent on this topic, so I'll write you when we'll have some info about that.


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## Robo Rivard (May 3, 2018)

paoling said:


> Hello Robo! We have plans for Dominus. Regarding styles, in general, we love and wish to stay faithful to the italian tradition. I wouldn’t have a clue on how to deal with a russian choir for example
> 
> About falsetto we tried something but things didn’t go well :-/


Just focus on doubling the combinations of syllabus on Dominus, for more expression, and add a children choir with the same philosophy.


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## paoling (May 4, 2018)

The children choir is a great idea. We just have to be sure that we can make the young little singers comfortable with the stressing environment of a sampling session. This is the thing that mostly scares us! There are actually some good children choirs in our region, but I never worked with kids and I feel a little worried about that!

About Dominus we have some ideas to make it a rounder library: the Latin/Italian spelling could be extended as a kind of phonetic language for English. So if we can include all the missing morphing combinations of vowels and some new syllables, the possible combinations will rise to a exponential level.

For example the phrase "I love you" could be spelled in Italian: "Ai loviu" (in other words: if an Italian without prior English knowledge would speak this sentence it would sound like "I love you" in English). This is not a perfect way to conceptualize the problem, because phonemes like "r" in the word "are" aren't available in italian. But at that point the overall blurring of choir singing can be an advantage. For example I made some tests and if you write "Pilius" in Dominus it sounds exactly as a beliavable "Filius". In the piece Tenera Memoria, the choir actually sings "Tenerra", but it sounds exactly like Tenera.

The other thing to add is staccato playing (like all the other libraries). The best way to implement it is not letter-by-letter construction, but instead by sampling entire syllables (a la Oceania). So if we have a word like "Lacrimosa" we can disassemble in "La Cri Mo Sa" for staccato playing and it will be "La acri imo osa" as usual for legato smooth playing.

I suppose that we can "easily" sample all the possible staccato syllables (there are no more than about 150), while the possible classical Dominus syllables are actually more than 750, now we have about 200 of them, but as I said we can "derive" a lot from similar sounding syllables.

In this new idea of Dominus any legato phrase could easily be "promoted" to a staccato one. Also there is space to add stuff like "mmm" and things like that.. let's see!

But before Dominus we'll work on another big project..! More info soon! :D


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## bigcat1969 (May 4, 2018)

You blow my mind man. Me looking into your instruments is like a guy who makes mo-peds in his garage stripping a Ferrari to see how it works. I look at the engineering involved and think you like Ozymandias should tell us to "look at my works and despair." I recently tried to explain why Kontakt was worth getting by referencing Dominus and now you are gonna improve on awesome and my recent hit was a retro synth choir that can say 'oo' and 'ah'. lol. Sorry for the fanboy post.


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## paoling (May 4, 2018)

Thank you so much Joe! I hope that everything will go as planned


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## tim727 (Jul 17, 2018)

@paoling I really want to pull the plug and purchase this library but I'm concerned that perhaps it can only be used with quite slow tempos/longer note lengths. This suspicion is due to the fact that all the demos seem to consist of that type of style.

What would you say is the highest tempo for which a several-syllable word sung with quarter notes for each syllable would still sound convincing? Could it handle quarter notes at 120 bpm? 130 bpm? If I know it could handle quarter notes at 120/130 that would probably be enough for me to purchase this. And if it could handle 8th notes at those same tempos then that would be *incredible*. It's just that the demos don't really seem to demonstrate that so it's unclear to me whether it will sound passable or not.

Edit: If I could use Dominus to perform something like "Cuncti Simus Concanentis" I'd probably die of happiness:


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