# Best Choir



## bobbyz123 (Oct 21, 2021)

This is my second post, and I would like to ask for another recommendation. What choir library is the most realistic and moving, would you say? I have to be honest: none (that I have heard) are particularly convincing. The delusional part of me dreams of making something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQoFHnkgDgo (like this beautiful James Horner solo) or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wAyMPPfw8 (Hans Zimmer monstrosity). I doubt there is a choir library that could do both equally well. I have used EastWest Choir, which is okay...and I am looking at Eric Whitacre choir, which is too...angelic and general...I would say.

TIA!


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## José Herring (Oct 21, 2021)

bobbyz123 said:


> This is my second post, and I would like to ask for another recommendation. What choir library is the most realistic and moving, would you say? I have to be honest: none (that I have heard) are particularly convincing. The delusional part of me dreams of making something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQoFHnkgDgo (like this beautiful James Horner solo) or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7wAyMPPfw8 (Hans Zimmer monstrosity). I doubt there is a choir library that could do both equally well. I have used EastWest Choir, which is okay...and I am looking at Eric Whitacre choir, which is too...angelic and general...I would say.
> 
> TIA!


Well the James Horner one is just solo vocal. If you need that hire somebody online. There are a few solo vocal libraries that can come close though. I hear the vocal one in Jaeger is pretty good but don't have it. The only thing you'll have a hard time doing is the little mordents that she's doing. That might be hard.

The Hans Zimmer one, the opening you could mimic with just multi track chanting with your budies, dark and processed. The choir part, well unfortunately for HZ and I really mean this, everything he does gets copied so relentlessly that most choir libraries with a stacc can do it.  Which is more of the Carmina Burana style of choirs which is the other most copied choir piece. So libraries could be able to do it for a while. Some may not get soft enough because it's pretty down in the piano range at the begining and so many people think that HZ is only loud. He's actually mostly turning up softer dynamics than he his loud. 

For the HZ stuff start with Storm Choir. Or the other Strezov libraries. The others like Olympus can do it. Just about any library with stacc and some amount of world building.

Long story short. The Titanic one, I wouldn't even bother with a sample library. The HZ one starts with multi trach chanting which is easy to do then get a library with agressive stacc and marcato patches with a lot of dynamic layers in them. Storm Choir is the one I know best.


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## José Herring (Oct 21, 2021)

Last thing. I don't mean to slight Hans in any way. That is a killer track and appeals to me way more than the Titanic fluff ever did. 

It's just a shame that people just try to make a career out of blatantly ripping him off.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 21, 2021)

José Herring said:


> Last thing. I don't mean to slight Hans in any way. That is a killer track and appeals to me way more than the Titanic fluff ever did.
> 
> It's just a shame that people just try to make a career out of blatantly ripping him off.


To clarify: I just meant in terms of how I might use the choir, not that I wanted to rip either of them off. For the record, I don't consider HZ to be all that innovative or James Horner to be "fluff," I find his music very moving...


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## José Herring (Oct 21, 2021)

bobbyz123 said:


> To clarify: I just meant in terms of how I might use the choir, not that I wanted to rip either of them off. For the record, I don't consider HZ to be all that innovative or James Horner to be "fluff," I find his music very moving...


James Horner isn't fluff. Titan is fluff. I think a better term would be maudlin. 

how do you mean how might you use the choir? What libraries to use or what to do with the orchestration?


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 21, 2021)

José Herring said:


> James Horner isn't fluff. Titan is fluff. I think a better term would be maudlin.
> 
> how do you mean how might you use the choir? What libraries to use or what to do with the orchestration?


Re: Titanic, agree to disagree.

Yes, what libraries to use (the quality of the samples) and what possible articulations I might use. In other words, the choir library that sounds the most realistic and gives me the widest latitutde of use (from the very soft and emotional, to the very aggressive and harsh), etc.


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## José Herring (Oct 21, 2021)

bobbyz123 said:


> Re: Titanic, agree to disagree.
> 
> Yes, what libraries to use (the quality of the samples) and what possible articulations I might use. In other words, the choir library that sounds the most realistic and gives me the widest latitutde of use (from the very soft and emotional, to the very aggressive and harsh), etc.


No one library will cover that. And the Titanic isn't a choir it's a solo vocal.

Like I said for the Titanic one https://musicalsampling.com/maggie/







Jaeger (Essential Modern Orchestra for Kontakt Player)


From the German word for “hunter”, Jaeger is a brawny and agile hybrid orchestral instrument with modernity at its core. Designed to fire up stories with a loudly dramatic flair, this is the tool that does it all. Jaeger is the first release in a series of orchestral instruments that will usher...




www.audioimperia.com


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## José Herring (Oct 21, 2021)

For the Angels and Demos style:









STORM CHOIR Ultimate


The online library for premium sound samples




www.strezov-sampling.com


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## moon (Oct 21, 2021)

To add onto this, the soloist for the first piece is Sissel Kyrkjebø. For the second, it seems likely that these are already samples. As far as I can tell, the soundtrack credits make no mention of any vocals whatsoever.


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## dnblankedelman (Oct 21, 2021)

It was a great idea to provide examples of pieces you find inspiring as you start your choir search, but I'm wondering if the responses so far are getting a bit tangled in those particular examples.

Allow me to share one of my favorite vi-c threads of all time, this choir comparison. I'm not clear this is the type of music you have in mind, but it might give you a sense of the timbre or sound of the choir libraries that feel the most moving and realistic to your ear. I know it was very helpful for me to understand my tastes.

Good luck!


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 21, 2021)

dnblankedelman said:


> It was a great idea to provide examples of pieces you find inspiring as you start your choir search, but I'm wondering if the responses so far are getting a bit tangled in those particular examples.
> 
> Allow me to share one of my favorite vi-c threads of all time, this choir comparison. I'm not clear this is the type of music you have in mind, but it might give you a sense of the timbre or sound of the choir libraries that feel like the most moving and realistic to your ear. I know it was very helpful for me to understand my tastes.
> 
> Good luck!


Oh my God, you get it. This is so helpful. Thanks.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 21, 2021)

dnblankedelman said:


> It was a great idea to provide examples of pieces you find inspiring as you start your choir search, but I'm wondering if the responses so far are getting a bit tangled in those particular examples.
> 
> Allow me to share one of my favorite vi-c threads of all time, this choir comparison. I'm not clear this is the type of music you have in mind, but it might give you a sense of the timbre or sound of the choir libraries that feel the most moving and realistic to your ear. I know it was very helpful for me to understand my tastes.
> 
> Good luck!


Yeah most of these except Strezov and EW sound like shit haha (including Eric Whitacre). Glad I checked!


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## dnblankedelman (Oct 21, 2021)

So, just a warning, these examples aren't carefully tuned to the strength of the individual libraries (and some may not be good for the particular piece) so it might not be fair to trash them just on this listen. At best, you might be able to say "not to my taste" especially give the amount of work that went into making them.

I know it was this list that got me to purchase Dominus Pro because I just loved the sound of the voices that come in at the end. Still do, still dig the library quite a bit.

Enjoy your personal search, we're all finding which things sound good to us and which sound less good.


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## Denkii (Oct 22, 2021)

bobbyz123 said:


> Yeah most of these except Strezov and EW sound like shit haha (including Eric Whitacre). Glad I checked!


That's subjective and an awful lot of opinion for what little knowledge you seem to have with them.
Hard to believe you weren't able to come to that conclusion with the official demos for those libraries.
All of them have their purpose and their place.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 22, 2021)

Denkii said:


> That's subjective and an awful lot of opinion for what little knowledge you seem to have with them.
> Hard to believe you weren't able to come to that conclusion with the official demos for those libraries.
> All of them have their purpose and their place.


Given that I didn’t know they existed, it would be a hard thing to do…


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## jcrosby (Oct 22, 2021)

Surprised no one's mentioned the up coming choir library that's a collaboration between Audio Imperia and Performance Samples. These are far and away the most realistic syllables I've heard in any library to date, at least IMO...

I've linked one example below. There's a couple more examples in the thread that's also linked... There are also examples of fast syllables (i.e. more agressive/epic/etc genres)...

Also, I have Jaeger and yes, the solo Merethe Soltvedt patches are incredibly good. 











What about Audio Imperia and Jasper Blunk's new choir library?


Hyper super duper epic, yup 🤪 Hmmmm...It's not for me then......:P




vi-control.net












What about Audio Imperia and Jasper Blunk's new choir library?


Super excited for this. I have a couple choir libs, but nothing very comprehensive.




vi-control.net


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## Futchibon (Oct 22, 2021)




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## bobbyz123 (Oct 22, 2021)

dnblankedelman said:


> So, just a warning, these examples aren't carefully tuned to the strength of the individual libraries (and some may not be good for the particular piece) so it might not be fair to trash them just on this listen. At best, you might be able to say "not to my taste" especially give the amount of work that went into making them.
> 
> I know it was this list that got me to purchase Dominus Pro because I just loved the sound of the voices that come in at the end. Still do, still dig the library quite a bit.
> 
> Enjoy your personal search, we're all finding which things sound good to us and which sound less good.


So sorry that was very rude of me. I should slow down and read that he said he didn't mix them at all, etc. Some of them sound nice, but I am still particularly surprised Eric Whitacre choir doesn't sound better than it does. I don't think it's the mixing either, but the samples on SA's site sound okay-ish as well.

Thank you for the thoughtful response! I will study these more carefully.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 22, 2021)

Futchibon said:


>



lol!


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## Geomir (Oct 22, 2021)

I think Celtia from Era II Vocal Codex could give you some decent results for the Titanic Solo Voice opening.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 22, 2021)

Geomir said:


> I think Celtia from Era II Vocal Codex could give you some decent results for the Titanic Solo Voice opening.



This is actually really cool. Thanks for your suggestion.


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## Denkii (Oct 22, 2021)

bobbyz123 said:


> Given that I didn’t know they existed, it would be a hard thing to do…


Fair point.
All I'm trying to convey is: you could be right dismissing them in the context you need them right now but I wouldn't dismiss them as blatantly as saying they all sound shit in general.
There are some things that EWC or dominus or *insert any other library in here* can do that no other library would be as good at.


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## bobbyz123 (Oct 22, 2021)

Denkii said:


> Fair point.
> All I'm trying to convey is: you could be right dismissing them in the context you need them right now but I wouldn't dismiss them as blatantly as saying they all sound shit in general.
> There are some things that EWC or dominus or *insert any other library in here* can do that no other library would be as good at.


Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.


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