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Eric Whitacre Choir

Partly "epic". If I was thinking about what I'd like to have as far as choirs go, there's be this Whitacre approach, some bombastic "epic" Instruments, a big Baltic/Slavic Bass Choir, and a good Children's Choir (with Boy's Choir) ala the AudioBro one. I'm patch-working everything together already in that way, but it would be nice/interesting to have it all as one package, with a unified room environment.

EWC is very, very nice for what it is. I think the hype leading up to it's release had me (and I suspect plenty of others) hoping (without justification) for something more complete. The whole marketing-leadup-event-launch paradigm that's been emerging is starting to scramble my brain and probably create a backlash. I prefer not to get my hopes up on products before I can discover them on their own merits - like the Emotional Violin, which (to me) came out of (relatively) nowhere, and has been surprisingly delightful to get to know.
 
BTW, before this was released, I was wondering if this was going to be different enough from EW Hollywood Choirs, 8Dio Emperium/Titan, etc. (all good products). After watching Paul Thompson's video, I'm very much convinced it is quite different, and does not duplicate the things I already own.
 
Looks REALLY good. Just bought it, and waiting for my download info. This is going to be a real treat under the fingers.

It will be interesting to see how ubiquitous the Eric Whitacre choir sound becomes over the next year or so. I am very happy to have it, though. I wonder if in retrospect, Eric Whitacre will consider this to have been a good career move or not. Will it increase the demand for the real Eric Whitacre choir, or will it make the sound become passé (in a similar manner to the way the East West choir VIs made the whole Orff Carmina Burana Latin choir thing overused and tired)? Time will tell, but the best way to keep whatever it is that you do valuable is to keep it rare.

I could see the *sound* becoming overused, but to actually use the sound well requires a more scarce kind of skill, so I don't think Eric is in any danger. ;)

As for me, I can't quite fit it in the budget yet, which is killing me, but it's inevitable. Choral music is a big part of my musical heritage, and Eric's in particular was really significant for me during some difficult periods. I likely wouldn't be who I am today without it. It's wonderful to have a choral VI which finally reflects all of that.
 
I'm listening to Paul's demo "Silver Locket" and this thing sounds bloody amazing! I particularly like the focused tone of the ensemble (22 singers), you can almost feel their breath. Today everything seems to be getting bigger and louder, and here they are, going smaller and intimate. I was wondering how this choir would hold up against the competition but no other library sounds like that.

Congratulations, @Spitfire Team
 
EWC is very, very nice for what it is. I think the hype leading up to it's release had me (and I suspect plenty of others) hoping (without justification) for something more complete. The whole marketing-leadup-event-launch paradigm that's been emerging is starting to scramble my brain and probably create a backlash. I prefer not to get my hopes up on products before I can discover them on their own merits - like the Emotional Violin, which (to me) came out of (relatively) nowhere, and has been surprisingly delightful to get to know.

I think we all hope for something super-extraordinary, but I'm satisfied regarding what this appears to be at the price being asked. A word builder certainly would have been great, but honestly, I couldn't imagine SF locking down this very busy choir in a studio for the insane amount of time it would have taken to get that. That would be a very tedious task, and might have driven them nuts in the process. It sounds like what we got is Eric Whitacre's choir actually performing.
 
Sounds great for atmosphere composers. But I couldn't help but notice legatos were glossed over fairly quickly and were not very impressive. I feel like with the release of their studio strings, Spitfire is gravitating away from industry leading legatos and going more towards atmosphere/sound design tools which seem to be the bulk of their demos.
 
Sounds great for atmosphere composers. But I couldn't help but notice legatos were glossed over fairly quickly and were not very impressive. I feel like with the release of their studio strings, Spitfire is gravitating away from industry leading legatos and going more towards atmosphere/sound design tools which seem to be the bulk of their demos.
HZ strings legato is pretty bad. Some if it is decent, but some of it also almost unusable. So, there is reason for caution regarding the legatos.
Hope they are good. It always sucks if great samples are being screwed because of bad legato.

EDIT:
Here legatos are heavily featured and sound mostly pretty good. Great in the lower dynamics and a bit bumpy here and there in the higher dynamics.
 
Partly "epic". If I was thinking about what I'd like to have as far as choirs go, there's be this Whitacre approach, some bombastic "epic" Instruments, a big Baltic/Slavic Bass Choir, and a good Children's Choir (with Boy's Choir) ala the AudioBro one. I'm patch-working everything together already in that way, but it would be nice/interesting to have it all as one package, with a unified room environment.
Ah, gotcha. I’m assuming the cost of such an endeavor is prohibitive...
 
Sorry I dont want to disturb the party, but what exactly for should I need another Ah/Ooh/Oh/MMM choir? I haven't heard yet anthing that outstanding

On the other Hand I wonder how different a that much more powerful like Hollywood Choir was received here and evoked here so much negative excitement.
Sorry but for me there are already great Choirs with and without any Wording available. (VSL has at least different consonants in addition to Ah and Uh and is excellent in its sound).
In short, I simply do not understand what Spitfires Choir-swells shall have that much outstanding.
 
EWC is very, very nice for what it is. I think the hype leading up to it's release had me (and I suspect plenty of others) hoping (without justification) for something more complete. The whole marketing-leadup-event-launch paradigm that's been emerging is starting to scramble my brain and probably create a backlash. I prefer not to get my hopes up on products before I can discover them on their own merits - like the Emotional Violin, which (to me) came out of (relatively) nowhere, and has been surprisingly delightful to get to know.

I feel much the same way. Have liked many Whitacre's choir pieces a lot during the years, but felt a little empty after watching the walkthrough. I think I will give it a little time, but probably will eventually skip buying it. The library sounded very good. Congratulations to Spitfire Audio for the new product, which seems to be a solid library.

Also planning to buy the Emotional Violin and don't like the hype marketing, but still had dreams (first time of a sample library - heh!) last night about the upcoming Strezov library; have a strong feeling that it is something that I have waited for - without knowing it. The trailer sounded like honey to my ears. :laugh:

Hmm. Was pondering that I already have a bunch of choir libraries; maybe a time to have some fun and create a little custom vocal library to expand the palette. Could use my own voice and have 3-4 fine singers available...
 
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It all is just about exactly what I hoped it would be, although I agree that I'd like to hear more of the legatos before I make the jump.

The other thing that gives me pause is the Spitfire player, vs. Kontakt. It seems like there's been a somewhat rocky history with Spitfire's software and Windows 7 compatibility, so I'm very interested in hearing some boots-on-the-ground user impressions on stability and reliability in Win7.
 
Paul Saunderson's demo is deeply impressive. I got a little choked up by it.

Ok, obviously I am a tad more emotionally invested here than everyone else. But this, to me, is what virtual instruments are all about.
 
I've waited a long time for this, and Paul's walkthrough and playing have convinced me the wait has been worth it. Purchased! No, no Word Builder or Kontakt interface etc., but do I care? No I don't. As Reuben suggested, expect to hear a lot of Whitacre choir-drenched music in the days ahead. I'm guessing this may be one of Spitfire's most popular releases ever.
 
I could see the *sound* becoming overused, but to actually use the sound well requires a more scarce kind of skill, so I don't think Eric is in any danger. ;)

I have no doubt that there will be people who will get mediocre results out of this VI, but I do think there are a lot of people who have the compositional and arranging skills needed to get great results.

FWIW, it's interesting to listen to the first batch of demos from Spitfire. Paul Thompson really uses it expertly. Christians's demo its also very good. Some of the others, though, sound like a synth pad is being played (and that's fine... people will use it however they wish). Paul's demo, though, realistically sounds like something a choir might do, and he's very careful about entrances and exits. Real choirs don't fade in from absolutely nothing, or tail out to absolutely nothing (especially on a timbre that would take a fair amount of breath support). Absolutely smooth to nothing tails on sustained notes (which are possible on a VI) are going to sound fake.
 
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Anyone know if you can lengthen the releases on samples with the SA player? Sometimes sounds too abrupt for me.

I know can tweak that with Kontakt using the wrench and digging into the modulation effects section. But anyone who owns HZS for example know if you have that control in the Spitfire player?

Thanks
If no one answers this question, you may be able to find out with no financial investment by downloading one of the new Spitfire Labs libraries, which have the same player.

Best,

Geoff
 
Hmmmmm. I was bubbling up with excitement watching the Facebook live chat with Eric Whitacre and have been waiting for this too as I'm a big choir lover. So much that I even dropped it in my cart for checkout right away, but when I switched over to watch Paul's walk through and saw that it was not in Kontakt but in their player and I'm a little bit hesitate at this time to checkout.

It doesn't mean I won't but I'm gonna see how others feel and react to this before I hit the purchase button. The Evo's just might rope me in though. Similar to the LABS interface I actually prefer the older lab Kontakt versions and have had less headaches in that environment with installation, upgrades, and the actual interface itself than the Spitfire one.

The choir does sound beautiful and congrats to Eric and the Spitfire team for the release.
 
Anyone know if you can lengthen the releases on samples with the SA player? Sometimes sounds too abrupt for me.

I know can tweak that with Kontakt using the wrench and digging into the modulation effects section. But anyone who owns HZS for example know if you have that control in the Spitfire player?

Thanks

Yep, have a look at 2:18 in the first video on this page: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/how-it-works/eric-whitacre-choir/
 
As someone who have just become a big fan of the evos this is perfect, and you can do things with this choir that no other choral libs can do. The longs also sound better than any other libs I’ve heard. Much thanks to the singers of course.
 
Downloading at a snail's pace - 20Mbps. I have Gigabit internet. :rolleyes:

I don't know why this is always the case with Spitfire - I can download in a flash from NI and any of the developers using Continuata, but Spitfire downloads often take many hours or even days.
 
HZ strings legato is pretty bad. Some if it is decent, but some of it also almost unusable. So, there is reason for caution regarding the legatos.
Hope they are good. It always sucks if great samples are being screwed because of bad legato.

EDIT:
Here legatos are heavily featured and sound mostly pretty good. Great in the lower dynamics and a bit bumpy here and there in the higher dynamics.


Those mf/ff transitions are very bumpy and imo does not compare to what else is available. Somewhat disappointed that this is what they have to offer.

This can still be a beautiful library, just not for my uses which are more enveloped with traditional choral contexts.
 
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