Audiobro Eternity Choir Library
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DANIELE
I love to make music but I also love to make music
With great power comes great flexibility...
Anyway wonderful library, I'm still in the setup process and I must say I'd like to see a tutorial especially on the ensemble configuration because it is not exactly the same showed for the children library.
I thought there was only one patch for male and female with all SATB in one patch as for the children, there are two separate patches instead.
One thing I noticed is that both the pads and the effects are not keyswitchable, so if I want to use multiple articulation I have to load a track for everyone of them.
I setup a complex articulation system just to be able to use all the choir in one track (one for the males and one for the females of course) but this thing prevents me from doing it fully.
I hope they will do something about this in future updates.
jbuhler
Senior Member
Yes, I agree. It’s far more complex than Genesis. That is, there are more options and combinations. And it doesn’t work quite the way I expected, especially with the divisi control.
The ensemble engine also looks like it was set up for other functionality since the octave displacement options it allows don’t make a huge amount of sense for a choir unless you were mixing and placing divisi of different voice types. But I don’t think the choir allows that. I also don’t think it allows you to do your own divisi splits across a multi.
In any case, I’d also be interested in a tutorial on the ensemble builder.
Soundbed
Music for TV
It appears to me like the same one that was built for Modern Scoring Strings (MSS). But, I could be missing something.
Are you looking for a way to "range limit" the tenors vs the basses (or sop/alto) so they auto-split at a certain pitch, using the ensemble builder?
I can see how the SATB + divisi needs might be slightly different from V1-V2-Vla-VC-CB first and second chair (A/B) + divisi needs, but I don't quite understand what is confusing or unexpected about the Ensemble Builder as implemented in Eternity....
If you want full control over SATB and divisi in Eternity, it seems like the best way to do that (today) is to have four separate instruments for each (with divisi controls per vocal type), like one might have five separate instruments for V1-V2-Vla-VC-CB (each with divisi controls).
There's only a couple clicks to set up an ensemble.
The downside is the previously mentioned need to set up word builders for men and women individually.
If you are building custom phrases, the way I might consider doing it is set up a "Men" or a "Women" first. Build your phrases and set up your ensembles and divisi. Then duplicate it with the other sex and rebuild the phrases, ensembles and divisi. Next, copy both and remove Altos and Basses from one group in the Ensemble page and remove Sopranos and Tenors from the other group.
The point is you've only set up everything twice (not four times). And you can purge the unneeded samples from all instruments.
In MSS there is an "Ensemble" patch that takes all strings and let's you remove 1st chairs or 2nd chairs (A and B Ensembles) ... so you can play all over the keyboard and have your notes distributed across the groups, but you cannot choose with strings group will play which note when the ranges overlap (to my knowledge).
Not sure if this information / these ideas help anyone but if you've got a more specific question I can try to answer.
jbuhler
Senior Member
I was more just trying to figure out why you'd want to displace the notes on the keyboard or midi by an octave or even two octaves, if you can only control the men or the tenor divisi say in a Kontakt instance. Even with the extended range, there's not that much range to a section. I see now that you can have a particular instance (say, tenor divisi A) ignore some pitches that are coming in, responding, say, only to the third note from the top in a four note chord.
So you can shuffle the pitches around to various divisis, and implement a keyboard mapping that would route the keyboard input divisi to the proper section (i.e., bass, tenor, alto, soprano) all on one track. At least I think you can do this and it would be a way to build a somewhat better sketching choir, I think, so everything is sung divisi by section rather than using overlaps. And maybe the octave displacement would be useful in that context if you are doing men and women in octaves (though there are of course other ways of handling that).
Is there a way to create auto-splits by pitch? The functionality I see only deals with the number of notes in a chord and distributes them according to the formula you set. So for four notes and tenors using two divisi sections:
e.g., "When playing a chord of 4 notes, start 2 divisi sections:
Divisi A plays note: 3
Divisi B plays note: 3"
etc.
This will result in those two tenor divisis singing the third note of the chord from the top.
Presumably there is a way to assign the ensemble configuration to keyswitches and so vary which section divides when there are more than 4 notes in the chord. Vice versa to vary which section drops out or doubles when there are fewer than 3 notes in the chord. Is that possible? Assigning keyswitches to ensembles?
Soundbed
Music for TV
Yes! That is true.
Yes there can be keyswitches for Ensembles.
In the Performance Page, click the gear next to the word "Switcher".
Then, in the Switcher Editor, assign your saved Ensemble-Builder configuration to a Key for switching.
Tip: Make sure the Ensemble Switcher is enabled (its number is "illuminated") to use it. In the screenshot above, the Phrase Switcher, number 4, looks "off".
Tip #2: You can switch with other controls too including CC values.
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jbuhler
Senior Member
Thanks! Very helpful. Though I've done a bit with keyswitching, I have haven't yet worked with the switcher editor.Yes! That is true.
Yes there can be keyswitches for Ensembles.
In the Performance Page, click the gear next to the word "Switcher".
Then, in the Switcher Editor, assign your saved Ensemble-Builder configuration to a Key for switching.
Tip: Make sure the Ensemble Switcher is enabled (its number is "illuminated") to use it. In the screenshot above, the Phrase Switcher, number 4, look "off".
Tip #2: You can switch with other controls too including CC values.
ALittleNightMusic
Professional Amateur
A few weeks since launch, 33 pages in on this thread, but can't find a single non-AudioBro video about this library on YouTube. Quite different from Audio Imperia's Chorus launch.
Any more demos early adopters care to share?
Any more demos early adopters care to share?
jbuhler
Senior Member
It’s a hard library to make a pithy walkthrough of, and even knowing Genesis it has something of a learning curve.
BasariStudios
Basari Studios
Already?
Yep.
Release Update 1.07— December 13, 2023 |
What’s New
What’s Fixed
|
jbuhler
Senior Member
Looks like a nice update!
This one is very useful, and it was one of my requests (others likely requested it as well). Before you couldn't transfer presets, such as text, from the main library to the expanded or back. Hopefully they will add this to Genesis as well.
Another of my requests!
I hadn't reported this, but I was having issues controlling the position of the ahs. I wonder if this is that issue.
Soundbed
Music for TV
Yay this will be awesome to try!
jbuhler
Senior Member
As far as I can see you only have the option to save and load all phrases, so you can't use it to move around just one phrase at a time. But it does make it possible to get phrases from the main choir to the expanded choir or vice versa.
Soundbed
Music for TV
And men to women and back
jbuhler
Senior Member
Since @ALittleNightMusic asked for more user demos, here are a few tests I've been running over the course of the day. Basically iterating a setting. This is a bit of Over the Rainbow that I used the Omni score as a basis for the arrangement, and then added choir. The key (Ab) is what is published in the score. I didn't check it or the details of the arrangement against the film. Altos are singing Garland's part.
The point of the exercise is to illustrate something of the capabilities and limitations of the phrase builder, as well as to give some sense of the work involved.
First iteration, using the preset syllables in the articulation sets that come with Eternity in the DAW integration folder. Mostly what I tried to do with this one is get the vowels as close as I could, given that there aren't any short English vowels in the library except ah. (The syllables in the articulation sets also don't have diphthongs.) This was done as a very quick sketch, and didn't take much time.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.1.mp3
This next version is working with the syllables to mimic the words more closely. This took a lot more time, even though I was basically working with the performance I'd sketched in the first version. I had to input all the syllables for the text, try alternatives when the syllable needed didn't exist (the library lacks short vowels, consonant clusters and consonant trailing "s," among other things), and so forth. This also made some fine adjustments (mostly balance) to the orchestration.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.2.2.mp3
Then, after installing the library update, I played around more with the timing of the syllables to see if I could improve the diction at all. This revision didn't take as long as the first revision, but it took longer than the initial sketch. I again touched up the balance of the orchestration.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.3.mp3
I'm sure the English (and the performance) can still be improved, but the exercise should give some sense of how well you can expect the library to sing English.
I would say: good enough to guide composition and/or create a demo for folks who know what a choir singing English should sound like, but unless you choose your words very carefully it won't sound especially articulate, and it won't get you out of hiring a choir if you need a choir to sing clear English.
The choir is better set up to sing Latinate phrases (though that is somewhat restricted too) and it sings a wonderfully varied Gibberish, maybe even better than Genesis. (I bought it to sing Gibberish, so it's excellent for my uses.)
The point of the exercise is to illustrate something of the capabilities and limitations of the phrase builder, as well as to give some sense of the work involved.
First iteration, using the preset syllables in the articulation sets that come with Eternity in the DAW integration folder. Mostly what I tried to do with this one is get the vowels as close as I could, given that there aren't any short English vowels in the library except ah. (The syllables in the articulation sets also don't have diphthongs.) This was done as a very quick sketch, and didn't take much time.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.1.mp3
This next version is working with the syllables to mimic the words more closely. This took a lot more time, even though I was basically working with the performance I'd sketched in the first version. I had to input all the syllables for the text, try alternatives when the syllable needed didn't exist (the library lacks short vowels, consonant clusters and consonant trailing "s," among other things), and so forth. This also made some fine adjustments (mostly balance) to the orchestration.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.2.2.mp3
Then, after installing the library update, I played around more with the timing of the syllables to see if I could improve the diction at all. This revision didn't take as long as the first revision, but it took longer than the initial sketch. I again touched up the balance of the orchestration.
View attachment Over the Rainbow Eternity Test 0.3.mp3
I'm sure the English (and the performance) can still be improved, but the exercise should give some sense of how well you can expect the library to sing English.
I would say: good enough to guide composition and/or create a demo for folks who know what a choir singing English should sound like, but unless you choose your words very carefully it won't sound especially articulate, and it won't get you out of hiring a choir if you need a choir to sing clear English.
The choir is better set up to sing Latinate phrases (though that is somewhat restricted too) and it sings a wonderfully varied Gibberish, maybe even better than Genesis. (I bought it to sing Gibberish, so it's excellent for my uses.)
ALittleNightMusic
Professional Amateur
Given that’s not really what the library was designed for (unlike say Hollywood Choirs and its freeform word builder), your programming and manipulation of the syllables is impressive!
jbuhler
Senior Member
Agreed. I bought Eternity to sing Gibberish, and because Genesis can sing Gibberish that sounds like connected words as opposed to most syllable based choirs, where the syllables often don't sound like they connect together as words.
I don't have Hollywood choirs, but have the EWQL Symphonic Choirs that also have a word builder. I never got along with it very well, and though it has the vowels and consonants to sing English, I never found it sang especially credible English, and it's a much, much bigger pain to program. (Dominus is also a much bigger pain to program.)
