East West Choir

[Kevin]

Right, turn up the volume, click on the link and be prepared to be amazed! If you have not heard EW Symphonic Choirs then check this out.

www.eastwestsamples.com/details.php?cd_index=963

[steve]

Why do you want me to be poor Kevin?! LOL These cannot be computer voices... can they really?

[Kevin]

It is amazing, ain't it!?

[steve]

Sure is! Next step for me is to check some forums and see if anyone has used it - what kind of problems arise. If all sounds good - I guess I'll just have to treat myself to this most awesome of technological miracles!

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2009 8:39:38 GMT Kevin said:

Right, turn up the volume, click on the link and be prepared to be amazed! If you have not heard EW Symphonic Choirs then check this out.

www.eastwestsamples.com/details.php?cd_index=963

Oooh, so many other impressive products they have too! Have you heard the female voices?

I wonder if the software is compatible with Finale? I noticed for some (the piano package for example) they mention Sibelius, but only for version 6 but no mention is made on Finale... If not I guess you'd have to create a sound-track and import that into Finale (if a combination of voices and instruments is needed of course)..

If I win the lottery this year, I'm going to get me the full composers box of this software (and a new iMac with quad core technology probably to make it worke properly)....

Peter

[steve]

Peter, just be sure to check everything out before you spend your "winnings". The new iMacs and Snow Leopard in general have been getting some bad press for incompatibility issues, among other things (E.G. the newest quad core 27 inch iMacs rated slightly slower for some reason in the latest tests than the 24 inch duo core previous generation). Snow Leopard is giving many folks some serious headaches right now... hopefully everything will get sorted out by the time you get your first "Lottery check"!

I feel the same way though - if money were no object, I'd buy the whole shebang right this instant! They sound great.

[Kevin]

They are doing a buy one get one free at the moment, I am weakening now!!!

[Deleted]

Dec 14, 2009 17:37:01 GMT Kevin said:

They are doing a buy one get one free at the moment, I am weakening now!!!

You buy one and I'll get one free.... I'm in!

[Kevin]

If I get the okay that sibelius can work with the two programms maybe, just maybe!!

[Deleted]

I have the choirs, symphonic orchestra, and storm drum. They are great, and have sound sets to "work" with Sibelius, but it is VERY tedious getting them to talk to each other and problematic once you do. The main use for these programs is to sequence using a program such as logic and a keyboard to play in the sounds. All of the samples you hear on their site were programmed that way. You pretty much have to do it like that for it to sound "real" as you can use key switches to change samples for different dynamic levels, effects, etc... In a few years maybe they will have it down well enough to work directly with sibelius like Garritan, but it's not that easy right now. Still... AMAZING sounds...

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2010 23:38:10 GMT @patrickharper said:

I have the choirs, symphonic orchestra, and storm drum. They are great, and have sound sets to "work" with Sibelius, but it is VERY tedious getting them to talk to each other and problematic once you do. The main use for these programs is to sequence using a program such as logic and a keyboard to play in the sounds. All of the samples you hear on their site were programmed that way. You pretty much have to do it like that for it to sound "real" as you can use key switches to change samples for different dynamic levels, effects, etc... In a few years maybe they will have it down well enough to work directly with sibelius like Garritan, but it's not that easy right now. Still... AMAZING sounds...

Interesting Patrick...

So, if I was to write a piece for a choir (and orchestra) and wanted to produce an mp3 of it what would I have to do? Make a soundtrack of the orchestra in Finale (Sibelius), import it into logic and then add the choir somehow? How? Can you maybe explain / show/tell here?

Thanks,

Peter

[steve]

Well, they have the Play on sale as Adrian mentioned and it is now completely compatible with Sibelius 6 - I'm sold!

[adrianallan]

Is it still 60% off and did you buy it?

The price of East West samples is coming down dramatically and they have sales almost every week - its unusual for anything to be full price.

The fact is that East West are now on the next generation of samples - they have just produced Hollywood Strings and are now recording Hollywood Brass.

However you need a monster set up to get these to work - over 10 Gigs of Ram I believe.

[steve]

Who knows unless you follow these things religiously whether or not I'm actually receiving 60% off, but the site said "60% OFF!" ;-) The price seemed reasonable for the Play version with Wordbuilder included, and certainly less than the last time I checked several moons ago. No VOTA, but you have to save something for later :-)

As for the Hollywood collection, I've read some reviews that implied that for the price and the amount of hardware required, the samples aren't the greatest - the reviews didn't make them out to be bad at all, just not the holy grail considering the money and hardware involved... Of course, people say the same thing from time to time about VSL...

[steve]

Well I'm going thru the ritual now with the ilok and the installing and so forth... Gonna be a long day... If I can get what I want from it in the end it'll all be worth it:-)

[adrianallan]

I have always found the installation of East West software very problematic - far more than it ever should be.

good luck

I'm really interested to know what it's like - do you get good quality solo singers as well or is it all massed voices?

[steve]

Installed ok:-) Now to learn how to use it to greatest effect. Initial trials are less than inspiring but I'm making progress with each new run thru...

[steve]

Thanks and yes it seems some basic things could be better but that seems to be the one thing software developers are consistent at... Complicating things and botching the simple stuff. I haven't tried the solo singers yet but I understand Wordbuilder will not work with them. Only the choir sing lyrics. After figuring out how to manipulate the lyrics (like a new language!), I'm stuck so far on weird playback issues which may or not be Sibelius related. Sometimes some voices drop out. I tried just one staff and they don't play. I click on the notes they play, but in performance they don't...?

[steve]

I've spent every last bit of strength on getting a recording done today - no strength left over to worry about reverb (used only the basic non vibrato patches to keep things simple, one unknown at a time) or mic placements right now. Happy enough to get the lyrics and the notes to line up - it shouldn't be as hard as it is and if you don't save the thing separately in Play before closing the score, you have to start all over in Sibelius when you reopen the score. Words in Wordbuilder and any modifications you've made, as well as voice assignments all gone

I've attached a PDF of the score with the modifications I've had to make to get the thing to work half way right. coward just wouldn't work even though it was recognized by Wordbuilder's dictionary. Cow word and similar variants also caused notes to drop out and go silent. Co word worked, even if it sounds a little "foreign" ;-) Foreign singers... it's ok!

I took a chance and posted it to the jukebox - I figure the lyrics are barely intelligible anyway. Life is short and I give all credit and recognition to Octavia Butler for the inspiration and lyrics to this piece. I miss you!

Attachments:

[Kevin]

Have you listened to this youtube vid Steve?

[steve]

Thanks Kevin but, while it is entertaining, the pedagogical value of the video is practically zero. This: www.sibeliusblog.com/tutorials/sibelius-sings-with-ewql-symphonic-choirs/ on the other hand is invaluable for getting Sibelius and the Choirs to work together. Someday I'll try my hand at using some of these Virtual Instruments without Sibelius, but for now I'm a notation kinda guy. [Although I do occasionally record some electronic improv sessions, but I still have to figure out how to use my purchased Virtual Instruments in my sequencer. Right now I only know how to use the ones that show up in Logic.]

[steve]

Attached is a diddy I wrote a while back - fortunately enough they don't enunciate well enough to bring out the sordid details of the lyrics, but the sound is much better I think than before, while admittedly still a long way from perfect. I used some of the slightly richer patches this time around. Bit by bit I will conquer this software!

[steve]

Here is a link to another Catch with a new mp3 - this one is slightly too large to attach here.

www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=151154

Working out the kinks one by one...

I've added this one to the jukebox.

[steve]

I have created a slightly better version of the Choose your Leaders piece - it is in the jukebox. I have removed the older versions.

[adrianallan]

Hi Steve

I listened to both pieces and it seems like you're having fun

I wonder how much scope there is for tweaking the enunciation. There lies the main issue with VST voices, I think; how clear the words are, especially the consonants.

I have a VST singer, Vocaloid, but my piece got so panned on forums I've kind of given up on her. You can hear my effort here.
It's on my page and called "dark distant memories"

www.youtube.com/user/adrianallan?feature=mhum

ok pretty poor, but it was only meant to be a demo!

[steve]

I'll listen to your piece when I get back on the computer. There is a lot of flexibility in the wordbuilder, but it seems that only one combination of sounds will work and everything else just doesn't... It is fun but it's an effort to get it even close to right.

[Deleted]

Steve,

I think it's impressive!
I'm thinking: I want to have that too, but for now I only have one piece for a choir, so maybe that's a bit of an overkill...

[steve]

Maybe, but maybe not. The price is relatively good now and I must admit, despite the initial installation and setup, which is always a pain in the neck, the software is truly a breeze to use, at least in Sibelius and compared to VSL. No major headaches as far as getting it to playback. Of course you can lose sleep trying to perfect a piece, but that is with anything!:-)

[steve]

Mar 25, 2011 21:41:45 GMT adrianallan said:

Hi Steve

I listened to both pieces and it seems like you're having fun

I wonder how much scope there is for tweaking the enunciation. There lies the main issue with VST voices, I think; how clear the words are, especially the consonants.

I have a VST singer, Vocaloid, but my piece got so panned on forums I've kind of given up on her. You can hear my effort here.
It's on my page and called "dark distant memories"

www.youtube.com/user/adrianallan?feature=mhum

ok pretty poor, but it was only meant to be a demo!

Anybody who would criticize this obviously never tried to work with virtual voices! I think it's great - a nice song too. The voice is only slightly "off" from normal - miles and miles above what most virtual attempts at replicating the human voice sound like. I imagine you must have put great effort into getting it to sound so natural. Job well done, despite what any know-nothings may say! I wouldn't give up on her [and by golly if you do - I'll take her off your hands! ;-) ].

[adrianallan]

thanks for the vote of confidence, steve

other forums can be very destructive - one comment was "it made me cringe"

By the way I have almost finished the musical challenge that you set.