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Eric Whitacre Choir

Don't have Dominus (hoping for a great BF sale) but DO agree...Time Macro and EWC are a WELCOME evolution to the nice but very traditional choirs I've gotten over the years and, frankly, find little use for!

EWC, though pricey, is way more interesting from a songwriter perspective...than more expensive choirs ive bought. I kinda hope OT's next ARK is a HUGE move in this direction also and that what we saw in TM was just a tease! Kinda overloaded with the other orchestrals...Seems THIS is the area both of these giants have shied away from till now (I can only hope re: ARK 4)

Note: SSD PRICES ARE FALLING and the word is they'll continue to do so going into the new year, with the caveat that for us stuck in the F'd up USA, the orange A-hole's tariffs are also ramping starting 2019 so for us it might not help much if at all next year...even though all we buy in this area comes from Asia...go figure
 
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I'm really not one to ask about what choir library to buy in that my experience, historically, is mostly buying the wrong ones.
But I think the interesting question here is how the notion of a 'mainstream' choir library has been changing, certainly with EWC, but beginning - at least in my understanding - with Dominus. *****
But to (sort of, if actually, not quite) answer your question ... sure, why not! I myself am totally comfortable with letting the Dominus, TM choirs, and EWC entirely redefine what a 'mainstream' choral library is - let the supposed grain of sand become the new universe. And within our brave new choral universe, relegate all the formerly mainstream epic libraries to respected, but actually, when you think of it, quite small places on the periphery. ***

Aaaaarrrgghhh !!! I try so hard to raise questions, but not truly wanting to imply … "what should I buy ? " My gut wants to go with EWC and Genesis, but I lose confidence not having Dominus or Insolidus in place, and learned, to some extent.
For sure, the Insolidus sale price is having more impact than perhaps it should.
If I read SFA's Intro material correctly, EWC will not be included in this Holiday promo offerings, so there remains apprx one week to decide.

Your comments have made me feel notably more comfortable with EWC or Genesis, and focusing on some serious 'choral' learning. I can surely use what I have, to better understand what I may be missing.

Thank-you for continuing to provide relevant perspectives. They are very helpful.
 
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If I read SFA's Intro material correctly, EWC will not be included in this Holiday promo offerings, so there remains apprx one week to decide.
...or perhaps one year to decide, if you don't mind waiting for a later sale.

For what it's worth, their website says, "Please note - this product will not feature in Black Friday promotions," however nothing is said about Christmas that I can find.

Of course, if last year's Wish List sale repeats this year, one should expect a lower discount for recently released titles, perhaps 15% instead of 30% or 25% instead of 40%.

Best,

Geoff
 
Don't have Dominus (hoping for a great BF sale) but DO agree...Time Macro and EWC are a WELCOME evolution to the nice but very traditional choirs I've gotten over the years and, frankly, find little use for!

EWC, though pricey, is way more interesting from a songwriter perspective...than more expensive choirs ive bought. I kinda hope OT's next ARK is a HUGE move in this direction also and that what we saw in TM was just a tease! Kinda overloaded with the other orchestrals...Seems THIS is the area both of these giants have shied away from till now (I can only hope re: ARK 4)

Note: SSD PRICES ARE FALLING and the word is they'll continue to do so going into the new year, with the caveat that for us stuck in the F'd up USA, the orange A-hole's tariffs are also ramping starting 2019 so for us it might not help much if at all next year...even though all we buy in this area comes from Asia...go figure
Really curious about What ark4 will be.....can't imagine.....maybe choir as you say....maybe.....atonal stuff....
 
Have OT actually announced Ark4 or do they just release one every fall?

Curious too. Do we know if there will even be a forth installment? I've heard nothing but then it's always around Christmas time when if/when they drop one. It's what usually keeps me broke going into the new year which is usually rough after the Spitfire wish list.
I'm not sure why they would do Ark 4 as a choir library though. I would think they would make that a library that stands out on it's own. However they already have some choir elements here and there so who knows.
 
Gr
I'm really not one to ask about what choir library to buy in that my experience, historically, is mostly buying the wrong ones.

But I think the interesting question here is how the notion of a 'mainstream' choir library has been changing, certainly with EWC, but beginning - at least in my understanding - with Dominus.

Before Dominus I think it was fair to say that a 'mainstream' choir was more or less an epic, or maybe symphonic, choir. At least in the sample library world this was true, because of course in the world of really singers actually singing in actual real choirs the epic was never so dominant as to qualify as 'mainstream'

And you see this addressed both subtly and not so subtly in the interview with Eric - I really like his quote about a choir having the range of a symphony. Which at first sounds like a Blakean 'world in a grain of sand' sentiment. And to some people it surely is - EWC has all these very finely crafted detailed textures that go to incredible depth. From the perspective of the expressive dimensions of the 'conventional' epic choir, it might very well seem like the diminishing returns of zooming in to incredibly fine detail - like counting grains of sand on the head of a pin. A variant of the 'all you sul tastos sound the same to me' response to Tundra.

... except that maybe the world of choirs - if we step away from the dominance of the epic choir in the sample library world - maybe the EWC level of expressive detail was never a grain of sand, but always a vast sea of enormous, symphonic, expressive dimensions. Which is something that I began to feel when Dominus came out - igniting an angst for a different type of choir. I have Venus, and Mercury, which for all their extreme loveliness, never seem to do quite what I want them to. Dominus felt very different.

And then ... Time Marco hit, and its choirs were both a huge surprise and an instant revelation. It was suddenly clear just the kind of dimensions choirs could reach towards - even if there's really only one or two patches among the TM choirs that align with what I'm looking for, they really are just that stunning in how they suggest new possibilities of the choir. (The rest of the patches are fun but a bit ... well the "zzz"s and "nana"s would make a great muppet choir if you could only throw in a 'phen-om-a-na' patch - which now that I think of it,I really want).

Of course the TM choirs are also very limited. I attempted to mock of Eric's "Lux Aurumque" with TM ... which I can share if anyone's morbidly curious ... but the bottom line that while some moments within individual chords are indescribably gorgeous and suggestive of vast possibilities ahead ... you simply cannot and should not attempt Eric Whitacre mockups with TM.

One of the first things to go through my head wth when I first played a TM choir patch was ... 'what if spitfire were to do an entire library along the lines of 'choral swarm'! .... and then EWC hit (though to my deep laminations, it will probably next year before I reasonably (or unreasonably) justify another large sample library. Sigh.)

But to (sort of, if actually, not quite) answer your question ... sure, why not! I myself am totally comfortable with letting the Dominus, TM choirs, and EWC entirely redefine what a 'mainstream' choral library is - let the supposed grain of sand become the new universe. And within our brave new choral universe, relegate all the formerly mainstream epic libraries to respected, but actually, when you think of it, quite small places on the periphery.


Needless to say, you mileage may vary. :)
Great post ...thank you
 
I don't hear much in the way of human voice in that video...


I know what you mean - on a first listen it's very much the edge of sound design pad territory.

But listening to this a few more times, I think actually think its quite striking how at certain moments the voices emerge very clearly and distinctly from the mix, establish the sonic landscape as very much the territory of the human voice ... and then dissolve seamlessly back in the more ambient overall ambient sea of the piece.
 
... as if it's not totally the other way around, and we haven't had tons of choral libraries over the years catering almost exclusively to one very specific mode of writing for voices.

And that (helpfully) puts quite a fine point on it what I was muddling through all that abstraction to express.
 
There is a several strings from my conversation with Spitfire tech support. May be this info will useful for anybody. For this moment, if I want to use this choir for microtonal music, I must to use 10-12 instances (for polyphony) of a choir plugin with a custom conversion pitch band messages to "tune' parameter of a plugin. Such count of instances is strong stress for CPU and disc system, especially as LABS engine have not a memory server, as in Native Kontakt..

Hi!
Is audio engine of this choir support multichannel tuning for microtonal music making? (for example, MPE or multy mode, as in East West Play? (see appl. picture)
for me, this is a decisive factor in the case of purchasing a library, because in the case of Kontakt engine I can use a special script, and with this new engine - I can not.

Hi there Vadim,
I'm afraid that this is currently not possible, however it could be likely in a future update. There is a tuning feature at the top of the interface which you can hold "Cmd/Ctrl" to fine tune.


Hi Luke,
A tuning future at the top is not a way (becase it is monophonic and 7-bit CC instead of a pitchband)
I will buy it only if it will be implemented, because this aibility (also as pitchband ability) is strongly important for my microtonal music. 
but sale price stops at next days, hmm.. Can Spitfire to promise implementation of polyphonic microtuning ability? :))

Hi Vadim,
I'm afraid we cannot promise the tuning ability. It's worth noting that you can hold 'Shift' whilst using the interface tuner to tune in cents, this is very fine tuning.
 
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A quick sketch with the labs choir (and a clarinet):



Incredible sound, very nice dynamics.

And there's a real evo feel to it - it starts our kind of ambient and then becomes more defined as the arc develops. Without legato, the kind of voice leading you can pull off is obviously a bit limited, but the evo effect is something you can really work in instead.

Really makes me want the full choir.
 
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