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Symphony of Voices
 Sounduser.com review

Symphony of Voices from Spectrasonics is described in the promotional literature as "The Largest & Most Extensive Collection of Voices Ever Assembled on CD-ROM. Produced by Eric Persing, Symphony of Voices is a massive FOUR CD-ROM SET, which includes a breathtaking variety of multisamples, phrases & fx from some of the world's most prestigious singers. This outstanding library is an invaluable tool for the serious composer and producer, designed to be inspiring for years to come."

Spectrasonics are headed by Roland's Chief Sound Designer, Eric Persing, and have built up a first class reputation for their sampling products from a sonic quality, presentation and creative standpoint and this release is considered by many to be their flagship product. I've been waiting to get my hands on a copy since the day it was released.

As anyone who makes music knows getting vocals or a human element into a track can be the hardest part and for the millions of studio/bedroom/solo musicians it can be much harder still. You only have to listen to some of the vocal sections on some sample CD's to realise how not to do it, what Spectrasonics have attempted here, is to show how it should be done. Symphony of Voices is actually just the half the story, Vocal Planet, due out shortly will cover further vocal areas.

We're reviewing the Kurzweil CD-ROM version, there is no audio version, and comes on no less than four packed CD's. Akai/Emu, Samplecell and Roland versions are also available, the Akai version running to five CD's. The collection retails at US$499/£299, which per CD works out less than a regular full price CD.

The CD has been produced by Eric Persing. Persing as mentioned above is the main sound man at Roland who know a thing or two about music production and lists credits with such acts as Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Celine Dion and Chaka Khan. As with all Spectrasonics products the CD comes double shrink wrapped with a separate licence agreement inside the first shrink wrap. Much better than the ones you can't read until you open the CD which includes the line "By opening this CD you agree...". It's pretty standard except that the product requires a specific written credit in any liner notes.

The documentation is first class, two 52 page booklets no less. The first booklet "Liner Notes" is a very useful collection of information, not only about the Symphony of Voices, but also about sampling philosophy, recording, editing, programming, techniques and lots more. The second booklet "CD-ROM Directory" contains more notes, an overview of the collection and then a program and sample breakdown, as you might expect everything is listed out in full. Really does make using and finding your way around the collection a breeze. Full marks to Spectrasonics for their efforts here, I'm sure that end users will appreciate the extra mile that they have taken here to produce such an excellent compliment to the actual sounds. The documentation recommends a minimum of 32Mb of memory and I'd certainly agree with that, lots of the programs are the full 32Mb and many of the remaining ones not too far behind. Individual samples can be opened up of course though you do then lose some of the ease of use.

It's only when you read through the documentation do you realise the amount of work and effort that has gone into the production of Symphony of Voices. We're talking about 80 voice choirs, 500 singers, thousands upon thousands of individual samples and shudder to think at the editing and production time... What I particularity like about the Spectrasonics CD-ROM's is that you don't just get the samples in a CD-ROM format, they've actually been programmed in, so in the Kurzweil example in places you get variations by using the slider or mod wheel. Just an extra step that helps lift this kind of product above the crowd.

We'll take the collection a CD at a go. I'll admit that this approach doesn't really do the collection justice, each of the CD's really does deserve a full review of it's own, but this review has already taken me a month !!

CD - 1 - London Choirs - The first CD is given over to an 80 Voice London Choir (The London Chorale and the Hertfordshire Chorus) recorded in a Cathedral. This particular choir was chosen as they were able to sing without heavy vibrato, which when you think about it is actually quite important when producing a sample CD, as if you play more than one key the vibrato will be out of sync.

This CD comprises three main sections -

  • Male and Female Ahs, Mms, Ohs, Oos & Ees -
  • Male and Female Swells -
  • Choir Techniques, Staccato, Vibrato, Moving Vowels and Whistling.
The big multisampled samples immediately strike you with their lush quality, very smooth, rich with tremendous depth and ambience to them. Each of the programs comes in a whole number of variations, for example mezzoforte, pianissimo, slow and in three memory versions which is an indication of the number of multisamples used in each program. In this manner there are up to 18 variations for each of the main programs.

The differences between the various programs is subtle, though clear and very musical. The swells sound more dynamic than the vowel sounds, with perhaps over long crescendo/decrescendo for everyone's taste but still wonderfully expressive. The technique's section then adds some more variation from the choir, the whistling in particular puts a similarly named synth patch to complete shame.

Overall a gentle, pad like choir collection of samples of the very highest quality. Sound exactly as you would expect, very natural, open and clear. The male sounds have a degree of power and authority to them, the female ones rather more gently and angelic sounding. Either blend in exceptionally well with other types of instrument. Excellent.

CD 2 - Classical Soloists & Choir FX - CD 2 comes in two halves, firstly a continuation of the choral samples and then moving on to Soprano and Tenor multisamples and phrases.

The choral section comprises:-
  • Choir FX
  • Choir Chords
  • Choir Phrases
The Choir FX section contains a whole variety of more extreme choral effects, such as shouting, sighing, guttural moaning, whispers, swells and swoops and I have to say totally excellent. Some very spooky and disturbing samples here, ideal for special effects, the laughing and chattering type samples whilst rather out of sorts with much of the beautiful singing throughout the collection, are just brilliant. Whilst a regular laugh or whisper has a sound, take a whole group of people doing the same thing and it takes on a whole new perspective, perfectly captured here.

The choral sounds on CD 1 are rather gentle, the chord sounds presented here are more aggressive, more suited to playing chords. With the usual thoroughness we have chords presented chromatically in major, minor, and suspended versions, with various further variations on top. The "Big Chords" program in particular features a "to die for" powerful choral sound. Quite outstanding.

Finally the choral section ends up with half a dozen or so "phrases" again very well done, for good measure you get a number of variations, including reversed, which sounds pretty odd. The Tenor and Soprano sections I have to say at first listen sound a bit weak compared to the big choir samples but after a while one realises that you've just been totally spoiled so far !

Once again the samples sound exactly as you might expect, exceptional clarity and powerful, emotional performances from the singers. There is a whole range of "Eh-Oh", 5ths, "Ohs", Arpeggios and Octaves which are pretty good then followed up with dozens and dozens of "phrases", some of which contain discernible words, others more emotive type sounds. These are broken down in to categories such as Lamenting, Operatic, Serene, Ethereal, Triumphant, Falsetto, Lyrical etc. etc. Many of these are perfect for mood setting, instant depression or elation.

If truth be told it would be difficult to string together a complete performance, but that's the limitation of sampling one feels rather than the fault of the samples, but as spot effects and chorus effects and so forth, if you want to use an "operatic" singer then there is a wealth of material here.

CD 3 - Boys Choir & Gregorian Men - By now the size of the project starts to hit home, this is about the fourth afternoon I've spent reviewing this ! There really is a wealth of material...

The boys choir section is exceptional, even by the high standards of the collection so far, featuring an English boys choir. Quite haunting. Faultlessly recorded and performed as usual a range of "Ahs", "Ees", "Mmms" and "Ooos" each presented in a number of subtle variations, pianissimo, forte and velocity switched. Next there are Multivowel samples where the choir sing through Ah-Eh-Ee-Oh, producing a slightly more dynamic movement in the singing, whilst still retaining the haunting quality, once again excellent. Moving on we have a number of sung phrases "Allelujah", "Amen", "Agnus Dei", "Intervals", up in 4ths, down in 5ths and "Kyrie". Uniformly excellent. Additionally there is a smaller solo boys section, "Ah" and "Oh" solo, then several with two solo boys, if that makes sense!, wrapped up with some more phrases.

Pristine recording has captured the sounds of these choir sounds flawlessly, I just can't envisage a better production. The Gregorian chant section on it's own would get rave reviews I'm sure, as part of such an excellent collection it gets a little lost. Once again if someone asks "I'd like some Gregorian chanting please" then you've got everything here short of hiring in a choir, even then you'd struggle to get better quality results than this.

We have a variety of 5th's in Forte, Pianissimo and Velocity Switched variations, followed by "Mmmms" and "Ohs" and as ever throughout the collection for each of these there is a whole range of subtle variation, "Ohs" for example has eighteen. After some step ups and downs we have a whole variety of "Full Chants", haven't got the slightest idea what they are on about, but totally authentic sounding. If you want Gregorian chants then here they are.

CD 4 - Pop Stacks - This was the first disk in the sampler for me, I'm a big fan of Enya and seeing descriptions of this CD as "Enya-esque" was a big enough hook for me. After reviewing the whole collection this is probably the most straightforward sounding of the CD's. The previous three you could imagine being pretty much straight from the recording to the CD without much in the form of processing, though probably a ton of editing !

Here the stacks have been produced by the multilayering of vocals to produce rich, thick, lush, vocal pads. Human washes of sound. The sounds presented in a similar manner to the London choir on CD 1, lots of "Ooos", Ahs", Ees", Mmm", Ohs", "Vvvs" and "Zzzs", both male and female only and then in a number of combinations. Rounding out with a number of "Moving Vowels" and "Vowel Washes". More suited to more modern forms of music and ideal for backing type sounds to a track, not to mention a million times better than a synth "Vox" patch. Perhaps lacking a little in the depth, richness, ambience and "humanness" of the earlier CD's it's still a first class collection of vocal samples.

In addition CD 1 contains demos from Vocal Planet and CD 4 contains a 32Mb program of Ambient Pads.

Summary - Audio quality is first class. There are on occasions the odd "ambient" sound that has crept in, breath sounds, creaks, though barely noticeable and if anything adds to the authenticity of the sounds, avoiding a totally sterile environment. Very minor though and mixed up with other sounds certainly wouldn't be heard. The samples overall sound totally natural (CD 4 excepted), you can almost believe you are there... There is little if any overt processing of the samples, the pop stacks in particular sound gorgeous in a sea of reverb....

I'm rapidly developing a love/hate relationship with Eric Persing and his Spectrasonics products. Eric has kindly sent me the entire Spectrasonics catalogue to work through, and it's a mixed blessing. I can see an awful lot of time drifting by me while "reviewing" them. The problem is that, at least so far, what starts as being a couple of hours reviewing turns into a couple of hours playing with the sounds. Lots of experimenting and messing about, and not much writing, they just seem to invite you in...

Symphony of Voices, unfortunately for my productivity, is no exception. A couple of gigabytes of flawless recording and production and I feel I've only barely scratched the surface with this review. Simply a masterpiece. It's not as clever or as inspiring as say the Distorted Reality series, but tackles a difficult area and comes out brilliantly. Vocal samples CD's are not easy to produce without sounding like a stale collection of clichés. This collection has set out to capture a a range human vocal performances and does so perfectly. In many ways it sounds exactly as it should, choirs sound like choirs, soprano's sound like soprano's and so on, which for the majority of producers is exactly what you want.

Whilst Symphony of Voices won't appeal to everyone, if it's remotely in the area your looking to make music in then it's a must buy. Soundtrack, ambient, new age, classical, space, dance - most anything actually. A gold mine of usable material, exceptionally well recorded, excellent performances, what more could you ask for. Downsides, the only "observation" I'd make is price, even though you get 4/5 CD's worth of material it's still a hefty price tag. Until...

Lets say you decide you'd like a choral sound for a track you've 3 choices.

1) Synthetic - Use a synth patch, which could work...

2) Find out your local choral society, negotiate a fee, drag your recording gear down to where they meet, mess about for the evening. Spend the next evening editing what you've got. Realise how annoying passing cars, coughs, shuffles and out of tune amateurs can be and how you wish you owned four U-87's. Option 3) begins to sound like where you should have started

3) Symphony of Voices doesn't seem so expensive after all. Thoroughly recommended.

Overall - Value for money 10/10 - Usability 10/10 - Documentation 10/10 - Sonic Quality 10/10.

First class production all around - 10/10



©2008 All Prices listed are US retail price. Contact your distributor for International prices. All demo songs published by Big Green Music ASCAP -not for sampling, re-use or redistribution without permission.
3D CD box graphics courtesy of ILIO.