Not content to merely offer multiple perspectives, EW/QL have created a companion program called WordBuilder that processes incoming MIDI data to form words and syllables using a combination of vowel and consonant sample sets. We’ve seen this kind of clever MIDI processing before, but never applied to sampled choir. Essentially, you can type a phrase into WordBuilder, play a melody from your MIDI keyboard, and voilà! The choir sings back the phrase. Admittedly, this is a simplified explanation of how it works. In actuality, there’s a little more to it, but we’ll get to that later.
OVERVIEW
Symphonic Choirs is divided into five sections: sopranos, altos, tenors, basses, and boys. Solo versions are also provided for each voice type. For each section and soloist there are three variations to choose from: “close,” “full,” and “surround” perspectives, which refer to how far away the microphones used to record the singers were placed.
Everything was recorded in 24-bit resolution in the same concert hall used in the making of Symphonic Orchestra, and as you might expect, the choirs blend nicely with the orchestra. Sonically, SC is detailed and focused without sounding synthetic or too clinical. “Pristine” and “airy” are adjectives that come to mind. You’ll find a number of hi-res audio demos available online at www.soundsonline.com. I encourage you to check them out.
On the whole, individual sections can go from delicate to Wagnerian, although vibrato in the louder dynamic ranges tends to be too much for my tastes. More significant, there are no non-vib forte presets at all. This aside, I was impressed by how well the mens and womens choirs blended to create a cohesive sound. Remarkably authentic.
SC employs the now-familiar Native Instruments Kompakt player, allowing you to load individual sections or soloists as “Instruments” (as they’re called in Kompakt-speak), and in the Instruments category you’ll find presets comprising consonant, vowel, and vocal effects sample sets. Key-switching is used in the vowel Instruments to choose among “normal,” legato, staccato, and slurred/sliding articulations. You’ll also find a collection of Full Chorus Church Instruments, which combine samples from each section mapped across the keyboard to create a unified SATB choral sound playable from a single preset. These are handy for “load-and-go” applications or for times when you’re running tight on RAM and CPU resources and can’t afford to load individual sections.
For backing pads, such as generic “oohs” and “ahs”, or for melismatic passages that use only a single vowel sound, the vowel Instruments are your best bet. Many of them have mod wheel set up to control volume, which made it easy to add dynamics to melodic lines without resorting to micro-editing in my sequencer. However, I found it odd that there were no presets set up to morph between two vowel sounds, such as “ah” and “ee” via mod wheel or other continuous controller. This type of programming is fairly common, and certainly useful.
WORDBUILDER
The aptly named WordBuilder has the look and feel of NI’s Kompakt player. But beneath its exterior lies a sophisticated MIDI processing engine that uses incoming MIDI note ons and offs to trigger vowel and consonant combinations in such a way to create identifiable syllables. String these syllables together and you can create words.
To accommodate the large number of separate phonetic sounds for each note of the scale, WordBuilder relies on SC’s 5-part multis, which consist of five separate instruments programmed with different vowels, consonants, attacks, and dynamics. These multis require a lot of CPU resources, so you’ll need a powerful computer (or two) with plenty of RAM to create a full SATB arrangement that can play back in real time. Alternately, each section could be rendered as audio to conserve RAM and CPU cycles.
So just how does WordBuilder work? For starters, it can be used in one of two ways — stand-alone or inserted as a plug-in. As a plug-in, WB intercepts MIDI data from the sequencer and sends new MIDI data based on the syllables and letters you’ve typed. In stand-alone mode WB takes MIDI input directly from your MIDI keyboard or interface.
Text can be entered in English, phonetically, or in a custom language called Votox. WB uses its own alphabets for phonetic and Votox entry, which the user manual does a good job of explaining. You can also view the alphabets from within WB by expanding the Letters area to the right of the text entry window (see Figure 1).
WB is smart enough to recognize when MIDI note-ons are intended to be played simultaneously, making it possible to program lines that alternate between single and multiple voices. The depth of control doesn’t stop there. You can literally teach WB the timing of a phrase using the Learn function. Additionally, you can adjust the length, volume, and attack of individual syllable components.
Working in WB struck me a little bit like coding in HTML, except that the results weren’t entirely predictable. It took a good deal of trial and error to achieve intelligible pronunciation and articulation. In most cases I had to massage the length and volume envelopes of consonants to achieve good diction. Fortunately, in time I became comfortable enough using phonetic and Votox programming to render proper articulation without too much guesswork. It just takes practice.
IN USE
I put Symphonic Choirs through its paces in several contexts, including rendering excerpts of Schubert’s Mass in G. Before I tackled that, I started by exploring the Instrument categories, which include some very chilling and dramatic vocal effects — the kind of thing you’d expect to hear in a Hollywood movie trailer.
Next, I wanted to add some choral sweetening to a couple of orchestral cues I made recently for a short documentary. After sifting through the Instruments in search of the aforementioned vowel combo preset and coming up short, I realized I could use WordBuilder to create the same effect. By typing vowel sounds for each note of my melody, I was able to sequence the line I was hearing in my head.
This led me into deeper territory with WB. The manual proved helpful, but even more useful were the instructional QuickTime movies available at East West’s website. I spent the next few days feverishly learning tricks and techniques for producing clear pronunciation.
It was time to render some “real” choral music. Time for Mass? I’ll cut to the chase: I was able to render satisfactory, believable results, but not before struggling to get WB and Logic to play nicely (they don’t, really). In fact, I ended up moving over to Digital Performer 4.6.1, where set up and operation went more smoothly. It was still tricky, but it worked, and in the end I was able to recreate a few lines from Mass in G that sounded like a real choir. I was impressed.
The process left me with the realization that it takes a lot of tweaking on a syllable-by-syllable basis if you hope to get realistic results. It can be done, though, and fortunately WB allows you to save your carefully constructed words and phrases for later recall. It even comes supplied with a number of Latin phrases to get you going.
CONCLUSIONS
Symphonic Choirs is an ambitious and powerful instrument capable of recreating the sound of a real choir with an incredible degree of realism. Nothing else quite delivers the control, sonic quality, and flexibility that SC offers. Yes, there are other choir libraries on the market, even some more diverse, but none that allow you to type words and hear the choir sing them back. Hats off to the EastWest/Quantum Leap team.
My only significant criticism is this: WordBuilder, though an ingenious program, is not an intuitive or user-friendly program. Be prepared to wrestle with it if you expect clear diction.
I suspect that this won’t dissuade anyone from using SC because at the end of the day, if you absolutely, positively must have the most natural and realistic choir (and you can’t afford to hire one), Symphonic Choirs is really the only choice, a clear Key Buy.