Snarf
Senior Member
Hello everyone! I recently picked up Strezov Sampling’s Freyja and Wotan. So far, I think they’re great (spoilers) and wanted to leave a review to ‘return the favour’ to the people on VI-Control, as they’ve been a very good resource for me in the past. So without further ado, here goes!
Some preliminary points:
The strong points:
User tips:
Weaker points & some suggestions for Strezov Sampling
When I got Wotan, I was kind of surprised that the quintessential Moria track that apparently inspired the sound hadn’t been done yet. Then it got a little bit out of hand and I did a few more Howard Shore tracks… All choir sounds are from Freyja and Wotan. The orchestra is EW’s Hollywood Series. All examples are pretty rough – no mixing, mastering etc. Only a little bit of reverb on the master. There are also a couple timing issues, but I wanted to get this review out before the end of the Freyja sale, so yeah… here goes:
The Prophecy – excerpt (Freyja+Wotan)
The Prophecy – excerpt (Choir only)
George Strezov has actually also made a mock-up of the Prophecy with Storm Choir Ultimate. It’s much more detailed (he actually planned out his phrases and used the connect mode in the syllabuilder!), his orchestration is more complete, but also quite a bit wetter. Might be useful for anyone wanting to compare Wotan + Freyja vs SCU:
A Journey In The Dark – excerpt (that Wotan-Moria sound)
The Woodland Realm – excerpt (Mainly Freyja)
The Feast Of Starlight – excerpt (Freyja)
Some preliminary points:
- I created this review (and the mock-ups) in a hurry because the 40% off sale for Freyja is nearly over. Please excuse the rough edges (both in my writings and in the music)!
- While this review is for both Wotan and Freyja (given that they are complimentary libraries), the features are not completely consistent across both libraries. I’ll mark these differences with [Wotan] & [Freyja] when talking about library specific features.
- I’m not going to go over every detail from the manual or walkthrough videos, I will focus on the stronger points, some user tips and weaker points with some suggestions for Strezov Sampling to improve the library.
The strong points:
- First of all, the tone and timbre of these libraries is absolutely gorgeous! I am in love with the sound of it, especially the lower dynamics sound. The mic selection (close, decca, hall) is well balanced and simple. The result is that both libraries are about 10 gb in size. The main syllabuilder patches require around 1,5-1,75 gb of RAM (all mics). The legato patches use only about 300 mb.
- Although there is no video about it, there are new performance patches and they are pretty good for getting instant results. The ability to split/layer/overlay the different choirs is well thought out too. It works exactly like the one for Storm Choir Ultimate:
- The dynamic range (from piano to forte) is feels very wide and the crossfading is very smooth. Like I said, the lower dynamics are beautiful! The higher end of the dynamics, while not particularly suited to ‘epic’ molto vibrato FFF styles of music (since that is not its intended purpose - Strezov has Stormchoir Ultimate for that) can definitely work in an epic context. Especially Freyja. Here’s an example from the Thomas Bergersen which heavily features Freyja. Except for the staccato choir near the end, all the legato passages (Mm, Ah) and syllable ‘lyrics’ near the middle are from Freyja:
And here’s my (attempted) playing of the same line:
- [Wotan] The inclusion of shouts and whispers in the main syllabuilder patches at the extreme ends of the velocity spectrum (adjustable) is pretty clever. Cuts down track count
- The polyphonic legato patches are awesome. They just work! I couldn’t stop playing around with them after opening them up.
User tips:
- Take the time to learn how the syllabuilder patches work. There are some shortcuts for group editing/removing syllables etc. in the manual (read it - it’s pretty short!).
Shift + left mouse click allows you to edit multiple syllables at the same time.
- I think the best workflow (in my limited experience) is sketching things out with the performance patch for getting ideas out quickly, and then moving the midi to the syllabuilder patches for more control. The performance patch works pretty well so you might be able to leave it in from time to time. You can also make your own performance patches by layering staccato’s and sustains, either in Kontakt or in your DAW on separate tracks. I tested this out in the Moria/Journey In the Dark mock-up.
- [Syllabuilder patches] Play around with the midi end times to get smoother phrasing; midi-off triggers the release samples which sometimes contain a relatively lengthy consonant, like the -k in ‘Chak’.
- [SB patches] While the amount of syllables (8) might seem a little low, I haven’t found this to be a problem. I think it’s less noticeable if you leave out/lower the amount of the ‘chak’ syllables, since the ‘ch’ and ‘k’ consonants are very distinct. You can also create ‘new’ syllables by combining two (or more) into a morphing sound.
- [SB patches] It is absolutely worth tinkering a little bit with the attack, release, volume and offset values to turn up/down a loud vowel sound or to create smoother crossfades when morphing syllables etc.
- Make a little folder somewhere to save all your lyrics for the syllabuilder patches, so you don’t have to type them again in the other sections of the choir.
- At the lower dynamics, you can pretty much just leave the modwheel/cc1 at zero and use cc11 for creating realism. You shouldn’t overdo the automation because the library is quite musical in and of itself. In fact, some of the little mock-ups below are done with very minimal modwheel and expression data.
- When doing monophonic lines with the legato patches, keep in mind that they are polyphonic! This means that you’ll have to be quick in releasing the keys after playing a new note, otherwise the last note will continue to sound. Depending on your playing skills, it might be worth getting into the midi editor and trimming the note-ends so that they overlap only slightly.
- Keep in mind the internal reverb is turned on by default on all patches. Sometimes this is not immediately obvious as it’s not on the main page for the syllabuilder patches. I would recommend saving some new patches or snapshots.
Weaker points & some suggestions for Strezov Sampling
- A keyswitch patch with all the legato types (Aah, Ooh, Mmm, Mm-ah) per section would be nice. It’s not a big deal because you can do so in Kontakt by loading multiple patches and using something like OTS’ free keyswitch router multiscript:
https://www.orangetreesamples.com/blog/free-keyswitch-router-multiscript
- Like I mentioned before, the libraries are not totally symmetrical. Wotan has some more choral effects (clusters and shouts). More importantly, Freyja lacks the Ooh legato, which is a bit of a shame, unfortunately. I would love to see Ooh’s added in an update, although I recognize that that would be very unlikely.
- [Wotan] [SB patches] On many notes, the singers take a little bit of time to ‘scoop up’ into the note. I personally don’t find it very noticeable or obtrusive (I think it adds realism), but it’s worth pointing out.
- [Wotan] Sometimes, in an exposed context and depending on the syllables, the samples feel a little cut-in too much. If would be great if there was a feature to get the natural attack using a uniform delay or perhaps even a sample start feature (like Audio Imperia’s Nucleus & Areia). Right now this would be the only major drawback of the library. Fortunately, I don’t find the effect that noticeable but this could be a dealbreaker for some.
- The information on how to use the library and particularly the syllabuilder engine is spread over multiple videos (because of the updates) and is sometimes not up to date. Also, the manual on the website is not the same as the manual included with the download. In fact, the web-manual is just the same information as the product page.
- [Allright this point was a little rambly – it’s pretty late here!] Adding to the previous point: what seems so weird to me is that, given that the library is top-notch, with an incredible roster of testimonials, why isn’t the presentation up there as well? I’m not advocating for Spitfire level marketing but an update to the manual, product page and one or two walkthroughs or ‘in-action’ videos wouldn’t hurt, I feel. Around these big sales would be the perfect time to upload a video showing a track walkthrough or how to use the library, especially when paired with the release of the performance patch and NKS version!
When I got Wotan, I was kind of surprised that the quintessential Moria track that apparently inspired the sound hadn’t been done yet. Then it got a little bit out of hand and I did a few more Howard Shore tracks… All choir sounds are from Freyja and Wotan. The orchestra is EW’s Hollywood Series. All examples are pretty rough – no mixing, mastering etc. Only a little bit of reverb on the master. There are also a couple timing issues, but I wanted to get this review out before the end of the Freyja sale, so yeah… here goes:
The Prophecy – excerpt (Freyja+Wotan)
The Prophecy – excerpt (Choir only)
George Strezov has actually also made a mock-up of the Prophecy with Storm Choir Ultimate. It’s much more detailed (he actually planned out his phrases and used the connect mode in the syllabuilder!), his orchestration is more complete, but also quite a bit wetter. Might be useful for anyone wanting to compare Wotan + Freyja vs SCU:
A Journey In The Dark – excerpt (that Wotan-Moria sound)
A Journey In The Dark - Clyp
Rough mockup from 'A Journey in the Dark' by Howard Shore. Testing Strezov Sampling's Wotan with the sound that inspired the library.
clyp.it
The Woodland Realm – excerpt (Mainly Freyja)
The Feast Of Starlight – excerpt (Freyja)
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