5 STARS

Symphony of Voices, available in Akai, Roland, Kurzweil and SampleCell CD-ROM formats, is the latest masterwork from Spectrasonics' Eric Persing, but in this instance, Eric the eccentric has (temporarily at any rate), given way to Eric the Meticulous. SOV, essentially a collection of both ensemble and solo voice samples, comes as a five disc set with the forthcoming Vocal Planet set to augment it in the not too distant future. Vocal Planet will include world, dance, jazz, R&B and gospel material.

The greater part of the SOV collection was recorded on location with leading choirs around the world, and the treats on offer include male, female, mixed and boys choirs along with Gregorian chanting, classical vocal solos and layered pop stacks. Venues range from Haileybury cathedral in London to the Eastside Foursquare Church in Seattle with studio work undertaken at two Burbank studios. The credits section embraces a number of conductors and choirmasters as well as several pages of engineering, production and research credits.

The classical performers and choirs were recorded at specially commissioned sessions in cathedrals to capture an authentic ambience, and some insight into the recording techniques is provided in the sleeve notes. In addition to the usual oohs, aahs and umms, there are slow swells, Latin phrases, evolving vowels and vocal effects, such as clusters, murmurs and so on. There are even sections of choirs singing chords, which sound rather more natural than constructing your own chords from the single note samples.

Solo examples embrace classical sopranos, tenors, choir boys and a number of other useful examples, all recorded & programmed with the same meticulous precision. Pop Stacks (found on disc four), combines multitracked versions of individual performers with multiple singers, and if the sleeve notes are to be believed, this disc alone started life as around 10,000 separate vocal performances!

OK, so the amount of work that went into this project was immense, but how does it sound? Not surprisingly, it sounds very good indeed, and though it is possible to spot a slight change of timbre at some of the multisample split points, the samples work perfectly in a performance context and sound very human indeed, even when covering already familiar single vowel choral territory. In a creative context, the evolving vowel sounds work exceptionally well while the Gregorian chants and hums are also usable in a wide range of musical styles.

The single phrase samples are superbly recorded and can be combined in different orders, but obviously any single phrase samples are restricted by their tempo and key (though you can always process them using a program like Time Bandit). Some of pop stacks are particularly suitable for New Age or Enya-esque compositions, but what I can't describe in a review like this is the sheer breadth of material on this five disc set.

Symphony of Voices might cost a lot of money, but it is clearly the definitive vocal sampling work, and considering the enormous amount of effort that went into its creation, I have to say that it is worth it. I'm also impressed by the thorough sleeve notes that include a number of practical tips on how to use the samples. Eric and his team have worked hard for their five stars and well deserved they are.

-Paul White