Scoring Central

Hi,

I know this should really be posted in the 'samples' or 'virtual instruments' sections but I hope by posting it here, in general discussion, that the most people will see it.

I am wanting to ask if anyone here is aware of any good, and free, solo voice samples or instruments? I want to write some music for SATB choir but can't really find anything (I don't have Kontakt either so I'm looking for soundfonts, sfz or raw wav files).

Since the voice is the only instrument that we all have access to, it seems extraordinary that there aren't any available - where are they hiding?

If you are aware of anything that's out there please let me know. I've only found two solo voice instruments that someone made and posted on the Music Studio app forum, that's it.

If there aren't any, i was also wondering whether anyone would be willing or interested in making a 'Virtual Community Choir' for which the rest of us could record ourselves, and others, to supply the samples? I know that would mean there wouldn't be a standardised recording environment or microphone used for everyone but surely something half decent could be cobbled together? I would gladly do it myself but I don't have the expertise or experience for such a task unfortunately - so my apologies for asking.

I would also like to draw people's attention to this Vowel Ensemble Choir -

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4288131

Would anyone be interested in converting it to sfz? There are mentions of such conversions in the thread in the link but I can't find anything. It would be wonderful to have a good choir in sfz format and the examples of this one sound as good as any other free choir instruments I've found. Once again, my apologies for not having the expertise or software to do such a conversion myself. From the conversation thread in the link, the person who made the choir seems to be happy for such conversions to happen though I guess that would need to be checked?

Anyone interested or got any leads?

Thanks.

Hey Robin... you think you could remove the text formatting on your post? The font is HUUUUGE on a PC screen

Wow yeah BIG font there. There isn't much for voice. The Sonatina has a choir and the OLPC samples collection has some free solo voices.

This is all I could find for my freebie list and most are Kontakt...
http://bigcatlists.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-voice.html

Note that if you get desperate you can use the Kontakt Player and bounce the tracks. Before your 15 minutes are up.

(05-15-2017, 02:36 AM)bigcat1969 Wrote: [ -> ]Wow yeah BIG font there. There isn't much for voice. The Sonatina has a choir and the OLPC samples collection has some free solo voices.

This is all I could find for my freebie list and most are Kontakt...
http://bigcatlists.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-voice.html

Note that if you get desperate you can use the Kontakt Player and bounce the tracks. Before your 15 minutes are up.

Sorry for the font size error. Not sure how it happened but hopefully it's sorted now.

Thanks for the link to your freebie list, some things to look into there. And thanks for mentioning the OLPC samples - I was not aware of this huge collection but I shall certainly be investigating it now...well, i will once I've freed up enough space to download it. Thanks.

Off the original topic but for lots of great free samples take a look at freesound.org if you haven't already. I've made lots of my instruments with multi samples from there. The LDK1609 violin samples for instance are the nicest violin samples I'm aware of. Quartertone and Project16 have great stuff in the drums, bass & guitar range.

Claire Solo is the only really good freeware solo voice pack I know. Honestly I think the reason solo voice sample libraries are so few is that the human voice is perhaps the hardest to fake with samples and that good singers are a dime-a-dozen- it's not hard to hire a vocalist to sing on a track, and that adds the benefit of having actual lyrical content.

I did a very simple choir multitrack test a year or two ago that came out OK. I'd like to do a proper vocal library at some point, but with the quality the professional libraries for that are at, I'm not sure if it's even worth doing without doing all the syllables and frills everyone expects.

(05-14-2017, 07:25 PM)Robin Bagnall Wrote: [ -> ]I would also like to draw people's attention to this Vowel Ensemble Choir -

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4288131

Would anyone be interested in converting it to sfz?

It's tempting, but I wonder about the scripting that is apparently part of the Kontakt version. I wonder about reproducing the cross fading between vowel sounds. Maybe the first step is for someone with Kontakt to extract and save the samples somewhere just to see what we have to work with.

The statement regarding usage is a bit ambiguous. It says you can't make commercial sample libraries using the samples but it says nothing about if you can make non-commercial libraries or not. Anyway uploading a zip of the samples now... With my upload speeds it will be a while...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/74gaevdat1...amples.zip

Even the professional libraries seem pretty limited. I mean, what I really want is something that can sing real text in real languages, and sound like a real chorus doing it. But there doesn't seem to be anything up to the task. The only one that even makes a serious attempt at it is East West Symphonic Choirs, and it fails pretty badly. I'm not sure why this should be so hard, especially given how good modern speech synthesis is. Maybe there just isn't enough money in it to justify the cost of creating it.

I like playing with Blue from Realivox, but I'm not very good!
https://soundcloud.com/bigcat1969/amazing-grace-blue

On a different note
Here's my new Kontakt version of the vowel choir it adds 'J's Ensemble Maker By Jay Bacal' script which duplicates the samples to give the illusion of a much bigger choir.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hqdtap8i90..._Choir.zip

Conditions as stated on Mihai Sorohan's website http://mihaisorohan.blogspot.com/2010/10...emble.html...
"By downloading the provided files you accept the following terms:
You get a personal non-exclusive non-transferable right to use the sample content as an integral part of your musical composition, in combination with other sounds, for both personal and commercial purpose. You may not use it for commercial sample libraries (put it on a CD and sell it, sell it online, etc)
You may use the sample content as an integral part of your musical composition, in combination with other sounds, for both personal and commercial purpose.
I don't accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, liability, injury or upset caused to or suffered by you as a result of misusing this material. "