Review: Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument by East West

When musicians look for high-quality cinematic sample libraries, East West provides an eclectic and an exhaustive number of professional audio. From choirs and orchestral strings to woodwinds and brass instruments, East West creates incredible products that have few rivals. Any producer creating cinematic sounds will need to explore this Symphonic Choirs Virtual Instrument.

How are Symphonic Choirs different from other sampling libraries?

High-Quality Recordings of Real Voices

Unlike many quick-to-use sample choirs that use software instruments, the creators of Symphonic Choirs took the time to record common syllables and sounds from several types of choirs in a variety of halls. You will find soprano, alto, tenor, and bass samples, as well as a purely heavenly sounding boys choir. Within the PLAY engine you can choose vocal sounds like common vowels and consonants, or even explore the library of shouts and whispers. Layer different choirs or use the preset options for multi-voice choirs.

Solo Instrument options allow you to use a single solo voice like a solo soprano. The selection library is very intuitive and quick to figure out. Because these are not software instruments, you can hear the human quality in the samples, from breath to unique articulations. The whispers are haunting and the shouts add perfect percussive effects to any score.

Try the Wordbuilder

The Wordbuilder truly sets this library apart. Type lyrics into the Wordbuilder and the choirs will sing back the lyrics. With options for tweaking articulations, microphones, reverb, envelope and more, you can customize the choir to sing any combination of words. There are a variety of reverb settings like Dark Abbey and EW Hall. You can adjust the rhythm and articulation of the audio to make it sound more realistic and lyrical with the articulation settings.

For example, you may want the virtual choir to hold out the “o” in “love” longer or cut a consonant like “s” short. Because of the way that the Wordbuilder works, I have found it easier to work on short snippets of vocals instead of large sections. The choir “reads” the lyrics in order, which means skipping a syllable when typing text results in errors on playback. Be sure that the syllables and notes match perfectly. Some trial-and-error will occur, but the end result is worth it.

Pros and Cons

The biggest challenge for musicians on a budget may be the price tag, which hovers around $400. East West now has a “Composer Cloud” option that allows musicians to have access to Symphonic Choirs plus over 40 other software packs for $29.99 a month.

Another issue? The CPU usage for this program is very heavy. Look over the specs for this software and your computer before purchasing Symphonic Choirs and other packs, otherwise, you will deal with crashes and errors in the audio. Musicians need to be software savvy to get the most that they can from this product.

The pros for Symphonic Choirs greatly outweigh the cons for musicians who want high-quality audio and a customizable virtual choir. These samples will provide musical depth that sets your music apart.

In the audio clip below from the Libertaria Motion Picture Soundtrack, you can hear the virtual boys choir in the background, accompanied by percussive shouts from the virtual bass choir.

About the author:

[author title=”Sabrina Peña Young” image=”https://www.producerspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Sabrina-Peña-Young-.jpg”]Award-Winning composer, expert on Music Technology and Virtual Opera Production. Critics have called her “Wagner 2.0”. She writes commercial, classical, and film music, and is currently working in musical theater and new media. Find more at Sabrina’s Blog.[/author]