What are my choir options?

[purple]

So, I'm looking at buying a choir library or two. I currently only have choirs through the various composer cloud methods. I'm working on a project that would heavily benefit from a choir. Especially a smaller, chamber-sized choir. The sound I'm going for is probably most similar to The Elder Scrolls games, especially Skyrim, which features a lot of ambient vocals. My budget is around $300-400ish for a new choir and I've been looking at the Freyja choir from Strezov (I'll get the Wotan too in the future if I do this route, I just don't really think lower vocals are as important in the tracks I'm doing for this thing). Another option is the basic version of the fluffy audio Dominus choir. Any thoughts on the differences between that and the pro version? Other than that, I don't really know where else to look in my price range, and I want to make sure I get the best thing I can for the job.

What I really need:
-Smooth legato
-Consistency
-Good tone
-Mixing flexibility

What I don't really need:
-Specific words or wordbuilding (Will mostly be using vowel sounds and maybe hums for this)
-Basses and Tenors (Only really need altos and sopranos, but I'll use the others too if I have them)
-"Epic" stuff like loud shouts, stabs, or shorts. The vibe I need for this gig is quite relaxed and ambient and I doubt I'll use anything but sustains/legato for the most part.

EDIT: I am eligible for student discounts, so if those do apply to whatever your suggestions may be, know that this would effectively increase my budget range depending on the developer.

Here is an audio example, the link should start you at 2:53. I'm looking to nail the sound of female vocals here (not the male shouts). Occasional exposed, smooth legato lines like where this link starts and otherwise blending into the orchestra and adding texture as they do for the rest of the track.

 

[cqd]

My new favourite choir is Soniccouture all saints choir..

 

[purple]

My new favourite choir is Soniccouture all saints choir..

Just giving it a look now. Seems interesting. The advantage here is that I get all the sections which is nice. Definitely in the running... Thank you!

 

[Mike T]

Requiem is what Jeremy used. Can't get much closer than that. Not exactly sure of the origin of the sopranos in the main theme though.

 

[Wunderhorn]

Your description reads like you should consider Spitfire's Eric Whitacre Choir.
Aside from that Dominus or Dominus Pro (despite the focus on word building) will yield stunning results. And yes, they are good for quieter things as well and have a beautiful Legato.

 

[Rory]

Just giving it a look now. Seems interesting. The advantage here is that I get all the sections which is nice. Definitely in the running... Thank you!

Last year, Soniccouture's summer sale was the third week of June. Something to keep in mind, although this library is new enough that it may not be included.

 

[purple]

Requiem is what Jeremy used. Can't get much closer than that. Not exactly sure of the origin of the sopranos in the main theme though.

I quite like the sound of that actually. Not surprising given the circumstances. Didn't know he used this! It seems to be an ensemble thing with a couple of solo voices, which might be perfect for me. I'm gonna be listening to these demos a lot as well to make my decision. And it's pretty cheap, too!

 

[purple]

Your description reads like you should consider Spitfire's Eric Whitacre Choir.
Aside from that Dominus or Dominus Pro (despite the focus on word building) will yield stunning results. And yes, they are good for quieter things as well and have a beautiful Legato.

I quite like the EW choir. It's a bit expensive and I find that it sounds just a bit too small for my needs now, but it's certainly on my wishlist for the future. It would be just perfect for those two solo lines at the start of the example I posted.

 

[Wunderhorn]

I quite like the sound of that actually. Not surprising given the circumstances. Didn't know he used this! It seems to be an ensemble thing with a couple of solo voices, which might be perfect for me. I'm gonna be listening to these demos a lot as well to make my decision. And it's pretty cheap, too!

Just note that with Requiem you will have to do a lot of tweaking to get pleasing results. I got that many years ago and while it was great at the time I can tell you that it is very cumbersome to work with especially when you want quieter moments. The library has only velocity for loud and louder. So you'll have to reach deep into the box of tricks to get around that.
There are newer and much much better libraries out now that will not require this much work to get the results out them that you are after. Especially for choir libraries in my experience there is this rule that going cheap is a straight road to regret.

 

[purple]

Just note that with Requiem you will have to do a lot of tweaking to get pleasing results. I got that many years ago and while it was great at the time I can tell you that it is very cumbersome to work with especially when you want quieter moments. The library has only velocity for loud and louder. So you'll have to reach deep into the box of tricks to get around that.
There are newer and much much better libraries out now that will not require this much work to get the results out them that you are after. Especially for choir libraries in my experience there is this rule that going cheap is a straight road to regret.

Thank you for that. I don't mind tweaking much but I also have to consider time constrains so maybe I'll be looking towards other libraries for now.

 

[RogiervG]

Your description reads like you should consider Spitfire's Eric Whitacre Choir.
Aside from that Dominus or Dominus Pro (despite the focus on word building) will yield stunning results. And yes, they are good for quieter things as well and have a beautiful Legato.

Another vote for dominus series, they are very mellow beautiful libraries with very nice legato's and consistency.

 

[David Kudell]

Based on what you said, definitely look into the Metropolis Ark 2 choirs, they have really nice softer choirs - men, women, and children.

 

[RogiervG]

oh i forgot about ark2.. those are also very pretty choirs

 

[purple]

Another vote for dominus series, they are very mellow beautiful libraries with very nice legato's and consistency.

Any thoughts on the differences between the base and the pro library? Do I need the pro? From what I can see, the base library has all I really need. 4 mic positions, true legato... Add to that the fact that I can just upgrade later on if I want without losing any money and it seems worth just getting the base for now if I go down this route.

The website is not really clear about what I'm missing out on by not getting the pro version. It seems there are more marcato and staccato syllables available in the pro version? Are there not enough staccato and marcato samples in the base version? I think I'd be OK without those, but I would want to know.

 

[Rory]

Any thoughts on the differences between the base and the pro library? Do I need the pro? From what I can see, the base library has all I really need. 4 mic positions, true legato... Add to that the fact that I can just upgrade later on if I want without losing any money and it seems worth just getting the base for now if I go down this route.

The website is not really clear about what I'm missing out on by not getting the pro version. It seems there are more marcato and staccato syllables available in the pro version? Are there not enough staccato and marcato samples in the base version? I think I'd be OK without those, but I would want to know.

if you do a search, you'll find a very long thread, started when Pro was released, that discusses the differences in detail.

Incidentally, there's a review comparing the Dominus and Eric Whitacre libraries on YouTube that pretty much trashes the latter. Watching the review was an odd experience, because I much preferred the Whitacre

 

[Geomir]

Requiem is what Jeremy used. Can't get much closer than that. Not exactly sure of the origin of the sopranos in the main theme though.

Very interesting! You mean Requiem Light or Pro? And how do you know?

 

[MartinH.]

Requiem is what Jeremy used. Can't get much closer than that. Not exactly sure of the origin of the sopranos in the main theme though.

Afaik the one track linked here (Dragonborn theme) was done with a real choir. Requiem was used on the rest, and I believe also another choir library from East West, but I'm not sure which one. You can probably narrow it down by comparing release dates or searching the forum. It was mentioned here somewhere.

 

[RogiervG]

The differences between them:

Dominus Pro	Dominus
Staccato and Marcato articulations 54 GB installed (compressed in NCW format) Monophonic and Polyphonic mode 346 syllables for Legato Articulation 60 + 60 syllables for Marcato Articulation 60 syllables for Staccato Articulation ability to sing in different languages	30 GB installed (compressed in NCW format) 50 initial syllables + 150 middle/end syllables

the rest is the same between both versions (audio quality, legato, reverbs, hall of recording, mic options etc)

 

[Mike T]

Very interesting! You mean Requiem Light or Pro?

I'm not sure they were two distinct libraries at the time. Tonehammer was probably still a thing when he was doing the bulk of the writing.

Afaik the one track linked here (Dragonborn theme) was done with a real choir. Requiem was used on the rest, and I believe also another choir library from East West, but I'm not sure which one. You can probably narrow it down by comparing release dates or searching the forum. It was mentioned here somewhere.

Yeah the men in the theme were 30 real guys overdubbed three times at Sony, but that soprano stuff is sampled. You can spot the Requiem solo soprano elsewhere, but I don't think that's her in Dragonborn. Possibly something from the VSL solo vocalist libraries, Symphony of Voices, or one of his own VI's.

You know what, I shouldn't say it's definitely sampled. I don't know for sure that it is, but my guess is that it is.

 

[purple]

The differences between them:

Dominus Pro	Dominus
Staccato and Marcato articulations 54 GB installed (compressed in NCW format) Monophonic and Polyphonic mode 346 syllables for Legato Articulation 60 + 60 syllables for Marcato Articulation 60 syllables for Staccato Articulation ability to sing in different languages	30 GB installed (compressed in NCW format) 50 initial syllables + 150 middle/end syllables

the rest is the same between both versions (audio quality, legato, reverbs, hall of recording, mic options etc)

Looks like I'll get away with the base version for now if I do get this.