What's new

What to sample next in Ghana?

Pick one!

  • More female voices

    Votes: 4 16.0%
  • Male voices

    Votes: 10 40.0%
  • Flutes

    Votes: 5 20.0%
  • Balafon

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 3 12.0%

  • Total voters
    25

DSmolken

Senior Member
We could find more singers, either female or male, and we also could record the musicians from the Pan-African Youth Orchestra, which is basically a lot of flutes, a couple of balafons (wooden xylophones with gourd resonators), and a big variety of drums and percussion. African drums have probably been sampled a lot, though, so I'm leaning towards one of the others.

As before, this might take about a year and a half to get actually done, but help point us in the right direction.
 
Hello,

African instruments would be cool, even if we already have many available out there. But IMO voices are more difficult to find, so I definitely vote for more voices !

Thank you for your initiative !
 
As anywhere in the world, male voices are harder to find than female voices, especially if you want gus who can sing as an ensemble. But our guy there knows a guy who knows guys. We'll try to get a group of five guys recorded in Accra on Monday.
 
I would love to see a full African choir. Detailed and deep sampled - capable of doing something like the soundtrack of "The Power of One".
Syllable builder but also traditional phrases, all the material in multiple dynamic layers - from ppp to ff.
 
I vote other for Kora please.

I know I've posted this before, but it's on topic:
Yup, I remember West African harps being quite popular the last time this came around. Don't know of anyone who has one, but of course we could ask around. I think Sonic Zest released one not long after that thread - have you seen that one?
I would love to see a full African choir. Detailed and deep sampled - capable of doing something like the soundtrack of "The Power of One".
Syllable builder but also traditional phrases, all the material in multiple dynamic layers - from ppp to ff.
That would be quite an undertaking, but yeah, I'd love to see it too. We're thinking of doing something with at least a big selection of syllables. Ewe is actually a good language for this - all syllables seem to end in vowels, or at least the vast majority. That includes syllables like "xor" or "mlan", which don't really look like it written - "or" and "n" are vowel sounds. Which means syllable endings aren't going to add to the pile of stuff that needs to be recorded. Not quite as simple as Japanese, because there are some consonant clusters at the starts of syllables, but could be done with less data than an English or Latin choir.
 
That would be quite an undertaking, ...

Nothing better than a good challenge, right? No, seriously, I would be interested. But it would have to be the real deal. Blockbuster-ready so to speak out of the box. Also, have you listened to Afro Celt Sound System - Flight? On that album they have and absolutely awesome choir and also some soloists. That too is what I'm talking about. Whenever an African choir library is out that can do all of that, I am in!
Ideally it would also offer some guidance in harmonization in order to get all the typical voice-leading right.
Some soloists would be good as well. I have heard some African story-tellers that part speak part sing their myths and play the Kora - magical!
Then of course several mic positions would be mandatory, too.
Just musing here, but if you got together with some bigger sample library producers who could back you up in your undertaking it might be a great collaboration and a win-win in the end.
Anyway - I like to think big. I wish you good luck and success with your project.
 
Just musing here, but if you got together with some bigger sample library producers who could back you up in your undertaking it might be a great collaboration and a win-win in the end.
1571476506566.png

First thing that popped into my mind reading that. I'll see what I can do, though. I did learn a lot about voices working on Marie Ork, and it might start to pay off.
 
Yup, I remember West African harps being quite popular the last time this came around. Don't know of anyone who has one, but of course we could ask around. I think Sonic Zest released one not long after that thread - have you seen that one?
Oddly, I'd only seen their Kora textures library, I didn't realise they had a playable Kora as well. It sounds gorgeous. Straight to my wishlist. Thanks for letting me know.
 
Last edited:
Voices are best, I think. I remember reading an interview with Stewart Copland about going to Africa on a sample safari for his Fairlight. He thought he would go after percussion, but “a log drum on the Savana sounds just like a log drum in Hertfordshire.” But that the vocals and Choirs and war chants were priceless.
 
Well, male choir done. What to do next?

@PjDaAuthor has also joined the forum a few days ago, so y'all can run ideas and requests by him directly.
@PjDaAuthor I don’t know if you are able to do this at all, but I would love to have a sampled guitar that can really pull off those high-life type fast attack short notes - including some of the cool bends, like this:

 
Last edited:
...
As before, this might take about a year and a half to get actually done, but help point us in the right direction.


First of all – much respect for the choir sampling so far! Really unique and fresh appoach and very usefull creative tools!

A few more ideas from my side:


– Tony Allen style Afrobeat Drums (incl. Midi)
(As far as I know this super rich topic haven’t been been covered by any major library so far.)

– mixed childrens choir

– And then Ghana has an amazing history in Afrobeat, African Funk and Proto-Disco.

Artists like Kwabena Frimpong, Ebo Tayor or the Ogyatanaa Show Band.
Maybe there are musicans from that era willing for a signature studio session. 😎



 
Dunno about very large ensemble, but we did manage to find a kora player in Accra who has a studio.

As for the late Tony Allen and drums, Drumdrops already did that a while ago! I will probably pick up that kit at some point.
 
Top Bottom