Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Versatile and realistic choir

David Enos

David Enos

Sonic Concepts Media
Hi all - apologies since I know this has been beaten to death, but...

I have gotten most of my other libraries together and have been doing research on choir libraries now since Black Friday is coming. I am looking for a great all-around realistic library. Seeing what others have recommended I have narrowed down my choices to the following choirs:

Soundiron Olympus Full

Cinesamples Voxos 2

Strezov Sampling Storm Choir II

I will probably get Performance Samples' Oceania later as well for clearer staccato phrases. What I am looking for is:

- Versatility (i.e., epic film trailer sound to Danny Elfman to Church sound)

- great tone that is clear and defined

- great legato scripting

- Male, Female, and children's voices in one package (if possible)

- Playability

- good dynamic range

I'm not worried about word building options. I have listened to a lot of sound clips but as you know it's not the same as playing it yourself. I could use some constructive recommendations regarding the above libraries (if you have them) and how they could fit my needs. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you :)
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
David Enos said:
I like OT but how does Ark 2 hold up to Soundiron/Cinesamples/Strezov? Those seem to be the most used libraries
Click to expand...

I don't have ark 2, but recently playing about wth mixing the Time Macro choirs (which are limited, lacking legato) and the Soundiron Mercury elements and Venus libraries. And I was astonished at just how much I preferred the sound of the OT choirs, even without the depth of the larger MA2 choirs . If I could buy the MA2 choir alone I think I probably would. (Although of course the Soundiron libraries have other merits).


Here's a MA2 choir only demo, and it seems to roughly fit the tone of what you're looking for ...




Can't tell you much more than that except to say that it's worth a look. There are other libraries more extensive sampled, and OT isn't the driest. But terms of sound (writing before the Spitfire release) I think this might be my personal favourite.
 
Last edited:
ism said:
I don't have ark 2, but recently play about wth mixing the Time Macro choirs (whichre limited legato)
Click to expand...
Time Macro, lovely as it sounds, is limited to soft sustains only, and doesn't have true legato.

If you go the Soundiron Olympus route, you'll be able to get Micro and play with it before committing to the full library. And Soundiron is one of the few companies that allows resales. Cinesamples definitely can't be resold, but I'm not sure about Strezov. EDIT: Strezov doesn't allow resales.
 
Last edited:
David Enos said:
I like OT but how does Ark 2 hold up to Soundiron/Cinesamples/Strezov? Those seem to be the most used libraries
Click to expand...
I have both Ark choirs and the one in Time Macro. They are lovely, very playable, but limited. If you are looking for a full dedicated basic choir, I don't think they are it, even collectively. I've looked at the other three on your list (also shopping for a full choir) but have never pulled the trigger. Another one I've considered is Fluffy Audio's Dominus, though it seems to have a very ecclesiastic tone. The initial reviews were very positive even though it doesn't get as much comment around here.
 
ism said:
I don't have ark 2, but recently playing about wth mixing the Time Macro choirs (which are limited, lacking legato) and the Soundiron Mercury elements and Venus libraries. And I was astonished at just how much I preferred the sound of the OT choirs, even without the depth of the larger MA2 choirs . If I could buy the MA2 choir alone I think I probably would. (Although of course the Soundiron libraries have other merits).


Here's a MA2 choir only demo, and it seems to roughly fit the tone of what you're looking for ...




Can't tell you much more than that except to say that it's worth a look. There are other libraries more extensive sampled, and OT isn't the driest. But terms of sound (writing before the Spitfire release) I think this might be my personal favourite.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately I have to have legato scripting. But I do like OT in general
 
Land of Missing Parts said:
Time Macro, lovely as it sounds, is limited to soft sustains only, and doesn't have true legato.

If you go the Soundiron Olympus route, you'll be able to get Micro and play with it before committing to the full library. And Soundiron is one of the few companies that allows resales. Cinesamples definitely can't be resold, but I'm not sure about Strezov.
Click to expand...

Yeah, soft sustains only won't work for me. As far as Olympus, do you have it? How do you like it? Playability, legato, tone, etc.?
 
David Enos said:
Yeah, soft sustains only won't work for me. As far as Olympus, do you have it? How do you like it? Playability, legato, tone, etc.?
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, ark 2 does have legato, and very lovely legato. I wasn’t suggesting Time Macro, which clearly isn’t what you want.
 
jbuhler said:
I have both Ark choirs and the one in Time Macro. They are lovely, very playable, but limited. If you are looking for a full dedicated basic choir, I don't think they are it, even collectively. I've looked at the other three on your list (also shopping for a full choir) but have never pulled the trigger. Another one I've considered is Fluffy Audio's Dominus, though it seems to have a very ecclesiastic tone. The initial reviews were very positive even though it doesn't get as much comment around here.
Click to expand...

I've heard that Dominus has a great sound but that it's a "one trick pony". I'm not sure what the user/reviewer meant by that. Maybe someone here can clarify hopefully. Glad I'm not the only one here eyeing there libraries :)
 
David Enos said:
I've heard that Dominus has a great sound but that it's a "one trick pony". I'm not sure what the user/reviewer meant by that….
Click to expand...
I think the other user was referring to the fact that it works best for slower to moderate tempos; the transitions sound great but are slow to change between notes/syllables. It's in Latin (with a decent but not exhaustive menu of syllables, though there may be an expansion that adds the rest of the common Latin syllables), which limits its use also.

Dominus is great. I love it for what it is. But it wouldn't be a good choice for fast music or for music with words in other languages.

Edit: I should have also mentioned that it has a smooth, blended vocal style that works absolutely great for some music, but it won't give you that big, wobbly epic sound if that's what you want.
 
Last edited:
David Enos said:
Yeah, soft sustains only won't work for me. As far as Olympus, do you have it? How do you like it? Playability, legato, tone, etc.?
Click to expand...
I only have the Micro version of Olympus, and the Micro of Mercury. I mostly use choir to do soft ooo sustains, so I don't really need legato or loud trailer stuff and I might not be the best person to advise you on those. That said, you can do a lot with just the Micros. They have a couple vowels and a couple Latin phrases.

Olympus Micro is more present and a little more edge than Mercury. And Time Macro Choir's ooo's are a lot smoother and more natural sounding that the two Soundiron ones.
 
David Enos said:
I've heard that Dominus has a great sound but that it's a "one trick pony". I'm not sure what the user/reviewer meant by that. Maybe someone here can clarify hopefully. Glad I'm not the only one here eyeing there libraries :)
Click to expand...

All the walkthroughs and demos I've heard make Dominus sound very high church, and it seems focused on the softer dynamics. That may be what they mean. But I find the tone lovely and nicely varied within the basic high church sonic palette, at least in the demos I've heard.

Choir in Ark 1 is mf-fff (really barely ff in practice and I don't find it cuts through the full orchestra very well, which is odd given that the rest of the Ark I library it's packaged with); choir in Ark 2 is pp-mp. Ark 2 also has soft children's choir. The Ark choirs all have true legato, but only one vowel for sustain and legato (big limitation). The children's choir only has sustain and legato, the men's and women's choirs have syllables of varying length for marcato and staccato—these are very useful and very nice.

I also have Oceania for real ff-fff and it plays well as an extension of the choir in Ark I. That combination of Arks, Time Macro and Oceana allows me to do a lot, but I feel like some real basic choir functionality is missing, if that makes any sense.
 
All great choirs above - I recently got TM and it is absolute tool of inspiration!!! I just wanted to point out that Storm Choir is now an old product which we approved imo A LOT when you talk about legato and performance in Freyja/Wotan. Check out this polyphonic true legato demo of Wotan's latest update:

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom