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Your Choir of choice - 2018

Your Choir of choice - 2018

  • Strezov Freyja and Wotan

    Votes: 35 19.9%
  • Soundiron Requiem

    Votes: 9 5.1%
  • Soundiron Olympus

    Votes: 4 2.3%
  • 8Dio Lacrimosa

    Votes: 9 5.1%
  • Fluffy Audio Dominus

    Votes: 30 17.0%
  • Spitfire Eric Whitacre choir

    Votes: 23 13.1%
  • Strezov Storm Choir 2

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • Strezov Rhodope 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • EastWest Hollywood Choirs

    Votes: 18 10.2%
  • Orchestral Tools Metropolis Ark 1

    Votes: 16 9.1%
  • Orchestral Tools Metropolis Ark 2

    Votes: 6 3.4%
  • 8Dio Silka

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 8Dio Insolidus

    Votes: 6 3.4%
  • East West Symphonic Choirs Platinum

    Votes: 5 2.8%
  • Virharmonic Voices of Prague

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • Cinesamples Voxos

    Votes: 8 4.5%

  • Total voters
    176
Like so many here, I don't think you are measuring anything useful with this poll. Different choirs suit different compositions. I love my SoundIron choirs (esp Mercury), and lately am loving revisiting old choral charts with the new Spitfire offering. I wouldn't judge it by the free LABS VI, btw.

The spitfire choir samples are performed in a contemporary aesthetic in which vibrato lessens as pitch increases (so you get those unearthly pure highs atop some texture down low). It's right for some things, wrong for others, and a simple favorites vote communicates none of this.
 
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Oceania by Performance Samples is not your all-around do everything choir library, but somehow I find it ends up on almost every track I make, because it just sounds so INCREDIBLE. And when it's on sale- it's a no-brainer for the price point. So I know it's not on the list, but it's my choir of choice, I definitely recommend it. :)
 
Oceania by Performance Samples is not your all-around do everything choir library, but somehow I find it ends up on almost every track I make, because it just sounds so INCREDIBLE. And when it's on sale- it's a no-brainer for the price point. So I know it's not on the list, but it's my choir of choice, I definitely recommend it. :)

I have Oceania already :).
 
The projects that I did use a choir on this year I mostly used Lacrimosa... but the choirs from Omnisphere saw the light of day as well. These choirs all have such a different timbre that I tend to use the one that gets me the "sound" that I want.
 
I appreciate the ability to write my own words with a choir library, which is why I have the Hollywood Choirs & Symphonic Choirs. I do love the other libraries for their quality of sound...and I have and use some of them. As a writer, I tend to lean towards the classical Latin & English languages, so EW suits what I am trying to compose or replicate.
 
1. Melodic range
2. Dynamic range
3. Versatility
4. Scripting/ Ease of use
5. Sound quality
6. Value for money
7. Ability to sit in a mix
8. Range of articulations/ syllables

The Spitfire EWC gets my vote. It's quickly become my favorite VI, and it's already done a lot to free up choral ideas I've had for years, but lacked any way to satisfyingly realize off paper. Not an exaggeration to say that it's helped me grow as a composer.

I think it meets all of the points you listed except possibly 2 and 3, if you need "epic," vibrato-laden warbling from 80 singers at FFFF, which I don't....
 
I'm a chanter at a Greek Orthodox church here in Hawaii. I would like to purchase one or two libraries to compose some Liturgical Choir pieces in Greek.

EWHC & FL Dominus seem like good choices. Any thoughts on these or any other suggestions?

BTW I used the contact form to ask Fluffy to provide a list of the consonants Dominus provides but haven't heard anything back for quite a while.

Any help here would be great so I can take advantage of the November sales going on.
 
BTW I used the contact form to ask Fluffy to provide a list of the consonants Dominus provides but haven't heard anything back for quite a while.
One thing about Dominus is that it's not as simple as listing syllables because some syllables are starting syllables and others are interior and they only concatenate in certain ways. There are over 200 preset words available, and 50 starting syllables. The syllables are mostly Latin syllables (and the preset words are mostly Latin), though not surprisingly kyrie and eleison are also included.

Edit to add. Here is the full list of opening syllables.

DominusFirstSyllables.jpg
 
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Thanks JB. That could be the reason FluffyA didn't respond.
It sounds like EWHC may be my only choice.

More thoughts anyone?
 
Anyone know how much Freyja/ Wotan sold for during the Syllabuilder update earlier this year?

The current 15% discount doesn't do much to help me.
 
I'm a chanter at a Greek Orthodox church here in Hawaii. I would like to purchase one or two libraries to compose some Liturgical Choir pieces in Greek.

EWHC & FL Dominus seem like good choices. Any thoughts on these or any other suggestions?

BTW I used the contact form to ask Fluffy to provide a list of the consonants Dominus provides but haven't heard anything back for quite a while.

Any help here would be great so I can take advantage of the November sales going on.
Hi Greg...EWHC has the capability to speak in other languages with what they call Votex. This is a way of sounding out/printing the words you are trying to say, by how they sound. I'm sure their You Tube videos can give you a better idea, or perhaps an e-mail to EW, could answer any questions you have. They also have a monthly subscription, where you can use any of their libraries, and keep what you have used, by bouncing the recordings you make. Hope this helps.
 
So how would you guys compare/contrast all these different choir libraries?

Just shopping around, focusing on gentler sounds, seems like Eric Whitacre is more of a textural choir--vowels only, no syllables or words. Dominos has a pretty advanced word builder--seems good for simulated Latin. Liberis and Genesis are children's choirs--Genesis seems more advanced, with more syllables and melisma in addition to legato...
 
Freya/Wotan definetely have the most up to date programming, but you pay for it...never goes on sale...but they sound amazing.

Silka and Insolidious are very similiar to each other and have arcs that are unparralled in quality. A bit niche but definetely worth it when they go on sale.

EW Hollywood choir sounds great but I dont enjoy the interface at all. The wordbuilder is a gimmick at best.

Eric Whitacre....just not a fan of the sound.

Soundiron/8dio Requiem....its ok..8dio quite often has flash sales for it.

Soundiron Olympus full version is massive and limitless in what you can do with it. Ive got tonnes of hours into it....it will do almost anything. My only negative on it is that the progamming needs updating. Polyphonic Legato is all Olympus needs to be the best most complete choir on the market. SI says its coming but SI takes its time getting things done.

One choir to not overlook is 8dio Studio Sopranos....took me a bit of time to learn....but love it and use it lots.

As for childrens choir Genesis or Arva....i give the nod to Genesis....a 3rd place to Soundiron Mercury boys (but same outdated programming as Olympus)

At the end of the day, if you have the money....right now Freya/Wotan is the best on the market.
 
I likewise feel that choir needs vary too much to expect one library to do it all.

For timbre alone, and easy to mix (and cut through), I like VSL's Choir, but it is only articulated vowels, so can't really be used for word-building type mock-ups. Even so, it has more vowels (and articulations) than most, and this is because they chose not to tackle other issues so were able to do a superb and detailed job of just that one aspect.

When first released, I didn't at first like the Soprano as well as the original "teaser" library that was just Sopranos, but then I got used to how to work with the full library and stopped using the older one.

Bela D Media's vocal products are by far my favourite to work with, when I want to do word-building type stuff in a vein that can be achieved via standard Latin liturgical phrases and the like. So easy to use, and I love how it handles note lengths and note crossings compared to other libraries.

I have remained hesitant regarding some of the larger/newer vocal libraries, as I get cold feet on each one of them after deeper exploration, but the one that has my attention for further investigation next year (after I get over the sticker shock of the first few months of owning my first home), is the new one from Fluffy Audio. It seems like it might have the best timbre and breadth of any "single" library yet. But time will tell.

I almost bought Genesis and/or Arva, but continue to get some incredible results with Giovanni that I don't know if I'll bother. I also have Soundiron's children's choir, which I may or may not hold onto. I just don't have time to learn so many different systems of interface, and choirs can be the hardest in that regard, so I'm trying not to spread across too many vendors and approaches if I can help it.
 
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